Hotel Arts

Description:

• Since it opened in 2006, Hotel Arts, a complete makeover of a grotty old hotel with a punk rock club on the main floor, has become one of the city's see-and-be-seen destinations. Raw Bar, the hotel's lounge, is a cocktail hotspot and a popular sushi bar, while Saint Germain, its dining room, is one of the top-rated fine-dining experiences in the city. Keep your eyes peeled for one or two of the Calgary Flames, the city's NHL hockey team, leaving their Porsches with the valet. An interior courtyard sports a nice-sized open-air pool, which in turn sports a ring of poolside tables with cocktail and dinner service. The rooms, meanwhile, are an exercise in understated elegance, all with large plasma screens and faux-fur throws on their Egyptian-cotton-clad beds. All come with small balconies as well, ideal for surveying the city's late-night skyline. The hotel is a little off-center in terms of its location -- east and south of the city's downtown core, and east and north of its busiest restaurant and shopping district along 17th Avenue and 4th Street SW -- but it remains an easy cab ride or a manageable walk away.

• © Frommer's 2013

Awards:

Frommer's

•  Recommended 2010