Lonely Planet Review

After a century of hosting Kings, Queens and other heads of state, this Victorian classic offers its guests opulence and a window to the past. Public spaces are architecturally lavish with stained glass oculi, mosaic floors and swirling staircases.

Modelled after works of the French Renaissance, this grand dame was once among the country's most opulent hotels. Though a bit reduced since the misty days of steamer trunk travel, the place still packs plenty of old style wallop, and rooms remain magnificent. Whereas most old hotels were systematically stripped of their interior character during postwar renovations, the Bellevue somehow managed to escape that terrible fate. Rituals of old Philadelphia are still a tangible part of the hotel experience - as it has for the last century, the Bellevue serves as the venue for Philadelphia's monied debutante ball. Guests have access to The Sporting Club at the Bellevue, an enormous complex designed by Michael Graves where the governor of Pennsylvania chooses to get sweaty when he's in town.