Hotel Zena Washington DC

The pool

• 14th-floor rooftop pool
• City skyline
• Memorial Day–Labor Day
• 8am–8pm
• Cabanas via day pass

Why it's on the list

Fourteen floors up on the 14th Street corridor, which in Washington counts as altitude. It is a real swim during the day and turns into Hedy's bar crowd after dark, so the move is a morning lap and an early afternoon before the deck changes character.

The stay

Zena is the design statement — a boldly art-forward hotel built around a theme of female empowerment, with a gallery's worth of work in the public spaces and a rooftop that swims by day and becomes Hedy's bar crowd after dark. It's on the 14th Street corridor in Logan Circle, one of DC's best strips for restaurants and nightlife, walkable and lively. At $$$ you're paying for the design and the location as much as the room — the pick if you want personality and a night-out neighborhood, less so if you want a quiet, classic DC stay.