The Best Places to Drink and Stay in the United States

The Dagny is a boutique hotel inside a 1928 Art Deco tower whose ornate ceilings and brass fittings survived intact while the sensibility around them got considerably sharper. Faneuil Hall and the waterfront are a short walk, which keeps the lobby purposeful on weekdays. Tradesman Café handles breakfast, Fin Point handles the seafood, and the building's rumored history of hidden revolutionary cannons handles the small talk.

A 1939 residential building a block from the Peninsula, converted into a boutique hotel by Palisociety, who have made a small empire out of this exact move. No monumental lobby, no sprawling pool deck, just the kind of quirkily stylish rooms that make you feel like you live in Beverly Hills rather than visiting it. The Peninsula crowd is paying more and getting a longer check-in line.

Three 19th-century buildings on the National Register of Historic Places anchor this 253-room hotel spread across four and a half garden acres between Downtown and Southtown. The River Walk is a short walk, but the shaded pathways, big pool, and the Anaqua Garden Bar tucked under the trees make leaving feel optional. A daily tea ceremony under an ancient anaqua tree is the kind of quiet ritual guests mention long after checkout.

A row of 18th-century warehouse buildings stitched together into a hotel, The Vendue calls itself Charleston's art hotel and means it, with serious contemporary work hung throughout rather than the usual decorative shrugs. Every room is different, the rooftop bar has been a neighborhood fixture forever, and the restaurant, Revival, runs on seasonal and heirloom ingredients. The kind of boutique hotel that gives the concept a good name.

Floor-to-ceiling windows frame either the Houston skyline or Buffalo Bayou Park depending on which way your room faces, which is a nice problem to have. This boutique-style full-service hotel runs midcentury modern throughout its rooms and suites, with spa showers and high-end linens doing the heavy lifting. The rooftop pool is one of the larger ones in the city, and there's a coffee shop and a steakhouse when you surface.

Rugged wood, leather, and stone textures run through the modernist interiors here, giving the Thompson brand's mid-century aesthetic a quietly Texan edge. This sleek hotel towers above the River Walk, which means the city's restaurants, bars, and shops are essentially at the front door. It's a Hyatt property now, but the design identity has held. The Michelin Guide lists it among its selected hotels.

Aspen has always had the mountain town aesthetic handled; what it lacked was a hotel that leaned fully into the scene. The W fills that gap with a boutique-scale property that nods just enough to Alpine without surrendering an inch of sleek. Expect the full spa, ski, and fitness setup that the brand runs on, plus a food truck and an Asian-fusion bar for après. Priced accordingly, and the clientele dress like they know it.

Sichuan Garden fed Brookline Village for two decades before the family's son, a bartender with a James Beard-nominated bar pedigree, took over the front of house and made it a cocktail bar. The drinks lean tropical, lots of rum and agave, threaded through with Sichuan flavors that have no business working this well together. The Spirited Awards named the bar team a Regional Top 10 Honoree, which tracks.

Named for the men who drove cattle up the Chisholm Trail, Hotel Drover sits inside Fort Worth's historic Stockyards district, where the Western aesthetic is less costume party, more lived-in. The rooms lean rustic without tipping into bolo-tie excess, the backyard has a pool and hot tub, and the upscale 97 West restaurant is on-site when the mood calls for it. Michelin awarded it one Key.

The original stone walls of a former Calistoga château went from graffiti-covered to centerpiece when the current owners rescued this long-abandoned property and turned it into a boutique hotel. Everything inside had to go, but the bones are something, and the result is a quietly grand place to stay in Napa Valley. The Michelin Guide awarded it one Key.

Leopard print, bamboo pagodas, faux foliage, and video poker embedded in the bar top: this Chinatown tiki bar on Spring Mountain Road commits to the bit completely. The strip-mall address keeps the tourist bustle down, so the stools fill with off-shift locals who treat it like their living room. The drinks are tropical and potent, the kitsch is sincere rather than ironic, and the whole place feels like Vegas decided to throw a luau and never stopped.

Gold hands serve as beer taps, jewel-toned decanters fill a Queen Anne cabinet, and the wallpaper is not quite what it seems. Velveteen Rabbit is a cocktail bar in the Arts District that takes the storybook theme seriously without going precious about it: seasonal menus, vintage glassware, and drinks rooted in Golden Age mixology. The patio and light-projected walls are draws on their own. Weekends fill up, so book ahead.

Johnny's Gold Brick is a tiny rectangular cocktail bar in the Heights, and it makes the most of the floor plan. A dozen classics run under $10, and the seasonal drinks top out around $15, some of them set on fire while you watch. There's a mushroom-infused rum drink for the savory crowd, and the music stays low enough that nobody has to shout, which is a bigger selling point than it sounds.

A donkey illustration on an easy-to-miss door inside the Cosmopolitan's Block 16 Food Hall is all the signage this dimly lit agave bar bothers with. Red string lights, floral murals, and a serious list of tequilas and mezcals fill the rest of the room. The nachos come loaded with toppings that make you look twice at the menu. Time Out named it one of the best bars in Las Vegas, which feels about right for somewhere this committed to being hard to find.

Old Glory is a candlelit cocktail bar in a former industrial steam plant, where the old boiler still sits in the corner and a coal hopper hangs overhead like a very heavy chandelier. Weeknights are quiet and date-friendly, while weekends turn the floor into a dance party. The drinks are spirit-forward, and the monthly lineup of drag, circus acts, and jazz nights suggests the boiler has seen weirder things than you.

Attaboy is a speakeasy cocktail bar in East Nashville, tucked into a concrete-block building that looks like it services HVAC units. There's no menu. The bartenders ask what you like to drink and what kind of day you've had, then handle the rest, like a therapist who works in rye. It's the Nashville sibling of the New York original, and its bar team earned a regional honor from the Spirited Awards.

The blenders run constantly at this French Quarter-edge daiquiri bar, which lifts its whole aesthetic from Havana's legendary Floridita. The decor, the food, and the drinks list all commit to the bit: Cuban classics like El Presidentes and daiquiris in several frozen variations, served in a room small enough that you're on nodding terms with the bartender by round two. A Spirited Awards Regional Honoree for Best U.S. Cocktail Bar.

To get into this speakeasy cocktail bar inside the Horseshoe, you pick up a phone, answer a riddle, and crawl through an entrance. The bar itself looks like a haunted Victorian study, shelves packed with odd artifacts and enough atmosphere to make you forget you're technically in a casino basement. Cocktails run strong and strange, and there's a dedicated mixology classroom if you want to learn why your drink tastes like that.

The Spanish Revival bones have been here forever, and a top-to-bottom renovation brought them back to the kind of formal California glamour that makes you feel underdressed just checking in. This is a Fairmont hotel in downtown Long Beach, so expect crisp service and rooms that skew sophisticated over breezy. The rooftop bar looks out to Catalina on a clear day, and the Sky Room above it pushes all the way to the L.A. skyline.

An actual ghost town turned luxury resort in remote southwestern Colorado, Dunton Hot Springs is a cluster of hand-hewn log cabins (and one teepee) sitting along the Dolores River between Telluride and Mesa Verde. The abandoned gold prospectors' camp was restored shack by shack, so roughing it now involves thermal baths, spa treatments, and fine organic dining. The Michelin Guide awarded it 2 Keys.

Halibut Cove has no road in, so you arrive by floatplane or boat, which does set expectations. Stillpoint is an upscale wilderness lodge built from local Alaskan timber, its cabins rough-hewn on the outside and surprisingly plush within, with big beds, serious baths, and porch views that make the hot tub feel almost redundant. All meals are taken here, which suits a place where "popping out for dinner" is not an option. The Michelin Guide awarded it 2 Keys.

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.