The Barnett

The pool

• 9th-floor High Five rooftop pool
• Downtown skyline
• Seasonal, weather permitting
• Day passes

Why it's on the list

The old Ace, reborn as The Barnett — and the rooftop was rebuilt with it, now High Five Rooftop Pool & Bar nine floors above the Warehouse District. Sweeping downtown views, a proper bar, and a pool that runs on New Orleans weather rather than a calendar. Day passes are sold when there's room.

The stay

The Barnett is the one with the Ace's DNA — the hotel that brought lobby-scene culture to the Warehouse District, renamed and folded into Hyatt's JdV collection, still running a jazz club, a lobby bar, and a run of restaurants inside a 1920s Art Deco building on Carondelet. The Warehouse District is the right base for most New Orleans trips: galleries and restaurants around you, the French Quarter a walk away, and none of Bourbon Street's chaos outside the window. At $$ it's one of the city's better hotel values — the pick if you want personality and music in the building, with Hyatt points besides; the trade is a lobby that hums rather than hushes.