Hay-Adams Hotel

This grande dame across from Lafayette Square received a subtle makeover a few years ago to add more contemporary touches to its early 20th-century core. Guest rooms now include in-room safes large enough for laptops and Bose Wave systems with iPod capability. The renovations, which also include a modernized business center and new fitness room, manage to update the hotel without taking away from its elegant, old-fashioned feel. To really drink in that clubby Washington feel, stop into the hotel’s basement bar.