Fodor's Expert Review The Driskill

If you make time to stroll through one Austin hotel even though you're not staying there, make it The Driskill. A monument to Romanesque style right in the middle of Sixth Street, this delightful—and many say haunted—grande dame is embellished with limestone busts of its original owner, cattle baron Jesse Driskill, and his sons. Check out its gorgeous two-story porches with Romanesque Revival columns surrounding the arched entrances and the Texas-size lobby and mezzanine, where a café, bakery, and bar are open to the public. Over the years, countless legislators, lobbyists, and social leaders have held court behind the hotel's limestone walls, and it seems a few of them never left: according to guests, lights turn on by themselves, pipes bang eerily, and elevators without passengers go up and down. But management is quick to point out that the ghosts seem friendly, so don't let them stop you from paying a visit.