The Normandie Hotel

Built in 1939 by a native engineer enamored of a French cancan dancer he'd met on an ocean liner, the 173-room hotel’s retro Art Deco curves and Jazz Age detailing complement a 21st-century design (blond-wood bed frames, flat-panel TV's, ergonomic desk chairs). The swank N-Lounge has an outdoor terrace looking out onto the city streets, while Cru, with its own carpaccio bar—the only one on the island—puts a sophisticated spin on Italian seafood classics.