The Best Places in the United States

Ivy creeps up the facade of this all-suite boutique hotel one block from the Santa Monica Pier, where every room faces the Pacific and comes stocked with Frette linens, local art, and a minibar that takes itself seriously. The courtyard pool, ringed with lemon trees and James Perse loungers, is the kind of spot that makes you cancel afternoon plans. Sandpiper, the open-air restaurant, leans into California seasonal cooking.

Floor-to-ceiling windows frame views of Tampa Bay and Amalie Arena from every room in this 27-story hotel, which anchors the Water Street mixed-use development downtown. It's a full-service JW Marriott: modern and warm without tipping into excess, with a spa, resort-style pools, a rooftop bar that climbs high enough to see most of Tampa, and dining options ranging from a street-level window to a proper American bistro beside the pool.

The cocktail menu pays tribute to Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees, which makes sense given the museum is practically next door. This is a full-service luxury hotel in downtown Cleveland, where housekeepers note which side of the bed you sleep on and leave the water bottle there accordingly. The Club Floor runs food from breakfast through cordials and opens the bar at noon, which is a civilized policy. Pets are welcome, too.

Five minutes from Reagan National and steps from the Pentagon City mall, this Ritz-Carlton pulls off the usual trick of making a business-travel corridor feel like somewhere you'd actually want to be. Rooms come with feather beds and Egyptian cotton linens, the club level adds its own quiet remove, and the on-site restaurant, Santé, runs a Mediterranean menu with a fireside lounge good for a post-flight drink.

Perched at the base of Camelback Mountain, this Scottsdale resort is less a renovation of the old Rat Pack haunt that once stood here than a complete reinvention, the original having been nearly leveled before the reboot. The result is a sleek, contemporary desert property where the mid-century glamour gets reimagined rather than preserved. It holds a Michelin Key, which in resort terms means the vibe and the views both earn their square footage.

A mid-century chain hotel on Lady Bird Lake got the full renovation treatment, and the result is a boutique hotel that makes the retro bones look intentional. Architect Michael Hsu and designer Sean Knibb folded in industrial textures and quiet nods to Hill Country geology, so it reads as Austin rather than anywhere-with-a-lobby. The Michelin Guide selects it among its hotels, which is the kind of quiet endorsement that doesn't need a billboard.

Tangerine doors set into a 23-foot breeze block wall are your first clue that this Palm Springs resort operates on its own frequency. Jonathan Adler designed the interiors, so a suit of armor guards the lobby, groovy carpeting climbs the stairs, and eccentric glamour is the unifying theory. Lanai rooms, a pétanque court, and a hammock by the pool suggest a schedule built around doing very little with great commitment.

Belted Galloway cows still graze the pastures of this converted dairy farm turned country inn, midway between Chapel Hill and nowhere in particular. The 32 rooms are individually designed, with fresh flowers cut from the grounds and a decanter of port left at your bedside each evening. Tennessee fainting goats add an absurdist footnote to the strolls. The restaurant leans European-Southern, and afternoon tea is a thing here, taken seriously.

The Rockwell Group's renovation of this 27-story tower turned it into the most polished address on an already sprawling waterfront resort, and a Michelin Key and Forbes Four Star followed. Rooms look out over 200 acres of pools, a marina, a private beach, and enough dining options to skip the car entirely for days. It's a hotel-within-a-hotel concept, which means you get the full Boca Raton complex and then a quieter, considerably chicler retreat inside it.

The original Art Deco bones of a 1920s Coca-Cola bottling plant are still very much the point here, with exposed industrial detail running through the rooms in the old wing alongside genuinely comfortable modern furniture. The newer addition trades some of the patina for polish, which is a fair swap. The surrounding development packs in coffee, a food hall, and enough going on that you could stay a long weekend without really needing to leave. Michelin awarded it one Key.

The chefs live upstairs, which explains why this Craftsman-on-5th Avenue bistro feels less like a restaurant and more like a very good dinner party you somehow got invited to. The cooking leans Mediterranean with a California coast accent, prix fixe, and a Michelin star to its name. The canelés alone have sparked quiet obsession among regulars. A James Beard nominee, and the kind of place Carmel somehow earned.

Old movies flicker on the back wall while a dozen taps keep the noise level honest in this sprawling Mission dive bar. The high-ceilinged room is hung with oversized art and loud enough that conversation is more of a suggestion. Duck through to The Hideout in back and the whole register shifts: a quieter, more considered cocktail bar hiding inside the chaos. Esquire put it on their Best Bars in America list, and the two rooms together explain why.

The dirty pasta water martini has its own Esquire listing, which tells you something about how Fiorella operates. This South Philly pasta spot, a Michelin Bib Gourmand, runs a short, handmade menu out of what used to be a three-generation butcher shop. Marc Vetri's name is on it, the room is small, and the cacio e pepe is the kind that makes you stop talking mid-sentence.

Pisco is doing serious work here, with Esquire naming the pisco martini among the best in the country. La Royal is a handsome Peruvian restaurant and bar in Cambridge where the menu wanders across the full breadth of Peruvian cooking, including Chifa, the country's Cantonese-inflected tradition. Ceviches are sharp and citrus-forward, and the room has a genuine going-out energy. A James Beard semifinalist for Best New Restaurant.

Sapphire velvet banquettes and jacketed servers signal exactly what this is: a fine dining room where Angie Mar fuses classic French technique with her Chinese heritage in a Greenwich Village townhouse that glitters like a jewel box. The cooking leans rich and saucy, the way haute French is supposed to, and a tasting menu is available for those who want the full ceremony. James Beard semifinalist, 2026.

The name comes from South Korea's first carrier rocket, which tells you something about the ambitions in the room. Naro is a fine dining Korean restaurant in Rockefeller Center from the team behind Atomix, and where that room chases reinvention, this one returns to classics. The New York Times gave it three stars. Order the Dongji Martini, which made Esquire's list of the best martinis in the country, and let the evening unfold slowly.

A five-course prix fixe of modern Korean cooking in a sleek Flatiron room where the staff outnumbers the guests by a comfortable margin. The chef takes a restrained approach to bold flavors, which sounds like a contradiction until you're eating it. The cocktail program is sharp enough to earn its own following. Michelin awarded it a star, and the James Beard Foundation named the chef a 2025 semifinalist for Best Chef: New York State.

Charleston's Lowcountry pantry filtered through a Mediterranean lens, The Grocery is a neighborhood restaurant where seasonal produce and local seafood share the menu in ways that feel natural rather than calculated. Fried oysters with deviled egg sauce have been here since day one, which tells you something about the kitchen's instincts. The room runs warm and unhurried, the kind of place locals treat like a standing reservation they never made.

A two-story room of wood, stone, and skylights on the Fillmore, this California-meets-Nordic restaurant is built around sharing plates bold enough to stop conversations mid-sentence. The Liberty Farms duck, arriving with a mountain of peanut fried rice, tends to get a round of applause from neighboring tables. The Progress holds a Michelin star and a James Beard nomination, and the martini has its own press clippings.

Ten suites on a tree-lined street in downtown McMinnville, steps from boutiques and bakeries, with an organic farm supplying the kitchen. The Tributary is a Forbes Four Star boutique hotel that leans closer to an upscale inn than a grand resort, and deliberately so. The amenities list is short: a good book, a roaring fire, a deep bath. Wine-country excursions and hot air balloon rides can be arranged when the fireplace loses its pull.

The Elysian Bar is a cocktail bar in the Marigny, tucked inside a converted church-turned-hotel, where the atrium bar is so relentlessly yellow it feels like a secret study belonging to a pipe-smoking baron. Cajun and Creole small plates, like focaccia with honey butter, keep company with a Hibiscus 75. It's elegant without being stiff, and it made Food & Wine's list of top hotel bars in the country.

The lobby reads less like a hotel and more like a country house that got very ambitious, with deep sitting areas, Regency columns, and ironwork that quietly signals this is not the Hampton Inn down the road. The Williamsburg Inn sits just across from Colonial Williamsburg's historic district, holds a Forbes Four Star, and connects via the back terrace to a full spa with indoor and outdoor pools. Comfortable, formal-ish, and unapologetically old-money in atmosphere.

Adobe walls, lushly planted courtyards, and the Santa Catalina Mountains framing everything you look at: Hacienda del Sol is a historic guest ranch resort tucked into Tucson's foothills. The 34-acre property has been around forever, and the old-school architecture still holds the place together in a way no renovation could fake. Rooms are spread across the grounds, service runs unhurried, and the mountain views make the phone feel optional.

The restaurant is a Nobu partnership and the pool is lined with lava rock, but Sensei Lanai exists firmly in the wellness-resort category, not the beach-vacation one. Set upcountry on a quiet island, it trades ocean views for gardens, guided fitness, nutrition consultations, and the kind of sleep you forgot you could have. The rooms run spare in their design and lavish in everything else, which is more or less the whole philosophy.

Cowhide armchairs in the lobby set the tone: this is a luxury hotel that committed to being Texan rather than just landing in Texas. Part of the Auberge Collection, Bowie House brings the brand's polished design sensibility to Fort Worth's Camp Bowie corridor, pairing it with local artwork and upscale Texan cooking. Rooms, suites, and the pool terrace all lean spectacular. The Michelin Guide awarded it 2 Keys.

Every evening at sunset, someone opens a bottle of Champagne with a saber. That sets the tone for this bed and breakfast in two joined 19th-century Italianate houses on one of Savannah's quieter streets. The 16 rooms mix antique bones with modern comfort, and breakfast skews Indian, which is a welcome departure from the usual biscuit routine. The Michelin Guide awarded it one Key.

A Michelin Key hotel anchoring Kansas City's Crossroads arts district, set inside a converted industrial building where exposed brick and timber beams do the decorating. The 131 rooms lean into the warehouse bones rather than paper over them. Percheron, the rooftop bar, adds bocce and skyline views, while the Italian restaurant Lazia handles dinner. Coffee and casual bites live at XR Cafe, so you rarely need to leave the block.

The team behind the Sunset Tower brought this residential-style luxury boutique hotel to West Hollywood, and the neighborhood pedigree shows. It sits at the quieter, leafy edge where the Hills meet Beverly Hills, a world away from the frenzy further east. Expect the kind of considered, old-Hollywood polish that never needed to announce itself. The Michelin Guide awarded it one Key.

A handful of rooms inside a carefully restored Irving Gill house a short walk from La Jolla's water, this boutique hotel runs on the contactless end of the hospitality spectrum. The rooms are elegantly done and the courtyard, shaded by olive trees, is the communal living room nobody has to share with strangers. Borrow something from the curated book collection and pour your own coffee. The Michelin Guide awarded it one Key.

You will walk past it. That's by design. Apothecary is a dark, hushed cocktail lounge on Greenville where the seasonal menu gets a full thematic overhaul each year and bartenders can narrate the origin story of every pour from memory. The team spends months developing each recipe, and it shows. A James Beard Outstanding Bar Semifinalist, it draws the kind of crowd that actually reads the menu before ordering.

Nine pools connected by a lazy river, a grotto bar you swim up to and order a mai tai while watching sports on TV, and a separate adults-only pool for those who did not come to Maui to dodge pool noodles. This sprawling Waldorf Astoria resort on the Wailea beachfront also runs seven restaurants and bars, a 40-treatment-room spa, outrigger canoe tours, and access to nearby golf and tennis.

Tucked between Mummy and Camelback mountains on 125 sprawling acres, this Scottsdale resort has been converting desert skeptics into desert devotees for generations. The 453 casitas and suites come with private patios, because nobody actually stays inside here. Golf, a spa, seven restaurants, and a pool complex keep the days full, but the move is a morning coffee somewhere among the flowerbeds while the birds sort out their business.

A marble Thomas Jefferson presides over the Palm Court, which sets the tone for this grand Beaux Arts hotel a block from Virginia's state capitol. The rotunda's original Tiffany glass ceiling stops people mid-stride. Rooms lean residential and plush, and the whole place has a pleasantly odd streak, namely alligator motifs tucked into unexpected corners, a nod to the live ones that once shared the lobby.

Wedged between two uncrowded sandy beaches on Maui's south shore, this full-scale Marriott resort runs 22 acres of pools, restaurants, and a nearly 10,000-square-foot spa. Three championship golf courses sit next door, and the dining runs from a poke-and-shave-ice food truck to a proper fine dining room. Humpback whales pass offshore in season, which saves you the trouble of planning an excursion.

The bones of a steel mill are still visible in the exposed brick and heavy timber of this boutique hotel, which sits in a historically Black neighborhood called the Block on the south edge of downtown. Benne on Eagle, its Appalachian soul food restaurant, draws a crowd well beyond the guest list. Breweries and a Moog synthesizer museum are a short walk away, for when you need to explain the trip to someone.

Contemporary art by local artists lines the walls at this design-forward hotel in the thick of Pack Square, which makes Asheville's self-styled Paris-of-the-South reputation feel at least a little earned. Rooms run tastefully upscale, Bargello handles Mediterranean food and wood-fired pizza downstairs, and District 42 takes care of cocktails. A Michelin Selected Hotel, it's the kind of property a town this size isn't supposed to be able to pull off.

Tucked next to chef Johnny Curiel's flagship, this agave bar doubles as a serious kitchen, and the two halves push each other into strange, good territory. The mezcal list is long and thoughtful, the cocktails inventive, and the food pulls from Mexico City's restless energy with Japanese and other detours woven in. A Michelin star and a New York Times nod followed quickly. Plan around the bar counter if you can.

Anchored in Fashion Island with floor-to-ceiling windows pulling California sunshine into every room, this hotel earns its Michelin Key for putting SoCal polish ahead of resort cliche. Art deco interiors run through 295 guest rooms, a sleek steakhouse, and a pool bar pouring Baja-flavored bites alongside cocktails. Ocean views are easy to come by here, which is either the point or the whole thing, depending how long you plan to stay.

Paul Carmichael grew up in Barbados, and Kabawa is his argument that Caribbean cooking belongs in any room it wants. A prix-fixe fine dining restaurant on Extra Place, it seats you at a horseshoe counter in a dark green room with mosaic tilework and a playlist sourced partly from Carmichael's cousin back home. The New York Times named it the top restaurant in New York City, and the cocktail bar next door is his too, for nights when the goat patty feels like the right move.

The cottages and villas here sit behind a private entrance with dedicated valet, effectively a separate resort tucked inside the famous Victorian landmark on Coronado. Hosts meet you with a welcome drink before you've found your room key, and the staff leans hard into wish fulfillment: fully stocked kitchens, surfboards at the door, candlelit dinners on the sand. The kind of place where asking for a vintage convertible is apparently a reasonable request.

Seventy-two suites spread across fifteen oceanfront acres on a cliff above the Maui coastline, with three islands visible on a clear day. Hotel Wailea is an adults-only resort with the scale of a private retreat, all winding paths, waterfalls, and tropical gardens keeping the outside world at arm's length. The architecture leans into indigenous Hawaiian design rather than generic resort polish, and the staff make the distinction feel earned.

The plasterwork and fountain-dotted streetscape of Country Club Plaza sits just outside the door, which sets the tone: this is a boutique hotel that leans hard into Old World atmosphere without apologizing for it. Preserved original details from the 1920s share space with modern conveniences, and the in-house restaurant, Chaz on the Plaza, handles the contemporary American side of things for guests who'd rather not wander far.

A 21-story boutique hotel on Cooper Square where no two rooms share the same layout, so a skyline view is a conversation you have at booking, not a guarantee. The interiors lean into East Village energy, all Bluetooth speakers, stocked minibars, and oversized towels, but the social spaces and rotating cultural programming are the real draw for guests who treat the lobby as part of the itinerary.

Retro doorknob tassels stand in for standard "do not disturb" signs, which tells you pretty much everything about the vibe here. The REMI. is a hotel in North Scottsdale built for the kind of people who consider the pool deck a social obligation. Rockwell Group did the interiors, all leather headboards and powder-blue velvet, and the Allegra rooftop bar pulls sunset crowds on the 12th floor. Kauboi's yakitori-meets-sushi terrace and the F-16 diner round out a property that locals treat like a neighborhood.

A 20-room boutique hotel wrapped around a courtyard in the heart of Carmel-by-the-Sea, L'Auberge Carmel occupies a white stucco building that has been collecting interesting neighbors since the 1920s. The Relais & Châteaux membership sets the tone: evening turndown, valet, a chauffeured house car, and the quiet attentiveness of a place that knows exactly how small it is and considers that the point.

The curved white tower was designed to echo the superyachts that idle offshore, which sets the tone for what you're getting: a sleek beachfront Four Seasons where the nautical theme runs from the navy-striped rugs to the spa's water-based treatments. Rooms face either the Atlantic or the Intracoastal. The beach concierge handles loungers, umbrellas, and watersports, and complimentary bikes are there for when the sand loses you.

Every one of the 226 rooms has a private terrace facing the Atlantic, which makes the clifftop setting feel less like a amenity and more like the whole point. This is a sprawling luxury resort on 70 acres of rough Maine shoreline, with an ocean-facing spa, outdoor pools, and a Forbes Four Star and a Michelin Key to its name. The crowd skews well-heeled road-tripper; the vibe is coastal grandeur with enough square footage that it never feels crowded.

A Maxfield Parrish mural of Old King Cole anchors this small, high-ceilinged hotel cocktail bar inside the St. Regis, and it's been staring down the room since the Golden Age of illustration. The bar's other claim to history is the Bloody Mary, which Fernand Petiot is said to have perfected here. The menu still leans into that, which is either heritage or a hint. Either way, the room is beautiful and the drinks are stiff.

The Beaux-Arts bones alone justify a slow lap through the lobby. The Ned NoMad is a hotel that takes socializing as seriously as sleep, with guests getting access to members-only spaces including a whimsically muraled downstairs club. NoMad puts the Empire State Building and Madison Square Park in easy walking range while Downtown stays close enough for a late night. The kind of place where you feel like you're in on something, even as a tourist.

Five rooms above the restaurant, each with picture windows over Healdsburg's low-key downtown, and the kind of locally made snacks and luxurious bath amenities that make you wonder whether anyone actually checks out. The inn runs on the same Japanese hospitality philosophy as the dining room below, so the attention to detail borders on the uncanny. Gracefully minimalist, high-ceilinged, and more like a very tasteful friend's guest room than a hotel.

A family of dolphins lives in the resort's lagoon, which tells you something about the ambition level here. This is a classic luxury resort on the quiet side of Diamond Head, well away from Waikiki's chaos, with a calm private beach and the kind of unhurried, personal service that boutique hotels keep promising and rarely delivering. Every American president since LBJ has stayed, and the place carries that history without being stiff about it.

Wetsuits and surfboards pass through the lobby with enough regularity that nobody looks twice, which tells you most of what you need to know about the Seabird. This Destination by Hyatt resort sits across from Oceanside's main beach, with a third-floor pool deck and many rooms facing the Pacific. The design leans into the setting without overdoing the coastal theming, and the salt air tends to do the decorating anyway.

A Havana-via-Hemingway resort sitting just off Scottsdale's main drag, where the whole premise is that you're not in the Arizona desert, even when the Arizona desert is right there. Eight acres of hammocks and two pools, one with a sandy beach, do a lot of convincing. Rooms run Art Deco and mid-century, heavy on walnut and brass. The on-site restaurant serves Cuban-American food, and yes, craft cocktails arrive in pineapples.