The Best Places to Stay and Do in the United States

The working winery came first, and everything else followed. An hour north of Atlanta in the North Georgia foothills, Chateau Elan is a full resort built around 3,500 acres of vineyard and pine forest, with rooms running from wood-and-leather Deluxe Kings up to a Presidential Suite with vineyard views. Five restaurants, a bourbon speakeasy, a spa, and championship golf round things out, which is lucky, since most guests never find a reason to leave.

Bookshelves line the walls of this University of Iowa-adjacent hotel, which makes sense once you remember that Iowa City is home to the Iowa Writers' Workshop, the creative-writing program that launched half the authors on your nightstand. The Graduate leans into that literary identity hard, so expect campus-town energy, Hawkeye pride, and a lobby that feels more like a well-curated reading room than a chain hotel check-in.

Sewing machine motifs and geometric textiles cover the rooms of this downtown hotel, a nod to El Paso's old garment industry that doubles as a quiet history lesson. The building is a 1960s motor inn conversion, and the border-city identity runs through everything: Mamacitas handles locally rooted brunch with Mexican influences, while the fifth-floor cocktail bar sits above a rooftop pool with views across two countries.

The stained-glass ceiling in the Dome Bar has been stopping people mid-sentence for over a century, and it's still the best argument for booking a room in the building around it. Hotel Paso del Norte is a full-on luxury hotel, old-school grandeur in the public spaces, but the rooms go contemporary, with custom furniture and wall-sized murals of antique city maps that make ignoring your inbox feel almost cultured.

A Berkshires wellness resort where you can book a treetop ropes course in the morning and still order a cocktail before dinner, which puts it ahead of most places that use the word "wholesome" this often. The facilities are new, the design runs toward calm without tipping into cold, and the programming swings from spa treatments to beekeeping. It's an easy drive from New York, which the parking lot quietly confirms.

A mid-century motor lodge that never forgot what it was, River Lodge sits visible from the 101 in Paso Robles wine country, its retro façade and postcard pool intact. Rooms were quietly overhauled with bespoke furnishings and private porches, some with hammocks or firepits. Complimentary Linus bikes and a poolside cocktail bar make it easy to stay longer than planned, which is the whole point of wine country anyway.

A lovingly restored 1950s motor inn where the retro bones have been given proper adult upgrades, including full kitchens with Smeg fridges that suggest someone has opinions. This is a self-catered, low-touch stay on the New Hampshire coast, so you're cooking, not calling room service. The beach is directly across Ocean Boulevard, the swim shop has your gear, and Portsmouth is ten minutes away when the tranquility starts to feel suspiciously peaceful.

A former furniture store in downtown El Paso, now a boutique hotel where the walls do most of the talking. Every room carries original work from Mexican, European, and local artists, so the effect lands somewhere between gallery and guestroom. The building itself has been around forever, and the renovation leans into that bones-and-history feel rather than papering over it. A good sign for a city center that has been quietly pulling itself together.

Perched in Chattanooga's Bluff View Art District, the Edwin Hotel is a contemporary property where the art collection spills from the lobby straight into the loft-style rooms, so even unpacking feels vaguely cultured. Whitebird handles dinner with some seriousness, and the Whiskey Thief rooftop bar handles everything else. Chattanooga draws the outdoor crowd, but the Edwin doubles as a social destination for people who also want a good drink after the hike.

Twelve rooms above a Grand Ballroom in the one building that survived a 1940 fire, which tells you something about what you're getting into. The Piccolo is a small, historic inn on Paso Robles's main square, with fireplaces, soaking tubs, and private balconies in each room. The Michelin Guide has it in their Selected Hotels list. Celebrity chef Charlie Palmer runs the restaurants downstairs if you'd rather not wander far for dinner.

Pendleton blankets, wood paneling, and leather everything: Urban Cowboy Lodge commits to the rustic bit without apology, which is partly the point of escaping the city in the first place. This Catskills retreat spreads 28 rooms and suites across five buildings, from cabin-style quarters to a sprawling six-bedroom lodge floor. An Estonian Iglu sauna sits in a trailer on the property, apparently the only one in the country, because of course it does.

A 19th-century Italianate mansion on 22 acres of Olmsted-designed parkland, with 19 rooms and a French restaurant running eight tables. It is the kind of hotel that makes you wonder briefly if you've wandered into a novel. The Gilded Age bones are intact, the modern touches stay quiet, and Tanglewood is a short walk away for anyone who needs a reason to justify the room rate beyond sheer indulgence.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Stone tubs sit outside facing the mountains, and the firepits on each private patio do most of the entertaining after dark. RESET is a design-forward desert hotel on 180 acres near the north entrance of Joshua Tree National Park, with modular, earth-toned rooms stocked with pour-over coffee and not much else on purpose. There's a saltwater pool, sauna, and cold plunge for anyone who needs a reason to stay on the property.

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.

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.

A converted boarding house on Tilghman Island, the Wylder is a boutique hotel that does the Chesapeake Bay aesthetic without the usual kitsch, leaning on wood, brass, and rattan rather than lighthouse prints. Rooms come with Egyptian cotton and tablet concierge service, outside there's a saltwater pool and a private marina, and the hotel pairs guests with local charter captains. Maryland blue crab arrives via two on-site restaurants, one helmed by a longtime José Andrés collaborator.

The view from certain rooms takes in both Biscayne Bay and the cruise port, which tells you exactly where you are in Miami. This is a big, renovated downtown hotel that shed its conference-center soul after a recent overhaul and now pitches itself as a legitimate vacation base. Bayfront Park is right outside for morning runs, and the cultural district is walkable. A solid pick if you want downtown proximity without retreating to South Beach.

A self-serve dog-grooming station in the lobby tells you everything about this pet-friendly hotel near Kanab. The "best friends" in the name are canine, and the place operates as a proper animal sanctuary alongside the rooms, so you can bring your most chaotic dog without apology. The attached Mercantile handles coffee, breakfast, and snacks, all vegan, plus travel and pet supplies. Minimalist decor, no fuss, selected by the Michelin Guide.

Moonstone Beach Drive runs right along the Pacific here, and the Cambria Beach Lodge sits on it like a classic Highway 1 roadside motel that got a thoughtful refresh. Cambria itself occupies a quiet stretch of central coast between San Francisco and Los Angeles that most people drive through without stopping, which is more or less the point. The kind of place you find when you finally pull off.

Every room in this boutique hotel faces the Columbia River from a working pier, with container ships and the occasional sea lion drifting past while you soak in the tub. The brick exterior nods to the cannery it replaced, and the Finnish sauna nods to Astoria's fishing past. A vintage car shuttles guests downtown each evening, after wine and smoked salmon in the lounge, because some hotels don't make you go looking for the charm.

A sea captain's Federal-style house from the colonial era, updated into a boutique bed and breakfast that somehow manages to feel neither musty nor try-hard. Rooms spread across the main house, a Victorian addition, and an old carriage house, mixing period bones with contemporary fittings. The saltwater pool and terrace are genuinely pleasant, breakfast is included, and Commercial Street is a block away when the charm of the place wears off, which takes a while.

Named for the oak, Quercus sits on nearly 4,000 acres of Georgia forest, pasture, and river, a rural retreat where the dining program runs on a biodynamic garden and the distinction between inside and outside is more of a suggestion. Four cottage suites come furnished with botanical tones and antique heirlooms, porches and fireplaces doing most of the heavy lifting. Picnic lunches, refined dinners, the land is the point.

White-on-white rooms hung with vintage maritime objects, a claw-foot tub at the foot of the bed in the Loft suite, and just enough distance from Commercial Street that you can actually sleep. This boutique inn in an old sea captain's neighborhood threads the needle between spare coastal chic and genuine B&B warmth, with private baths and good beds in every room. The smallest rooms are snug; book a king if you need breathing room.

Bright colors, graphic patterns, and mid-century furniture fill this Martha's Vineyard hotel designed around a grown-up summer camp fantasy, which fits: Oak Bluffs was a Methodist camp destination, and the hotel sits in Wesleyan Grove. Rooms are far more comfortable than any bunk you survived, and the suites are lavish. But most of the action happens in the lobby, lounge, game room, and veranda, just like camp, except the canteen serves actual snacks.

The kidney-shaped pool alone explains why someone brought a camera crew. The Springs Motel is a restored mid-century motor inn on Route 7 in the Berkshires, the kind of place that got a boutique makeover and then had that makeover filmed for TV. Cabins handle the larger groups, while the outdoor bar trailer and generous lawn keep everyone else occupied. It photographs well, and it holds up in person too.

Nina Freudenberger's Danish-modernist touch sits just across from Moonstone Beach, where the Central Coast fog rolls in and nobody particularly minds. White Water is a boutique hotel designed for people who drove up the 1 to disappear for a few days, not to post about it. The rooms are calm and considered, the kind of place that makes you remember why you packed a paperback.

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.

Roman & Williams designed this boutique hotel inside an old sea captain's house in the center of Nantucket, which tells you something about the ambition level. The rooms are full of considered detail that sidesteps the navy-and-rope aesthetic the island tends to default to. The restaurant, Via Mare, runs a Venetian-inspired menu from a chef with a serious New York pedigree.

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.

A Victorian boarding house that's been around forever sits on 55 lakefront acres in the Catskills, now running as a 22-room boutique hotel with ten freestanding bungalows and a private cottage. Rooms mix modern and vintage touches with knowing nods to the old house, while the bungalows add gas stoves for the months when the Catskills remind you they mean it. The Michelin Guide has it among its selected hotels.

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 Greek Revival sea captain's house in the heart of Nantucket's historic district, a few blocks from the water but mercifully clear of the cobblestone crowds. The Blue Iris is a twelve-room boutique hotel with Mediterranean and Portuguese bones rather than the usual nautical clichés, so the mood leans whitewashed and warm. Rain showers and Le Labo products signal the level of care baked into each room.

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.