The Best Places in the United States

Some of the oldest vines in the country cling to a ridge 800 meters up in the Santa Cruz Mountains, which is either romantic or vertigo-inducing depending on your relationship with switchback roads. Ridge pours on a sun-soaked terrace with Silicon Valley spread below, a genuinely old-school California winery that helped upend French wine supremacy at the 1976 Judgment of Paris blind tasting. Come for the views, stay for the Cabernet.

The visitor center, designed by Javier Barba with exposed rock walls, grand arches, and glass framing the Vaca Mountains, is quietly showing off, and it has every right to. This is a wine estate winery tour and tasting in the Napa Valley pocket where the 1976 Judgment of Paris blind tasting humbled the French, with a Cabernet Sauvignon that nobody in the room was supposed to pick first.

No televisions anywhere, which tells you everything about the clientele. Swift is an Irish pub in NoHo named for the author of Gulliver's Travels, and the room looks like it's been quietly absorbing conversation since forever: long winding bar, exposed brick, reclaimed church pews, barstools worn in just right. Creative types fill it looking for somewhere to talk without shouting over a game. Civilised is the word.

The cocktail program here was curated by David Wondrich, which tells you something. This is a whiskey bar on the second floor of the Michter's Fort Nelson Distillery, and it leans into that setting without apology: classic whiskey cocktails, a deep roster of bottles, modern riffs, and a handful of alcohol-free options, all served in custom glassware. The room is warm and unhurried, the kind of place that makes bourbon tourism feel less like homework.

The Vault is a cocktail bar tucked behind a gilded door inside the Bellagio, occupying what used to be the casino's actual cage, which gives the whole room a pleasantly loaded history. A chandelier does most of the atmospheric heavy lifting. The drink list leans into vintage spirits and old recipes, so if you're not sure what you want, describe an era and let them run with it.

A bed and breakfast in the middle of San Luis Obispo that doesn't feel like a bed and breakfast, which is a harder trick than it sounds. The 25 rooms spread across three buildings give it the scale of a proper boutique hotel with the quiet of a residential street. The design leans toward the latter too. It holds a Michelin Key, and being central here just means you're steps from a genuinely relaxed small city.

This Art Deco tower has been around forever, its rooftop "PLAZA" sign glowing red over downtown El Paso like it owns the place, which honestly it kind of does. A Michelin-recognized hotel with spacious rooms, marble bathrooms, and sweeping views into two countries. The rooftop bar is the move at sunset, and the lobby restaurant does Juarez-style Mexican that keeps locals coming back.

Laurance Rockefeller built this resort on the village green, and the place has never pretended to be rustic. A thorough renovation has freshened things up without softening the patrician bones: the Woodstock Inn carries a Michelin Key and reads more like a discreet Northeast grande dame than a ski-weekend crash pad. Woodstock, Vermont turns out to have very little in common with that other Woodstock.

The only hotel sitting on Fifth Avenue itself rather than a few polite blocks away, Inn on Fifth puts its Club Level Suites guests on a private rooftop above the boutiques and restaurant crawl below. It's a suite-tier upgrade within the main property, with a dedicated concierge lounge for people who consider a queue a personal affront. Downtown Naples shopping and dining is essentially at the elevator.

A small boutique resort planted right on Poipu Beach, with just over a hundred rooms keeping the scale intimate enough that you're not sharing a zip code with a convention. The south shore stays sunnier than the rest of Kauai, which locals will tell you with the quiet satisfaction of people who made a good decision. There's a spa, a pool bar, and a fine-dining restaurant on property, all of it leaning toward couples who flew here specifically to be left alone.

Every room at this 67-room boutique inn on the Gulf comes with its own beachfront porch or balcony, which tells you something about how seriously the place takes the view. Designed by David Rockwell, it sits on a wide stretch of Santa Rosa Beach where the dunes are still largely intact. Kayaking, hiking, and biking keep restless guests busy. The fresh-baked cookies at turndown feel less like a cliché and more like an argument for staying an extra night.

A hotel where the casino floor hums around the clock and the day spa exists, heroically, just down the hall. Live! is a AAA Four Diamond property near BWI and Arundel Mills, and the draw is the sheer volume of things happening under one roof: thousands of slots, live table games, a sportsbook, and headline concerts. Rooms run to pillow-top mattresses and plush robes, for when you need to remember you're at a hotel.

A 9,000-square-foot contemporary art gallery that also happens to have hotel rooms attached, 21c sits in Louisville's reinvented post-industrial downtown and takes the boutique hotel concept somewhere genuinely stranger than most cities would tolerate. Penguins, provocations, and the occasional unsettling sculpture greet you in the lobby. The kind of place that makes you feel underdressed for the elevator, in the best possible way, regardless of what you're wearing.

A 48-room boutique hotel in West Adams, a neighborhood better known for its restaurants than its overnight options. Alsace LA leans into an unlikely pairing of Southern California ease and Western European sensibility, with a courtyard, a small pool, and a fitness center that takes itself seriously. A modern Japanese restaurant by Danny Elmaleh is on site, and the surrounding streets give guests plenty of reasons to wander.

The white Victorian pile in the Berkeley Hills has been visible from across the bay for as long as anyone can remember, a Fairmont resort that manages to feel more country estate than corporate flag. Rooms are handsome across the board, and the grounds run to multiple outdoor pools, a full tennis club, and a spa. On a clear day San Francisco is right there on the horizon, close enough to admire and far enough to ignore.

A century-old building in Oklahoma City's West Village District, with exposed brick and warehouse ceilings tall enough to feel genuinely grand, now runs as a boutique hotel with a pool bar, cabanas, and DJ sets that suggest the guests have places to be. Mary Eddy's Italian Grill and a grab-and-go coffee counter keep you fed without leaving the building. Paycom Center is walkable, which either matters to you or it doesn't.

A boutique hotel next to Virginia Commonwealth University, Graduate Richmond leans into the city rather than the campus, with décor paying tribute to Richmond tennis legend Arthur Ashe instead of the usual school-colors approach. The Graduate chain is built on the idea that a college-town hotel should feel nostalgic without feeling cheap, so expect something warmer and more considered than a standard chain property.

Exposed brick salvaged from whatever stood here before sits in the suites alongside walkout balconies over 7th Avenue, and that tension between old and new is the whole point of this boutique hotel. It sits in Ybor City, Tampa's old tobacco-and-immigrant district, and leans into that history hard, with local artisans handling the décor. Flor Fina handles bistro dining; Café Quiquiriqui handles guava pastelitos at a more forgiving hour.

A reborn version of an old-school Kansas City landmark, this boutique hotel in the Financial District is part of the 21c Museum Hotel group, which has quietly turned the idea of a hotel art program into something you'd actually stop walking for. Contemporary art is woven through the building rather than hung as afterthought, and the rooms sit inside bones that go back forever. It's the kind of place that makes a weekend in KC feel like a considered choice rather than a layover.

That sharply angled canopy over the entrance looks lifted straight from a roadside motel, which is more or less the point. The Royal Sun is a boutique hotel on the edge of downtown Palm Springs where mid-century modern is taken seriously rather than gestured at: boxy stone facade, tangerine trim, outdoor corridors, and inside, a bar and restaurant with checkered floors and curved booths that feel genuinely period, not costume.

Folk art, hand-painted tiles, and block-printed quilts fill a six-story early 20th-century apartment building that the Fan District has quietly needed for years. Shenandoah Mansions is a boutique hotel with a slightly gothic streak, each suite shaped around a piece of Virginia history. Two cocktail bars, an all-day dining room, and a small garden mean there's rarely a reason to leave the block, which the neighborhood seems perfectly fine with.

A reimagined 1940s motor inn a short walk from the beach in Oceanside, the last low-key stretch of coast before San Diego proper takes over. Moroccan rugs, mid-century furniture, and curated art keep the rooms from feeling like a motel, even if the bones are modest. Studios have mini-fridges and coffee makers; suites add a small kitchen. A cedar hot tub and communal fire pit round things out, and the neighborhood handles the rest.

Six hundred rooms built low into a hillside on Kauai's south shore, open to the air in a style that nods to old Hawaii without doing a costume about it. The resort sits on Keoneloa Bay, with cascading waterfalls threading through lush gardens and a white sand beach that earns its keep at sunset. Pools, a full-service spa, and a calm sense of remove from the busier resort strip down the road round it out.

Perched at the top of one lift and the bottom of another, this 32-room boutique ski lodge in Telluride's Mountain Village is about as well-positioned as a hotel can get without actually being on the mountain (it is, essentially, on the mountain). The free gondola to town glides past the front, slopeside rooms catch the snowcats at night, and the bar deck doubles as prime viewing for summer concerts. Selected by both Michelin and Forbes.

A gold chandelier anchors the two-story lobby, and racehorses rendered in silhouette cover the wall behind the front desk, setting the tone for this casino resort built around a working thoroughbred track. The rooms nod to the stables outside, bed frames and all, while marble corridors are lined with portraits of past guests like Al Capone. The spa runs vintage, the steakhouse runs serious, and the lounges have sightlines to the track.

A chocolate bar at check-in, milk or dark, sets the tone at this grand hilltop resort overlooking Hersheypark. The Hotel Hershey sits on 300 acres of formal gardens, fountains, and reflecting pools, with hiking trails, a putting course, tennis, and an outdoor pool complex keeping guests occupied between meals. The spa does a Whipped Cocoa Bath, which is either the most on-brand thing imaginable or a reason to book specifically.

The front desk at this Auburn hotel is staffed, at least in part, by hospitality students learning the trade in real time, which sounds like a recipe for chaos but runs suspiciously smoothly. The Laurel sits inside Auburn University's culinary science center, with a fine dining room, a rooftop terrace, a microbrewery, and a coffee roastery on the premises. The spa adds a Himalayan Salt Room, which feels like a wellness trend bingo square, but guests seem to find it restorative.

Cottages, harbor-facing rooms, and a couple of downtown lofts make up this waterfront resort sitting right on Nantucket Harbor. The views do most of the talking, but the rooms hold their own with gas fireplaces, private decks, and a small elephant pillow on the bed that is somehow less kitschy than it sounds. Boats, beaches, and the island's shops are all within easy reach, which means you'll spend very little time actually sitting still.

A former mid-century motel across from Southern Methodist University, Graduate by Hilton Dallas kept the bones and added a design-savvy refresh that fits more naturally in a coastal boutique than a Dallas zip code. The rooms are clean and modernist, the personality is intact, and the guests skew younger and lighter on luggage than the grand Texan hotel lobby down the road. The Michelin Guide lists it among its selected hotels.

A Kimpton property housed in a historic downtown building steps from the Golden Triangle, Hotel Monaco Pittsburgh leans into the city's unexpected cool, pairing bold, art-forward interiors with the brand's trademark pet-friendly, wine-hour quirks. Pittsburgh itself does a lot of the selling, a city of three rivers, craft breweries in recycled churches, and serious art museums that visitors routinely underestimate until they're already booking a return trip.

The building used to be a department store, and there's still something pleasingly grand about the Italian Renaissance bones underneath all the art. Quirk Hotel is a boutique stay in Richmond's downtown arts district, grown out of the gallery next door, and the walls read like a curated show rather than filler. Locals drift through the lobby as if the hotel is partly theirs, which is more or less the idea.

A Colonial Revival townhouse from the Edwardian era, tucked into Richmond's Fan District, with high ceilings and antique woodwork that make the handful of rooms feel like staying in a well-curated old house rather than a hotel. The owners bring New York and Puerto Rico hospitality backgrounds, which means a personal welcome and a daily European-style breakfast rather than a front-desk transaction. The leafy streets, galleries, and restaurants of the Fan are right outside.

Outdoor lounge space scattered across a property that knows the weather will cooperate pretty much every day of the year. This boutique hotel in Menlo Park sits close to Stanford and squarely in the orbit of Silicon Valley's various important campuses, which means the lobby has a certain purposeful energy during the week. Weekends are a different register entirely, with the pleasant California air doing most of the heavy lifting.

An 1866 Greek Revival mansion on a street that time forgot, Carr Mansion is an adults-only boutique bed and breakfast with a Michelin Key to its name. An Austin designer worked through every room without flattening them into a theme, so each one lands differently. Galveston is already an odd, beautiful detour from Houston, and this house, which has lived several lives before landing here, fits the island perfectly.

A turreted stone castle sitting right on Route 1 above Penobscot Bay, the Norumbega Inn holds 11 rooms and suites, each furnished differently, some with fireplaces, some with terraces, some with wide ocean views. It spent its first century as a private residence, and it still feels like a very good friend invited you to their very grand house. The Michelin Guide awarded it a Key. Cocktails at the bar, slow mornings, Camden harbor below.

The pink tinge of the beach here comes from coquina shells washing ashore constantly, which is the kind of detail that earns a resort its coastal bragging rights. This sprawling Florida golf resort pairs Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson signature courses with a 91,000-square-foot water park, a sea-influenced spa, and activities bundled into the stay. Families pack the place, and honestly, mini-golf and dive-in movies at no extra charge keep everyone occupied without much negotiation.

Striped umbrellas line a private stretch of Gulf sand outside this boutique hotel, which sits in the heart of Rosemary Beach, a planned community along the Florida Panhandle that went all-in on whitewashed Old World architecture. The town is compact and walkable, the kind of place where golf carts outnumber cars and everyone's linen is freshly pressed. The Pearl is the only hotel in it, so the choice is remarkably straightforward.

The Tides Inn sits on its own peninsula off the Chesapeake Bay, which means water in every direction and a dock that practically dares you to do nothing all afternoon. It's a full-service waterfront resort, refreshed a few years back with nautical touches and new suites, where staff lead nature tours and host winemaker evenings but also know when to quietly disappear. Old-school in the best way, with none of the irony.

Blue lanterns overhead and pop-art rooms that look like a set designer lost a bet set the tone at this design-forward hotel on the Doha waterfront. The W brand's signature aesthetic goes full throttle here, from oversized beds to board games tucked in every room. Jean-Georges Vongerichten runs two of the dining venues, and the nightlife draws a crowd that didn't come to Doha to go to sleep early.

Perched on a bluff in Princeville with the kind of view that makes you question every life choice that led you somewhere else, this resort earns a Michelin Key by doing luxury in the new mode: no golf-blazer stuffiness, just rooms that are quietly smart, a spa and fitness setup that spares nothing, and sustainability woven in so thoroughly the jungle nearly swallows the building whole.

A century-old YMCA in East Liberty that local artists helped reimagine rather than just move into. The Ace is a hotel where spare, sunny rooms coexist with ornate bones, suites come stocked with turntables and acoustic guitars, and the lobby fills daily with the laptop-open, coffee-nursing crowd. The anchor bar, Whitfield, runs a neighborhood-tavern menu with meat butchered in-house from a single nearby ranch.

Hyatt's Andaz label trades the standard resort playbook for a luxury-boutique register, and at Wailea it has a coastline that does most of the heavy lifting. This is a full-scale Maui resort where the Pacific sets the mood and the property leans into it rather than competing with it. The kind of place where the surroundings are so absurdly good that a decent hotel would coast; this one declines to merely coast.

A Nani Chacon mural is the first thing you see, painted across the vintage facade of what used to be a 1965 roadside motor inn. Inside, the Palisociety has turned it into a sharp boutique hotel, with midcentury bones still visible beneath playful textiles and the kind of terracotta and turquoise palette that reads as genuinely Southwestern rather than gift-shop. Route 66 runs right outside, so the location earns its nostalgia without trying very hard.

Bare blond wood, a tight color palette, and an indoor pool that actually gets used set the tone at this boutique motel two blocks from Jackson's town square. It's a leaner, cooler alternative to the sprawling ski-lodge fantasy, with a café, a BBQ joint, and a Korean fusion restaurant on-site. Jackson Hole Mountain Resort is a short drive, and Snow King is practically next door for anyone who needs slopes before breakfast.

Check-in happens at the bar, where you're handed a cocktail before you're handed a key. Moxy Richmond Downtown is a compact, design-forward hotel where the lobby runs as a full lounge with retro games and a soundtrack, and the grab-and-go station means nobody goes hungry at midnight. Rooms are small by intention, built around walk-in showers and clever storage. The crowd skews younger, but then, so does the playlist.

Trains still pull into the station, which makes this hotel in the South Main district one of the few places you can check in and watch an Amtrak roll past the window. The rooms sit inside a restored rail terminal, part of the Curio Collection by Hilton, with a bar built around Memphis music history and a restaurant doing French brasserie cooking through a Southern lens. The neighborhood is mid-comeback, which keeps it interesting.

A converted midcentury motor lodge in Menlo Park, with the original redwood siding left right where it was. Rooms are small and honestly furnished, most opening straight onto a private patio or garden courtyard, some shaded by an old California oak. There's a fire pit, communal breakfast, and a pool, which covers everything the tech-adjacent guests here pretend they don't need before checking in anyway.

Renaissance Venice lands in Kansas City, which is either an unlikely choice or a completely logical one depending on how you feel about the Midwest's appetite for the grand gesture. The Fontaine is a boutique hotel with 132 rooms dressed in Carrara marble vanities and goose-down pillows throughout. Parker on the rooftop catches city views, and the poolside bar handles cocktails when the day tips over. The whole thing manages sophisticated without tipping into stuffy.

A family-owned resort on the edge of Mirror Lake, where the Adirondacks do their most photogenic work year-round. Gas fireplaces have quietly replaced the wood-burning ones, and the spa runs a salt-therapy room alongside a sixty-foot indoor pool. Two restaurants on-site, one more formal than the other. Lake Placid hosted the Winter Olympics, so the snow-sports infrastructure is serious, but summers here are no consolation prize. It holds a Michelin Key.

Perched on the edge of Payette Lake nearly a mile up in the Northern Rockies, Shore Lodge is a full-service resort where the rooms come with either garden or lake views and warm cookies waiting on your pillow at turndown. The lodge leans rustic but runs with real polish, and whether you're out on the water or tucked into the spa, the staff has already thought of the thing you were about to ask for.

A boutique hotel in the heart of Healdsburg that actually looks like it belongs in California rather than a Tuscan village someone imported by mistake. San Francisco architect David Baker designed it, and the modernist bones feel rooted to this specific corner of wine country in a way that faux-Provençal stonework never quite manages. Small, stylish, and selected by the Michelin Guide, it's a useful base for anyone who'd rather spend money on Pinot than on décor they've seen somewhere in Umbria.

A former telecommunications switching station in the Highlands district, The Bellwether is a boutique hotel where no two rooms are alike, each one designed with its own color story and character. Brick arches and vintage phones at check-in set the tone, and the French bistro downstairs layers burgundy banquettes under a salvaged police sign. The kind of place that photographs suspiciously well, but the bones are genuine.

Mid-century modern lines and a quieter perch on the west side of Vail set this upscale resort apart from the slopeside scrum. Skiing, mountain biking, and a yoga studio cover the recreation, while the 10th Mountain Lounge, a partnership with the Colorado distillery, gives drinking here a local anchor. The flagship restaurant blends American West cooking with Alpine mountain fare, which is exactly the overlap you'd want at this altitude.

A mid-century motel on the unfashionable side of the airport, renovated into a pocketbook-friendly boutique hotel well clear of the Gaslamp's stretch Escalades and valet theater. The bones are still gloriously kitschy, and the crowd skews young and loud in the best poolside sense. It's a Michelin Selected Hotel, which feels like a useful reminder that good taste doesn't always require a valet stand.

A short walk uphill from the Vineyard Haven dock, this boutique inn sits on a bluff inside an old Arts and Crafts house that once belonged to the island doctor. The new owners gutted the fussy interiors and replaced them with open living areas, polished hardwood, picture windows, and a serious art collection, Philippe Starck and Marcel Wanders among the contributors. The Michelin Guide awarded it one Key.