The Best Places to Eat and Stay in the United States

Zaranda is a sit-down Baja restaurant from Hugo Ortega, with big windows looking out over Discovery Green, so even the people watching are scenic. The namesake fish is butterflied and cooked over flames in a wire basket, then brought out with giant tortillas and a trio of salsas. Ortega's name has been a semifinalist for Outstanding Restaurateur from the James Beard Awards, and brunch and dessert both get their own following.

You can't build your own pizza here, and that's the point. The menu lists eighteen pies, each already balanced by a chef who spent years making bread first, and you can feel it in the dough, a long-fermented thing with real acidity and char underneath. Fresh-sliced cheese, no customization, and they sell out, so booking ahead saves heartbreak. A small, no-frills pizza parlor on Hawthorne that tastes entirely like itself.

Neapolitan-style pizza in an Eastside strip that pulls off the modern trattoria mood without the affectation: soft lighting, considered furniture, a patio worth using. The dough gets a long ferment, which shows in the char and the chew, and the toppings lean on classic Italian regional ideas rather than anything trying to surprise you. The wine list is genuinely interesting for a pizza place. It's the kind of room where you linger longer than you planned.

Detroit-style square pan pizza is the whole point here, with a thick, airy crumb, a crispy cheese-lacquered edge, and toppings pushed all the way to the crust. The combinations run bold, burrata next to spicy honey, jalapeño whipped ricotta finding its way onto more than one pie. The room is young and casual, the staff talks about the dough the way other people talk about sports, and 50 Top Pizza has taken notice.

The counter has one view worth having: the ovens, going all day. Scottie's is a New York-style slice shop on SE Division, small enough that one booth and a high table constitute the seating plan, with a couple of benches outside when Portland cooperates. The menu runs classics alongside a vodka slice and a reimagined Hawaiian, with a grandma square that earns its square footage. Counter staff will talk you through it without making it a whole thing.

Eight hundred and twenty-five acres perched at the edge of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, with twelve miles of trails for hiking and horseback riding threading through the property. Cataloochee Ranch is a mountain resort that's been around forever but has shed the rustic-rough edges for something considerably more comfortable. An on-site restaurant, Switchback, takes High Country cooking and puts a French-trained hand behind it, which is not a sentence you expect to write about Maggie Valley.

Flight-themed décor fills this 375-room hotel near the U.S. Air Force Academy, where mid-century modern bones meet aviation nostalgia at every turn. Rooms run tech-forward with views toward the Rampart Range, and the rooftop Aviator bar handles cocktails and small plates when you're done looking at mountains. A spa, a classic American dining room, and a spot serving hot dogs with yard games and flight simulators round out the options.

Checkerboard floors and warm wood tones set the mid-century modern tone at this all-suite boutique hotel a short walk from the Pismo Beach sand. Every suite comes with a full kitchen, a separate living area, and ocean views, which makes it popular with families staying more than a night or two. Casper California Kings and Malin and Goetz bath products signal that the details are taken seriously. Wine country and Avila Beach are both close.

A century-old downtown hotel reimagined as a wellness-forward boutique stay, SCP stands for Soul Community Planet, which tells you exactly the kind of place this is. Rooms lean into calming, minimalist design with materials and artwork that nod to Oregon's landscape. A rooftop restaurant and bar, a ground-floor lounge, and a grab-and-go market keep you fed without ever making you feel like you've wandered into a regular hotel.

The only full-scale resort on the Outer Banks, which tells you something about how carefully this stretch of North Carolina has stayed out of the brochures. Miles of stark, wide beach, sand-swept two-lane roads, and a faint Southern accent define the surroundings. The Sanderling sits in Duck, a quiet town where the competition is mostly homey seafood shacks, making this the outlier, and for some guests, the whole point.

Glamping in the shadow of the Absaroka Range, with canvas tents pitched in Paradise Valley and Yellowstone's north entrance less than an hour away. Under Canvas does the upscale outdoor lodging thing: proper beds, outdoor showers, fire pits, and a sky that earns its keep after dark. You're closer to Bozeman than Old Faithful, which suits most guests fine once they see the elk.

The dough does double duty here: the same flour-and-water base becomes both pizza and pasta, which is either a philosophy or a very good way to halve your mise en place. This North Beach pizzeria turns out thin-crust pies that lean Italian in spirit but drift Californian in practice, in a wood-warmed room that moves with easy efficiency. Save room for the spoon desserts, which the regulars treat as non-negotiable.

A whole-pie-only pizza shop in Little Italy where forty-minute waits after ordering are a known feature, not a glitch. The room is dark wood and minimal, with long counter seating facing the oven, and it moves with the focused calm of a place that has decided exactly what it is. Thin, crispy NY-style pies, no topping customization, no half-measures. The New York Times named it among the city's best pizza right now.

The move here is the caramelized crust, where cheese climbs the edge of the pan and turns amber in the oven, somewhere between crispy and deeply fragrant. Pequod's has been doing deep-dish this way since the 1970s, and the result is a pizza that's almost architectural: soft dough, abundant fillings, a bold, substantial bite. It's a no-frills Chicago pizzeria where getting a table takes patience and the slices arrive hot enough to require some too.

The name nods to the culinary slang for "out of stock," and supposedly the slang nods back to this building. That circular logic fits a steakhouse so committed to provenance it sources mature Spanish Vaca Vieja cattle from a New Jersey farm and reads its beef list less like a menu than a position paper. A Himalayan salt ageing room sits below the original Prohibition-era bar. The cut gets cooked on a Spanish plancha, a broiler, or Japanese binchōtan, whichever suits that particular animal.

The coffee here traveled from a family farm in Colombia to a mural on the wall mapping the whole journey, and eventually into your cup. This Tempe coffee shop serves arepas and pandebono alongside the usual avocado toast, and regulars at the counter tend to get greeted by name. The seasonal menu turns over often enough to reward repeat visits, and the vibe leans comfortably toward long mornings with homework or nowhere particular to be.

The red-brick shell of a century-old industrial building still stands, and inside it sits one of the more charming boutique hotels on the Maine coast. Rooms and suites lean into the bones of the structure, so the gas fireplaces and built-ins feel like they belong rather than arrived from a catalog. Steps from Camden Harbor, and central enough that you can walk everywhere the town has to offer without once moving your car.

Weathered ceiling slats in the lobby nod to Maine's shipbuilding past while everything around them is firmly contemporary, which is a neat trick for a boutique hotel in a town that has always had an artistic streak. Rooms are clean-lined but warm, with rich textures and original art that keep things from feeling sterile. The Farnsworth's Wyeth collection is a short walk away, and the kitchen sends out breakfast before pointing you toward Rockland's quietly impressive dining scene.

The rooms have no televisions, no phones, and no alarm clocks, which is either the selling point or the dealbreaker depending on who you are. This resort on Maui's remote eastern shore is the kind of place people describe as a "reset," and for once that word fits. The Michelin Guide has it among its selected hotels. Come with nowhere to be and no one expecting a reply.

A red-brick Federal building sitting directly across from the Dartmouth Green, Hanover Inn is the kind of hotel that has absorbed a few centuries of visiting academics and commencement speeches without losing its composure. Rooms fold contemporary comfort into the old architecture neatly. The on-site restaurant, PINE, runs a seasonal New England menu that earns its own following. The Michelin Guide has it among its selected hotels.

The original 1960s bathroom tiles are still there, and that pretty much tells you everything about Hotel Lucine's approach. This boutique hotel on Seawall Boulevard leans into its mid-century motel bones: courtyard pool, brown and mustard palette, palm prints, and pastels. Guests drift between the rooftop, a coffee-and-cocktails den, and an on-site restaurant doing Gulf Coast classics. The Michelin Guide has it in their Selected Hotels list.

A rambling 19th-century inn in the Vermont countryside where the rooms still have actual antique furnishings and Woodstock is genuinely out the window. The Michelin Guide has it in Selected Hotels. On property you'll find Ransom Tavern, doing wood-fired Neapolitan pizza and a long wine list Thursday through Sunday, plus a country store café for breakfast and lunch when you need somewhere to be slowly about coffee.

Iron bed frames, patterned wallpapers, and red accent chairs make this 60-room downtown hotel feel like a considered nod to Utah's pioneer past rather than a generic trailhead stopover. Part of Marriott's Autograph Collection, it sits an hour from Zion and Snow Canyon, which tells you exactly who's filling the rooms. The in-house restaurant leans into Western cooking tradition, and balconies frame the red rock landscape when you've had enough of being in it.

Edna St. Vincent Millay launched her career in this very house, which is either the best fun fact in Maine hospitality or a very good reason to stay somewhere else if you failed AP English. A renovated mansion hotel on High Street, Whitehall blends 19th-century New England bones with mid-century modernism, and puts you walking distance from both Camden's harbor and Mount Battie's hiking trails. Open May through October.

A coffee shop tucked among antique stores and auto garages in Old Town Peoria, which tells you something about the neighborhood and something about the owners' confidence. Driftwood keeps things bright and unhurried, pulls from both local and national roasters, and runs a menu that ranges from straightforward espresso drinks to things called Cereal Killer Lattes. A small shelf of local ceramics and art lines one wall, in case the matcha wasn't enough.

Baby pink tiles and floor-to-ceiling windows set the mood at this Mexican coffee shop inside Tempe's car-free Culdesac community. Daytime runs on carajillos, mazapan lattes, horchata, and breakfast bites; Thursday through Saturday it pivots to wine, amari, and ceviche. The team behind Tacos Chiwas brought the same ease here, and the cozy booths fill with people who seem in no particular hurry to leave.

A roll-up garage door on a repurposed corner house sets the tone for this tiny Old Town Scottsdale coffee shop, which doubles as a weekend car show venue. The counter fits maybe two people standing, but a shaded patio and a quiet garden out back absorb the overflow. Weekend mornings bring themed gatherings of Porsches or vintage off-roaders, which pairs better with a lavender honey latte than you might expect.

A three-level, sunlight-flooded cafe in uptown Phoenix that also runs a full cocktail program, which makes the brunch crowd's priorities refreshingly transparent. Provision is a modern coffee shop doing the classics alongside seasonal lattes and mocha with Oreo crumbles, with quiche, pastries, and sandwiches filling out a menu that gives people a reason to stay well past the first cup.

Two-thirds of this coffee shop's floor space belongs to the roasting operation, not the tables, which tells you everything about where the priorities are. Bags of beans, multiple roasters, all the gear, and baristas who actually want to talk through the difference between a washed process and an unwashed one. The website specifies that specialty coffee newcomers are in a safe place here, and they mean it.

The sourdough starter for the bagels here is fed with imported Brooklyn water, a detail that tells you exactly where this deli-bar's loyalties lie. Grossman's is a relaxed Jewish-style deli and cocktail bar in Santa Rosa, turning out knishes, latkes, and chopped liver in a corner of California that doesn't see nearly enough of them. The San Francisco Chronicle named it among the best restaurants in Sonoma County and called its bagels the best in the Bay Area.

Each room in this Catskills mansion hotel commits completely to a single fantasy: one recreates a blacksmith's forge, another is an ice-white winter fantasia that a Disney princess would find a touch understated. Sister property to the famously TV-and-movie-obsessed Roxbury Motel, this place carries the same gleeful maximalism into a grander building. Guests who find regular hotel decor too timid tend to fit right in.

Pine forest on one side, the Atlantic on the other, and a porch pointed straight at Linekin Bay. This boutique inn along East Boothbay's craggy shoreline was a summer colony once, and it still feels that way, with nautical stripes, weathered wood, and a fire pit where guests end up eating s'mores later than they planned. Kayaks, schooner sails, and lobster rolls from an Adirondack chair round out the days. A Michelin Selected Hotel.

Five bedrooms tucked into a Telluride townhouse, decorated in a style that tips its hat to the town's Tyrolean roots rather than the usual antler-and-plaid. This is a boutique guesthouse, meaning a party of ten can take the whole place, and given how far in advance it tends to fill, that's worth knowing early. It sits in the same family as Dunton Hot Springs and Dunton River Camp, which have made a name for outdoor luxury that skips the Rocky Mountain clichés.

A 45-foot saltwater pool tucked behind eight rooms is the first hint that this is not your average Jersey Shore motel. Lokal is a boutique hotel that leans into the residential fantasy, contemporary-rustic rooms with quietly upscale details, no party-scene energy in sight. Cape May already runs quieter than the rest of the Shore, and the Michelin Guide has this place on its selected hotels list. Think less "beach rental" and more "friend with a very nice house."

A farmhouse and cow barn that traded their original purpose for a boutique hotel gig, and pulled it off. The modern-rustic rooms sit steps from the Appalachian Trail and close enough to the Killington K1 gondola that you can plan your day around either. Mornings start with a country breakfast; the Kent Bistro & Bar handles the rest of the day with locally sourced cooking. Selected by the Michelin Guide.

A private gondola connects this One&Only mountain resort directly to Big Sky's lift system, which goes some way toward explaining the seclusion. Olson Kundig handled the architecture, and the result is the kind of serious modern-luxe that doesn't shout. Winter draws the obvious crowd, but the expansive spa and outdoor recreation calendar make a summer case too. Big Sky runs rougher than Aspen, and the resort leans into that rather than apologizing for it.

Fifty-seven acres of Maine peninsula, with the Atlantic on three sides and spruce trees filling in the rest. Spruce Point Inn is a full-service coastal resort outside Boothbay Harbor, ranging from rooms in the old inn to scattered cottages and lodges, all done in breezy nautical without going kitschy. There are restaurants, a spa, and an oceanside pool, plus every kayak-and-hiking combination you'd expect from a place that takes the outdoors seriously.

Perched on the shores of Penobscot Bay between Camden and Belfast, this boutique hotel splits its rooms between a main inn, a hilltop building, and a poolhouse, with king beds and gas fireplaces throughout. The infinity pool does the heavy lifting on lazy afternoons, and there's a small spa for good measure. Acadia is ninety minutes away if you feel like being ambitious, but Midcoast Maine has a way of making ambitious feel unnecessary.

A contractor and an interior designer bought an unremarkable roadside motel in one of California's last genuinely sleepy beach towns and turned it into a boutique stay worth seeking out. Cayucos sits a few minutes from San Luis Obispo and operates at a remove from the whole sun-bleached circus of SoCal coast life. The Pacific Motel is a block and a half from the water, selected by the Michelin Guide, and priced like it hasn't noticed.

Four 19th-century buildings on Maryland's Eastern Shore, renovated by a pair of D.C. sisters with design backgrounds into a small, stylish hotel just off the Chesapeake Bay. St. Michaels is one of those historic waterfront towns that leans hard into its colonial bones, so the Wildset's contemporary interiors make a quietly pointed statement. Baltimore and Washington are both about ninety minutes away, which tells you exactly who books a long weekend here.

Secondhand china covers the walls and lands on the table at this mostly French restaurant in Over-the-Rhine, which leans firmly away from the stiff Euro-bistro formula. The room is bright and a little grandmotherly, the service moves fast, and the pastry program is treated with the seriousness it deserves. Pain maison and mille-feuille are the arguments for arriving hungry and leaving slower than you planned.

The Scuffin, a scone-muffin hybrid, is what most people order right after their coffee at this specialty coffee shop in Kaka'ako's SALT complex. 9Bar HNL runs a multi-roaster pourover bar with rotating guest coffees alongside seasonal drinks that lean creative without tipping into gimmick. The banana bread latte and cold brew chai have both made appearances, and the coffee flight is a nice way to kill an afternoon.

The door on Vine Street is easy to walk past, which is a shame because the tapas inside are hard to forget. This Mediterranean small-plates spot in Over-the-Rhine keeps things playful, from wood-fired octopus to a hummus plate that changes daily and pulls regulars in on its own. The pistachio baklava arrives as a thick slab of filling with pastry almost as an afterthought, and the servers watch you react like they've seen it before and still enjoy it.

A coffee shop in San Jose's SoFa district where single-origin espressos share the menu with drinks drawing on Asian flavors, the kind of detail that makes regulars possessive about their order. The space has been a Downtown gathering spot for years, and the staff friendliness that built its reputation hasn't faded. Sprudge flagged it in their San Jose coffee guide, which tracks.

A painted grain silo towers over the plaza outside, which tells you something about the ambition of this coffee shop's setting. The Santa Clara outpost of a San Jose small-batch cafe shares an outdoor space with an urban farm, a bocce court, and a community garden that perfumes the whole terrace. Inside, a line snakes out the door, the staff stays warm about it, and drinks lean toward Asian-inflected flavors and single-origin espresso.

The ube latte quietly became a neighborhood obsession here, which is a little funny given that this is a coffee shop where the roaster's heart is in filter work. Blue Mind roasts its single-origin beans onsite in the Meridian-Kessler neighborhood, and the whole operation has a family-run warmth that isn't performed for the room. Pour-overs and sweet signature drinks share the menu without any obvious hierarchy.

The line outside this Berkeley bagel shop has been there since day one and shows no sign of leaving. Boichik turns out chubby, chewy, malty New York-style bagels, kosher and done traditionally: salt bagels heavy with big sea-salt flakes, pumpernickel baked nearly chocolate-dark. The San Francisco Chronicle named them the Bay Area's best. Cream cheese runs from plain whipped to Hatch chile, and the house-made whitefish salad sandwich makes a strong case for staying.

A takeout coffee counter tucked inside a corner grocery in Burlington's Old North End, Carrier Roasting posts its sourcing contracts and coffee scores on the menu board alongside its drink list, so you know exactly what you're buying and what was paid for it. The Northfielder, a shaken quad iced maple latte, handles the obligatory Vermont maple moment with more conviction than most. Drip coffee gets serious attention here too.

A Poursteady automated pour-over system and a zero-emissions roaster running during service set the tone at this coffee shop inside Mitsuwa Marketplace. The house obsession is alkaline water, the kind of detail that sounds fussy until you taste the espresso. The gear is serious, the vibe is not, and the space fills up the way the owners intended, somewhere between a Swiss cafe and an Asian coffee house.