Dallas & Fort Worth Travel Guide
Where to Stay in Dallas & Fort Worth
How to choose a base in a metroplex the size of a small country — downtown Dallas for sightseeing, Uptown for romance, Deep Ellum for music, and Fort Worth's Stockyards or Sundance Square for Cowtown — with this guide's seven hotels placed.
Dallas and Fort Worth sit about thirty miles apart, with Arlington and DFW Airport between them, and the whole metroplex sprawls across a dozen counties. That makes the base decision more important than in most cities: choose well and you walk to dinner and take short rides to the sights; choose badly and you spend your trip on the freeway. The first question is which city you are really visiting. The second is what kind of trip it is.
Downtown Dallas: the sightseeing base. For a first visit focused on Dallas, stay downtown. The Sixth Floor Museum and Dealey Plaza, Reunion Tower, the Arts District, Klyde Warren Park and Deep Ellum are all within walking distance or a short DART or rideshare hop, and Union Station connects to the TRE commuter rail for a day in Fort Worth. Within downtown there are distinct choices. The Adolphus, the 1912 Beaux-Arts grand dame built by the brewer Adolphus Busch, is the occasion hotel, with the gilded French Room downstairs and the Main Street District at the door. The Statler, the restored 1956 mid-century landmark a few blocks away, gives you rooftop-pool style and lively bars at a more sensible price. The Omni Dallas, on the western edge by the convention center, is the big-amenity family option, an easy walk to Dealey Plaza and Reunion Tower. The trade-off downtown is that some blocks are quiet at night and parking is expensive; choose a hotel near Main Street or the Arts District for the liveliest evenings.
Uptown and Turtle Creek: the romantic base. Uptown, just north of the Arts District, is Dallas's most walkable residential neighborhood, with restaurants, bars and the free McKinney Avenue trolley. The Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek is the classic: a 1920s mansion with 142 rooms on a wooded creekside bluff, afternoon tea in the 1925 library, and the kind of service that makes anniversaries. It is a short ride, rather than a walk, to the museums, which is the price of the calm.
Deep Ellum: the music base. If your trip is about live music, murals, breweries and nightlife, sleep in Deep Ellum. The Kimpton Pittman Hotel, in the restored 1916 Knights of Pythias Temple designed by William Sidney Pittman, puts you on Elm Street with venues and kitchens on every block and downtown a fifteen-minute walk away. Light sleepers should ask for a room away from the street on weekends.
Fort Worth Stockyards: the Western base. For a Cowtown trip, or as the second half of a split stay, the Stockyards are the most atmospheric place to sleep in North Texas. Hotel Drover, the upscale Western hotel in Mule Alley, is the pick: saddle leather and limestone, a lively bar and restaurant, a backyard with pool and fire pits, and the twice-daily longhorn cattle drive a couple of minutes' walk away. Staying here lets you see the district quiet in the morning, catch the rodeo and Billy Bob's at night without a drive, and wander Exchange Avenue after the day-trippers leave. Note that the historic Stockyards Hotel is closed for renovation until 2027.
Downtown Fort Worth: the central Cowtown base. Sundance Square is the red-brick, walkable heart of downtown Fort Worth, with restaurants, Bass Performance Hall and a plaza that hosts concerts and a giant live Christmas tree in season. The Worthington Renaissance, right beside it, is the dependable mid-priced choice with spacious rooms, and it is ten minutes from both the Stockyards and the Cultural District with the Kimbell and the Modern. Downtown Fort Worth also has TEXRail to DFW Airport and the TRE to Dallas.
Arlington and Grapevine: the event bases. If your trip centers on a Cowboys game, a concert at AT&T Stadium, a Rangers game or Six Flags, consider a hotel in Arlington's Entertainment District to avoid traffic after events. For a short holiday trip built around Grapevine's Christmas Capital events, or for an early flight, the hotels around DFW Airport and Grapevine are convenient, though you trade away city atmosphere.
Matching the base to the trip. First visit, three nights, Dallas-focused: the Adolphus for the occasion version, the Statler for value, the Omni for families. Anniversary or honeymoon: the Rosewood Mansion, with a night or two at Hotel Drover for the Western contrast. Music trip: the Pittman. Fort Worth-focused or art pilgrimage: the Worthington for the center, Hotel Drover for the Stockyards. Sports weekend: downtown Dallas or Fort Worth with a rideshare to Arlington, or an Arlington hotel for game days. And for a first visit of five nights or more, split your stay — three in Dallas, two in Fort Worth — because the drive between the two cities is the single biggest drain on a metroplex trip.
Booking tips that save money. Rates across the metroplex swing with the event calendar more than with the season. A Cowboys home game, a big concert at AT&T Stadium, a major convention downtown or the State Fair in autumn can push prices up sharply, while quiet weekdays in winter and high summer bring the best deals, so check the calendar before you fix dates. Downtown Dallas and Uptown hotels charge for parking, often valet only, so factor that in if you are driving; in Deep Ellum and downtown Fort Worth you may not need a car for days at a time. Historic hotels such as the Adolphus and the Statler have rooms that vary widely in size and view, so read the room categories carefully. And if you land late at DFW Airport, there is no shame in a first night near the terminals before moving into the city the next morning.