The Best Places to Drink and Stay in the United States

Every room has a balcony facing the Atlantic, which is a strong opening move for a Forbes Four Star hotel on Fort Lauderdale Beach. The Ritz-Carlton here runs the full playbook: Frette linens, a sprawling spa, and an on-site seafood restaurant with a wine room staffed by a sommelier who actually wants to talk. The crowd skews toward people who packed nicer luggage than you did, but the ocean view is the same for everyone.

Four golf courses on 800 acres tell you what this resort prioritizes, and everything else, the rooms, the spa, the pool complex, the dining, gets scaled to match. Trump National Doral Miami sits about eight miles from the airport and twenty minutes from the beach, close enough to Miami without actually being in it. A Forbes Four Star resort that runs large in every direction, it draws golfers, families, and business travelers who want serious amenities without a South Beach scene.

The red awnings and sweep of red carpet announce this grand Back Bay hotel before you've even reached the door. Inside, the lobby is all ornate plasterwork and soaring ceilings, the kind of architecture that has made it a recurring film location and a perennial power-lunch backdrop for Bostonians. The guest rooms have been refreshed without scrubbing away the old-money atmosphere that makes the place worth staying in over a newer option.

Mahogany beds, armoires, toile wallpaper, and a George Washington portrait in the lobby bar: Market Pavilion Hotel was built in 2002 and willed to look like it wasn't. The boutique hotel sits in downtown Charleston with more than 300 pieces of original art chosen by the family that owns it. Upstairs, a rooftop bar cuts against all the colonial gravity. Grill 225 handles steaks on the ground floor for anyone who needs grounding.

A terrace overlooking the Washington Marina keeps the vibe grounded even though the Jefferson Memorial is a short walk away. This 373-room hotel on the Southwest Waterfront sits close to The Wharf and the National Mall, with a lobby that signals money without shouting. Chef Kwame Onwuachi's Afro-Caribbean restaurant Dōgon runs separately downstairs, and the spa gives you a reason to stay in.

The room key reads "no need to break in," and the hotel leans into that history rather than apologizing for it. Luigi Moretti's curving building on the Potomac got a sweeping renovation, with Ron Arad handling the interiors and the "Mad Men" designer dressing the staff, resulting in something that feels genuinely retro-modernist rather than merely themed. Monochrome rooms, Potomac-facing balconies, a rooftop bar, and a whisky bar for co-conspirators round out the package.

Perched on a 150-foot bluff above the Pacific, this Forbes Four Star resort has been the Southern California coastal fantasy since forever, and a recent head-to-toe renovation leaned hard into the setting. Rooms run sage, sky blue, and petal pink; the spa goes jewel-toned and misty. The lobby on a weekend holds a cheerful cross-section of the country, united by saltwater taffy at check-in and strong opinions about which pool to claim.

There's no sign at the end of the drive, which tells you something about the clientele. This Forbes Five Star Adirondack camp resort sits on a private peninsula of Upper Saranac Lake, stone fireplaces and twig furniture in every room, and guests dress for black-tie dinner twice a week around a communal table. Snowshoeing, croquet, and champagne at 4 a.m. are all equally on offer, which is roughly the point.

A Forbes Five Star ranch resort spread across 6,600 acres between the Pintler and Sapphire ranges, where the dress code is essentially "do you own a vest." Granite Lodge anchors it all, a two-story stone and timber building with a massive hearth, game tables, and guest rooms named for horse breeds and firearms. Days go toward trail riding or skiing; evenings toward Missoula Mules beside the fire, which is a perfectly reasonable way to end up in Montana.

The pink stucco towers have been sitting at the foot of Cheyenne Mountain long enough that the mountains feel like a backdrop the resort commissioned. This Forbes Five Star destination resort sprawls across thousands of acres and treats activity planning as a competitive sport: falconry, zip lines, golf, fly fishing, pickleball, a movie theater, and bowling all coexist without apology. "Bottle Alley," a glassed-in Prohibition-era wine cache, lines the walls of the main building.

Floor-to-ceiling windows frame either the Mississippi or a cosmopolitan sunset, depending on which side you land. This Four Seasons tower sits at the center of downtown Minneapolis, opening directly onto the Skyway, so the lobby pulls in a buzzing local crowd alongside hotel guests. Rooms lean into soft curves and a quiet Art Deco sensibility. The hotel holds a Michelin Key and is part of a group that took the Most Admired Hotel Group Award at the 50 Best.

The Burger Joint, a self-consciously divey counter slinging smash patties, is tucked behind a curtain in an otherwise polished lobby, which tells you something about this hotel's sense of humor. Thompson Central Park is a high-end boutique hotel in upper Midtown, rebuilt from a legacy property with mid-century Modernist bones courtesy of architect Thomas Juul-Hansen. Upper floors look out over Central Park.

Flowers cascade through the lobby and gardens wind between the buildings, giving this Beverly Hills luxury hotel the feel of a greenhouse that happens to offer room service. Rodeo Drive is a short walk away for anyone who brought a serious credit card. The fourth-floor pool draws a loyal mix of locals and guests, and the patio at Culina stays busy with people who know exactly what they're doing on a Tuesday afternoon.

One causeway separates Key Biscayne from downtown Miami, but the island reads more like the Caribbean than South Florida. This Forbes Four Star resort spreads across oceanfront acres with a vast spa, twin pools, and an eleven-court tennis complex that signals how seriously guests take their leisure. Rooms run to colonial-inflected pastels and breezy fabrics, and the dining options cover everything from coastal American to a beachfront Mexican spot.

The vaulted ceilings and Venetian Gothic stonework on Michigan Avenue give away that this was never meant to be a hotel, and it wasn't, for most of its life. The Chicago Athletic Association is now a boutique hotel under Hyatt's Unbound Collection, holding a Michelin Key, and the bones of the old private club, once restricted to the city's male elite, do most of the atmospheric heavy lifting without anyone having to try too hard.

The lobby doubles as an active train station waiting room, which makes check-in feel like a minor performance art piece. The Crawford is a boutique hotel tucked inside Denver's restored Beaux-Arts Union Station, holding a Michelin Key, and sitting at the center of the LoDo neighborhood's comeback. The 112 rooms sit above the bustle of one of the city's genuinely communal gathering spots, with rail passengers and cocktail drinkers sharing the same grand hall below.

A Federalist townhouse on Beacon Hill, XV Beacon is a boutique hotel where all 63 rooms come with a four-poster bed, a working fireplace, and fresh flowers, which is either very romantic or a lot of pressure, depending on your companion. A house Lexus will ferry you around the city, and the concierge knows the neighborhood the way only someone who works it every day can. Old Boston in the best, least stuffy sense.

The Sakura Martini, a sake-and-gin affair finished with a salted cherry blossom, is the thing people come back for at this tiny, warmly lit cocktail bar on Eldridge Street. Kenta Goto spent years at Pegu Club before opening this place, and the short menu of original drinks leans on Japanese ingredients, house infusions, and a quieter kind of precision. Small enough that nobody is a stranger for long.

The Sazerac Bar holds the rights to both the Sazerac cocktail and the Ramos Gin Fizz, which says something about the confidence of the Roosevelt Hotel's lobby bar. Dark wood paneling, murals, and a long bar that has been drawing New Orleans in formal and informal attire for generations. It's sophisticated without being stiff, which is a harder trick than it sounds in a city that takes its drinks this seriously.

Perched on a ridge above Batiquitos Lagoon, this Forbes Four Star resort near San Diego keeps guests busy enough that leaving feels optional. An Arnold Palmer-designed golf course, a 15,000-square-foot spa, six tennis courts, and a croquet lawn cover the bases, with mountain-to-Pacific views doing the rest of the convincing. Fine dining and casual spots are both on-site, so you can calibrate the formality as you go.

A gray limewash exterior sets this boutique hotel apart from the red-brick streetscape around it, and the care inside matches the gesture outside. A walled garden channels old Charleston without the kitsch, marble and brass bathrooms feel like a decorator's pet project, and the spa was modeled on the developer's own carriage house. A Michelin Key hotel in the heart of downtown, it's the kind of place that was clearly someone's obsession before it was anyone's reservation.

Three buildings, two Victorian and one new, were stitched together on George Street to make this 25-room luxury boutique hotel a Michelin Key holder in the heart of Charleston. The interiors lean into the bones of the older structures, bold wallpapers and period ornament, then pull it all forward with a sharp modern palette and furniture that clearly someone had strong opinions about choosing.

Two historic buildings merged into one downtown hotel, steps from Powell's and Portland's better tables. Woodlark holds a Michelin Key and leans into the city's quieter, more polished register, the one that gets overlooked in all the weirdness coverage. The location, sitting between downtown and Burnside, means you can walk almost anywhere worth going.

Six acres of winding garden paths and Victorian farmhouse buildings in the heart of Sonoma wine country, MacArthur Place is a boutique hotel that moves at a slower speed than the tasting-room circuit outside its gates. The 69 rooms spread across 20 low-slung historic buildings, so it feels less like checking in and more like borrowing a friend's very well-appointed ranch. Forbes Four Star. The spa keeps guests horizontal well past noon.

Perched on a cliff above the Pacific in Dana Point, this Waldorf Astoria resort fans out across lush gardens that step down through pools, a sculpture garden, and a Robert Trent Jones Jr. golf course before hitting a private beach club. Six ocean-view restaurants, a full spa, and enough on-property activity to make nearby attractions feel like homework. A Forbes Four Star property where "casual elegance" is less a cliche than an actual operating philosophy.

A rooftop beehive supplying honey to the bar and kitchen is a flex most waterfront hotels don't bother with. This 424-room hotel sits on the harbor between Faneuil Hall and the Seaport, so the views are doing a lot of work whether you're in the lobby, lined in Italian marble and Texas limestone, or up in your room. Three dining options, a spa, and a health club round things out for a property that leans toward the polished business-traveler end of the scale.

A 33-story oval glass tower two blocks from the Broadway honky-tonks, the JW Marriott is a full-service downtown hotel with 533 rooms, a spa, a rooftop pool, and three restaurants. Floor-to-ceiling windows frame the skyline, and the bronze and gold metalwork throughout is meant to echo the Cumberland River. Michael Mina's rooftop bar sits at the top of it all, which is either very Nashville or very not Nashville, depending on your mood.

Montage Hotels built its name on rarefied seclusion, so their Pendry line is a deliberate pivot: an urban boutique hotel planted in the thick of the Gaslamp Quarter, where the six bars and restaurants are meant to pull in neighborhood regulars as much as guests. Rooms run loft-apartment styling rather than resort grandeur, and the whole thing skews younger and more affordable than its Montage cousins, without exactly being a bargain.

The old Charles Street Jail, a granite hulk from the mid-1800s, is now a full-service luxury hotel where the do-not-disturb sign reads "Solitary" and the in-room safe doubles as a bedside table. The conversion leans into the bit without apology: a cocktail bar in the original cellblock, restaurant names that wink at incarceration, and mugshot art on the walls. The rooms are comfortable, the theming is committed, and the location near Beacon Hill is hard to argue with.

Some of the cocktails here took days to develop, which you can either find charming or slightly alarming depending on your relationship with drinks. Bar Colette is a reservation-only cocktail bar in Uptown Dallas where reinterpreted classics share the menu with exotic spirits, global wines, and sashimi. A James Beard nominee for Best New Bar, it draws the kind of crowd that dresses like they Googled the place first, which, honestly, they probably did.

The martini here gets shaken with both vodka and gin, which is either a provocation or a correction depending on your religion. Death & Co is a cocktail bar that started in New York and landed in RiNo, bringing the same intricate, unhurried approach to drinking. The room is loungey and deliberate, the kind of place where settling in for three rounds feels like the obvious move rather than a guilty one.

Oak Creek runs right through the 11-acre property, which means the sound of moving water follows you nearly everywhere at this Forbes Four Star luxury resort in Sedona's Red Rock Country. Cottages, cliff-side suites, and lodge rooms all lean into the setting, with creek or red rock views depending on your luck. The rugged landscape does most of the decorating, which is a relief given how hard resort design usually tries.

A polished-concrete courtyard, warmed by mid-century Danish armchairs, sets the tone at this boutique hotel on East Cesar Chavez. The Heywood holds a Michelin Key, and what's quietly notable is how thoroughly Austin-rooted it is: the architects, designers, artists on the walls, and most of the supply chain are local, with women running the show from ownership down. Style with a conscience, and it doesn't feel the need to remind you constantly.

A Michelin Key hotel just outside the Chinatown Gateway, The Hoxton, Portland brought its London post-industrial bones to a century-old building and then let the in-house design team loose on Northwest modernism of the Sixties and Seventies, which turns out to be a very good fit. The result feels less like a branded import than a building that always looked this way, which is probably the highest compliment a hotel can earn without admitting it was trying.

A Scottish-style links course wraps around this Forbes Four Star resort on the northwest edge of Pebble Beach, which means you can watch golfers trudge through coastal wind from the heated pool without lifting a club yourself. Rooms are well-appointed, the grounds roll straight into sand dunes and the Pacific, and the property has enough bars and restaurants that you never need to leave, which some guests appear not to.

Family portraits of the bartender's Cuban relatives line the upstairs walls, which tells you something about what kind of cocktail bar this is. Ricky Gomez, who came up through New Orleans institutions like Cure and Teardrop Lounge, channels his Miami-meets-NOLA-meets-Havana upbringing into a tropical menu where blenders run loud and the hospitality runs warmer than the drinks.

A Forbes Five Star resort on Cape Cod's southeastern elbow, with a private beach, a full-service spa, and a Lexus shuttle that'll whisk you wherever the peninsula demands. The shingle-style main house has been around forever, and the formula hasn't changed much: fishing charters, sunset sails, a kids' program in summer, and the general understanding that leaving the property is optional.

Twenty-seven acres of salt marshes, gardens, and woodlands sit between this Forbes Five Star resort and Pleasant Bay, with the Atlantic just beyond. It's classic Cape Cod country-inn territory, the kind where staff track you down on the tennis court to ask if you need anything. Rooms run from spacious suites with gas fireplaces and marble baths to snug private cottages, all done in upscale New England style without tipping into fussy.

Casitas scattered across 57 acres of high desert, each with a kiva fireplace and a private terrace, give this Four Seasons the feel of a small compound rather than a hotel. The Southwest decor is restrained enough that you won't feel like you wandered into a gift shop. A shuttle runs to Santa Fe proper, though the spa and the Sangre de Cristo views make a strong case for staying put. Forbes Four Star.

The pool at this mid-century hotel has hosted more lives than most buildings, including a stretch as an office, a radio station, and a filming location for Top Gun. Now it's back as a full urban resort on El Cajon Boulevard, renovated by a local hospitality group with retro glamour intact. The Michelin Guide awarded it one Key. Expect good cocktails, a scene around the pool, and a vibe that takes the past seriously without being stuffy about it.

The name nods to the Prohibition speakeasy that once operated in the basement, which is a better origin story than most boutique hotels can manage. Lark Hotels gave the old house a full renovation, and their signature formula is intact: photogenic rooms, genuinely comfortable beds, and a walkable neighborhood that makes you feel like a local who somehow has nicer lodgings than anyone else on the block. The Michelin Guide awarded it one Key.

The red brick shell of a 19th-century orphanage in the Lower Garden District has been turned into a boutique hotel that wears history without being suffocated by it. Rooms lean into retro detail while staying genuinely comfortable, and the food program is serious, with a French-Vietnamese cafe and an Italian restaurant on site. The Paradise Lounge lobby bar opens to a patio, which in New Orleans is exactly the right idea. The Michelin Guide awarded it one Key.

Period lanterns, glossy windows, and varicolored brickwork set the tone before you even walk in. The Spectator is a boutique hotel where the French Quarter and Market Street meet, wearing its Roaring Twenties bones lightly, with Modernist awnings keeping things from tipping into full costume drama. Four floors, a debonair bearing, and a Michelin Key make it a natural base for Charleston at its most photogenic.

The Koji Club is a sake bar of about sixteen seats in the Allston Speedway, where the bottle storage doubles as a coat rack and a rice cooker sits behind the bar like it pays rent. The staff will walk the sake-curious through the list, so no one gets quizzed. The snack of choice is a bowl of rice with furikake, miso, and pickles. It's dim and cozy, and it's on the Esquire list of best bars in America.

Rows of towering palms line the drive up to this Spanish colonial resort sitting at the base of Camelback Mountain, and the inside follows through: Oriental rugs, deep saturated colors, and none of the beige Southwestern pastels you'll find everywhere else in Phoenix. Stone paths wind through orange groves and tucked-away courtyards. The Michelin Guide awarded it one Key. It reads less like a hotel than like a very grand private home someone forgot to lock.

EZ's is a Heights dive bar that has somehow acquired a very good bottle list, so you can pair a pool game and a chili dog with a pour of champagne, or stay loyal to the beer that calls itself the champagne of beers. The jukebox swings from George Strait to DJ Screw without apology. It's suspiciously clean for a dive, but give it time, this is Houston.

Vineyards press right up to the guest room windows at this lodge and spa tucked into Carmel Valley, which sets the tone for everything: limestone fireplaces, marble soaking tubs for two, Italian linens, and a spa that works with wine grapes and lavender grown on the property. The pool anchors the center of the resort, and the restaurant draws its own crowd. It holds a Forbes Four Star and two Michelin Keys.

The complimentary cocktail hour is hosted by your personal valet, who already knows your name before you've set down your bags. Casa Palmero is a boutique resort at Pebble Beach built around a Spanish Colonial manor house, all fountains and courtyard and lush Mediterranean landscaping. It holds a Forbes Four Star. With only a handful of rooms, it operates less like a hotel and more like borrowing a wealthy friend's estate, assuming that friend also pre-books your tee times.

The lobby frames the 18th hole and Stillwater Cove behind it, which tells you immediately what kind of resort this is. Golfers do make pilgrimages here, but the Forbes Four Star property also has a beach and tennis club with a heated pool, horseback trails on the same grounds where National Velvet was filmed, and rooms with big windows or private patios pointed squarely at the Big Sur coastline.

A sweeping spiral staircase and a towering wine cellar greet you in the lobby, which sets the tone for this 234-room luxury hotel on West End. Champalimaud designed the interiors, and the result lands somewhere between art hotel and serious whiskey destination. Three in-house dining and drinking spots lean into Southern fare, and the rooftop pool deck has skyline views that make Nashville's reputation for a good time feel like an understatement.

A boutique hotel built around the fact that Boise sits on the 43rd parallel in the 43rd state, which is either charming or a lot, depending on your tolerance for a theme. Rooms are contemporary with local artwork and a gem-toned palette, and the staff runs an arts passport program with access to the city's ballet, philharmonic, and opera. Chandlers, the onsite restaurant, doubles as a martini bar with live jazz most nights.

A hidden inn spread across a cluster of restored adobe houses in what locals call the oldest neighborhood in the country. The owners spent a lifetime collecting, and it shows: Persian rugs, Tibetan furniture, carved Indian doors, and bathrooms tiled in onyx and lapis. Wood-burning fireplaces, quiet courtyards, and a spa rooted in Silk Road rituals round it out. A passageway off the patio leads to the Dragon Room bar, where Georgia O'Keeffe used to drink.

A Romanesque Revival house on Piedmont Avenue, Stonehurst Place is a Midtown B&B where eight rooms sit inside a building that has been around forever, with two tucked into the carriage house out back. Rooms range from cozy attic retreats to suite-sized quarters with spa bathrooms. A screened porch handles the slow-morning reading crowd, and a sleeping porch moonlights as a TV lounge. Gourmet breakfast is included. It holds a Michelin Key and AAA Four Diamonds.

Anna's is a Marigny dive bar in a former 19th-century bank, which means the cocktails are better than the Gatorade cooler by the pool table would suggest. The jukebox works, the beer-and-shot specials are cheap, and the Tequila Daisy goes down easy on a hot day. Guest chefs rotate through for pop-ups, and upstairs there are DJs, film nights, and a balcony over Royal Street. The James Beard folks named the owner a semifinalist.

The rolling ladders are not decorative. They reach a full twelve feet to access shelves of over 1,500 bottles lining the bare brick walls of this former piano-store stockroom, and the bartenders use them. A thick bound menu catalogs everything by region and spirit type, library-style, because the name is sincere. It's a serious whiskey bar that takes the bit all the way, and the room is dramatic enough that even non-whiskey people tend to stay longer than planned.

Chenin is a tiny wine bar tucked inside The Siren Hotel, pouring natural and biodynamic bottles to a room lit softly enough to forgive anyone's skin-contact experiments. Salty snacks and a mortadella sandwich piled onto focaccia keep the evening going longer than planned. Seats are scarce, so arrive when the doors open. It was a James Beard Award nominee for Best New Bar.