The Willard Hotel (now an InterContinental) traces its illustrious history back to 1850 when brothers Edwin and Henry Willard opened their inn one block from the White House. Having played host hour to nearly every US president since the mid-19th century and such luminaries as Mark Twain, Charles Dickens and Martin Luther King Jr, the grand dame of Washington hotels has many a tale to tell. Can’t afford to spend the night? Stroll through the opulent Beaux-Arts lobby to cocktail hour at the clubby Round Robin bar. Kentucky senator Henry Clay introduced Washington to the mint julep when he mixed one up here in the 1850s and they still use his recipe.