As a journalist, I’ve written about crime for newspapers, business deals for magazines, cruise ship ports for online travel publications and industry trends for websites. My focus now is exclusively on travel. 
Luxury hotels often impress with sleek design and impeccable service. But the moment I walked into Hotel Emma, I realized this hotel at the north end of San Antonio’s River Walk offers something rarer: a sense of place embodied by an extraordinary library. The bones of the 19th-century Pearl Brewery still hum beneath the surface, giving San Antonio’s only Michelin Two-Key hotel a rustic texture and authenticity that new-build luxury hotels can’t replicate. A cathedral-like brick tower beckons visitors inside, where steel beams frame soaring ceilings....
