Fairmont Olympic Hotel

If your preferred aesthetic is grande dame rather than high design, this historic property—which has hosted black-tie galas since 1924—is your only choice in Seattle. Afternoon tea in the Terrace Lounge, outrageously expensive shopping in the adjacent arcade, and elbows-off-the-table dining at the vaunted Georgian all create a sense of old-world glamour that’s rare in this city. Extensive renovations, started this year, will refresh all 450 of the rooms, and will replace the dated pastel color scheme with a richer palette of cranberry, gold, and robin’s egg blue accents in others. Designer Jinnie Kim plans to update the hotel’s elegant interiors without turning them into a postmodern hodgepodge; a dark wood chair with classic Biedermeier lines may be upholstered in lime green, while the modern marble sheen of the bathrooms might be tempered by delightful trompe l’oeil wallpaper.

Room to Book: Corner suites ending in -42 and -44 are particularly large.

Doubles from $299.