Fairmont Austin ★★★★

A Tower Above Waller Creek, Built at Texas Scale

Downtown Austin ends at Waller Creek, and Fairmont Austin is the building that marks the line. The tower climbs past thirty stories at the corner of Cesar Chavez and Red River, and it is the largest hotel the brand runs in the United States, which shows the moment you walk in. The lobby is worked in greens and blues drawn from the hill country, with a replica of the oldest oak in Texas at its center and sculpture by Edd Hayes nearby. A dozen local artists have work in the public rooms. Big hotels usually flatten their city. This one spent the space on it instead.

Why It Works

Three things settled it. The first is that the scale buys range: five restaurants and bars, a full spa, a pool terrace with cabanas and a fitness floor that never closes, so a long stay never runs out of building. The second is Fairmont Gold, the hotel within the hotel on the top floors, with its own check-in, lounge and breakfast, which turns a very large property into a small one for anyone who wants that. The third is the covered walkway into the convention center, an unglamorous detail that decides trips.

Why This Location

Red River at Cesar Chavez is the southeast corner of downtown, and it is a better corner than it sounds. The Red River Canopy Walk crosses straight into the Austin Convention Center, so a working trip need not touch the street. Rainey Street, the row of bungalows turned into bars, starts a short walk south. Waller Creek and the Waterloo Greenway run alongside the hotel with trails and public art, and they lead down to Lady Bird Lake and the hike-and-bike trail. Sixth Street is a walk north for live music. What the address does not give you is quiet on a festival weekend, and the upper floors are the answer.

Fast Facts

• Price: Luxury

• Vibe: Large, polished, art-filled, Texan

• Rooms: 1,048 rooms and suites, with Fairmont Gold on the top floors

• Best For: Convention and conference trips, spa weekends, families who want room to spread out

• Our Favorite Thing About the Hotel: Room 725, which pours champagne and keeps pre-embargo Cuban cigars

• Dining: Garrison for Gulf seafood over post oak fire, Revue for an upscale food hall, Rules and Regs poolside, Fulton in the lobby, Good Things for coffee

• Amenities: Seventh-floor heated pool terrace with thirteen cabanas, full-service spa, fitness floor open around the clock, covered walkway to the convention center, small dogs welcome

• Attractions: Rainey Street, the Waterloo Greenway along Waller Creek, Lady Bird Lake and the hike-and-bike trail, Sixth Street, the Texas State Capitol

Five Kitchens, and a Room Numbered 725

Garrison is the serious table: New American cooking built on Gulf seafood and ranch beef over a post oak fire, the Texas technique done without costume. Revue is the opposite in mood, an upscale food hall staged like a film set, with Italian, Asian and a raw bar under one roof. Fulton works the lobby from breakfast through to cocktails, Rules and Regs handles the pool deck with Latin American plates and a deep spirits list, and Good Things does coffee and pastry for anyone leaving early. Then there is Room 725, a small bar for champagne, caviar and pre-embargo Cuban cigars.

The Seventh Floor, Where the Hotel Slows Down

The pool terrace sits on seven: a heated pool, a hot tub, thirteen private cabanas and one large enough for a dozen people, lifted clear of the traffic. The spa follows the same idea of scale, with nine treatment rooms including two for couples, solariums holding saline soaking pools, eucalyptus steam grottoes and dry saunas. It is the only full-service hotel spa in downtown Austin, which explains why it books out at weekends. The fitness floor runs to 2,800 square feet behind floor-to-ceiling glass and stays open around the clock.

Which Room to Ask For

With more than a thousand keys, the room you draw matters more here than at a small hotel. Guest floors start at eight and run to the top, so anything low is worth changing. South and west faces look over Lady Bird Lake and the hills; north looks across downtown toward the Capitol. Fairmont Gold takes the highest floors and adds a private lounge, breakfast and evening canapes. Dogs up to twenty-five pounds are welcome.