112 College St., San Antonio, TX 78205, 210-518-1000,
Rates: Standard rooms start at $149 a night; river-view rooms at $269 and suites at $319. Parking is $28 a day.
Stay here if you’re: longing to be in the heart of the River Walk, San Antonio’s beautiful outdoor strolling, shopping and noshing area, but don’t want to stay in a soulless corporate hotel.
It’s close to: The River Walk is steps away. The Alamo, convention center, Market Square and La Villita shopping districts are all within half a mile.
The rooms are: A little small but stylish with historic details. River-view rooms have exposed-brick walls, wood-beamed ceilings, marble-tiled baths and small balconies overlooking the river.
They put all of the money into: thoughtful luxury. Omni has made this venerable adobe structure, which was built in 1852 as a school for the religious order The Society of Mary, into a modern hotel without destroying its charm. The red tile floors, wood-beamed reception area and covered walkways give La Mansion a warm yet elegant vibe and help you overlook an unpleasant historic feature that modern-day engineering apparently couldn’t fix: extremely slow-moving elevators. Another thoughtful touch: Turndown service includes a painted wooden box of tiny, woven “worry dolls” that are a San Antonio Yanaguana Indian tradition. Legend has it that if you transfer one worry to each doll and place the dolls under your pillow, you’ll wake up worry-free. No mint is going to do that for you.
The bottom line: It’s well worth the extra cash for a river-view room, second floor or higher. The French doors, which are the only natural-light source for most of La Mansion’s rooms, open onto balconies where you can sit and wave to the hoi polloi in tourist boats. Other rooms’ French doors overlook the pool or, even worse, outdoor walkways.
Vicky Uhland
