Skip to content

Top Navigation

Travel + Leisure Travel + Leisure Travel + Leisure Travel + Leisure
  • Trip Inspiration
  • Plan Your Trip
  • Travel Guides
  • World's Best
  • Destination of the Year
  • A-List Travel Advisors
  • Cruises
  • Travel Tips
  • News
  • Food + Drink
  • Travel Accessories
  • Check-In

Profile Menu

Your Profile

Your Profile

  • Join Now
  • Newsletters
  • Manage Your Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Give a Gift Subscription
  • Help
  • Logout
Login
Subscribe
Pin FB

Explore Travel + Leisure

Travel + Leisure Travel + Leisure Travel + Leisure Travel + Leisure
  • Explore

    Explore

    • World's Best

      The greatest islands, cities, hotels, cruise lines, airports, and more — as voted by you. Read More Next
    • The 50 Best Places to Travel in 2021

      Whether you're traveling solo or planning a family vacation, here are the 50 best places to visit in 2021. Read More Next
    • Let's Go Together Podcast

      Start listening to T+L's brand new podcast, Let's Go Together! Hosted by Kellee Edwards. Read More Next
  • Trip Inspiration

    Trip Inspiration

    • Trip Ideas
    • Weekend Getaways
    • Spring Travel
    • Summer Travel
    • Fall Travel
    • Winter Travel
    • Solo Travel
    • Romantic Getaways
    • Luxury Travel
    • Beach Vacations
    • Adventure Travel
    • Road Trips
    • Family Travel
    • National Parks
    • Holiday Travel
    • Travel Photography
    • Photo of the Day
    • Culture and Design
  • Plan Your Trip

    Plan Your Trip

    • Travel Deals
    • Attractions
    • Amusement Parks
    • Festivals and Events
    • Bus and Trains
    • Flight Deals
    • Budget Travel
    • Hotels and Resorts
    • Disney Vacations
    • Airlines and Airports
    • Ground Transportation
  • Travel Guides
  • World's Best

    World's Best

    • Top Hotels
    • Top Cities
    • Top Islands
    • Domestic Airlines
    • International Airlines
    • Tours
    • Safaris
    • All World's Best
  • Destination of the Year
  • A-List Travel Advisors
  • Cruises

    Cruises

    • Find A Cruise
    • Caribbean Cruises
    • River Cruises
    • European Cruises
    • All-Inclusive Cruises
    • Family Cruises
    • Alaskan Cruises
    • Disney Cruises
    • See All Cruise Vacations
  • Travel Tips

    Travel Tips

    • Travel Trends
    • Packing Tips
    • Points + Miles
    • Budgeting + Currency
    • Customs + Immigration
    • Responsible Travel
    • Travel Etiquette
    • Travel Warnings
    • Weather
    • Mobile Apps
    • See All Travel Tips
  • News

    News

    • Wellness
    • Celebrity Travel
    • Animals
    • Jobs
    • Offbeat
    • See All News
  • Food + Drink

    Food + Drink

    • Restaurants
    • Wine
    • Beer
    • Cocktails + Spirits
    • Bars + Clubs
    • Celebrity Chefs
    • Cooking + Entertaining
    • Food Fairs + Festivals
    • World's Best Restaurants
    • See All Food + Drink
  • Travel Accessories

    Travel Accessories

    • Travel Bags
    • Shoes
    • Travel Tech
    • Shopping
    • Style
    • Gift Guides
    • See All Travel Accessories
  • Check-In

Profile Menu

Subscribe this link opens in a new tab
Your Profile

Your Profile

  • Join Now
  • Newsletters
  • Manage Your Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Give a Gift Subscription
  • Help
  • Logout
Login
Sweepstakes

Follow Us

  1. Home
  2. Hotels + Resorts
  3. Best Hotels in Washington, D.C.

Best Hotels in Washington, D.C.

By Travel + Leisure and Travel + Leisure Staff
June 29, 2012
Skip gallery slides
Save Pin
Credit: Ron Blunt
With so many options from downtown to Georgetown, let T+L point you to the very best hotels D.C. has to offer, based on readers' votes in our annual World's Best Awards survey.
Start Slideshow

1 of 10

Save Pin
Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

No. 1 The Jefferson, Washington, D.C.

Credit: Stirling Elmendorf

This 99-room Beaux-Arts landmark reopened in 2009 after a two-year, floor-to-ceiling overhaul. Thomas Jefferson-inspired design details abound, ranging from toile drapes to three-inch-thick doorframes in guest rooms, just like those at Monticello. In the hotel’s clubby bar, Quill, a series of 18th-century maps trace the former president’s wine tours through France, Germany, and Italy. The finest display, however, might be the hand-painted silk mural in the hotel restaurant, Plume, depicting the south vineyard at Monticello. Plume has quickly become a D.C. favorite for its inventive European fare. (A glass barrel-vaulted ceiling also makes it one of the city’s most stunning restaurants.)

1 of 10

Advertisement
Advertisement

2 of 10

Save Pin
Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

No. 2 St. Regis, Washington, D.C.

Credit: Courtesy of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc

This 1926 landmark hotel strikes the balance between historic elegance and high-tech swagger. Original details such as gilded Louis XVI chandeliers and Palladian windows remain, but rooms now have iPod docking stations, silk wall coverings, and glass mosaic–tiled bathrooms. Luxurious details (Waterford crystal chandeliers) combined with attentive service (a 24-hour butler assigned to each floor) make for a glamorous stay.

2 of 10

3 of 10

Save Pin
Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

No. 3 Four Seasons Hotel, Washington, D.C.

Credit: Courtesy of Four Seasons Hotels

Spacious and rambling, this Four Seasons sits on an unassuming patch of Georgetown real estate. Guest quarters are split into two wings; currently the east wing's 151 newly renovated rooms are the best bet. All have stylish contemporary furniture, a muted palette of mauve and sage, chic lithographs in gilt-edged frames, and brand-new bathrooms with soaking tubs and separate glass-and-stone showers. (The 60 west-wing rooms, furnished more traditionally with antiques but with so-so bathrooms, are up for a matching redo by summer 2008). The fitness center here is grand, comfortable, and flooded with light from floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the C&O Canal.

3 of 10

Advertisement

4 of 10

Save Pin
Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

No. 4 The Hay-Adams

Credit: Courtesy of The Hay-Adams

One of the city's finest hotels, this rebuilt 19th-century residence also boasts what is arguably the city's best location: directly across Lafayette Park from the White House, with knockout views of the famous mansion from the sixth, seventh, and eighth floors. The 145 impeccable guest rooms glow with sunlight from oversize windows; understated soft-beige furniture and beds swathed in Frette linens and pale Asian-inspired toile get a graceful lift from original and unique 1920's plasterwork on the ceilings. Downstairs, the elegant Lafayette Room restaurant overlooks the park—although watching power lunchers inside may be even more interesting.

4 of 10

5 of 10

Save Pin
Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

No. 5 Sofitel Lafayette Square

Credit: Courtesy of Sofitel Lafayette Square

In some way, every Sofitel is a Parisian hotel, and despite the inescapable fact of its location in downtown Washington, the Lafayette is no exception. Francophone staff click-clack over shiny black marble floors as jazz floats overhead; chic young things lounge artfully in the dramatic wine-and-gray halls of Le Bar, sipping champagne. The 237 Art Deco-inspired rooms, buff and brown with red-velvet accents, are creatively lit, and hung with original paintings, black-and-white architectural photos of Washington, and—la surprise—Paris. Corner rooms 14 and 26 have windows on two sides flooding the space with light.

5 of 10

6 of 10

Save Pin
Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

No. 6 Ritz-Carlton Georgetown

Credit: Courtesy of the Ritz

As unlike its regal sister hotel downtown as it's possible to be, this converted 19th-century incinerator in the heart of Georgetown is low-key, modern, and above all, private; there's even a hidden VIP exit for visiting celebs and politicos. The 86 minimalist rooms and suites fall somewhere on the scale between Zen and yawn, with clean lines and lots of beige (although suites have more personality and better views of the Potomac River two blocks away). The soaring post-industrial lobby, all exposed brick and steel beams, is presided over by a wide black granite fireplace—a great place to warm up on chilly winter nights.

6 of 10

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

7 of 10

Save Pin
Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

No. 7 Willard InterContinental

Credit: Courtesy of Willard InterContinental

This opened-in-1816 hotel remains steeped in Washington history, even though the rooms where Lincoln lived, Coolidge governed, and Martin Luther King Jr. wrote have long since been renovated away. Today's Willard, a bit like the political world it esteems, is grand in public, bland in private: its majestic lobby dazzles with soaring Corinthian columns and a marble mosaic floor, while the 332 guest rooms, while spacious and comfortable, are comparatively spare. Café du Parc sells enticing French pastries to go—a great breakfast and a surprisingly great deal.

7 of 10

8 of 10

Save Pin
Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

No. 8 Ritz-Carlton, Washington, D.C.

Credit: Courtesy of the Ritz

Only seven years young, the downtown Ritz-Carlton feels like an old-fashioned grand hotel, where bellmen wear white gloves and the clubby old-boy bar fairly rings with the sound of shoulders being clapped. An ongoing renovation is restyling all 300 guest rooms (retro bentwood armchairs in zippy velour are in, cherry credenzas with fussy brass drawer-pulls are out), but the sumptuous marble bathrooms with big gilt mirrors will remain. The biggest nod to modernity, though, comes with the second- and third-floor Sports Club/LA fitness center; its 100,000 square feet of fat-burning splendor and huge spa are open to guests for a fee.

8 of 10

9 of 10

Save Pin
Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

No. 9 W Hotel Washington

Credit: Courtesy of W Washington D.C.

The W Washington, D.C. Hotel is the place to see the nation's capital: The Point of View Terrace provides notable views of the Washington Monument, White House, Pentagon, and Potomac River. Originally the Hotel Washington, this Beaux-Arts building hosted the likes of John Wayne, Elvis Presley and Aretha Franklin during its 90 years. Celebrities continue to stay in the Dianna Wong-designed accommodations and enjoy Jean-Georges Vongerichten's steakhouse fare, as well the restaurant's 24-foot vaulted ceilings with views of the White House Gardens. Although the 317 rooms are smaller than the average hotel rooms in D.C., each includes the W-bed, accentuated by a backlit headboard, a white chaise lounge, and the latest tech (free Wi-Fi is only available in the Living Room lounge, though). The hotel is also home to Bliss Spa, and feature W's Whatever/Whenever Service: "Whatever you want. Whenever you want it. (as long as it's legal)."

9 of 10

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

10 of 10

Save Pin
Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

No. 10 Hotel Monaco, DC

Credit: Ron Blunt

Construction on this property was completed in 1866 by Robert Mills, architect of the Washington Monument; before it was a hotel, it originally opened as the city’s first General Post Office. Since then, it has been deemed a National Historic Landmark, and was renovated by the Kimpton group in 2002. The marble four-story structure, located in Penn Square, contains 183 guestrooms, of which 14 are suites. This boutique property is pet-friendly, with complimentary Evian for dogs, water bowls, and maps of optimal local dog walks; or for those who left their pet at home, “guppy service” is offered, a goldfish brought to the room upon request.

10 of 10

Replay gallery

Share the Gallery

Pinterest Facebook

Up Next

By Travel + Leisure and Travel + Leisure Staff

Share the Gallery

Pinterest Facebook
Trending Videos
Advertisement
Skip slide summaries

Everything in This Slideshow

Advertisement

View All

1 of 10 No. 1 The Jefferson, Washington, D.C.
2 of 10 No. 2 St. Regis, Washington, D.C.
3 of 10 No. 3 Four Seasons Hotel, Washington, D.C.
4 of 10 No. 4 The Hay-Adams
5 of 10 No. 5 Sofitel Lafayette Square
6 of 10 No. 6 Ritz-Carlton Georgetown
7 of 10 No. 7 Willard InterContinental
8 of 10 No. 8 Ritz-Carlton, Washington, D.C.
9 of 10 No. 9 W Hotel Washington
10 of 10 No. 10 Hotel Monaco, DC

Share options

Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message
Travel + Leisure Travel + Leisure

Magazines & More

Learn More

  • Subscribe this link opens in a new tab
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise
  • Content Licensing this link opens in a new tab
  • Sitemap
  • Travel Guide Sitemap

Connect

Follow Us
Subscribe to Our Newsletters
Other Travel + Leisure Sites
Other Meredith Sites

Other Meredith Sites

  • 4 Your Health this link opens in a new tab
  • Allrecipes this link opens in a new tab
  • All People Quilt this link opens in a new tab
  • Better Homes & Gardens this link opens in a new tab
  • Bizrate Insights this link opens in a new tab
  • Bizrate Surveys this link opens in a new tab
  • Cooking Light this link opens in a new tab
  • Daily Paws this link opens in a new tab
  • EatingWell this link opens in a new tab
  • Eat This, Not That this link opens in a new tab
  • Entertainment Weekly this link opens in a new tab
  • Food & Wine this link opens in a new tab
  • Health this link opens in a new tab
  • Hello Giggles this link opens in a new tab
  • Instyle this link opens in a new tab
  • Martha Stewart this link opens in a new tab
  • Midwest Living this link opens in a new tab
  • More this link opens in a new tab
  • MyRecipes this link opens in a new tab
  • MyWedding this link opens in a new tab
  • My Food and Family this link opens in a new tab
  • MyLife this link opens in a new tab
  • Parenting this link opens in a new tab
  • Parents this link opens in a new tab
  • People this link opens in a new tab
  • People en Español this link opens in a new tab
  • Rachael Ray Magazine this link opens in a new tab
  • Real Simple this link opens in a new tab
  • Ser Padres this link opens in a new tab
  • Shape this link opens in a new tab
  • Siempre Mujer this link opens in a new tab
  • Southern Living this link opens in a new tab
  • SwearBy this link opens in a new tab
Travel + Leisure is part of the Travel + Leisure Group. Copyright 2021 Meredith Corporation. Travel + Leisure is a registered trademark of Meredith Corporation Travel + Leisure Group All Rights Reserved, registered in the United States and other countries. Travel + Leisure may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice. Privacy Policythis link opens in a new tab Terms of Servicethis link opens in a new tab Ad Choicesthis link opens in a new tab California Do Not Sellthis link opens a modal window Web Accessibilitythis link opens in a new tab
© Copyright . All rights reserved. Printed from https://www.travelandleisure.com

View image

Best Hotels in Washington, D.C.
this link is to an external site that may or may not meet accessibility guidelines.