The 21 Best Hotels in New Orleans

"A layered, tactile, kaleidoscope like this—from pro outfit Ace—could only exist in the Big Easy. ‘New Orleans is such an amalgam of culture and languages and histories,’ says Kelly Sawdon of Atelier Ace. ‘It’s rich and complicated and somewhat messy in a beautiful way.’ The address is Ace’s second in the city, and a more intimate, flamboyant and narrative number than its more formulaic sibling across the street. A collaboration between Atelier Ace and Los Angeles-based Shamshiri Studio, it’s taken over a former City Hall annex built in 1908 and filled it with a traveling steamer trunk of curiosities. The lobby, with its twin staircases, Art Deco lights and front desk straight out of The Grand Budapest Hotel, is Golden Age Europe. The sitting room, an Egyptian adventure with hieroglyphic artwork, while the breakfast room (huge windows, parquet floors and custom-drawn wall coverings) feels like a Parisian bistro for lingering over café noir and beignets. And in the bedrooms, vivid-blue bed frames and navy-piped white linens are layered with curious details, from coffee tables etched with zodiac symbols to sculpted snake handles slithering through shower doors. Finally, a place that artfully distills the bohemian hedonism and mysticism of New Orleans in a gloriously designed jewel box." - Paul Oswell