Buckhead

The St. Regis Atlanta

★★★★★

The St. Regis Atlanta is the city's benchmark for old-school luxury, and it sits exactly where you would expect: at Eighty-Eight West Paces Ferry Road, at the junction of Buckhead's shopping streets and its mansion-lined residential avenues. The building has the look of a grand European hotel transplanted to the South — a pale stone facade, a sweeping drive, a lobby of marble and chandeliers — and the service matches. Every guest has access to St. Regis Butlers, available day or night, who will unpack, press, deliver coffee in the morning and handle the small requests that make a stay feel effortless. Rooms and suites have been re-imagined with a soft, residential palette, large marble bathrooms and the kind of deep quiet that comes from heavy construction and careful soundproofing. The food and drink are the real draw for many locals. Atlas Buckhead, the hotel's signature restaurant, holds a Michelin star and a Forbes Five-Star rating, and is known as much for the fine art on its walls as for its seasonal menus. Astor Court serves brunch, lunch and a traditional afternoon tea that is a Buckhead ritual, with a holiday tea with Santa in season. The St. Regis Bar is the place for an evening cocktail, and The Garden Room completes the dining line-up. Outside, the pool terrace has an outdoor pool, a whirlpool and the Poolside Piazza, a bar and grill that closes for the cooler months. The St. Regis Atlanta Spa holds a Forbes Four-Star rating. The trade-offs are price — this is among the most expensive hotels in Atlanta — and location: Buckhead is a drive or rideshare from the downtown attractions and the BeltLine.

Buckhead has been Atlanta's wealthiest district for a century, home to grand estates along West Paces Ferry Road (including the Georgia Governor's Mansion) and to the city's luxury shopping at Lenox Square, Phipps Plaza and the Buckhead Village district. The St. Regis is its social headquarters: the place where debutante balls, charity galas, celebrity weddings and business dinners happen, and where the lobby lounge on a Friday evening is a good snapshot of Atlanta's elite. It is a hotel for occasions, and the staff are practiced at birthdays, proposals and anniversaries.

Staying here works best if you embrace it fully. Book a room with a view over the pool terrace or the treetops, use the butler service for small things, and plan at least one meal at Atlas and one afternoon tea in Astor Court — both need reservations, and Atlas books well ahead on weekends. The spa is worth an afternoon on a slower day. In warm months, the pool terrace is one of the most elegant places to spend an afternoon in the city. Valet parking is the norm, and the concierge can arrange cars for trips into Midtown and downtown.

As a base, the St. Regis suits couples, special-occasion travelers and visitors focused on Buckhead's shopping and dining. The Atlanta History Center is a few minutes away along West Paces Ferry Road, and Midtown is about fifteen minutes by car outside rush hour, downtown a little longer. If your trip is all about the aquarium, the museums and the BeltLine, a Midtown or downtown hotel will save time; if it is about being looked after beautifully, nothing in the city does it better.