The Best Places in the United States

A comfortable hotel that plays the geography smart, sitting close enough to Newport for the beaches, mansions, and vineyards, but far enough to dodge the summer chaos. Rooms run bright and spacious, some with kitchenettes and balconies. The on-site restaurant, The Helmway, leans into New England standards like lobster rolls made with local ingredients. The Norman Bird Sanctuary is a short drive if you need an excuse to skip the car museum.

Directly across Pacific Coast Highway from the break that gave it its name, the Surfrider Malibu is a boutique hotel that took a Fifties building and quietly made it the thing Malibu somehow never had. The team behind it, a Californian architect and a couple of improbable partners, kept the bones and let the ocean do the decorating. Rooms fill fast with people who'd rather wake up to surf reports than room service carts.

This is a downtown Fremont Street slice joint that doubles as a shrine to Evel Knievel, with memorabilia on the walls and a Knievel pinball machine to keep you busy while the oven works. The New York-style slices are big, the crust is crisp, and the candied bacon is there if you want it. The whole pies are pricey, but an eight-dollar slice and a beer is the move. Nobody here is sober enough to question the motorcycle mural.

Some of the bagels here are so large they've lost their holes entirely, which feels like a metaphor for Midtown but is actually just breakfast. This no-frills bagel shop near Penn Station runs like a commuter train that actually shows up: the line moves, the bagels come out hot, and the chewy, twisty exterior is what you came for. The New York Times named it among the city's best, and the 8 a.m. crowd would agree without looking up.

The rice comes out burgundy, not white, because Harumi uses Forbidden black rice, and that detail alone tells you this is a modern sushi spot with a point of view. It sits in downtown Phoenix, small and lively, with an omakase option that won't require a financial intervention. The fish is clean and familiar rather than obscure, which suits the pre-show crowd it draws. Phoenix New Times named it a top pick for eating before a downtown event.

Nocturno is a low-lit Arts District cocktail bar with a menu of over 100 drinks, which is a lot of homework before your first sip. Sit at the bar instead and the bartender will quiz you on your favorite spirit, then turn it into something like mezcal with honey and chili. The kitchen sends out gnocchi and a fried potato tower, and the smash burger shows up only on Sundays. It was a James Beard Best New Bar semifinalist.

This is a lively coastal Italian restaurant on the Strip that clearly wants you to leave without needing a nap. The kitchen keeps things light and bright, so the casarecce arrives in garlicky tomato sauce with a Calabrian chile kick, and the Roman-style pizzas have a crisp, airy crust. The beet salad draws second helpings, and the limoncello spritzes help you pretend you're somewhere near an actual coast.

The clam pie, made with fresh Little Neck Bay clams shucked to order, has to be requested in advance, which tells you something about the kind of pizza shop this is. Thin, foldable New York slices and airy Grandma squares handle the walk-in crowd on 30th Avenue in Astoria. Named for its late founder, the place has kept its footing under new stewardship. It landed on 50 Top Pizza USA and the Times's best-in-New York list.

Ten rooms on the Bridgehampton stretch of the Montauk Highway, styled as a luxury motel in the way that phrase is meant to make you pause. The team behind it describes themselves as "a team of dedicated maniacs," which tracks: this is the classic motel-with-potential takeover, done with the kind of attention that turns a roadside stay into a detour worth planning around. Selected by the Michelin Guide.

A rooftop pool bar named Perspective, a gallery running seasonal exhibitions, and a lounge called Gallery Lounge: the art theme at this boutique hotel is not what you'd call subtle. Part of Marriott's Autograph Collection, it has the infrastructure of a big operation behind its modernist-chic personality. Overture handles food and drink at ground level when you need a break from admiring things.

The refurbished 1961 palm tree roadside sign out front tells you everything about what this boutique hotel is trying to do: resurrect a classic Texas motor court without the questionable plumbing. Car-seat upholstery, burlwood headboards, and headlamp-shaped fixtures carry the automotive theme through all 143 rooms. A restaurant, a social club, and a rooftop bar mean you can stay in all night, and AT&T Stadium is minutes away when you can't.

A cluster of 19th-century conch houses stitched together into a 44-room boutique hotel, the Kimpton Fitch Lodge barely looks like a hotel from the street, which is half the point. The residential scale keeps things unhurried, and the outdoor pool, loaner bikes, and a nightly hosted social hour keep them social. It sits just off the waterfront, making diving, sailing, or ferry departures easy to reach without much planning.

A hotel a block from the University of Wisconsin campus that actually has something to say for itself, which is rarer in college-town lodging than it should be. The Graduate by Hilton has the feel of a place that knows its neighborhood without leaning on it too hard, cosmopolitan enough to hold its own against a school that punches well above the provincial. Selected by the Michelin Guide.

Wine country has produced its own design dialect, and Kenwood Inn and Spa speaks it fluently: stone fireplaces, courtyard fountains, and enough warm terracotta to make you forget there's a highway outside. It sits on Route 12 in the Sonoma Valley, sized somewhere between an impersonal resort and an aggressively cozy B&B, which turns out to be the right call for cork-chasers and romantics arriving with a weekend and a winery list.

Sunrise yoga on the North Shore, with the kind of setting that makes participation feel less like a chore and more like showing off. Lumeria is a wellness retreat selected by the Michelin Guide, and it leans hard into the healing arts, from meditation to organic farming, without shaming the guests who came mainly to sleep until noon. The vibe is quietly earnest rather than preachy, which puts it firmly in a different universe from Maui's mai tai resorts.

Indian Wells sits quietly between Palm Springs and Indio, and most people drive straight through to the tennis tournament and leave. The Sands Hotel and Spa gives you a reason to stay put, a boutique luxury property with the kind of design and comfort that makes the whole Coachella Valley feel like it was your idea all along. The pool situation, as you'd expect in the desert, is the center of gravity.

Sitting at the southernmost tip of the continental United States, this beach resort straddles the turquoise Atlantic and Key West's chaotic Duval Street, which is either perfect or a lot, depending on your evening plans. A midcentury overhaul swapped tired tropics for cobalt, coral, and woven rugs on wood floors. The adults-only guesthouses, set in a pair of restored Victorians next door, are the quieter bet.

Thirty-five acres of Willamette Valley vineyard and woodland, less than an hour from Portland, make a convincing argument for never going back to the city. The Allison Inn & Spa is a full luxury resort in pinot noir country, where the architecture nods vaguely European but never forgets it's in the Pacific Northwest. Wine country has been creeping toward Napa-level ambition for a while now, and this place has been leading the charge.

A 39-room boutique hotel on three acres above Brushy Creek in Round Rock, north of Austin, where century-old live oaks do most of the decorating. The original farmhouse on the property still stands and now holds the bar, which is the kind of detail that earns a place its character without trying. The surrounding Austin sprawl exists, technically, but you can't really tell from the grounds.

Sagaponack is the Hamptons village that people in the know prefer precisely because it isn't a scene. This freshly renovated resort spreads across seven acres with 30 rooms ranging from detached bungalows with kitchenettes to suites, all done in white, navy, and sage. Beach passes, stocked lockers, and a pantry stocked with morning pastries to ice cream handle the logistics so you don't have to. Long Island's best beaches are close enough to walk.

Named for maritime painter Winslow Homer, this collection of historic houses spreads across Key West's old district with three swimming pools and a poolside Bungalow Bar tying it all together. The rooms mix contemporary interiors with the buildings' original bones, and the common outdoor spaces are generous enough that you'll forget you're in the middle of town. The Michelin Guide has it among its selected hotels.

Palate is a sit-down restaurant where velvet chairs and chandeliers the size of small cars make the dining room look like a fantasy ballroom. The menu runs on Southern comfort food that wanders off in several directions, and the cocktails arrive with props, including one served beside steel wool that gets set on fire. Swan Dive is upstairs, so dinner here doubles as a warm-up act.

Hank's is a Henderson steakhouse with white tablecloths and glowing fireplaces, plus a piano bar where a cover band might be working through Sublime while you hold a half-off dirty martini. The happy hour menu is the steakhouse-lite route, all tiny tuna tacos and beef wellington bites in beer cheese, though the full dinner runs to Kobe ribeye sold by the ounce, so bring a calculator or a generous spouse.

Wood-fired oven anchoring an open kitchen, high ceilings, warm wood everywhere: Nostrana reads like the kind of Italian restaurant Portland genuinely needed someone to get right. Chef Cathy Whims built the menu around regional Italian cooking and Pacific Northwest ingredients, with pizza holding its own among the broader offerings. The naturally leavened dough and housemade mozzarella keep purists happy without making the rest of the menu feel like an afterthought.

This is a strip-mall sushi counter on the Westside, no frills, where the sashimi is spotless and the nigiri keeps things simple. The menu is gentle on beginners, with a starter platter built around the California roll, while the chirashi bowl comes loaded like a small aquarium. Reservations go through a phone line that only picks up at certain hours, which is either a hassle or a personality, depending on your patience.

Sylvia's is a relaxed, family-run Mexican restaurant on Woodway where the menu is basically one long argument about enchiladas, each named after a city in Mexico or Texas. They come under chili gravy, mole, or salsa verde, and the servers will happily bend the menu around you. The mini sampler lets you try several before committing, which is how regulars settled on their favorite. It was a James Beard semifinalist, Best Chef: Texas.

The puffy, air-bubbled crust known as canotto is the thing here, a contemporary Neapolitan style where the dough does the talking before any topping gets involved. Si Cara is a cozy artisanal pizza spot on Mass Ave, running seasonal pies alongside the classics, with wines and cocktails to match. It landed on 50 Top Pizza USA, if you need a reason beyond the margherita. The room feels like someone's dining room, which is sort of the whole point.

The xiao long bao are made in-house, and you can watch through the glass as the pleating happens at speed. This is the New York outpost of the global dumpling chain, set in a large underground room near Times Square that runs loud and packed most hours of the day. The New York Times gave it a star in 2024, which did nothing to shorten the line. Expect a menu of soup dumplings in various fillings, a youthful crowd, and prices that won't require a moment of hesitation.

Two wood-fired ovens sit behind a glass partition so you can watch the dough work its way in and out of the flame, which sets the tone for this casual Tucson pizza spot. The crust lands soft inside and properly crisp at the edge, and the menu earns its keep beyond pizza too. Friendly staff who can actually tell you the history of the place round out a room that feels genuinely independent rather than assembled by committee. It placed on 50 Top Pizza USA.

Ai Pazzi is a sit-down Italian restaurant inside the JW Marriott in Summerlin, run by Top Chef fan favorite Fabio Viviani, where servers wheel carts to your table and finish fettuccine alfredo in front of you. The mozzarella gets hand-pulled at the table too, so dinner has a bit of theater. The wagyu meatball is the size of a small planet, and a pizza counter next door handles the more casual urges.

The hood of your car doubles as your table at this late-night taco truck on Fulton, where the line forms fast after the bars close and moves just as fast. Fajita tacos with Oaxacan cheese and a creamy green salsa that bites back are the reason to show up, along with a Mexican Coke cold enough to justify the wait. No seating, no frills, just the sidewalk and whoever else is hungry at this hour.

El Tiempo is a Tex-Mex cantina in Upper Kirby, run by Mama Ninfa's son, which makes the Houston argument over this one versus Ninfa's something close to a family dispute with a public comment section. Wooden tables, high archways, and relics on the walls set the scene, and it's loud in the fun way without being unthinkable. The carnitas arrive sizzling over coals, and pitchers of house margaritas tend to follow.

A bleached cow skull in the parking lot tells you everything about Gerardo's Drive In, a weekend-only taqueria and meat market on the Northside that's been steaming barbacoa since the late '70s. You can sit down to a few tacos, buy meat by the pound, or take home an entire cow's head, which is a very specific kind of leftovers. It's casual, cheap, and made for people who plan their Saturdays around lunch.

Laredo Taqueria is a no-frills counter-service taco spot where the steam table does the talking and the flour tortillas do the heavy lifting. Expect a line, and expect the regulars ahead of you to know their order cold, so use the wait to study the breakfast and lunch options. Ordering on corn is permitted, but you'll be skipping the thing that holds every breakfast taco here together. Cash-in-pocket prices, work-boots-to-business-casual crowd.

A Tex-Mex cantina where half the menu is named after actual customers, which makes ordering feel like reading a very cheesy yearbook. The Berlys Burrito comes smothered in chili con carne, and the plates are built for people who skipped lunch on purpose. It's casual, sauce-forward, and old-school Houston, with margaritas that have won local best-of lists and tend to arrive before you've finished sitting down.

Moon Doggies is a sports bar where the kitchen keeps going long after the game has been decided, which suits both the celebrating and the consoling. The wings get fried, then tossed in a wok with teriyaki until they turn sticky, sweet, and a little charred at the edges. Thick-crust pizza with honey balsamic is the backup plan for anyone still hungry after the napkins run out.