The Best Places to Eat and Stay in the United States

A seafood counter tucked inside Fair Isle Brewing, La Marea brings Mexican coastal cooking to a city that usually prefers its seafood left alone. Hamachi and tuna arrive over tostadas, sliced with a precision that suggests sushi somewhere in the team's past. The scallop aguachile and chile morita aioli do not shy from heat. The brewery's farmhouse ales and saisons make good company, and the shared space keeps the whole thing loose.

The pastry case up front, stacked with crepe and box cakes in flavors like durian and chestnut, hints that this Aurora-border spot plays by its own rules. It's a small, easy-to-miss Hong Kong-style restaurant where the chef's special section does the heavy lifting, and several of the greatest hits aren't on the menu at all. Ask about the salt-and-pepper tofu, and call ahead if you want crab or lobster.

The fried shrimp comes with aioli, the zucchini blossoms are stuffed, and the whole thing sits next door to Chez Panisse, which is either coincidence or not. Alice Waters is behind this too, a casual wine bar where the farm-to-table reverence is intact but the menu reads lighter and less ceremonious than its famous neighbor. The New York Times gave it two stars in 2026, which for a neighborhood spot serving butter beans is a lot to live down.

The pita comes straight from a pizza oven on the sidewalk, still puffed with steam when it hits the table. Yerord Mas is a tiny, no-frills Armenian restaurant in a former doughnut shop on San Fernando Road, and no, they don't do takeout. The chef pulls from diaspora kitchens across Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Iran, and beyond, treating the differences as a single, coherent argument for why Los Angeles exists. The New York Times put it on their 2026 Restaurant List.

The slices here are slender, which is a statement in a borough where bigger is considered better. F&F is a slice shop in Carroll Gardens running a quiet argument for restraint: a careful sauce-to-cheese ratio, toppings used sparingly and only when they add something. The New York Times put it on their short list of the city's best pizza places, and Grub Street agreed. Come hungry but not starving, because the line moves at its own pace.

Pizzeria Leopold is a Lakewood pizza shop that doubles as an Italian grocer, which means you can order a pie and leave with a jar of something imported. The sandwich menu has a cult of its own, led by a four-inch chicken cutlet stack that reads like a New Jersey deli trying to settle down in the Denver suburbs. Casual counter ordering, no dress code, and it turns up on Westword's list of the top restaurants in Denver.

An old tavern in Bucks County farm country, about an hour from Philadelphia, that has been turned into a boutique hotel without being stripped of its bones. The building has been around forever, and the team has leaned into that with a modern-retro style that's theatrical without tipping into theme park. Good for a weekend when the city stops making sense and you need a road that narrows before it gets quiet.

Shiplap walls, tapestries over the beds, and a vibe that reads surf hippie without trying too hard. This Montauk motel has been in the Daunt family for generations, and it wears that history lightly, skewing more beach-cottage cool than anything the word "motel" usually promises. Sandy feet are the dress code, the on-site restaurant The Bird has been here forever, and the Michelin Guide has taken notice of the whole operation.

The Graduate brand has a formula: find a college town with a forgettable hotel scene and replace it with something that actually knows where it is. In Annapolis, home to the Naval Academy and St. John's College, that means a colorful, niche-focused hotel that wears its setting without apology. The Michelin Guide has it in their Selected Hotels list, which tracks.

A boutique hotel carved out of an 1885 estate in Leesburg, a town that once hid the National Archives and later became a quiet retreat for Washington's political class. Fireplaces anchor multiple suites, the Rooftop Suite has its own outdoor terrace above the roofline, and the in-house restaurant runs a hunt-inspired dinner menu. Loudoun County's vineyards and equestrian estates spread out just beyond town.

A French Revival mansion on a sprawling private estate that a prominent local family eventually decided to share with the rest of us. Hotel Hartness is a luxury boutique hotel sitting inside that former family home, surrounded by 180 acres of preserved green space, which makes it feel less like checking into a hotel and more like being a very welcome houseguest at someone else's inheritance.

An 1890s Victorian mansion in Tannersville that has been stripped of its Victorian earnestness and refilled with modernist design pieces and rotating work by contemporary New York artists. The 18-room boutique hotel sits in the Catskills at a moment when the region is trading resort sprawl for something smaller and stranger. The result reads less like a period restoration and more like a well-curated apartment where the art keeps changing.

Fifteen acres of Texas Hill Country outside Dripping Springs, where your options range from a yurt to a full four-bedroom Ranch House depending on how many people you're avoiding or inviting. This boutique retreat leans rural without apology: modern-rustic cabins, Porch Houses with wraparound porches and kitchenettes, a bathhouse and pool, and enough nearby wineries and breweries to fill a long weekend without much effort.

Sand between your toes is apparently a design philosophy here, not just an oversight. Marram is a 96-room resort in Montauk built around the idea that "barefoot luxury" is a complete sentence, leaning into the town's old surfer looseness rather than polishing it away. Yoga, craft workshops, and weathered-cool décor all pull in the same direction. The in-house restaurant from a Uruguayan chef does seafood and is worth your attention.

Six championship golf courses occupy a resort that could easily have stopped there and called it a day. PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens is a full-scale luxury resort: 339 rooms, a 40,000-square-foot spa, a racquet club, and enough restaurants and bars that non-golfers can book a week and never feel like they wandered into someone else's trip. The Michelin Guide lists it among its selected hotels.

Narragansett has been a surf town forever, but The Break is its first boutique hotel, and it plays the part without reaching for rope coils and ship wheels. Rooms lean mid-century surf-shack instead, many with balconies and gas fireplaces, all with rain showers. There's a pool, a small spa, a bistro downstairs, and a rooftop lounge. The actual surf is a few blocks away, which is either a selling point or a warning, depending on your skill level.

Each of the four suites at this Woodstock inn is named for a rock and roll matriarch, so you're essentially choosing between Aretha, Carole, Joni, and Stevie. It's a small, sustainably minded boutique hotel with clawfoot tubs, wood-paneled bathrooms, and private patios throughout. Bikes and a hot tub are shared by all guests. Two suites welcome dogs, which feels on-brand for a place that already has strong opinions about who deserves to be on the walls.

Three thousand five hundred acres in Rhode Island, which sounds like a typo until you're fly fishing or clay shooting before noon. The Preserve is a wilderness resort built around outdoor pursuits, with lodging that runs from contemporary townhouses to off-grid tiny homes. Evenings go to cedar hot tubs and the spa. The country's longest indoor shooting range is here, which is either the selling point or the detail that makes you call a different hotel.

Crescent Beach sits right outside the door here, with Peconic Bay stretching out beyond it, and the Pridwin has been around forever. It reads more like an Adirondack lodge than a beach resort, which is either confusing or exactly right depending on your mood. The 49 rooms and scattered cottages have been renovated to keep the old bones while adding a cleaner, more considered feel. Shelter Island itself requires a ferry, which keeps the crowds honest.

Tropical Modernist design from Virserius Studio gives this Curio Collection boutique hotel a cleaner, less fussy look than the Art Deco crowd down in Miami. Rooms are crisp and contemporary with relaxed, eclectic touches. The fitness program runs to boxing classes and personal training, three restaurants include a rooftop lounge, and Michelin-starred Akira Back runs the modern Japanese kitchen downstairs.

A freshly overhauled resort on East Atlantic Avenue, the Seagate spans a beach club, an 18-hole golf course, and a spa across Delray Beach. The 157 rooms lean into handcrafted coastal details and locally commissioned art. Michael Mina's Bourbon Steak handles the serious dinner crowd, while Mr. Seas covers the oceanside fare and the Venetian Street Hotel Bar keeps things Italian-inflected for after. The Michelin Guide has it among its selected hotels.

Vegetarian Indian cooking that doesn't feel like a consolation prize for anyone at the table. Besharam, tucked into the Minnesota Street Project arts complex, is a sit-down restaurant where the chef came up through La Cocina and brings a South Asian pantry to bear with real confidence. The pickles and chutneys alone could anchor a meal. Prices stay reasonable, which in this city counts as a minor act of defiance.

The Indian-spiced Southern fried chicken has drawn pilgrims to this Indo-Pakistani restaurant in Houston's Gandhi District for years, and chef Kaiser Lashkari keeps adding reasons to return. Pakistani pastrami, Indian quesadillas, Hyderabadi and Punjabi curries, Goan salmon, mango tres leches: the menu moves around the subcontinent without apology. Anthony Bourdain came through, which tracks. A James Beard semifinalist for Best Chef: Texas.

La Casa De Juliette is a relaxed Mexican spot in Centennial Hills, with big windows set into terra cotta walls and the kind of Tulum-style lighting that makes the northwest valley feel briefly coastal. The chef landed here after crossing paths with the Sand Dollar Lounge team over a bar. Expect street corn with bone marrow and an agua fresca that can be spiked with coconut rum.

This is a counter-service Hawaiian and Filipino spot in a Las Vegas strip-mall unit, decorated like a beach cottage that has never heard of the Strip, complete with an island mural and a "let your dreams set sail" sign. The cashier calls everyone sweetheart. Plates run big enough to split, and the Spam musubi travels well, which is useful if you're headed somewhere with a bar and a dim view of outside food.

This is a fast-casual smashburger counter in Centennial Hills, run by the same people behind Sorry Not Sorry ice cream, so the line-out-the-door routine arrived pre-rehearsed. Black Angus patties get pressed on a hot griddle until the edges go lacy, then land on a potato roll with American cheese and thin onions. The menu is short, the prices are fast-food friendly, and nobody is here to dress up for a burger.

A wood-fired pizzeria in the middle of Old Town Scottsdale that leans into the craft-beer-bar half of its personality as much as the pizza half. The dough is thin but sturdy enough to carry generous toppings without folding, and the homemade mozzarella shows up like it has something to prove. A serious Arizona craft beer list keeps the mood convivial. Ranked 29th on 50 Top Pizza USA, which is a lot for a place with a patio and wooden tables.

Nobuo Fukuda, a James Beard Award winner, runs this intimate Japanese small-plates bar in Scottsdale, where the menu reads like a quiet argument against doing anything halfway. Most dishes land under twenty dollars, from panko-fried tofu with green papaya curry to sunomono with watermelon radish. The sashimi spoons have their own cult following, and an omakase is available by reservation for when you're feeling like committing to the evening.

Élephante lets you print a photo on top of your espresso martini, which is either the future of cocktails or a sign we've collectively lost the plot, possibly both. This lively Mediterranean restaurant on the sixth floor of Scottsdale Fashion Square draws a crowd that skews festive and photograph-ready. The espresso martini comes with a choice of vodka, mezcal, or tequila as the base, and the mocha variation leans into creme de cacao and vanilla.

The building is an old country store, white clapboard on a rural crossroads, and the back shelves still look the part, stocked now with natural wines, tinned fish, and housemade ferments. Up front, an ambitious farm-to-table restaurant turns out a local menu with sophisticated touches and zero attitude. The New York Times put it on their Restaurant List in 2024, and a James Beard semifinalist nod followed. Brunch is a fine excuse for the Midcoast drive.

The chef at this Brooklyn Vietnamese spot trained at Blue Hill at Stone Barns, and it shows, though not in a pretentious farm-to-table way. Falansai is a tasting-menu restaurant where seasonal thinking meets recipes passed down from Saigon, the two pulling in different directions in ways that tend to be interesting. The New York Times gave it two stars and a Critic's Pick in 2026.

New York style slices done with the obsessive raw-material sourcing you'd expect from somewhere with a much more serious dress code. Pizza Baby is a casual pizza shop with two Charlotte locations, a tight Italian wine list, and bread good enough that they sell it separately. The pies run from a no-apology pineapple to a Sicilian, and the team landed a spot on 50 Top Pizza USA, which is exactly the kind of thing regulars mention while waiting for a table.

A wood-fired pizzeria on Mulberry Street where the margherita is the argument: light, airy dough with a properly blistered crust and ingredients that don't try to do too much. The room runs contemporary and lively, and on mild nights the outdoor patio makes the whole thing feel like a small favor from the city. The wine list is surprisingly deep for a pizza spot. Save room for the montebianco.

A Neapolitan pizza restaurant a few miles from Arlington Cemetery, run by the same Sicilian family for close to half a century. The pies follow STG rules, meaning a pillowy, charred crust, properly melty cheese, and a lot of the ingredients shipped over from Italy. The room skews elegant for a pizza place, and the menu stretches well past pizza into pastas and starters, with a wine list that takes itself seriously.

Wood-fired Neapolitan pizza in the middle of the Alps is a proposition that shouldn't work as well as it does. Acquaefarina is a pizza restaurant in Trento where the dough gets the serious treatment: slow-fermented, light enough to finish without regret, with a char on the crust that earns its place. The wine and beer list goes deeper than the usual pizza-joint afterthought. It ranked 32nd on 50 Top Pizza Italy, if you want a number to trust.

Birch-paneled walls and deep green accents make it feel like the forest wandered indoors, which was clearly the point. Bluebird Cady Hill is a 55-room boutique hotel on Mountain Road, a redesigned riff on Stowe's old roadside lodges with considerably better taste in décor. Mt. Mansfield is minutes away, the Cady Hill trails are practically at the door, and the après-ski mood sticks around even when there's no ski to après.

A seventies ski lodge reborn as a boutique hotel at the base of Hunter Mountain, Bluebird leans into the fantasy of upstate New York without overselling it. The look splits the difference between retro summer camp and crisp contemporary design, with comforts that feel genuinely luxurious without tipping into fussy. Hunter Tavern keeps the hearty modern-rustic food you'd want after a day outside. A Michelin Selected Hotel, and the city crowd has clearly noticed.

The coal-fired oven sits at the center of the room like the point it's trying to make, and the point is a New York-style pie with deep Italian roots cooked the way early immigrants did it, because wood was too expensive. This is a comfortable, full-service pizza spot with appetizers, a solid wine list, and a menu that ranges well past margherita territory. Ranked 31st on 50 Top Pizza USA.

The pizzas are named after Louisville neighborhoods, which tells you something about how this Neapolitan-style pizza spot sees itself. The crust leans more pronounced than a traditional Neapolitan, and everything from the appetizers to desserts is made in-house or sourced from local artisans. No delivery, by design, because the pie doesn't survive the trip. It landed on 50 Top Pizza USA, if you need a reason to go in.

The name comes from an obscure white Campanian grape variety, which tells you everything about how seriously this Lakeview spot takes its Southern Italian bona fides. It's a Neapolitan pizza restaurant, wood-fired and traditionally minded, with a patio that leans into the convivial-trattoria feeling. The crust has the soft, charred-edge character the style calls for. 50 Top Pizza USA has taken notice, landing it at number 43 on their national list.

Ten luxury tents on a thousand acres of ranchland a few miles west of Vail, open summer through early fall only. Each tent comes with rain showers, wood-burning stoves, and enough plush linens to make you forget you're camping, which is sort of the point. The lodge handles breakfast and dinner, from a self-grilled BBQ setup to a full tasting menu. Horseback rides, fly-fishing, and mountain biking fill the days; actual Vail is thirty minutes if you need it.

Forty-five Craftsman bungalows spread across 1,700 acres in the Santa Cruz Mountain foothills, each with a fireplace and a soaking tub, most looking out over fairways or valley. This is a full-on golf resort with Robert Trent Jones Jr.'s championship course as the centerpiece, though the One Iron Bar and its martini list have a way of making the back nine feel optional. Il Vigneto handles Californian cooking with produce from the surrounding region.

Lark Hotels planted a modernist, color-forward boutique hotel in one of New England's most resolutely traditional ski towns, and somehow it fits. Field Guide reads less like a rebellion against Stowe's cozy-inn heritage than a cheerful argument with it: bright, contemporary design where you'd usually expect exposed beams and plaid. The kind of place that draws guests who came for the mountain but wouldn't be caught dead in a lodge aesthetic.

The open oven sits at the center of the room like a piece of furniture someone actually thought about, which tells you a lot about Grana before the pizza arrives. This is a contemporary Neapolitan pizza restaurant on East Burnside, bright and carefully put together without feeling precious. The dough runs high-hydration and long-fermented, San Marzano tomatoes and buffalo mozzarella alongside whatever's local. It landed at 26 on 50 Top Pizza USA.

Montauk sits at the farthest tip of Long Island, far enough out that locals just call it The End, and Gurney's has been holding down this stretch of Atlantic coastline longer than most of its guests have been alive. It's a full resort, with ocean views, a seawater pool, and the kind of unhurried pace that the rest of the Hamptons keeps promising but rarely delivers. The crowd leans casual and sand-tolerant, which is exactly right.

A pizza shop in Beaverton where the dough is made with a biga starter, splitting the difference between Neapolitan softness and New York chew, then topped with flavors drawn from Asian pantries. The combination landed Hapa on the 50 Top Pizza USA list. The room is warm and the kitchen moves fast, which matters when half of Beaverton decides to show up at once. Original without being weird about it.

A Dutch Colonial mansion on a private lake in Stone Ridge, about two hours from the city, converted into a boutique hotel with the kind of restraint that makes you feel like you discovered it yourself. The carriage house and stables are now guest rooms, the old swimming pool got a quiet refresh, and the ground floor runs a farm-to-table restaurant called Butterfield. Hudson Valley weekenders who want nature without roughing it have found their place.

The wood-fired oven is shaped like an igloo, and someone thought to write "Food is important" across it in Italian, which sets the tone nicely. This wine bar and Neapolitan pizza spot in a small Iowa town keeps the menu short on purpose: a couple of appetizers, classic and meat-topped pies, tiramisu to finish. It landed on the 50 Top Pizza USA list, which feels both surprising and completely logical once you're there.