Mokara Hotel & Spa

What the classifiers highlight

Steps from the River Walk, the 99-room hotel occupies the former Frank Saddlery building from the 1800s, its front desk stretched leather and Wild West photographs kept alongside twelve-foot ceilings. Forbes rates it Four Stars and singles out a two-story, 17,000-square-foot spa for hot-stone massages and mud wraps, plus Ostra's sustainable seafood menu.