Chicago

The Iron Horse Hotel

From bed-and-breakfasting in Galena to cherry picking in Traverse City, the weekend getaway has always been the domain of The Girlfriend. This fall, claim your special time, at Milwaukee's Iron Horse Hotel.

Housed in a converted 100-year-old furniture warehouse, the Horse is a classily masculine, 102-room luxe boutique located right across the street from the just-opened Harley-Davidson Museum (130,000sq ft, 450 rare hogs, "hundreds of thousands of artifacts", someone's very old lady...). Starting at $179, the five distinct room styles abound with manliness like fat plasmas, expansive in-suite bars topping squat-bodied fridges stocked w/ quality hooch, and hand-detailed, sepia-toned photos of actual Milwaukee models & "regular" women; 'cycle-specific touches include extra-wide boot benches below heavy-duty bronze hooks capable of supporting the 80lb leather jackets worn by serious bikers, and tourists trying to impress "regular" Milwaukee women. For grub/hooch, hit the 2-story atrium lobby where behind a 12'X10' metal fire door you'll find the brick-walled Smyth (classic comfort food); or pull up one of the early-1900s drafting stools at Branded, serving burgers flame-stamped with the hotel's logo, plus Milwaukee's finest brews from Lakefront to Sprecher (what? no Milwaukee's Best?).

For more in-hotel boozing, Sundays see a manned Bloody Mary cart plowing through the lobby. If that doesn't scratch your itch, you're minutes from the tripled-in-size Potawatomi casino, men's club Silk (2-4-1 happy hours every day!), margaritas in the Latin Quarter, and Miller Park -- where the season-ending Cubs series could send you to Heaven, if only you'd brought a sack of delicious cherries.

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