The Best Places in the United States

Half a mile of private Gold Coast beach sets the terms here before you've even checked in. The Beach Club is a Forbes Five Star resort where cabana-style rooms face the Atlantic, three pools compete for your afternoon, and the main restaurant pours ocean views with every meal. When the sand loses its hold, there's championship golf, pickleball, tennis, a marina, and a spa that regulars treat as a destination on its own.

White-brick walls and wrought-iron accents give this luxury hotel a European resort feel that sits a little incongruously at the foot of Camelback Mountain, which is sort of the whole point. The ownership group includes an NBA star and a country legend, and the crowd has taken note. Art Deco rooms come stocked with hand-selected books, five restaurants range from poolside to rooftop, and the spa is serious about it. A Forbes Four Star and a Michelin Key.

You enter through the back of a neighboring cafe, down a hallway, through a wooden door, and suddenly you're somewhere else entirely. This moody Oak Cliff speakeasy-style cantina stocks only bottles sourced from Mexico, and the cocktail menu is organized by historical era, walking you through the evolution of Mexican drinking culture. A James Beard Outstanding Bar semifinalist, it also does pre-Hispanic Oaxacan small plates for when the mezcal needs company.

Dark wood, sink-in seating in bold colors, and cocktail names that tip you off early: this is a cocktail bar that wants you to stay longer than you planned. The menu leans playful and genuinely inventive, and the room has enough tucked corners for a long conversation. A James Beard Best New Bar semifinalist and an Esquire Best Bars pick, it earns both without trying too hard about either.

A converted cottage on McDowell Road that smells faintly of old rugs and good intentions, Sauvage is a natural wine bar and bottle shop where the list leans toward obscure regions and the staff will talk you through all of it. Charcuterie and tinned fish are always on hand, and local chefs occasionally pop up to cook. Esquire named it one of the best bars in America, which the room, unhurried and candlelit, seems entirely unbothered by.

The bones of a 19th-century brewhouse, chimney stacks and all, give this mid-sized hotel its industrial-chic personality before you even check in. It holds a Michelin 2 Keys distinction and sits inside the Pearl, a riverside stretch that has become San Antonio's most interesting neighborhood, with farmers markets, a CIA campus, and a cluster of serious restaurants all within walking distance.

The Spanish Revival facade on Ashford Avenue has been watching the Atlantic since the Vanderbilt family built it, and the foyer still delivers: ocean visible straight through the lobby the moment the grand doors open. This is a full-scale luxury hotel with three pools, a spa, beach butlers, a tanning specialist (yes, really), and rooms across the historic building and two modern towers, all facing the water. Forbes Four Star.

A 23-foot sculpted head named Laura greets you out front, which sets the tone for this Century City luxury hotel. The curved midcentury tower got a full Fairmont makeover, and the rooms now run to floor-to-ceiling windows, marble bathrooms, and balconies angled toward the LA sunset. The spa mixes deep-tissue massage with red light therapy and power naps on an anti-gravity bed, and the rooftop pool earns its views. A Forbes Four Star property.

The Flatirons fill the windows of this polished downtown Boulder hotel, which sits close enough to Pearl Street that you can walk to dinner and back without a car. Rooms lean toward the understated side of luxury, and the Forbes Four Star spa handles the heavy lifting with a eucalyptus steam room, sauna, and a full treatment menu. Jill's Restaurant pulls from the Boulder Farmers' Market, which is either charming or expected, depending on your tolerance for Colorado.

No casino floor, no cigarette haze: the Waldorf Astoria sits inside the CityCenter complex as a quiet outlier on the Strip. The 47-story hotel leans hard into the lobby, where 11,000 square feet of Italian Calacatta Gold marble meets a custom crystal chandelier and two-story ceilings. Renovated rooms run to deep-soaking tubs and floor-to-ceiling views of the city below. The 23rd-floor bar is the right place to watch the neon from a comfortable distance.

Standby is a cocktail bar you reach by ducking down the Belt Alley and heaving open a pair of ponderous doors, which makes ordering a martini feel like a minor heist. The menu sorts drinks by mood, from "Purist" to "Certified Bangers," so nobody has to explain themselves to a bartender. Matty Matheson of The Bear built the food menu. It's dim, polished, and worth a Resy booking.

A hundred classics and eight seasonal originals on the cocktail menu, which is either a philosophy or a dare. This is the Houston cocktail bar that regulars will tell you changed the city's drinking culture, and they are not wrong to say it. The brass-accented room runs loud and energetic, the staff can talk you through any corner of that list, and the salty snacks exist to keep you at the bar longer.

The name comes from Milton, and the bar takes the premise seriously: this is a tropical hellscape, not a luau. Paradise Lost is a tiki bar in the East Village that keeps the piña coladas and mai tais but drops the cheerful kitsch for something a little more Beelzebub. The décor leans sinister in ways that reward a second look. Esquire named it one of the best bars in America in 2024, and the Spirited Awards shortlisted it for Best New U.S. Cocktail Bar.

The ninth floor penthouse suites have their own private elevator, which tells you everything about how The Dupont Circle Hotel pitches itself. It's a Doyle Collection boutique property with a midcentury-meets-contemporary feel, planted squarely between embassy row and the White House. Downstairs, the bar carries a serious Irish whiskey list and the coffee counter runs striped pink-and-white cups. The Michelin Guide awarded it one Key.

Beehives on the roof and a bike valet at the door, which tells you everything about where this Uptown Charlotte luxury hotel has placed its bets. The Ritz-Carlton holds a Forbes Four Star and keeps a lively house: The Punch Room for cocktails, BLT Steak for a serious cut, Bar Cocoa for chocolate afternoon tea, and a wine boutique where you blend your own. The lobby fills before Hornets games, and the weekday power-lunch crowd arrives with an appetite for Scotch.

The Robert A.M. Stern limestone tower rises 42 stories over Peachtree Road, though you'd almost miss it tucked behind the Del Frisco's out front. This is a full-service luxury hotel in Buckhead, which means Lenox Square is walkable and the indoor pool, three-floor spa, and English courtyard gardens are waiting when you're done. A Forbes Four Star property, it earns its keep with personal concierge service and a marble lobby that feels genuinely unhurried.

Ski-in-ski-out access is the whole pitch here, and Four Seasons Vail delivers it without apology. The hotel holds Michelin's 1 Key and a Forbes Four Star, runs from elegant rooms up to six-bedroom private residences, and sits squarely in the middle of the walkable village. The spa was fully redone recently and has the largest treatment rooms in the valley. Après-ski at The Remedy draws locals, which is usually a good sign.

The wellness resort that essentially invented the genre, set against the Sonoran Desert outside Tucson. Canyon Ranch is an all-inclusive spa and fitness destination where the itinerary can run from sunrise hikes to integrative medicine consultations, and nobody judges you for doing neither. It holds a Michelin 3 Keys distinction. The vibe is less "punishing cleanse" and more "genuinely rethink how you live," which was a radical idea when it opened and remains a persuasive one.

The Veranda Lounge's botanical cocktails and small plates give you an excuse to linger, but the rooms are reason enough to stay at this 50-room boutique hotel in Charleston's French Quarter. It's a new build that doesn't embarrass the historic streetscape around it, and the interiors split the difference between antique good looks and quietly high-tech comfort. The Michelin Guide awarded it two Keys.

The Txuletón, a Basque-style ribeye from mature dairy cows, grilled over open charcoal with salt, heat, and not much else, is the organizing principle of this Basque-inspired chophouse in River North. The kitchen takes its cues from the asador tradition, applying that discipline to seriously sourced beef, carefully aged. Spanish reds anchor the wine list. Esquire named it among the best new restaurants in America, and it lands at number 15 on the World's Best Steak Restaurants list.

Floor-to-ceiling illuminated pillars playing curated digital art greet you before you even reach the casino floor, which sets the tone for this sprawling Strip resort. The Cosmopolitan runs a serious collection of restaurants from celebrity chefs, popular bars, boutique shops, and a pool scene that converts to an ice rink come winter. The crowd skews stylish and self-aware, which fits a hotel that opened during a recession and never once acted like it.

The Original Muscle Beach sits just out front, which tells you something about the neighborhood this hotel walked into. Floor-to-ceiling windows frame the Pacific, the pool deck pulls everyone outside, and rooms come with marble soaking tubs and yoga mats in case you'd rather not think about the gymnasts next door. Michael Mina runs the Mediterranean restaurant. A Michelin Key and a Forbes Four Star.

A pastel Italian villa dropped into Houston's Uptown neighborhood, Hotel Granduca plays the part with enough conviction that you half-expect to hear Vespas. It's a Forbes Four Star hotel with a private-residence feel: chauffeur service, personal trainers, a heated outdoor pool, and multiple spots to dine tucked into the veranda, conservatory, and club room. Quiet and self-contained enough to forget the city exists outside.

The clock tower that once held the city's tallest point now holds Ian Schrager's boutique hotel in the Flatiron District, a collaboration with Marriott that somehow kept its cool. Rooms sit above Madison Square Park, which means the 360-degree views range from good to unreasonable depending on the floor. Chelsea, NoMad, and Greenwich Village are all within easy reach, though the hotel itself gives you decent reasons to stay put.

A corner wine bar in a rambling old house in the Bywater, with a backyard that somehow becomes the whole point. The wine list roams globally and you buy bottles at the shop counter, then take them outside where live music is usually happening and the vibe is somewhere between dinner party and block party. Cheese plates, light bites, no dress code implied. Named among the 50 most essential bars in America by Wildsam.

There's no sign on Eldridge Street, just a faux tailor's shop window with a glowing "A" and a buzzer you'll wait at long enough to second-guess yourself. This is the cocktail bar that opened in the old Milk & Honey space after Sasha Petraske moved on, and it runs on the same no-menu, tell-us-what-you-like philosophy. North America's 50 Best Bars lists it, and the wait outside on any given night suggests people have read that list.

Forty-nine Spanish hacienda casitas spread across 45 acres of rolling Rancho Santa Fe hills, each with a fireplace trimmed in hand-painted tile, beamed ceilings, a private garden patio, and a soaking tub big enough to take seriously. This Forbes Five Star resort sits far enough from the coast to feel genuinely removed, yet Del Mar and La Jolla are close. A spa, racquet sports program, and golf privileges round things out for guests who consider unplugging a full-time project.

The grand staircase descending from the Villard Mansion gates is the kind of entrance that makes you feel like you've arrived somewhere, even if you live nearby. This midtown luxury hotel spreads across a landmarked 19th-century mansion and a modern tower, with marble bathrooms, deep beds, and work desks in the standard rooms. The Triplex Suites climb to 5,000 square feet with Art Deco details and private rooftop terraces, if you're keeping score.

The lobby is a long, dim, Art Deco-inspired corridor that makes you walk past a very glamorous staircase before you find the front desk, which is a choice. This Midtown hotel is Sofitel's North American flagship, 29 floors a short walk from Bryant Park, and the whole thing leans into a Franco-New York elegance that stops just short of being a bit much. Rooms are quiet and well-dressed, and the staff keeps things moving.

A neoclassical tower in the middle of Midtown, half a mile from the Renzo Piano-designed High Museum and a short walk from Piedmont Park. Rooms run to leather headboards, velvet sitting chairs, and original work by Atlanta painter Caroline Bullock. Bar Margot, named after the Wes Anderson character, pulls in DJ nights on weekends. The spa's weekday happy hour treatment menu suggests someone had fun with the concept.

The hook here is a tabletop grill: you cook your own steak, then order a freezer martini cold enough to make your teeth ache. The Butterscotch Den calls itself a "fine dive bar," and the label does the work, precision cocktails and live jazz alongside hot dogs and fondue. Esquire named its freezer martini among the top in America, and the crowd seems to know it, treating the whole room like a very good secret they've stopped keeping.

The vaulted stained-glass ceiling in the lobby alone makes a case for booking a room. This landmark hotel in downtown Nashville holds a Michelin two-key distinction and two restaurants from Jean-Georges Vongerichten, which is either a perk or a trap depending on your willpower. Guest rooms lean into Southern warmth without tipping into kitsch, and the building itself has been a fixture of the city long enough to feel genuinely rooted in it.

A Forbes Four Star hotel tucked into an East Palo Alto office park, which is either an odd choice or a very deliberate one depending on your relationship with Sand Hill Road. The lobby leans smart and modern, with digital art and velvet loveseats that soften the corporate surroundings. Two hundred guest rooms come with spacious bath suites and the kind of beds Four Seasons has built its reputation on. Quattro handles California-Italian; the lobby café handles the pre-meeting espresso.

A bowling alley, an ice rink, and a nightclub share a building with 294 rooms, private bungalows, and Jean-Georges Vongerichten running the kitchen. Ian Schrager's oceanfront hotel on Collins Avenue stacks mid-century bones against a very modern idea of a good time, with two pools, a spa, and a stretch of semi-private beach for when the indoor chaos gets to be a bit much. Forbes Four Star.

Forty-seven rooms occupy what was once a department store in Uptown Charlotte, and the bones of that building give this boutique hotel a grandeur that newer construction can't fake. French ironwork, chandeliers, and a secret library lean into the Paris-meets-Charlotte-society vibe without tipping into theme park. A Forbes Four Star and a Michelin Key. Church and Union steakhouse anchors the ground floor, and the rest of Uptown is a short walk.

A four-tap absinthe drip at the center of the bar is a replica of the one at the Absinthe House in New Orleans, and that tells you most of what you need to know. Maison Premiere is a cocktail and oyster bar in Williamsburg that commits fully to the bit: dim golden light, mock antique everything, marble bar top, the faint sense that you've wandered into another city and century. It landed on North America's 50 Best Bars list, which tracks.

Kenneth Treister's curved, organic architecture from the eighties has been kept intact here, just polished up by a New York studio with good taste. This hotel sits in Coconut Grove rather than on Miami Beach, which tells you something about who it's for: people who'd rather have shady sidewalks and actual trees than a parade of resort umbrellas. The Michelin Guide awarded it 2 Keys, and the mood throughout is romantic and a little eccentric, in the best Coconut Grove tradition.

The facade of a 1929 Chicago landmark wraps this boutique luxury hotel on Rush Street, where Art Deco details share space with 21st-century comforts. It's named for sculptor Gwen Lux, whose work still ornaments the exterior, and the fifth-floor lobby leans into that Jazz Age identity hard. A rooftop bar with firepits, a weekend Tipsy Tea, and a see-and-be-seen cocktail lounge round out a property that holds a Michelin Key.

Ian Schrager's Lower East Side hotel skips the front desk entirely: check-in happens when a "PUBLIC Advisor" finds you in the lobby. The idea behind the place is that luxury and accessibility don't have to be mutually exclusive, which sounds like a tagline until you see it in practice. It's on the World's 50 Best Hotels list, and the Michelin Guide has it selected. Stylish without the velvet-rope attitude, which in New York counts for something.

A Beaux-Arts building from 1911 meeting W Hotels' anything-but-1911 sensibility is exactly as entertaining as it sounds. The Rockwell Group handled this hotel's original 2001 debut and came back to renovate it, which either shows loyalty or a need to finish what they started. The Living Room lobby has soaring ceilings and marble columns that read a little Grand Central, and a rooftop bar sits up on the 22nd floor for anyone who needs a view with their cocktail.

Two buildings knocked into one give Scofflaw two distinct personalities: an industrial front room with the bar counter, and a Victorian-ish back room with wingback armchairs that somehow doesn't feel ironic. It's a gin-focused cocktail bar in Logan Square that also leans dive, with craft beer and pub grub to prove it. Expect a line on weekends; they don't take reservations, and forty minutes is a reasonable opening bid.

The Columns is a hotel bar on Saint Charles with chandeliers the size of small cars and antique furniture that makes a glass of house wine feel like an occasion. Esquire has put its martini on a list of the country's best. The porch is the move on a slow afternoon, with a drink in hand and the streetcar rolling past every few minutes like a very slow parade. Dress nicely, but nobody will check.

Wood-paneled walls, low ceilings, and stacks of empty beer cans that the owners drank themselves make this Gateway District beer bar feel like a 1970s Midwest den that somehow got transplanted to Las Vegas. The rotating draft list is the point, and bartenders will steer you through it without making you feel like a student. The Underberg shot at the end is apparently non-negotiable. Wildsam named it one of the 50 most essential bars in America.

Tiger Bar is a gin-leaning cocktail bar on Gallatin Pike dressed as a 1930s carnival sideshow, and it commits without tipping into costume party. There's a mystery cocktail wheel you can spin to let fate pick your drink, which saves you from the menu and also from yourself. The Flamin' Hot Mozz Sticks have a Nashville Scene award, and Esquire put the place on its list of America's bars.

Saguaros crowd the view in every direction at this Ritz-Carlton resort tucked against the Tortolita Mountains outside Tucson, and the property leans hard into that setting. More than twenty miles of hiking trails, three pools, a Jack Nicklaus golf course, and a spa built around holistic desert treatments all sit on the grounds. Private stargazing is on offer too, which makes sense when the sky is that dark. It holds a Forbes Five Star and a Michelin Key.

Private cottages tucked into 550 acres against the Santa Ynez Mountains, with the Pacific spread out below. San Ysidro Ranch is a resort that has been a discreet hideaway forever, the kind of place where Winston Churchill and the honeymooning Kennedys came specifically to be left alone. The cottages are the point, not the lobby scene. It landed on the World's 50 Best Hotels list, which tracks for somewhere this quietly serious about making guests disappear.

Low ceilings with thick wood beams, amber light, and banquettes that make every table feel like a booth in the back of someone's private club. Bartolo is a Spanish restaurant in the West Village, the kind where you order oxtail braised in red wine and suckling pig and let the table fill up. The martini list has its own following, and the servers are sharp enough to keep a long night moving without making it feel rushed.

The dirty martini here landed on Esquire's list of the finest in the country, which tracks: the bar occupies the old Picasso space at the Bellagio, with the fountains putting on their show just outside. It's the cocktail outpost of the Carbone empire, so the room skews dressed-up and the pours skew generous. Order the martini, watch the water, and feel no obligation to explain yourself.

The turquoise Garden District mansion has been turning out Modern New Orleans Creole since Ella Brennan and a young Emeril Lagasse were essentially inventing the genre together. Fine dining in the grand sense, white tablecloths and all, though the room skews festive rather than stiff. Meg Bickford runs the kitchen now, keeping the cooking by turns classicist and a little bodacious. Wine Enthusiast put the cellar in its Hall of Fame, and the weekday lunch martinis go for a quarter.

The checkered tile floors and art-lined stone walls make it look like a Parisian bistro that wandered into the West Loop and decided to stay. Creepies is a neighborhood French restaurant from the team behind Elske next door, with a concise menu that leans classic and slides Midwestern where it can. The vesper martini landed on Esquire's list of the best in the country, which is not nothing for a place called Creepies.

Culebra is a narrow, dark Puerto Rican cocktail bar in Logan Square where the entrance is the first puzzle, so expect to ask a stranger where it is. Inside, a loud bomba soundtrack keeps everyone bouncing, drinks run to a Malta-sweetened highball, a spicy rum swizzle, and a plantain shot. The Infatuation put it on its list of the 'it' bars across America, which is how the line out front got started.

Doris is a tiny cocktail bar that keeps weeknight hours only, which tells you who it's built for. The drinks come in small, rippled coupes, some barely a mouthful, and the snack mix has nutritional yeast on it, which sounds like a dare but isn't. Prices run after-work-drinks rather than special occasion. Expect the 4pm-on-a-Tuesday set and a few people who definitely own a ring light.

Frankie's Summer Club is a seasonal outdoor bar tucked into the courtyard of a former art school, which is exactly the kind of sentence that makes you check your shoes. It's a leafy garden with a jazz trio, playful cocktails, and bar food that includes fried swordfish skewers. It's technically members-only, though visitors can sign up online, and it shuts down in September. The Infatuation put it on its list of 'It' bars right now.

Gosh is a cocktail bar in Chinatown that behaves like a funhouse with a guest list, which means showing up and asking nicely is a legitimate strategy. Servers wear Adidas track jackets, the stools look like gnomes, and the basement glows a menacing red. Upstairs there's a confessional for your sins, and the carajillo arrives candy-sweet. The Infatuation put it on its list of the 'It' bars across America.

A live-fire hearth anchors the open kitchen at this midcentury modern restaurant in San Antonio's Pearl District, where the menu is organized around Texas ingredients and built for sharing, with a dedicated steak section and a Texas-focused wine list. The name nods to the patron saint of farmers, and the sourcing follows through. It holds a Michelin star and landed on the New York Times Restaurant List in 2025.

Red leather banquettes, white tablecloths, a snappy U-shaped bar, and a shiny open kitchen pack into fifty seats on Dickerson Pike. This is a French-leaning dinner spot where smoke drifts in from a Basque-style wood-fire hearth and the wine list has Brooklyn credentials. Philip Krajeck's third Nashville restaurant has landed on the New York Times' list of Nashville's 25 best, which for a room this quietly romantic feels about right.

Kenny's Upstairs is a queer-owned cocktail bar you reach by climbing a red neon-lit staircase, which sets expectations for the '80s movie set waiting at the top, complete with a phone booth and old mall food court posters. The drinks get serious attention, down to shots chased with house khao soi broth, though a Hamm's and a corndog are also on the table. St. Louis bartenders send you here if they like your face.

A converted farmhouse in North Salem with sweeping views of actual countryside, which somehow makes the tasting menu feel earned rather than theatrical. This is a Michelin-starred modern French fine dining room with very few tables, run by a husband-and-wife team whose roots are in the south of France. The cooking is precise and quietly confident, and dessert gets its own moment to shine. Esquire named the Vesper martini among the finest in America, which is a strange fact about a farmhouse, and a good one.

Las Rosas is a dive bar on NW 7th Ave that closed for a few years, then reopened looking like nobody had touched it, which is the correct amount of renovation. It's all cheap shots, a back alley where cigarettes change hands between strangers, and a Saturday-night guitar solo at a volume your ears will file a complaint about. It's the opposite of South Beach, with no velvet rope and no one's cousin running the list. Closing time is roughly 5am.

Concrete floors and dark leather in a South Austin building that could pass for a tech lobby, except the menu is French and the martinis have made a small national name for themselves. Le Calamar is a neighborhood bistro where the food leans sharing plates, the wine list sneaks in some Texas pours, and the baked Alaska arrives with honey pecan dacquoise and torched meringue like it has something to prove.

A Flatiron bar tricked out like a 1970s Bangkok shophouse, with vintage televisions and family photos on the walls and Thai cocktails on the menu. The jasmine martini landed on Esquire's list of the best martinis in America, which gives you a sense of how seriously the drinks program is taken. The kitchen keeps pace with late-night Thai food that pairs naturally with the cocktails. Open late, which the neighborhood needed.