If you're going to pay to sleep in strange surroundings, you might as well put up the dough for the best. The Saint Paul Hotel has served as a surrogate home for presidents from Taft to Clinton and foreign dignitaries from Gorbachev to Thatcher. It's not difficult to see why. Overlooking Rice Park, the century-old hotel is a nearly bucolic oasis amid downtown St. Paul. Despite this tranquillity, it's within easy walking distance of the Ordway, the Xcel Energy Center, and other urban amenities. There's a rooftop exercise facility and valet parking. The bar of the St. Paul Grill, with its dark wood and black-and-white portraits of Minnesota luminaries, is the most elegant spot in town to linger over some Scotch or a glass of red wine. And the prices (or "tariffs," as the hotel prefers) are equally impressive: rooms range from $159 for a standard room to $579 for the deluxe Ordway Suite.