Four-Star Landmark Hotel in Downtown Dallas

In 1912, brewing tycoon Adolphus Busch spared no expense when creating the baroque-style Adolphus Hotel as a love letter to Dallas. The city’s tallest building at the time, it attracted notable guests, including Babe Ruth and Queen Elizabeth II, with its opulent decor and high-quality service. Today, The Adolphus Hotel is as celebrated as it was when it first opened—it was named one of America’s Best City Hotels by Travel + Leisure in 2011. The hotel still has its Old-World glamour, too, visible in the lobby’s vaulted skylight, Flemish tapestries, and 1893 Steinway grand piano that once belonged to the Guggenheim family.

Bedecked with vintage furniture, deluxe rooms are as refined as The Adolphus Hotel’s public areas. Ten-foot ceilings and 500 square feet of floor space give each room an airy quality. The executive suites have even more space. Feel free to relax in a suite’s stately sitting room and channel surf on the flat-screen TV.

Of the three onsite restaurants, the AAA Five Diamond French Room is the most buzzed about. Frommer’s says “dinner here is the closest thing in Dallas to a state dinner at Versailles.” Savor classic French cuisine while admiring the frescoed ceilings and gilded sconces. You’ll find a more casual dining area at the barbecue-centric Rodeo Bar & Grill or The Bistro, which serves traditional American breakfast fare.

Dallas: Historical Parks and Rejuvenated Urban Districts in North Texas

Though some know Dallas only for the massive AT&T Stadium (which is actually in Arlington), the city is also an enclave of arts and nature, overflowing with botanical gardens, art galleries, and live theater. Historic Main Street connects many of the city’s recently rejuvenated urban districts, as well as the popular Main Street Garden, a block-long public park surrounded by architecturally significant buildings. Locals come here to picnic on the expansive lawn or watch a movie under the moonlight in the summer and fall.

A short walk from downtown Dallas, you’ll find horse-drawn carriages clopping along brick streets in the city’s historic West End district, which dates back to the 19th century. This part of the city also contains Dealey Plaza, where President Kennedy was assassinated in November 1963. At The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, housed in the former Texas School Book Depository, you can visit the spot where Lee Harvey Oswald is believed to have shot at Kennedy’s presidential motorcade.

Joggers and bikers can zip through the fashionable Turtle Creek neighborhood, located about 4 miles west of downtown, via the Katy Trail, which follows an old interstate railroad. Back near downtown Dallas, the 277-acre Fair Park is the location of North America’s largest Ferris wheel and seven museums and four performing-arts centers, many of which are inside art-deco buildings built for the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition.

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