Up on the roof: City hotels with great outdoor bars

Heavenly perch: Haven is a new rooftop venue at the Sanctuary Hotel in New York City.

By Mark Chesnut

With the arrival of summer, full-grown adults can sometimes feel like antsy schoolchildren, yearning to play outdoors rather than feeling trapped inside. Luckily, an array of business-minded hotels make it easy to entertain clients, organize meetings and relax with colleagues while enjoying plenty of fresh air.

In New York City, the Sanctuary Hotel has debuted Haven, a 2,500-square-foot rooftop venue near Times Square that serves cocktails and light meals; rotating DJs add a hip vibe. The Gansevoort Park Avenue NYC, meanwhile, has a sun deck where guests sip hand-selected wines, just stepsaway from the swimming pool.

Further south, visitors soak up Miami style at the Perry South Beach, where a venue called, appropriately enough, The Rooftop sits 18 stories above the sand, offering sunny relaxation and refreshments during the day and a 21-and-over nightclub after dark. Another cheery spot is the Townhouse Hotel, where the 250-person rooftop lounge can be rented out for private business events and even photo shoots and commercials.

The so-called Windy City is home to a variety of interesting venues with inspiring views, including the Peninsula Chicago, where guests indulge in decidedly upscale Asian cuisine at the Shanghai Terrace.

Out west, busy travelers can enjoy fresh air at rooftop venues including the Skybar at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, and Departure, a stylishly contemporary restaurant that sits atop The Nines hotel in Portland, Ore.

The Standard, a trendy collection of hotels on two coasts, offers multiple options in southern California: The Standard, Downtown LA, which has a rooftop with heated swimming pool, dance floor, bar and outdoor fireplace, and the Standard, Hollywood, where the Pooldeck serves a full contemporary menu, attracting well-heeled patrons from the entertainment, music and fashion industries.

Related resources

• Chicago hotels
• Las Vegas hotels
• Miami Beach hotels
• Los Angeles hotels
• New York hotels
• Portland hotels

Mark Chesnut is a travel writer, editor and publisher of LatinFlyer.com, which focuses on travel to Latin America. He burns easily.

Tagged: Florida, Hotels, Las Vegas, New York