Belmont Hotel

Class: Comfort

Style: Retro & vintage

Rooms: 68

There’s usually little that’s positive to be said for America’s car culture — sprawl, pollution, and suburban alienation all are routinely laid at its doorstep. But lately one of the car culture’s byproducts — the roadside motor court inn — has begun a sort of renaissance, these one-time symbols of cheap convenience transforming themselves (with generous amounts of renovation) into something like boutique motels: places like the Hotel San Jose in Austin, or the Thunderbird in Marfa.

In this same vein is Dallas’s Belmont Hotel, a vintage 1946 motor inn (already a bit more architecturally distinguished than most) that’s been cleaned up and turned into what may be the hippest hotel in town, with creative, contemporary interiors and a hillside location that makes for a killer poolside view of the downtown Dallas skyline.

Standard motel rooms as well as suites and bungalows are available, and the top-of-the-line Terrace Suite comes with a hot tub on a private patio facing the city. Colors are contemporary, furnishings are comfortable and modern, and the amenities are perfectly up to date — wireless internet is available throughout, and the bathrooms come stocked with Lather toiletries. The bar seems almost too swanky to be true, and draws a crowd of in-the-know Dallas hipsters, and you’re five minutes (by car — some things never change) from the bars and restaurants of North Oak Cliff or downtown Dallas.