The Best Places in the United States

The black-glass tower sits directly above TD Garden, which means Bruins nights are either thrilling or a logistical adventure depending on your schedule. This design-forward hotel keeps rooms compact and consistent: XL beds, rain showers, blackout blinds, and a tablet that runs everything. The second-floor lobby doubles as a lounge, with street art and deep colors doing the heavy lifting. Beacon Hill and the harbor are visible from the terrace if you need convincing you're somewhere.

A classical-revival tower that locals know as part of Birmingham's "Heaviest Corner on Earth," the Elyton is a hotel with actual bones, its 117 rooms running tall and light in a building that was turning heads long before the neighborhood caught up. The arts district hums outside; inside, things stay polished without feeling stiff. The Yard handles brunch and bistro duty downstairs for when you don't feel like venturing far.

A koi pond and a fountain anchor the courtyard of this small boutique hotel on South Congress, which is otherwise surrounded by taco bars and boot shops doing brisk business. No front desk, no elevator, no pool: just calm oak-furnished suites with Sferra linens and private wood-lined verandas behind sliding glass doors. The Japanese-inspired restraint makes it feel like the neighborhood's noise belongs to someone else entirely.

The old bikini bar sign still hangs above the Santa Monica Boulevard entrance, which tells you most of what you need to know about Gold Diggers as a hotel. It occupies a building that once housed a bikini bar downstairs, a residential hotel above it, and a rehearsal space out back where L.A. rock royalty is rumored to have practiced. The vibe is exactly what that history implies: a rock-and-roll hotel that didn't have to try very hard to become one.

The anchor here is the Ivy Tower, a ziggurat-style Art Deco landmark that the rest of the hotel wraps around, matching its clean lines and geometric flourishes throughout. It's a full-service luxury hotel in downtown Minneapolis, selected by the Michelin Guide, with a spa serious enough to draw locals, plus a restaurant and bar that visiting sports teams apparently don't complain about.

The Walters Art Museum is around the corner and the Peabody Institute just beyond, so the boutique hotel that landed in Mount Vernon clearly knew its audience. Joie de Vivre filled Hotel Revival with enough art and design that the rooms themselves feel curated rather than decorated. Mount Vernon is one of Baltimore's oldest and most quietly creative neighborhoods, and the hotel leans into that identity without making you feel like you wandered into a gallery opening.

A river taxi pulls up right to the front door, which tells you something about where this hotel sits on the San Antonio Riverwalk. Rooms run to walnut paneling, teal accents, and gold hardware, with the Presidential Suite adding a marble dining table and floor-to-ceiling city views for anyone who needs convincing. The rooftop pool has a tiki bar, Cavalier does upscale American brasserie downstairs, and the Convention Center crowd is a short walk away.

Original Tiffany fixtures and marble staircases lined with balustrades set the tone at this Kimpton hotel in a restored Beaux Arts building that used to be a railroad headquarters. The Gilded Age bones are everywhere, from statuary over the entrance arch to the preserved period detail inside. A Michelin Selected Hotel, it sits at the edge of Baltimore's Inner Harbor, which means the views are there if the history isn't enough.

Check-in happens at the bar, which tells you everything about what kind of hotel this is. The Moxy sits across from the stadium, close to the river, and draws a crowd that came to go out, not wind down. Rooms run toward LED mood lighting and local art rather than beige calm. The gym runs all night, the cocktails are mixed with some actual thought, and the whole thing skews cheerfully irreverent.

A tranquil inner garden courtyard sits at the center of this boutique hotel in downtown Palo Alto, which builds its whole identity around the idea of an urban ryokan. Japanese-inspired interiors keep things grounded while the rest of Silicon Valley's hotel scene leans toward the safely corporate. It's a genuinely calm place to land in a city not exactly known for them, and the Michelin Guide includes it among its selected hotels.

The name is optimistic: you're a few minutes' walk from the water, not on it. But in Waikiki, where the default is a 500-room resort charging fees for breathing the air, a 125-room indie hotel with a rooftop pool, no kids' club, and no mineral-water-misting attendant by the pool feels like a negotiated peace. Rooms are white and wood, with Wegner wingback chairs and oversized showers. A ground-floor café handles coffee and drinks for the beach run.

A rum library with over 150 bottles and a dedicated room that walks you through the sugarcane-to-bottle story before you order. This cocktail bar inside the Collins Avenue strip leans Prohibition-era in its feel, with leather couches, cozy booths, and a patio sized for golden hour. The rum flights lean into Florida producers. You don't need to arrive knowing your agricole from your molasses; the bar is built for learning on the job.

The red-brick facade on Westminster Street is old Providence; the 47 rooms inside are decidedly not. This luxury boutique hotel keeps things intimate by local standards, with enough style to make that feel intentional rather than accidental. Rooms come with curated book bags on request, which tells you something about the clientele. The rooftop bar and a modern Italian restaurant mean leaving is genuinely optional.

Transparent igloos on the roof keep the cocktail hour going through a Boston winter, which tells you something about the attitude of this Seaport hotel. Rooms are contemporary with a wry streak, TV stands welded from old bike frames included, and floor-to-ceiling windows pull in harbor views. It's a Marriott Autograph Collection property, the chain's boutique arm, so the personality is deliberate and the service runs smooth.

A converted 1895 firehouse standing alone in a neighborhood otherwise paved over by MIT and the global tech industry, The Kendall Hotel is a boutique stay where the Queen Anne facade and twin cupolas do most of the talking. Rooms are snug and characterful in the way only old firehouses can manage, and the Black Sheep Lounge downstairs leans Iberian for small plates when you need a reason not to walk anywhere.

The name comes not from the exterior (handsome sandstone brick, as it happens) but from Louise C. Wooster, a former tenant who went from madam to cholera nurse and apparently left an impression. This boutique hotel packs 22 rooms with vivid color, bold graphics, and modern furniture tucked inside well-preserved historic bones. Public spaces are minimal, but downtown Birmingham's restaurants and the UAB medical district are both a short walk away.

A converted brick warehouse in the River Arts District, The Radical is a hotel that leans into Asheville's creative-counterculture identity without having to try too hard. Street art-inspired rooms share the building with a café, a wood-fired restaurant called Golden Hour, and a rooftop bar. The name is technically slang for "very good indeed," which is either self-deprecating or extremely confident, depending on your mood when you check in.

The pink Moorish palace on Waikiki has been there so long it basically predates Waikiki. This resort splits between a historic building, where the Moorish detailing and coral stucco run deep, and a contemporary tower for guests who want the postcard view without the period atmosphere. The spa sits in a garden, the pool has cabanas, and the beach puts surfing and sailing right outside. A Michelin Selected Hotel.

A century-old Beaux Arts building in Uptown Dallas, the Stoneleigh is a hotel that its newer neighbors can't quite replicate no matter how hard they try. London designers Fettle refreshed the rooms by channeling Dorothy Draper, the original decorator, so the place reads classic rather than preserved-in-amber. An Italian supper club and a cocktail bar keep guests from wandering too far. The Michelin Guide has it among its selected hotels.

The brick-and-glass building at the north end of Music Row sets the tone before you even walk in: mid-century space-age interiors with an industrial edge running through the public spaces, which is about as on-brand for Nashville as a hotel can get. This boutique hotel sits just outside downtown, close enough to the nightlife that you can hear it thinking about you, and it's a Michelin Selected Hotel.

A six-room B&B tucked into a stately red-brick Georgian house in Portland's quieter, more residential West End. The rooms are handsome and distinct, the décor classic without feeling like a period piece, and the cooked-to-order breakfast is a proper morning. An automated wine bar is an odd and welcome touch, and afternoon cheese boards keep things civilized. Downtown is a short walk northeast when you need it.

A three-story walk-up wrapped around a palm-lined pool, White Sands calls itself the last of the vintage walk-up hotels in Waikiki, and the claim is easy to believe. The towers that swallowed the beachfront decades ago never touched this low-rise compound, where the vibe is unapologetically 1970s Hawaii, laid-back and a little overgrown, the kind of place that makes the glassy resorts next door feel slightly embarrassing.

The Fox is an East Nashville cocktail bar on Gallatin Pike where the snacks are taken more seriously than the name suggests. A build-your-own charcuterie board and a plate of miso deviled eggs, which people tend to order twice, make up the dinner for plenty of regulars, and a vegan menu means nobody gets stuck with the garnish. It's the Nashville Scene's pick for Best Girl Dinner, and a Spirited Awards regional honoree for its bar team.

A historic sea captain's house anchors this boutique hotel on the edge of Kennebunkport's compact town center, with eleven modern cabin suites spread across the surrounding grounds. The design, by Elder & Ash, lands somewhere between old Maine and contemporary coastal, which is a trickier balance than it sounds in a town better known for Bush family compounds and old-money shingle cottages. A Michelin Key holder.

A cluster of Federal-era sea captains' homes on a quiet, tree-lined street, the Captains Collection operates as an upscale bed-and-breakfast in what might be the most tastefully patrician small town in New England. Kennebunkport has been a presidential retreat for generations, which tells you something about the pace. Galleries and antique shops are a short walk away, and the Michelin Guide awarded it a Key.

Screened porches overlooking the marsh, gabled roofs, and 2,000 acres of Lowcountry terrain set the tone at this Auberge resort on the Kiawah River. The 72 rooms and suites, plus 19 villas, lean into classic Sea Island design without overcooking it. Days run at the river's pace: oyster-laced shorelines, the occasional dolphin, slow hikes through the wetlands. Charleston is forty minutes away, which turns out to be the right distance. The Michelin Guide awarded it one Key.

A Mediterranean Revival building in Palm Beach's historic town center, the White Elephant is a boutique hotel that runs to just 32 rooms, all renovated in a style that quietly flatters the old bones of the place. The pool sits in a palm-lined courtyard, a shuttle runs to the public beach, and the neighborhood is walkable enough that you may not need a car. The Michelin Guide awarded it one Key.

A hand-beaded tapestry the size of a small house greets you in the lobby, and it's a fair preview of the scale of everything that follows. Sky Tower is the hotel at the heart of Mohegan Sun's sprawling casino complex, which means your neighbors will be here for the slots as much as the river views. The New England countryside and the Thames sit just outside the glass; you may not notice, given that roughly four dozen restaurants and a spa are also competing for your attention.

Tucked below the Dairy Block, this cocktail bar serves its menu on a deck of playing cards, which tells you everything about the room before you've ordered. Plush banquettes, leather chairs, patterned wallpaper, and cabinets of rare vintage bottles conspire to make it feel like a speakeasy that never quite left. The martini section alone could occupy an evening, and the reserve cocktails lean into vintage spirits for those feeling loose with their wallet.

Every cocktail at this Korean cocktail bar in Greenwood comes with a small surprise, none more literal than the Glimpse of Divinity, garnished with a Polaroid of you drinking it. The menu is built around Korean flavors and spirits, and the kitchen's Korean-inspired plates were made to sit alongside them. A Spirited Awards Regional Honoree for Best New U.S. Cocktail Bar in 2024, it punches well above its neighborhood bar footprint.

You find it in a basement beneath an alleyway off 6th Street, which is all part of the point. Here Nor There is a speakeasy cocktail bar where the menu rotates around a high concept, past themes like color theory and global exploration, with drinks that take real kitchen-level prep to pull off. Exposed brick, dim lighting, and enough tucked-away corners to make the chaos of Dirty Sixth feel very far away.

Arizona-focused taproom on Indian School Road where the tap list reads like a field guide to the state's small producers: Superstition Meadery, Stoic Cider, Wren House, Arizona Wilderness, all alongside limited releases from further afield. The vibe is beer-geek friendly without being beer-geek insufferable, and the staff can actually explain what's on without making you feel like a tourist in your own city.

Kiesling is a cozy neighborhood cocktail bar in a building that has been a general store, a saloon, and a cop bar, and it kept the woodwork, the brick, and a hand-painted mural found during renovation. The list is classic drinks with a twist, but a $6 beer and shot special keeps it unfussy. A small patio opens in warmer months, and it has been a Spirited Awards regional honoree.

Antler chandeliers and rough-hewn timber done with enough restraint that it stops short of kitschy, which is harder than it sounds. Alpine Falls Ranch is a mountain-lodge resort on the western edge of Montana, where the Rockies do the decorating and the hotel has the good sense to stay out of the way. The Michelin Guide awarded it 2 Keys. Guests who came for the landscape tend to linger longer than planned.

A Victorian inn tucked into the White Mountains woods, with gas fireplaces and two-person whirlpool tubs in every room, which should tell you something about the vibe they're going for. Rooms in the main house each have their own layout, and private cottages are available for those who need more distance from the world. The spa, a dining room with upscale American cooking, and a tavern with serious cocktails round it out. The Michelin Guide awarded it 2 Keys.

A Gothic Queen Anne mansion built for a 19th-century saloon king, this bed and breakfast holds a Michelin two-key distinction and looks every inch of it. The divided staircase, three-and-a-half-story corner tower, and stained-glass skylight do most of the decorating before you even reach your room. Suites add jacuzzis or balconies, and every room is named for a local historical figure, which is a more charming touch than it sounds.

The hourglass pool is the giveaway: this mid-century boutique hotel on the edge of Beverly Hills was built for people who know their Eames from their Noguchi and want the furniture to prove it. The blocky blue facade and curvaceous pool invite Marilyn Monroe comparisons, though the hotel probably doesn't encourage them. Quieter than you'd expect this close to everything, and the rates tend to be gentler than the zip code implies.

The back bar holds what might be the most bewildering collection of vintage Italian Fernet you'll encounter outside of Milan. Billy Sunday is a polished amaro and cocktail bar in Logan Square, narrow and dark-wooded, with green walls and vintage lamps that suggest a gentlemen's club that loosened up considerably. The bar stools fill early with people who know their bitter spirits, and the classically built cocktails give them good reason to stay.

The bones here are Albert Kahn's old Art Deco Walker-Roehrig Building, once home to WWJ radio, now a boutique hotel where the heritage stops at the lobby threshold and the rooms go full contemporary. Suites run generous by city-center standards, and the building's second act includes Cibo Detroit for dinner, the Beve cocktail bar for something swanky, and a rooftop terrace when the weather cooperates.

Local contemporary art covers nearly every surface at Canvas Hotel Dallas, a full-service hotel on Botham Jean Boulevard that positions itself as the antidote to the city's long run of forgettable corporate rooms. The collection rotates, the pieces are by Dallas-area artists, and the overall effect is less "lobby installation" and more "someone here has actual taste." A Michelin Selected Hotel.

A boutique hotel just off Collins Avenue where the suites run spacious and the textures lean warm, with some terraces and a few extra living areas folded in. Continental breakfast is included, the pace inside is noticeably slower than the street outside, and the whole setup reads as a quiet base for people who want South Beach close but not constant.

The facade reads like a Mediterranean villa that took a wrong turn in NorCal, but step inside el PRADO and the postmodern quirk gives way to a genuinely sleek boutique hotel. The guest rooms are the surprise, styled closer to a small European luxury property than anything the surrounding tech-park sprawl would suggest. Palo Alto can feel anticlimactic as a destination; this is one of the places that makes it less so.

A coffin-shaped pool in the courtyard sets the tone before you've even checked in. This Spanish Colonial hotel in downtown Los Angeles went through a Moroccan-themed detour before a full renovation returned it to its 1920s bones, and the rooms now pair that era's warm geometry with local art, most of it by women, down to a lobby mural. The Broad, MOCA, and Hauser & Wirth are all walkable, which is a sentence you cannot say from Santa Monica.

Sitting on Santa Fe Square in the Blue Dome district, this boutique hotel puts Tulsa's dining and arts scene more or less at the doorstep. High-design rooms and a luxury-boutique feel in Oklahoma's second city, which makes a certain kind of sense once you walk around the neighborhood. The Arts District and the historic commercial center are both a short stroll away, so you spend more time out than in.

Midtown Nashville's answer to Vanderbilt parents who refuse to feel like they're staying near a university, the Kimpton Aertson is a hotel that leans hard into the city's warmth without the honky-tonk gimmickry. Rooms run toward modernist clean lines, Woodhouse Spa is on hand for the morning after, and the brasserie Henley anchors the social life downstairs. Music Row is a short walk if you need a reason to leave.

Multi-bedroom suites with full kitchens and gas grills on private balconies make this Andersonville boutique hotel feel like you borrowed a friend's apartment, except the friend's apartment overlooks a cemetery, which is quieter than it sounds. A rooftop deck, a Club Room, and a bookable Library round out the communal spaces. The Red Line is a short walk if you need downtown, but the neighborhood's low-key charm tends to keep people close.

Arched windows framing the Inner Harbor put the waterfront front and center at this full-service hotel on Baltimore's Light Street. Dark wood and gold tones run through the rooms, and the upper suites lean into the view. An indoor lap pool, whirlpool, sauna, and rooftop deck give it a self-contained feel that's unusual at the price. Camden Yards and the National Aquarium are both an easy walk, and crab cakes are a few minutes on foot at Harborplace.

A mid-century motel in the shadow of Fenway Park that, instead of leaning into Red Sox nostalgia like every other spot in the neighborhood, pays tribute to the Fenway/Kenmore area's rock-and-roll history. The Verb is a boutique hotel where the decor does the talking, and the talking is about music. Guests who don't care about baseball but do own vinyl will feel oddly at home here.

A converted Holiday Inn in Corktown where the exposed conduit and polished concrete aren't a design oversight but the whole point. The 144 rooms pair that industrial shell with custom furnishings from local artisans, keeping things clean-lined without feeling spare. Batch Brewing pours at the bar, Detroit Bikes handles the rentals, and the courtyard runs a beer garden and live music when the weather cooperates. A hotel that leans hard into Detroit's comeback narrative, and Corktown is a fine neighborhood to make that argument from.

Vegan minibars and a rooftop with Pacific sunsets sum up Hotel Erwin pretty well: a boutique hotel that leans into Venice Beach without taking the bro-surf thing too seriously. It sits steps from the ocean in a neighborhood that has traded most of its beach-bum identity for wine bars and upscale boutiques, while still keeping the bodybuilders. The Michelin Guide has it among their selected hotels in Los Angeles.

Lava fields meet the ocean on the Kohala Coast, and Mauna Lani, part of the Auberge Collection, sits right at that edge. It's a full-scale luxury resort, so expect multiple pools, a spa, and the kind of cultural programming that makes you feel slightly less like a tourist. The Big Island's comparative quiet is its own amenity, and the redesigned rooms lean into traditional Hawaiian elements without veering into tiki-bar territory.

Thirty minutes inland from San Diego, this casino resort sits above a 1,600-acre reservation belonging to the Viejas Band of the Kumeyaay Indians, with rolling hills on all sides and fire pits and waterfalls worked into the design as more than decoration. The rooms are contemporary and the staff runs warm. Beyond the gaming floor, there's a pool, a range of restaurants, and live entertainment most nights for anyone who needs a reason to stay put.

Backbar is a cocktail bar tucked down a concrete hallway behind a steel door in Union Square, which is how you know the drinks are serious. Weekends bring a line of people waiting to find out what the menu is themed around this month, sometimes an animation studio, with drinks named for scenes. Tell the bartender your mood and let them handle the translation, because the ingredient lists read like a botany final.

Low-lit and unhurried on Magazine Street at the edge of the Lower Garden District, Barrel Proof is a neighborhood whiskey and cocktail bar that lets its bottles do the talking. The bourbon list runs deep, the cocktail menu stays short and confident, and food comes from rotating pop-ups rather than a kitchen. A James Beard semifinalist for Outstanding Restaurateur, which is an unusual nod for a place this deliberately unshowy.

Barrel Proof is a small Germantown bar where the name tells you what's on the shelf and the wall of brown liquor does the rest. Seasonal cocktails and a covered patio make it easy to lose an afternoon, and the crowd runs from post-workout regulars to birthday tables to tourists trying to figure out bourbon. The kimchi-loaded fries with sambal mayo are the move, especially at happy hour.

Little Five Points' go-to soccer bar, Brewhouse draws Atlanta United faithful and international match crowds to a room that takes cricket and rugby as seriously as the Premier League. The beer list runs deep across local, domestic, and imported options, and the Painkiller cocktail comes in three levels of commitment. Wings, nachos, and fish and chips keep things grounded. Wear whatever you'd wear to the match.

Dino's is an East Nashville dive that has been feeding the after-hours crowd since the 1970s, mostly with gooey cheeseburgers meant to talk a hangover out of existing. You can sit at a diner table in the dim main room or out on the covered patio, and the punk rock restroom is considered part of the visit. The bar pours Coors, Shiner Bock, and mezcal, Campari, even Malort, and the line peaks right after the bars close.

You get in by pressing a paw-shaped doorbell, which sets the tone. Doberman Drawing Room is a cocktail lounge and social club in the Arts District, dressed in antiques, taxidermy, and surreal art, with a central bar dividing the room into separate moody dens. Non-members are welcome; members get the private loft with a juliet balcony. No phones, no photos, charcuterie served inside a hollowed book, and cocktails that are genuinely the point.

The sunken firepit shoots flames over a pool of sky-blue water, which tells you most of what you need to know about the Fireside Lounge. It's a lounge bar at the Peppermill, frozen in an era of plastic plants, purple mood lighting, and couch fabric that looks like stone. Tiki drinks arrive in 64-ounce fishbowls. Bon Jovi videos play overhead. The crowd is hard-drinking and completely unbothered, which is the only correct response.

Hand-carved wooden statues, glowing pufferfish lamps, and tree-trunk chairs that take two people to lift set the tone at this classic tiki bar off Charleston. The drinks are ranked by booziness on a five-skull scale, which is the kind of menu design that tells you everything you need to know. Most people clutching souvenir mugs near the back came here on purpose, on something of a pilgrimage, and they planned the whole trip around it.

This is a narrow natural-wine bar near Downtown Crossing, the sort of place that introduced a lot of Boston to tinned fish and has been quietly smug about it since. The list is long and a little nerdy, but the bartenders will talk you through it without making you feel graded. Half bottles of nearly everything let you change your mind twice. It was a James Beard semifinalist for its wine program, and on Wednesdays there are fancy hot dogs.

Le Loup is a cocktail bar perched above The Optimist, decked out like a submarine, so you can drink a martini and feel mildly nautical about it. The menu devotes a whole section to martinis, and there are towering barstools, cozy booths, shrimp cocktail, and fries that Nashville has opinions about. Bananas foster gets flambéed tableside, which is a nice way to remind everyone the sea is flammable. After 10pm the snacks give way to sandwiches.

A beer-only karaoke bar in a double-wide trailer that stays decorated for Christmas through every month of the year, run by an owner who looks exactly like the name on the door. Expect PBR, Miller Lite, and a seltzer, cash only, with an ATM outside for the optimistic. The karaoke rules are strict: no cussing, smoking, or drinking while you hold the mic. The Infatuation named it one of Nashville's best bars.