The Best Places to Stay and Do in the United States

The pyramidal glass skylight hovering over eight tiers of cast iron railings is the kind of thing you look up at and forget what you were doing. This Financial District boutique hotel, a Michelin Key holder, occupies an 1881 building whose atrium alone draws people who aren't even staying. Rooms have the soaring ceilings the Victorian bones promise, and the neighborhood keeps things quieter than Midtown without feeling remote.

A 23-foot sculpted head named Laura greets you out front, which sets the tone for this Century City luxury hotel. The curved midcentury tower got a full Fairmont makeover, and the rooms now run to floor-to-ceiling windows, marble bathrooms, and balconies angled toward the LA sunset. The spa mixes deep-tissue massage with red light therapy and power naps on an anti-gravity bed, and the rooftop pool earns its views. A Forbes Four Star property.

The Flatirons fill the windows of this polished downtown Boulder hotel, which sits close enough to Pearl Street that you can walk to dinner and back without a car. Rooms lean toward the understated side of luxury, and the Forbes Four Star spa handles the heavy lifting with a eucalyptus steam room, sauna, and a full treatment menu. Jill's Restaurant pulls from the Boulder Farmers' Market, which is either charming or expected, depending on your tolerance for Colorado.

White-brick walls and wrought-iron accents give this luxury hotel a European resort feel that sits a little incongruously at the foot of Camelback Mountain, which is sort of the whole point. The ownership group includes an NBA star and a country legend, and the crowd has taken note. Art Deco rooms come stocked with hand-selected books, five restaurants range from poolside to rooftop, and the spa is serious about it. A Forbes Four Star and a Michelin Key.

Forty-nine Spanish hacienda casitas spread across 45 acres of rolling Rancho Santa Fe hills, each with a fireplace trimmed in hand-painted tile, beamed ceilings, a private garden patio, and a soaking tub big enough to take seriously. This Forbes Five Star resort sits far enough from the coast to feel genuinely removed, yet Del Mar and La Jolla are close. A spa, racquet sports program, and golf privileges round things out for guests who consider unplugging a full-time project.

Beehives on the roof and a bike valet at the door, which tells you everything about where this Uptown Charlotte luxury hotel has placed its bets. The Ritz-Carlton holds a Forbes Four Star and keeps a lively house: The Punch Room for cocktails, BLT Steak for a serious cut, Bar Cocoa for chocolate afternoon tea, and a wine boutique where you blend your own. The lobby fills before Hornets games, and the weekday power-lunch crowd arrives with an appetite for Scotch.

The Robert A.M. Stern limestone tower rises 42 stories over Peachtree Road, though you'd almost miss it tucked behind the Del Frisco's out front. This is a full-service luxury hotel in Buckhead, which means Lenox Square is walkable and the indoor pool, three-floor spa, and English courtyard gardens are waiting when you're done. A Forbes Four Star property, it earns its keep with personal concierge service and a marble lobby that feels genuinely unhurried.

Ski-in-ski-out access is the whole pitch here, and Four Seasons Vail delivers it without apology. The hotel holds Michelin's 1 Key and a Forbes Four Star, runs from elegant rooms up to six-bedroom private residences, and sits squarely in the middle of the walkable village. The spa was fully redone recently and has the largest treatment rooms in the valley. Après-ski at The Remedy draws locals, which is usually a good sign.

Pearl shells in the bathrooms are not the usual Financial District flex, but the Paspaleys, an Australian pearl-harvesting family, own this 180-room luxury boutique hotel and it shows throughout. The Beaux-Arts building has been around forever, once housing the original New York Stock Exchange, and it now holds Aboriginal art, vintage family photos, and a lobby lounge stocked with coffee-table books. It holds a Michelin Key.

The wellness resort that essentially invented the genre, set against the Sonoran Desert outside Tucson. Canyon Ranch is an all-inclusive spa and fitness destination where the itinerary can run from sunrise hikes to integrative medicine consultations, and nobody judges you for doing neither. It holds a Michelin 3 Keys distinction. The vibe is less "punishing cleanse" and more "genuinely rethink how you live," which was a radical idea when it opened and remains a persuasive one.

The bones of a 19th-century brewhouse, chimney stacks and all, give this mid-sized hotel its industrial-chic personality before you even check in. It holds a Michelin 2 Keys distinction and sits inside the Pearl, a riverside stretch that has become San Antonio's most interesting neighborhood, with farmers markets, a CIA campus, and a cluster of serious restaurants all within walking distance.

The Spanish Revival facade on Ashford Avenue has been watching the Atlantic since the Vanderbilt family built it, and the foyer still delivers: ocean visible straight through the lobby the moment the grand doors open. This is a full-scale luxury hotel with three pools, a spa, beach butlers, a tanning specialist (yes, really), and rooms across the historic building and two modern towers, all facing the water. Forbes Four Star.

The Original Muscle Beach sits just out front, which tells you something about the neighborhood this hotel walked into. Floor-to-ceiling windows frame the Pacific, the pool deck pulls everyone outside, and rooms come with marble soaking tubs and yoga mats in case you'd rather not think about the gymnasts next door. Michael Mina runs the Mediterranean restaurant. A Michelin Key and a Forbes Four Star.

A pastel Italian villa dropped into Houston's Uptown neighborhood, Hotel Granduca plays the part with enough conviction that you half-expect to hear Vespas. It's a Forbes Four Star hotel with a private-residence feel: chauffeur service, personal trainers, a heated outdoor pool, and multiple spots to dine tucked into the veranda, conservatory, and club room. Quiet and self-contained enough to forget the city exists outside.

A neoclassical tower in the middle of Midtown, half a mile from the Renzo Piano-designed High Museum and a short walk from Piedmont Park. Rooms run to leather headboards, velvet sitting chairs, and original work by Atlanta painter Caroline Bullock. Bar Margot, named after the Wes Anderson character, pulls in DJ nights on weekends. The spa's weekday happy hour treatment menu suggests someone had fun with the concept.

Bungalows carved into black lava rock replace the usual hotel tower here, which tells you a lot about the Four Seasons Hualalai's approach to resort life on the Big Island. The saltwater pool has cabanas that close for full privacy, and a separate encounter pool lets you swim alongside eagle rays. The adults-only pool and a Jack Nicklaus golf course exist for those not chasing fish. A Forbes Five Star and two Michelin Keys.

The Veranda Lounge's botanical cocktails and small plates give you an excuse to linger, but the rooms are reason enough to stay at this 50-room boutique hotel in Charleston's French Quarter. It's a new build that doesn't embarrass the historic streetscape around it, and the interiors split the difference between antique good looks and quietly high-tech comfort. The Michelin Guide awarded it two Keys.

A Forbes Four Star hotel tucked into an East Palo Alto office park, which is either an odd choice or a very deliberate one depending on your relationship with Sand Hill Road. The lobby leans smart and modern, with digital art and velvet loveseats that soften the corporate surroundings. Two hundred guest rooms come with spacious bath suites and the kind of beds Four Seasons has built its reputation on. Quattro handles California-Italian; the lobby café handles the pre-meeting espresso.

Forty-seven rooms occupy what was once a department store in Uptown Charlotte, and the bones of that building give this boutique hotel a grandeur that newer construction can't fake. French ironwork, chandeliers, and a secret library lean into the Paris-meets-Charlotte-society vibe without tipping into theme park. A Forbes Four Star and a Michelin Key. Church and Union steakhouse anchors the ground floor, and the rest of Uptown is a short walk.

Kenneth Treister's curved, organic architecture from the eighties has been kept intact here, just polished up by a New York studio with good taste. This hotel sits in Coconut Grove rather than on Miami Beach, which tells you something about who it's for: people who'd rather have shady sidewalks and actual trees than a parade of resort umbrellas. The Michelin Guide awarded it 2 Keys, and the mood throughout is romantic and a little eccentric, in the best Coconut Grove tradition.

Private cottages tucked into 550 acres against the Santa Ynez Mountains, with the Pacific spread out below. San Ysidro Ranch is a resort that has been a discreet hideaway forever, the kind of place where Winston Churchill and the honeymooning Kennedys came specifically to be left alone. The cottages are the point, not the lobby scene. It landed on the World's 50 Best Hotels list, which tracks for somewhere this quietly serious about making guests disappear.

The ninth floor penthouse suites have their own private elevator, which tells you everything about how The Dupont Circle Hotel pitches itself. It's a Doyle Collection boutique property with a midcentury-meets-contemporary feel, planted squarely between embassy row and the White House. Downstairs, the bar carries a serious Irish whiskey list and the coffee counter runs striped pink-and-white cups. The Michelin Guide awarded it one Key.

The lobby is a long, dim, Art Deco-inspired corridor that makes you walk past a very glamorous staircase before you find the front desk, which is a choice. This Midtown hotel is Sofitel's North American flagship, 29 floors a short walk from Bryant Park, and the whole thing leans into a Franco-New York elegance that stops just short of being a bit much. Rooms are quiet and well-dressed, and the staff keeps things moving.

A bowling alley, an ice rink, and a nightclub share a building with 294 rooms, private bungalows, and Jean-Georges Vongerichten running the kitchen. Ian Schrager's oceanfront hotel on Collins Avenue stacks mid-century bones against a very modern idea of a good time, with two pools, a spa, and a stretch of semi-private beach for when the indoor chaos gets to be a bit much. Forbes Four Star.

Roman & Williams brought their loft-luxe aesthetic to a 26-story tower in Tampa's Water Street district, and the result is an EDITION hotel that feels less like a Gulf Coast newcomer and more like a confident transplant from somewhere with stronger opinions about lobby design. Seven dining and drinking venues include some built for live performance, with menus overseen by John Fraser. A rooftop pool, a full-service spa, and a Forbes Four Star round out the picture.

Each of the 28 rooms and cottages at this all-inclusive Vermont resort is decorated in its own distinct world, from a fishing-themed rustic retreat to a full Moroccan hideaway with painted ceilings and tilework. Set on 300 acres of Southern Vermont farmland and forest, it lends itself to hiking, canoeing, fly fishing, and cross-country skiing. The resort holds a Forbes Five Star. Couples tend to find their way here, which says enough.

No casino floor, no cigarette haze: the Waldorf Astoria sits inside the CityCenter complex as a quiet outlier on the Strip. The 47-story hotel leans hard into the lobby, where 11,000 square feet of Italian Calacatta Gold marble meets a custom crystal chandelier and two-story ceilings. Renovated rooms run to deep-soaking tubs and floor-to-ceiling views of the city below. The 23rd-floor bar is the right place to watch the neon from a comfortable distance.

Yachts outnumber cars in the parking situation here, which tells you what kind of hotel this is. The Ritz-Carlton sits on a large man-made marina about five miles from LAX, and the water views are relentless, from the pool deck to the guest rooms. A Forbes Four Star property, it offers paddleboarding, parasailing, and jet-skiing alongside a spa for those who prefer their recreation horizontal. LA's beach chaos feels surprisingly distant.

The clock tower that once held the city's tallest point now holds Ian Schrager's boutique hotel in the Flatiron District, a collaboration with Marriott that somehow kept its cool. Rooms sit above Madison Square Park, which means the 360-degree views range from good to unreasonable depending on the floor. Chelsea, NoMad, and Greenwich Village are all within easy reach, though the hotel itself gives you decent reasons to stay put.

Saguaros crowd the view in every direction at this Ritz-Carlton resort tucked against the Tortolita Mountains outside Tucson, and the property leans hard into that setting. More than twenty miles of hiking trails, three pools, a Jack Nicklaus golf course, and a spa built around holistic desert treatments all sit on the grounds. Private stargazing is on offer too, which makes sense when the sky is that dark. It holds a Forbes Five Star and a Michelin Key.

A plantation-style inn tucked into the Blue Ridge foothills where most guests book a room and a table in the same breath, treating dinner as the main event and sleep as the gracious afterthought. The chef has held a Michelin star for years, and the Forbes Five Star rating keeps the staff sharp. Afternoons run to tea and scones; evenings to tasting menus that take a while. Hike, balloon, or antique between the two.

The grand staircase descending from the Villard Mansion gates is the kind of entrance that makes you feel like you've arrived somewhere, even if you live nearby. This midtown luxury hotel spreads across a landmarked 19th-century mansion and a modern tower, with marble bathrooms, deep beds, and work desks in the standard rooms. The Triplex Suites climb to 5,000 square feet with Art Deco details and private rooftop terraces, if you're keeping score.

The vaulted stained-glass ceiling in the lobby alone makes a case for booking a room. This landmark hotel in downtown Nashville holds a Michelin two-key distinction and two restaurants from Jean-Georges Vongerichten, which is either a perk or a trap depending on your willpower. Guest rooms lean into Southern warmth without tipping into kitsch, and the building itself has been a fixture of the city long enough to feel genuinely rooted in it.

Gas fireplaces, four-poster beds, and heated limestone floors set the register at this boutique hotel tucked into a red-brick Mount Vernon mansion. One of the few Black-owned boutique hotels in the country, it holds a Michelin two-key distinction. A courtyard handles breakfast and afternoon tea; the on-site restaurant, Magdalena, draws its own following. The spa is small and the whole operation is quiet, which is rather the point.

The building was the Federal Reserve Bank once, and The Langham has kept enough of that fortress-grade exterior to remind you money used to feel serious. Inside, it's a full-service luxury hotel done in softened British style, which sits amusingly well in Boston's Financial District. A lap pool, Italian dining at Grana, and a New England-inflected pub called The Fed cover most moods without ever leaving the building. The Michelin Guide awarded it 2 Keys.

Floor-to-ceiling illuminated pillars playing curated digital art greet you before you even reach the casino floor, which sets the tone for this sprawling Strip resort. The Cosmopolitan runs a serious collection of restaurants from celebrity chefs, popular bars, boutique shops, and a pool scene that converts to an ice rink come winter. The crowd skews stylish and self-aware, which fits a hotel that opened during a recession and never once acted like it.

Forty-one rooms and private houses cantilevered over Big Sur's cliffs, each built from reclaimed wood, steel, and stone to look like it grew there. Post Ranch Inn is a luxury clifftop resort where the activity list runs from guided hikes to stargazing, and the things absent are as deliberate as the things present: no TVs, no alarm clocks. The infinity pool stares straight at the Pacific. It holds a Michelin three-key designation and a Forbes Four Star.

Lanai has no traffic lights, most of its roads are unpaved, and the Four Seasons sits on a bluff above one of the few beaches in Hawaii inside a marine reserve. It's a full-scale luxury resort, Forbes Five Star and Michelin Key, with a Jack Nicklaus golf course, a spa, koi ponds, and enough pool area to get genuinely lost. Spinner dolphins pass offshore while guests book Jeep excursions or do nothing whatsoever, which is also a perfectly defensible plan.

Spanish Colonial Revival bones dressed up with Moorish tilework and Moroccan touches give this Forbes Four Star hotel a look that's hard to place geographically, which seems to be the point. Three buildings arranged like a small village sit a short walk from East and West Beach, with two restaurants, a rooftop pool, and enough fountains and red-tiled rooflines to make Santa Barbara feel like a foreign country, which Santa Barbara sort of already does.

A stone exterior and courtyard fountain set the tone for this mid-mountain ski-in hotel in Silver Lake Village, a short run from Deer Valley's slopes. The look is French mountain chalet; the amenities are firmly American, including a heated pool, two hot tubs, a spa, and suites with fireplaces, jetted tubs, and kitchens. The Forbes Four Star property houses an Italian restaurant and a lounge with live music for après-ski that skips the pretense.

A Beaux-Arts building from 1911 meeting W Hotels' anything-but-1911 sensibility is exactly as entertaining as it sounds. The Rockwell Group handled this hotel's original 2001 debut and came back to renovate it, which either shows loyalty or a need to finish what they started. The Living Room lobby has soaring ceilings and marble columns that read a little Grand Central, and a rooftop bar sits up on the 22nd floor for anyone who needs a view with their cocktail.

A Federal-style Relais & Châteaux inn on Chatham's Main Street, with wide-plank floors, original art on every wall, and a wine bar pouring around two dozen wines by the glass. The 18 rooms run from airy and bright to seriously cozy, with wood-burning fireplaces and two-person tubs in some. A Forbes Five Star property. The porch has rocking chairs, the patio has a fire pit, and the whole thing is just walkable enough to skip the car entirely.

The wide black awning stretches almost the full width of Park Avenue, which tells you everything about the register this hotel is playing in. It's a luxury Upper East Side property with an old-money residential feel, rooms styled like Manhattan apartments, and the kind of quietly confident lobby that makes newcomers stand up a little straighter. Central Park is a short walk, Madison Avenue boutiques are closer still.

Beacon Hill is the kind of neighborhood that eyes new arrivals with suspicion, so a boutique hotel on Charles Street has something to prove. The Whitney pulls it off with red brick on the outside and interiors that split the difference between old-money Boston and something you'd actually want to photograph. It holds two Michelin Keys, and the Longfellow Bridge is right there if you need a walk to justify the room rate.

The ghost that allegedly climbed into a guest's bed sets the tone for this storied Sunset Strip hotel, where the dress code has always been "eccentric wealthy" and the history involves Howard Hughes training binoculars on the pool from his penthouse. Clark Gable apparently conducted himself here with considerable scandal. William Holden was advised to bring his bad behavior specifically to the Marmont. The Michelin Guide awarded it 2 Keys.

Ski-in/ski-out inside the gated Deer Crest community, this St. Regis resort sits on 12 slopeside acres above Park City with stone fireplaces and Juliette balconoes in every room. The split-level infinity pool appears to float over the snow-covered Wasatch Range, and the Yurt Village's heated stargazing domes handle private dining with a certain theatrical flair. Nightly champagne sabrage by the Fire Garden keeps things from getting too wholesome. A Forbes Four Star property.

The neon sign and wrought-iron balconies have been drawing poets, musicians, and general troublemakers to this West Chelsea hotel for generations. A recent restoration brought it back without sanding off the mythology, which is a harder trick than it sounds. Rooms feel like somewhere a person could actually live, which many people famously did. The Michelin Guide awarded it one Key. Dylan Thomas drank here; Taylor Swift wrote a song about it.

The facade of a 1929 Chicago landmark wraps this boutique luxury hotel on Rush Street, where Art Deco details share space with 21st-century comforts. It's named for sculptor Gwen Lux, whose work still ornaments the exterior, and the fifth-floor lobby leans into that Jazz Age identity hard. A rooftop bar with firepits, a weekend Tipsy Tea, and a see-and-be-seen cocktail lounge round out a property that holds a Michelin Key.

A 30-foot teal wall inscribed with Marcel Proust greets you in the lobby, which sets the tone for this Gold Coast boutique hotel with more personality than most. The 180 rooms lean midcentury, with a warm gold-and-teal palette and guest room doors in mismatched colors. A rooftop bar handles cocktails and skyline views, and Oak Street Beach is a short walk. The Michelin Guide awarded it one Key.

Ian Schrager's Lower East Side hotel skips the front desk entirely: check-in happens when a "PUBLIC Advisor" finds you in the lobby. The idea behind the place is that luxury and accessibility don't have to be mutually exclusive, which sounds like a tagline until you see it in practice. It's on the World's 50 Best Hotels list, and the Michelin Guide has it selected. Stylish without the velvet-rope attitude, which in New York counts for something.

A stone fireplace anchors the multi-story lobby here, with leather armchairs and oriental rugs doing their best to convince you that roughing it and a Forbes Four Star rating can coexist. This lodge-style ski resort sits slope-side in the Wasatch Mountains, gondola-connected to the runs in winter and surrounded by hiking and mountain biking trails come summer. Every guest room has its own working fireplace, so the apres-ski atmosphere follows you upstairs.

The brick facade on Main Street has been hosting Aspen's overflow of ambition since the silver boom, and the lobby still feels like a place where someone famous might be waiting in a chair. Hotel Jerome is a Michelin Key hotel in the Auberge Collection, equal parts mountain lodge and grand European inheritance, with rooms that lean into the altitude and outdoor Jacuzzis that make the cold feel like a feature rather than a problem.

Perched on a bluff above the Pacific, this Forbes Five Star resort does the full coastal California thing without apology: ocean-view rooms, two golf courses threading along the cliffs, and service warm enough to make the fog feel like a design choice. The chandeliers are set with rock crystals, the carpet was inspired by a walk on wet sand, and the ballroom is large enough to host a small nation's worth of wedding guests.

A Romanesque Revival building that spent its postwar years full of artists' lofts is now a boutique hotel that essentially defined what a SoHo loft hotel looks like. Christian Liaigre's renovation gave the rooms their spare, low-slung calm, and that aesthetic has aged better than most of its imitators. The Michelin Guide awarded it one Key. Style-world regulars still treat it as a default, which is either a recommendation or a warning, depending on your feelings about that crowd.

A chandelier made of real antlers hangs in the living room beside one shaped like icicles, which tells you everything about the tone here. This 12-suite boutique hotel occupies a limestone schoolhouse in Old Town Park City, with reclaimed barn-wood floors, European antiques, and a fireplace that earns its keep. The chef cooks a complimentary breakfast and après-ski snacks, and a ski valet handles the gear. Park City Mountain is a short walk away.

A 43-room hotel tucked into Pacific Heights so quietly it reads as a mansion on the block. Wood-paneled lobby, inlaid floors, and actual metal keys behind the front desk telegraph the vibe: old San Francisco, the residential kind, not the tourist kind. Cream-and-white rooms, heated bathroom floors, complimentary breakfast, and a wine reception round it out. The Michelin Guide awarded it one Key.

Kelly Wearstler designed every inch of this hotel inside a century-old flatiron building on Market Street, and the result looks like a well-traveled great-aunt's apartment if that aunt had very strong opinions about pattern. Florals, mirrors, graphic prints, and art clustered floor to ceiling fill the 131 rooms, none identical. Charmaine's rooftop draws a line down the block on weekends, so the lobby's moody bar tends to be the smarter move.

A 35-story glass tower with a gem-shaped dome is an unusual choice for a brand associated with white stone and afternoon tea, but Portland is an unusual city. The Ritz-Carlton here holds a Michelin Key and leans hard into the Pacific Northwest, with forest-themed interiors, an alpine-inspired pool, and rooms meant to evoke Oregon's mountain rivers. The 19th-floor spa and Mount Hood views make a persuasive case for staying in rather than exploring.

Twenty-seven wooded acres tucked just inside the 610 Loop make this full-service hotel feel less like Houston and more like a very comfortable escape from it. Guest rooms look out over the trees through floor-to-ceiling windows, and the sprawling health club, three pools, and a Forbes Four Star spa fill the hours between. The decor leans into its Texas address without going full steakhouse. Families fill the place on weekends, and nobody seems to be in a hurry.

A brick-and-glass facade on West 38th Street opens into a lobby that looks more like a gastropub than a hotel check-in, which is either disorienting or a relief depending on how your day went. The 180 rooms lean into garment-district history with subway-tiled bathrooms and chesterfield sofas, and the service carries a studied, almost theatrical attentiveness. A Michelin Selected Hotel a short walk from Bryant Park.

Rooms done entirely in white, with two greenery-filled terraces, sit about as far as you can get from the neon circus outside without actually leaving Times Square. Ian Schrager, the man who gave the world Studio 54, brought his boutique instincts to one of the least boutique corners on earth, and the hotel is quieter and more serene than it has any right to be. A nightclub downstairs keeps the old faith.

Most of the rooms have private balconies looking out over Forest Park and the Clayton skyline, which softens the blow of checking in somewhere this polished. This is a full-service luxury hotel in the quiet, gallery-and-garden suburb of Clayton, a short ride from the city proper. A spa, a fitness center with panoramic views, and two restaurants round things out. It holds a Forbes Four Star.

The lobby fireplace, stacked stone to the ceiling and ringed with deep armchairs, sets the tone for what the rest of this Forbes Four Star hotel delivers: a full Gilded Age fantasy on 8,000 Vanderbilt acres in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Wood-paneled corridors, manicured grounds, and working farms surround you, with the actual Biltmore House just up the drive. Asheville is a short ride away for anyone who needs to touch the present.

The nightly Disney fireworks are visible from the rooms, but the rooms themselves look like they could be in Singapore or Milan, which is either the point or the whole joke. This is a full-scale Four Seasons resort sitting on the edge of Walt Disney World, with a spa, an 18-hole golf course, and a kids' club so thoroughly Disneyfied it reads as a diplomatic gesture toward the neighbors. Guests get early park admission, half an hour before the gates open to everyone else.

Thatched-roof bungalows on a field of black lava beside a crescent bay: it sounds like fantasy, but that's just the view from your kauhale at this Rosewood resort on the Kona Coast. After a decade-long closure following a tsunami, it reopened to 81 acres of volcanic landscape, basalt rock furnishings, and coconut husk sidings that make the whole place feel grown from the ground. It holds a Forbes Four Star and three Michelin Keys.

The front desk is a slab of 3,000-year-old sequoia, which sets the tone for a downtown luxury hotel that takes its design seriously. Philippe Starck did the rooms in mid-century modern, a 1908 beaux arts building anchors the facade, and the glass tower behind it runs 44 stories with views over Elliott Bay. A fine-dining restaurant and a spa are both on-site when you surface. The Michelin Guide awarded it one Key.

That Gothic minaret rising over Fifth Avenue is how you spot The Sherry-Netherland from two blocks away, which is a very old-money way to announce a hotel. It's been around forever, a proper residential-style property with just 50 rooms, each one decorated differently, many of them looking straight onto Central Park. The smallest rooms run 340 square feet, and the marble lobby with its vaulted ceiling sets the tone for something quietly grand.

Its own private entrance on 50th Street bypasses the main hotel entirely, which tells you most of what you need to know about The Towers at Lotte New York Palace. A hotel-within-a-hotel occupying the top floors of the Palace, it comes with a dedicated concierge and rooms that look out over Rockefeller Center and the Empire State Building. Gossip Girl fans will recognize the Corner Suites. Everyone else is just happy the crowds stayed downstairs.

Every room at this Williamsburg hotel comes with its own city-view balcony, which tells you roughly what you're dealing with. The rooftop holds a 15,000-square-foot public park with rolling hills and picnic blankets, so it doubles as a neighborhood hangout rather than a private amenity. The interior leans into the borough's art-forward instincts without overdoing it, and the skyline views from up top are the kind that make Manhattan feel like a reasonable commute.

Tucked behind a grove of quaking aspens on a quiet back street, this 32-room boutique lodge sits close enough to downtown Jackson to be convenient and far enough to feel like a different world. Rocky Mountain timber and stonework meet custom Italian linens and soaking tubs inside. The Body Sage Spa handles post-ski recovery with some authority, and the Wild Sage restaurant looks out toward East Gros Ventre Butte. A Forbes Four Star property.

The sister property to a London hotel and private club, The Twenty Two New York occupies the restored Margaret Louisa Vanderbilt house near Union Square. It holds a Michelin Key. The vibe is international modern luxury with enough Gilded Age bones in the building to keep things grounded, which is a neat trick for a place that could easily have leaned into its British pedigree and called it a day.

Anguilla is famously flat, which sounds like a liability until you realize it means unobstructed views in every direction and beaches that stretch without interruption. This Forbes Five Star resort sits between two bays on the island's northwest shore, its Mediterranean architecture doing exactly what you'd want from a luxury resort: framing the Caribbean rather than competing with it. The crowd comes here to do absolutely nothing, and the property is very good at facilitating that ambition.

The hotel lives inside a grand old pier building in Fell's Point, Baltimore's densest stretch of bars and restaurants, with the harbor right outside and a rooftop pool that feels improbably right. Guest rooms lean design-forward, there's a steakhouse on site, and the whole place hums with the neighborhood's energy rather than hiding from it. One Michelin Key for those keeping score.

Eight private cottages and a Tournament of Roses suite signal what kind of hotel this is before you've even seen the pool. Set on 17 acres in Pasadena, the Langham Huntington is old-money grand, the kind of place with multiple historic ballrooms and two gardens, where tennis courts get lit at night and the spa has its own philosophy. Forbes Four Star. Summer afternoons tend to dissolve at the pool bar.

A skybridge connects this Ritz-Carlton directly to Tysons Galleria, which tells you something about the clientele and their priorities. The hotel sits in Fortune 100 territory about fifteen miles from D.C., making it a logical base for both boardroom visits and wine country day trips. Upper-floor rooms look out over the Tysons skyline, the spa leans contemporary, and the wine bar runs live music. Forbes Four Star.

A cowhide rug and leather couches give the lobby of this 126-room Financial District hotel the feel of a well-appointed men's club, which is either exactly your thing or quietly amusing depending on your disposition. Gold Street is a cab-hailing hike from most of the action, but the tradeoff is genuine quiet after dark. Frette bathrobes and C.O. Bigelow toiletries round out the rooms.

The lobby doesn't show up until the third floor, which sets the tone nicely: glass art flowers, mosaic marble, bronze sculptures, and chandeliers doing a lot of work all at once. This Union Square hotel puts BART and Muni a short walk away on Powell Street, so getting anywhere from the airport to the East Bay stays easy. The porte cochere has woven deck chairs that read as aspirationally poolside, which in San Francisco fog is its own kind of comedy.

The glass-roofed Garden Court, with its original chandeliers and marble columns, stops people mid-step every time. This grand old San Francisco luxury hotel has been around forever, and the sprawling rooms, redone with a designer's eye for marrying ornate architectural bones to quiet modern comfort, don't feel like a museum or a renovation. The Court may inspire you to dress for dinner, though whether that means a gown or a very nice hoodie is apparently a local judgment call.

The marble lobby hits differently than the apartment-block facade suggests, with crimson and gold antique furnishings that lean firmly Old World rather than midtown generic. This boutique hotel on East 50th sits within walking distance of Rockefeller Center, Grand Central, and Central Park, which makes it genuinely useful for both the suit-and-briefcase crowd and tourists who want classic New York hospitality without the chain-hotel shuffle.

Eight suites, twenty-four guests at a time, and a thousand acres of Clark Fork riverfront along the edge of Lolo National Forest: RiverView Ranch keeps the headcount low on purpose. This Forbes Five Star all-inclusive ranch outside Missoula covers everything from airport transfers to meals to fly-fishing, with horses, snowmobiles, and hiking trails filling the gaps. The kind of place where the wilderness is the amenity and solitude is the whole point.

The façade is modeled on the Ritz Paris, which tells you exactly what you're in for at this Forbes Five Star resort in the Pennsylvania countryside. Inside, vaulted ceilings, crystal chandeliers, and white-gloved butlers on the club level set the tone. The grounds, though, are where things get interesting: two golf courses, Polaris off-road adventures, and, yes, actual zoo animals wandering the property.

Spanish-revival arches and Turkish rugs set the tone at this Forbes Five Star resort on its own private island off the Georgia coast. The original building came from Addison Mizner, the architect who shaped Palm Beach, and the Mediterranean bones are still intact. A raw bar handles the post-beach oysters; the Georgian Room handles the formal Southern dinners. Families with sandy kids and couples in linen share the same long driveways without it feeling awkward.

Three championship golf courses roll right up to the guestrooms at this Forbes Five Star lodge on St. Simons Island, styled after an English manor with hardwood floors, exposed beam ceilings, and private balconies facing either the fairways or the Atlantic. Forty-three rooms and suites keep things intimate, and the Golf Performance Center draws the kind of guest who brings their own glove. Sister property The Cloister, just nearby, adds a spa and beach club to the itinerary.

Parked at the foot of Rodeo Drive, this grande dame hotel has been a soft landing for Hollywood royalty since forever, most famously a long-term residence for Warren Beatty back in his bachelor years. Rooms run to white and pastel blue, Wolfgang Puck's CUT steakhouse anchors the ground floor, and the pool is the Mediterranean-fantasy kind that makes you feel famous even if no one recognizes you.

Casitas scattered across 40 desert acres make it easy to forget the other 209 guests exist. This Forbes Four Star, Michelin Key resort sits at the foot of Pinnacle Peak, where saguaros do the landscaping and Troon North's two golf courses are practically at the door. The pool is a genuine refuge from the Scottsdale heat, the spa runs Four Star as well, and Talavera handles dinner. Phoenix is a short drive whenever the desert quiet starts feeling too quiet.

Shingled walls, porches aimed at the water, bocce on the lawn, and a private beach on Quonochontaug Pond: Weekapaug Inn has been a summer retreat on Rhode Island's southern coast for as long as anyone's grandparents can remember. Antiques and coastal touches fill the rooms, sailing and bird-watching fill the days, and the whole thing holds a Forbes Five Star without feeling the need to remind you of it. Old New England ease, genuinely unforced.

The only adults-only hotel on the sprawling Boca Raton resort grounds, the Yacht Club is an all-suite property where champagne meets you at check-in and a floor butler handles the rest. All 112 suites have private balconies facing the marina, the lake, or the Atlantic. A Forbes Five Star. The top-floor restaurant is exclusive to guests, and the wider resort's beach, golf, spa, and pickleball courts are all yours.

The exterior is blanketed in ivy, which tells you everything about this hotel's priorities before you even check in. A high-design, sustainability-forward luxury stay on Demonbreun, 1 Hotel Nashville trades neon and boot-scootin' for reclaimed wood, organic textures, and views over downtown that some terraced rooms get all to themselves. The Bamford spa, a rooftop bar, and a farm-to-table restaurant round things out. It holds a Michelin Key.