The Best Places in the United States

The sidewinder fries alone explain a lot about this casual coastal restaurant in Pacific Beach, where smashburgers and clam chowder come out with the kind of care you'd expect somewhere far more serious. The seafood traces back to the nearby Quinault Indian Nation, cocktails are good, and the kids menu is apparently a hit with people who eat off the kids menu.

Wood-fired pizza in Key West, where the oven does the explaining: the crust comes out with that particular chew and char that only live fire produces. Roostica is a casual pizza spot running a full menu of red and white pies alongside antipasti, salads, and sandwiches, with Sicilian cannoli for anyone with room and Italian wines for everyone else. The 50 Top Pizza guide lists it among its USA Excellent Pizzerias.

Wine barrel, shaped booths fill a historic brick mill building that once housed some of Walla Walla's more reverent fine dining. Salted Mill is a casual bar and restaurant now, the kind where locals fill the counter after a long day of tasting and nobody speaks in hushed tones. The menu leans into the mood, with gochujang-glazed swordfish and duck fat fries that make no apologies for themselves.

A Neapolitan pizza and cucina spot on the Upper East Side with large windows that swing open in warm weather, a wine cellar visible from the dining room, and enough space between tables that a conversation stays your own. The crust runs thin and light, the kind that doesn't need a verdict. Croquettes, pasta, and calzones round out the menu, and the staff manages attentive without hovering, which in New York is its own achievement.

A pizzeria on Via Sant'Euplio where the dough is made with ancient Sicilian grains, giving the crust a nuttier, denser character than the Neapolitan style it otherwise follows. You can also order a "cartwheel" format if a standard round feels insufficiently theatrical. Fried starters and a short list of double-cooked fried pizzas fill out the menu, and the wine list pulls from Sicily, Campania, Piedmont, Tuscany, and France, which is serious range for a pizza joint.

Slightly oval pies, sliced into four and built on a crispy, well-balanced crust, are the whole philosophy here. Serious Pie is a wood-warmed pizza restaurant in Seattle's financial district, comfortable enough for a working lunch and relaxed enough for an evening with friends. Private rooms handle the business-event crowd without making the main room feel corporate. The wine list pulls its weight.

A noodle bar tucked into a Lopez Island alleyway, where the chef makes his own ramen and udon and also, apparently, throws his own ceramics, which explains why the bowls are so good-looking. The broth is rich and deeply savory, the eggs are that soft jammy orange that makes everything look intentional. Reserve ahead: the handful of outdoor counter seats and high-tops fill up even when the ferry crossing feels like a bad idea.

The open kitchen anchors the room at this Astoria Italian pizzeria and restaurant, where the vibe sits somewhere between a boisterous family dinner and a proper night out. The menu runs pizzas, pasta, and daily specials alongside a solid wine list, and the kitchen handles all of it without fuss. Dough that holds up under generous toppings, attentive service even when every table is full by six, and a crowd that comes back regularly.

A Redmond pizza shop doing something genuinely tricky: making a Neapolitan-leaning crust that doesn't alienate the kid who just wants pepperoni. The dough is airy and light, and the menu ranges from classics to specials to a Sunday-only New York style, a range designed so that nobody at the table has to negotiate. Named among 50 Top Pizza USA's excellent pizzerias, it draws the kind of crowd where everyone finds something and nobody feels like they compromised.

Long-fermented dough is the whole point at this casual Lincoln Park pizzeria, where the crust is meant to be light enough that a second slice doesn't feel like a moral failing. The round pies lean classic but wander happily, and the all-day format means sandwiches and salads fill out the menu for those not committed to pizza before noon. Relaxed neighborhood room, no dress code implied.

Six days a week it's a neighborhood bakery slinging coffee and doughnuts in South Philly. On Friday nights, The Bakery quietly pivots to "secret dinners," turning out a short, rotating menu of tall, square pizzas on soft, airy dough with a crackery undercarriage. Seats are few, the menu changes, and the whole operation feels more like eating at a friend's place than a restaurant. Arrive early, or just arrive flexible.

A sourdough pizza shop in a coal-mining hamlet so small that downtown is basically a dive bar, a coffee shop, and this place. The chef makes only so much crust each day, so on summer weekends the kitchen sells out within 90 minutes of opening, and the line forms knowing full well it might not matter. A brussels sprouts and bacon pie has been on the menu since day one and shows no signs of leaving.

Heather Earnhardt's Southern-inflected restaurant now lives inside a historic coastal hotel in Tokeland, having migrated from its Capitol Hill origins. Cozy breakfast anchors the day, surrounded by farmhouse antiques and tchotchkes that feel genuinely accumulated rather than styled. Big buttery biscuits and fried chicken carried over from the original, joined by fried oysters from nearby Willapa Bay and local fish gone cornmeal-and-grits.

Tile walls and an open loft in a converted beauty school bounce noise around a room that stays open later than most of its neighbors on this stretch of Riverside. Wooden City is a casual restaurant with pizza on the menu, though the beet ravioli with goat cheese and pistachio has apparently been converting skeptics, and the blistered peppers with sausage tend to outshine the pies. Seattle Met named it among Washington's best restaurants.

Terracotta details nod to Naples in an otherwise contemporary dining room, which sets the tone for a Neapolitan-leaning pizza shop that takes its craft seriously without taking itself too seriously. The dough is airy and well-cooked, the toppings paired with real intention, and the fried montanarine are quietly worth the detour on their own. Listed among 50 Top Pizza Italy's Excellent Pizzerias, this is Carpi's most convincing argument for staying local.

The menu lists a spicy margarita riff called The Party Lobster, which tells you most of what you need to know about the vibe. Mister Paradise is a cocktail bar in the East Village where the drinks are built with serious technique, clarification, sous-vide, the works, but presented with enough wit and noise that you'd never call it stuffy. Locals land here and stop leaving, which is either a warning or a recommendation depending on your Thursday.

A rooftop hot tub and a beer garden are not the usual inheritance of a roadside motel, but here we are. Basecamp Tahoe South is a revamped, eco-conscious boutique hotel a short walk from the lake, sitting just south of the California-Nevada state line. The two-story structure got a full makeover, and the crowd that filled parking lots with station wagons has been replaced by one that travels with a reusable water bottle.

Four acres of gardens, fire pits, and lawn games spread across what looks, from the parking lot, like a classic roadside motel, the Texas A&M campus is literally across the street. Once inside, though, the industrial-rustic rooms read more boutique hotel than budget stop. The Canteen Bar & Grill pulls in a crowd, with live music outside on weekends, and the Century Square development keeps the surrounding block lively.

Freestanding soaking tubs and velour sofas in the suites signal that Cotton Court is not your average campus-adjacent stay. This boutique hotel near Texas Tech and the Depot District is purpose-built around a central courtyard, with rooms that lean contemporary but keep enough West Texas texture to remind you where you are. Midnight Shift, the on-site bar and restaurant, draws a genuine local crowd, and live music spills into the outdoor lounge on a regular basis.

Vintage Airstream trailers serve as the luxury suites here, which tells you most of what you need to know about El Cosmico. This Marfa camping compound trades standard hotel rooms for trailers, yurts, tepees, and tent pitches spread across the west Texas desert. Wood-fired hot tubs and a communal outdoor kitchen round out the scene. Only one trailer has an indoor shower, so bring your comfort zone and leave it at home.

A hotel that leans into college-town energy rather than coasting on it, the Graduate Bloomington sits just off the Indiana University campus with the kind of design and detail that most properties in this zip code skip entirely. The Graduate chain built its name doing exactly this, turning university neighborhoods into a reason to stay somewhere instead of just somewhere to stay.

A boutique hotel on Main Street in downtown Ketchum, a short drive from Sun Valley's slopes, Hotel Ketchum pulled off a full renovation that makes rustic mountain lodge materials feel genuinely current rather than kitschy. The lobby doubles as a game room and café, rooms come with high-end linens and USB ports, and an outdoor pool and hot tub round things out for guests who've had enough of the cold.

The vintage radios in the rooms are tuned to KNCE, Taos's local station, which tells you exactly what kind of hotel this is. A converted adobe motor lodge just outside the historic district, it kept the original viga ceilings and thick walls, then layered in handwoven textiles and local ceramics. A tie-in with the Paseo Project means rotating art and an artist-in-residence program, so the walls aren't just decorated, they're argued over.

An old sea captain's house that became an inn in the 1830s, Life House Nantucket has been thoroughly redesigned into a luxury boutique hotel without losing the feeling that its walls have stories. Breakfast is served, as is afternoon tea in the garden, but the real idea is that you use the place as a base and wander out into Nantucket, which is a reasonable ask given the location on Cliff Road.

Two Pete Dye golf courses, a casino, a wellness center offering Chinese herbal medicine, sporting clays, fishing, multiple pools, and several restaurants: Nemacolin, a sprawling resort in Pennsylvania's Laurel Highlands, operates on the principle that you should never have to make a decision about what to do next. It sits about an hour from Pittsburgh, deep enough in the woods to feel like its own zip code. The Michelin Guide has it among its selected hotels.

Fourteen rooms with record players and hand-sewn quilts sit just a short walk from downtown Highlands, where the Blue Ridge does its best to look cinematic. Outpost Inn is a small motel that plays like a summer camp for adults, with campfires, screened porches, and a wood-paneled lobby that invites lingering. The vibe is mid-century mountain, deliberately unhurried, and the Michelin Guide has it among its selected hotels.

Lake Flower practically laps at the lobby of this contemporary lakeside lodge on the shores of Saranac Lake, a town the Adirondacks' mid-century eclipse left more or less unspoiled. The Saranac Waterfront Lodge reads as a grand lakeside hotel updated for now, with the activities and amenities that formula implies. Hikers, paddlers, and people who just want to stare at water from a comfortable chair all seem equally at home here.

Ski racks in the rooms and a beach pass in your pocket pretty much sums up the Station House Inn's range. It's a dog-friendly boutique hotel near the Lake Tahoe shore, done up in rustic-chic style, with fire pits, poolside cabanas, a heated outdoor pool, and a year-round hot tub. The on-site restaurant serves New Orleans-inspired fare, which is an unexpected choice for the Sierra Nevada, but somehow fits the laid-back vibe.

A Victorian inn in Edgartown that swapped its antique-shop interiors for mid-century modern and French Caribbean color, which in staid Edgartown is practically a provocation. Lark Hotels runs it, and their habit of giving buttoned-up properties a loosened collar is visible everywhere. Fifteen rooms keeps it small enough that the whole thing feels like staying with someone who has very good taste and no interest in being predictable.

Two renovated mid-century motels fused into one boutique hotel with a mountain-lodge sensibility, the Coachman sits close enough to Lake Tahoe that you can smell the pine and close enough to the Nevada state line that you know exactly what your evening options are. The lobby bar pours Stumptown coffee by day and local beer by night, which covers most needs. Rooms lean toward camp-rustic chic, amenities are spare but well-chosen, and Heavenly's gondola is a short walk away.

A sea captain's house steps from Edgartown harbor, now a boutique hotel where the decor reads less "beach rental" and more "well-traveled person with good taste in velvet." Jewel tones, Eastern-inspired wallpapers, and original crown moldings share space without apologizing to each other. It's a small property, so the vibe is intimate rather than resort-y, which suits the neighborhood just fine.

A former ship captain's house on Martha's Vineyard that has been around forever, The Edgartown Inn sidesteps the heavy nautical decor that tends to wash over the island and goes bright and contemporary instead, modern farmhouse where you'd expect rope and brass. The 21 rooms come with waffle kimono robes, some with harbor views, and the location puts you a block from the water and Edgartown's walkable center.

Richly figured wood and leather set the tone at this boutique hotel inside Century Square, a 60-acre development that effectively dropped a small urban neighborhood next to the Texas A&M campus. Rooms run from swanky Kings to 800-square-foot Executive Suites, and the 1791 Whiskey Bar downstairs gives you a perfectly reasonable excuse to never leave the building, though an upscale chophouse is right outside if you do.

A former sea captain's house on Edgartown's Main Street, converted into a 16-room boutique hotel with the kind of quiet, unhurried atmosphere that makes you feel slightly more important than you are. Lark Hotels runs several properties in the area, and each one picks up the local tone; this one leans into the old-money-by-the-water feeling without being stuffy about it. A Michelin Selected Hotel.

Deer drift down from the hills at dusk to feed just outside the lounge windows, and guests tend to go quiet when it happens. This Pocono Mountains resort pairs soaring wood-and-stone architecture with marble and warm timber inside, fireplaces and velvet armchairs keeping things from tipping too far into lodge-grand. Many suites have private heated plunge pools, and the indoor-outdoor pool lets you swim while snow falls.

A Nordic spa on wooded Blue Ridge grounds, with a cold plunge, sauna, and hot tub, sets the tone at this mountain retreat outside Highlands. The log cabin supper club serves Southern cooking, renovated rooms lean into local character, and the property sits close enough to town that you don't feel stranded. Hikers, fly fishers, and rock climbers tend to fill the place, returning to the spa with the particular satisfaction of having earned it.