Best hotels in the USA
Chateau Marmont, Los Angeles
What do you want from an LA hotel? Something celebrated, glamorous and star-studded, of course. And nowhere fits the bill quite like the Chateau - as its clientele refer to it - a West Hollywood landmark where the star-to-civilian ratio is approximately 1:1. It is probably best known for being the setting for almost every celebrity magazine interview ever printed; the inspiration for books and movies by F Scott Fitzgerald (The Last Tycoon) and Sofia Coppola (Somewhere); or as the infamous crash pad of the hard-partying Lindsay Lohan, who until recently owed the hotel more than $45,000 in unpaid bills. So it's difficult to sip a glass of rosé in the courtyard without craning to see the maybe-VIP at the next table, or eat a posh cheeseburger in the mahogany-panelled Bar Marmont without looking for an A-lister gone wild (Rob Pattinson drank one too many here for his 27th birthday). The 1920s façade is modelled on a royal residence in the Loire, while the interiors resemble film sets from various eras: the lobby is faux-medieval, with arched wooden doors and beamed ceilings; the nine cottages and four bungalows look fit for Ava Gardner and Howard Hughes; and the 63 rooms are a reminder of the 1970s, with shiny wooden banquettes and peach-tiled bathrooms. The Chateau's sweet-but-spicy signature scent is available to buy as a candle at the front desk.
Address: 8221 Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, California
Telephone:+1 323 656 1010
Website: www.chateaumarmont.com
Price: Doubles from about £300
Hidden Pond, Maine
Set in 60 acres and within a scrim of fluttering white birches, majestic balsam firs and organic farms, Hidden Pond in southern Maine offers 'rustic' with a difference. Forget soggy tents and mouldy camp shacks, this place has 36 stunning one- and two-bedroom clapboard cottages beautifully orchestrated by some of the state's top designers. The 20 one-bedroom bungalows have vaulted ceilings, gas fireplaces, outdoor rain showers and sleek bathrooms; the 16 two-bedroom options also have proper kitchens. After checking in at the Arts and Crafts-style lodge, head to the pools, trails and beaches for kayaking, stand-up paddleboarding, biking and hiking. Yummy Continental breakfasts are delivered to the cottages by golf cart, cocktails are served at the Back Porch Bar, and light meals at the family-friendly Sand Bar Grill and Farm Bar. But supper at the main restaurant, Earth, is something special, with fresh handmade pasta and wood-oven pizzas as well as diver scallops, swordfish or crispy duck, served in an outdoorsy setting (there's a nightly bonfire, and the restaurant walls are made from trees that were felled to clear the site). None of which should be an excuse to miss dining in the local seafood shacks and at famous restaurants such as the nearby White Barn Inn, sometimes frequented by George and Laura Bush, who live in the area.
Address: 354 Goose Rocks Road, Kennebunkport, Maine
Telephone: +1 888 967 9050
Website: www.hiddenpondmaine.com
Price: Open from May to October. Bungalows from about £285; cottages from about £415
Bill ZeldisSan Ysidro Ranch, Santa Barbara
This is an old-money place with intensely private guest cottages and suites, roaring fires and gardens bursting with head-sized hydrangeas. A living, breathing slice of Californian folklore, the 500-acre ranch has remained seemingly unchanged since Vivien Leigh married Laurence Olivier outside the hacienda in 1940, or when John and Jackie Kennedy checked in during their honeymoon 13 years later. But if the hotel's green-striped awnings, thick Oriental rugs and chintzy furnishings recall the 1950s, its heritage is actually far older. Originally a cattle ranch in the 19th century, then a citrus farm, San Ysidro has long welcomed guests (the ranch's appeal to celebrities was given a boost in 1935 when it was bought by suave English film star Ronald Colman and businessman Alvin Weingand). In the farm's former packing house is the Stonehouse restaurant, where skilfully cooked, old-school comfort food (steak Diane, baked Alaska) is served beneath a high, wooden-beamed ceiling or under twinkly lights on the terrace. There are 14 acres of wildly fragrant gardens filled with lavender bushes, lily ponds and eucalyptus trees, and 17 miles of wooded hiking trails to explore. Bikes are provided for rides to the beach. Later, you'll sleep soundly, surrounded by silence, in the protective embrace of the Santa Ynez Mountains.
Address: 900 San Ysidro Lane, Santa Barbara, California
Telephone: +1 805 565 1700
Website:www.sanysidroranch.com
Price: Doubles from about £400
Wythe Hotel, New York
Manhattan? Like, so over. Food, fashion, music, art - it's all happening over the East River in Brooklyn. Of the clutch of hotels that have followed the wave, the 70-room Wythe, which opened in 2012, is the clear winner. This converted barrel factory is in Williamsburg, a five-minute subway ride from the island, and a hotbed of bars, restaurants and shops (Pies 'n' Thighs for Southern grub, Catbird for quirky jewellery). Owners Jed Walentas - scion of the New York real-estate family - Australian hotelier Peter Lawrence and Andrew Tarlow, who runs Brooklyn restaurants Diner and Marlow & Sons, have kept things industrial inside, with exposed brick, mosaic and tiled floors, and beamed ceilings. Bedrooms are particularly minimalist, with polished concrete floors, king-size beds and Manhattan views from floor-to-ceiling windows in west-facing rooms. There's even a thwack of skyline from the little window in the walk-in shower. The hotel's rooftop bar, The Ides, does great cocktails and is a raucous spot in summer, but it's the ground-floor restaurant, Reynard, that is a must for its super-fresh, veg-laden dishes including fluke crudo with fennel and caraway, and grass-fed steak with beets, goat's cheese and watercress. The hotel has no gym of its own, but guests are given a pass to Chalk down the road, a haunt for bench-pressing local hipsters.
Address: 80 Wythe Avene, Brooklyn, New York
Telephone: +1 718 460 8000
Website: www.wythehotel.com
Price: Doubles from about £115
Twin Farms, Vermont
Often referred to as the USA's best small hotel, this 20-suite Relais & Châteaux property - with cottages and outbuildings anchored by a 1795 New England farmhouse - sits in 300 acres of breathtaking wildflower meadows, pine forests, lakes and orchards. Its sophisticated style is the result of a long and fruitful relationship with the cream of NYC's interior-design world. In the 1990s, the original owner, Hawaiian newspaperman Thurston Twigg-Smith, commissioned designer and one-time Warhol apostle Jed Johnson to work his magic on the first 15 rooms. Cue chinoiserie toile pelmets, hand-carved ravens atop barley-twist bedposts and a trompe-l'oeil tented ceiling. Johnson's rooms are still marvellous, but when Twin Farms added another five bedrooms in 2005, plus spa treatment rooms, architect Peter Bohlin (known for his Apple stores) and interior designer Thad Hayes were called in. Their suites - such as The Aviary, with its Douglas-fir panelling, shag rug and buttoned-leather headboard, all in orange - are as luxurious as Johnson's, though less zesty. As delightful as the rooms are, the farm-raised, seasonal food (veal with butternut-squash purée in winter, grilled halibut and prawn gnocchi in summer) from chef Ted Ask and pastry honcho Christopher Wilson possibly tops it all. There's also access to deserted hiking trails, private ski slopes, fly-fishing, the Out of the Woods Spa and a 20,000-bottle wine cellar.
Address: 452 Royalton Turnpike, Barnard, Vermont
Telephone: +1 800 894 6327
Website: www.twinfarms.com
Price: Doubles from about £855, full board
Dunton Hot Springs & River Camp, Colorado
Colorado is the place for big skies, crystal-clear rivers and valleys peppered with ranches. And Dunton Hot Springs is the state's original retreat offering super-smart rooms in a rustic setting, the one we first fell in love with. About 90 minutes' drive from Durango, in the San Juan National Forest, this former ghost town and natural hot spring sets the bar for glamping. From the outside, the 12 guest cabins look like 19th-century homesteads crafted from planks and corrugated iron; inside, there are bison-skin rugs, cowhide throws and surprising ethnic touches such as a Rajasthani wedding bed or African mask. More Wild West-themed rooms display homespun cowboy-print curtains, ticking stripe and gingham. Owners Christoph and Katrin Henkel have spared little expense in creating this magical, 200-acre getaway. Chef Carrie Eagle prepares meals using local ingredients, and the list of activities includes snowshoeing, fly-fishing, river rafting and horse riding. Top that? The Henkels have tried with Dunton River Camp, their new property just four miles downriver, where eight super-luxe tents have views of elks grazing on bluebell-covered meadows.
Address: 52068 Road 38, Dolores, Colorado
Telephone: +1 970 882 4800
Website: www.duntonhotsprings.com
Price: Doubles from about £355, full board
XV Beacon, Boston
Right from its opening in 1999, this little gem has punched above its weight, a super-slick alternative to Boston's bigger hotels. With just 63 rooms tucked into a meticulously restored, 10-storey Beaux Arts building, this is one of the East Coast's most stylish boltholes, with finely tuned service to boot. The entrance is a dramatic, black-walled lobby with a charming cage lift from 1902. In the bedrooms, there are gas fireplaces, marble busts and huge four-poster or canopied beds, while corner studios provide views of Boston Common. The hotel keeps a couple of Lexus limos to ferry guests around town, and minibars are packed with Krug (and chilled cucumber eye cream) for post-shopping-trip pampering. Sassy steakhouse Mooo serves buttery Wagyu beef as well as classic seafood dishes (caramelised sea scallops, linguini with white clams) and has a 30,000-bottle wine cellar. Places this good don't keep on top of the game by resting on their laurels, and the hotel recently had a discreet facelift, also adding a rooftop deck with a hot tub. More than a decade after it opened, XV Beacon remains popular with CEOs and visiting actors: a boutique-hotel leader in the heart of Brahmin East Coast America.
Address: 15 Beacon Street, Boston, Massachusetts
Telephone: +1 617 670 1500
Website: www.xvbeacon.com
Price: Doubles from about £235
Amangiri, Utah
Check availability for Amangiri on Expedia now.
Surrounded by the stark beauty of the southern Utah desert, this thrilling nexus of design and location has yet to be outshone by any other hotel in the USA. From a distance, it looks like a nuclear bunker; inside, it's all austere grandeur, concrete and glass, iron and wood, soaring space and dancing sunlight. In the main building, floor-to-ceiling windows give CinemaScope views of the desert and very cool pool; loungers are shaded by flowering cherry trees, of all unexpected things. The open kitchen with its wood-burning stove is here, and an indoor-outdoor restaurant and library. Insane prices rather squelch the appeal of the splendid spa, but the 34 rooms could make anyone grin: softest Beltrami linen, spotlit art in the loo, a free minibar (non-alcoholic drinks only, but addictive salted caramel popcorn) plus those devastating desert views from the bed, bath, twin showers and terrace. Most amazing, though, are the huge pool suites. The (mostly Mormon) staff will make up a daybed on the sky terrace for guests to sleep out beneath the stars. Excellent guides include geologists, archaeologists and an ex-Marine naturalist, and there are two daily hikes for spotting coyote, cougar, jackrabbits and deer mice. Food could be simpler and arrive sooner, but the bison steaks are perfect. And from November to March, meals are included in the room rate.
Address: 1 Kayenta Road, Canyon Point, Utah
Telephone: +1 435 675 3999
Website:www.amanresorts.com
Price: Doubles from about £880, full board, including airport transfers, guided hikes, yoga and stretching classes
Book your room at Amangiri on Expedia now.
Hotel Bel-Air, Los Angeles
This 1940s hacienda-style classic, recently the subject of a Hollywood boycott, is almost as well known as the guests it has harboured. Marilyn Monroe lived here on and off during her marriages to Joe DiMaggio and Arthur Miller, and it was here she posed for her final photo shoot; Liz Taylor and Grace Kelly also used it as a place to crash. These days it's Brad and Angelina, Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig who drink and dine in its swish environs, revamped recently with a snazzy La Prairie spa and Wolfgang Puck restaurant serving a Mediterranean-inflected Californian menu. But its true essence remains in the maze of jasmine-scented gardens and lily ponds with resident swans, the courtyards where lizards slither across the tiles, shimmering in the sunlight like jewels. At night, cocooned in one of the alfresco alcoves, you can feast on sweet-pea tortellini and white asparagus with crispy polenta. You'd never know, but there are 100 rooms and suites, all with vintage furniture and spa-like bathrooms; three new hillside villas have huge terraces and infinity pools. At times it can feel like a grand country retreat, but a glance out of a window at the famous vista of sunset and soaring palms provides an instant reminder of its LA setting.
Address: 701 Stone Canyon Road, Los Angeles, California
Telephone:+1 310 472 1211
Website: www.hotelbelair.com
Price: Doubles from about £335
Facebook.com/Casa Tua Hotel & RestaurantCasa Tua, Miami
Casa Tua isn't the most obvious choice for a hotel in Miami - it's not beachfront and it lacks the city's signature Art Deco style - but that's pretty much the point. There's something wonderfully idiosyncratic about this red-roofed, Mediterranean-style villa, an appeal that draws the likes of Jennifer Lopez and Kate Hudson. While the rest of South Beach is all splash factor and excitable Kardashian clones, this place remains as peaceful and detached as a Tuscan hideaway. With their big marble bathrooms, overstuffed sofas and canopy beds, the five all-white suites manage to feel both homely and luxurious. But there can be little doubt that the downstairs restaurant is the biggest draw, with a fabulous courtyard lit by dozens of antique lanterns and a living room-like interior filled with framed black-and-white photos. The food fits in perfectly with this smart but homespun vibe: seared seabass with olives, tomatoes, artichokes and asparagus; tiramisu for pudding. Casa Tua doesn't have a pool, but it's possible to book a spot at the Delano hotel's beach, a block and a half away.
Address: 1700 James Avenue, Miami Beach, Florida
Telephone: +1 305 673 0973
Website: www.casatualifestyle.com
Price: Doubles from about £270
The Carlyle, New York
This legendary hotel on Manhattan's Upper East Side has a highly developed sense of noblesse oblige. The Carlyle opened inauspiciously in 1930, the year after the Wall Street Crash, and its lobby retains the original black-and-white tiled floor designed by Dorothy Draper. The lift operator knows each guest's name and room number, handy should you return late and a little squiffy. And each room has a proper key: no troublesome cards or spooky 'iris recognition' here. The bedrooms themselves are generously sized - at least for New York - while the tower suites are positively vast and very beautiful, with pale beechwood parquet floors, Chinese cabinets, onyx lamps and silk-cushioned fauteuils, as well as heart-stopping views of Central Park. Refreshment is never far away: tea is served in the Ottoman-styled Gallery, cocktails in the Bemelmans Bar (the bar of the Upper East Side) and lunch or dinner in the Carlyle Restaurant, which is decorous without being sedate. And music is inherent at the Carlyle, whose first tenant was composer Richard Rodgers. In its public rooms and suites there are 14 baby grand pianos, and Woody Allen still plays jazz clarinet every Monday night, six months of the year, at the ground-floor Café Carlyle. But in the end, the Carlyle's brilliance lies in its understatement. The fire instructions say, 'Remain relaxed'. Here, at what is still New York's grandest hotel, it's hard to do anything else.
Address: 35 East 76th Street, New York, New York
Telephone: +1 212 744 1600
Website: www.rosewoodhotels.com
Price: Doubles from about £340
Kodiak GreenwoodPost Ranch Inn, California
Big Sur is all about big views, and the Post Ranch Inn has become synonymous with the wild, dramatic beauty that is the Pacific Coast along California's Highway 1. The region's natural charms are reflected in the names of its 39 rooms - including Cliff House, Pacific Suite, Ocean House, Tree House, Mountain House and the Butterfly Rooms - and the spectacularly constructed recycled-redwood lodgings are designed to inspire awe. The Cliff Houses have glass-walled bedrooms and decks suspended over a 1,200ft precipice, with private, stainless-steel outdoor hot tubs from which to absorb that vast oceanic expanse. Surrounded by regal redwoods and oaks, the triangular Tree Houses are raised on nine-foot stilts, with dreamy views through the foliage to the Santa Lucia Mountains. Activities for energetic types include everything from morning yoga, meditation and guided nature hikes to the use of two clifftop spa tubs, an infinity pool and a private telescope. For foodies, the inn's Sierra Mar restaurant serves gorgeous dishes bursting with seasonal flavours, such as freshly picked strawberries with wild-mint blossoms, goat's cheese and pistachio purée. But the essence of any stay here is just whiling away the hours with someone you really like, letting time unspool in truly spectacular surroundings.
Address: 47900 CA-1, Big Sur, California
Telephone: +1 831 667 2200
Website: www.postranchinn.com
Price: Doubles from about £440
Ruschmeyer's, Montauk, Hamptons
Dubbed 'Le nouveau St Tropez' by Vogue Paris, Montauk's rise from fishing village and low-key surf perch to Manhattan's most fashionable summer spot has been meteoric. For those who lack that crucial friend with a beach house, Ruschmeyer's is the next best option. Styled as a summer camp for adults, it's part souped-up motel, part restaurant, part dance party. The rooms are comfortable if basic, with wicker headboards, hammocks and shower rooms. Which is just fine, because they'll barely be used. Instead, hit the rollicking restaurant which is overseen by the people behind SoHo locavore favourite The Smile; make new chums over ping-pong in the Magic Garden; and get down at the Electric Eel club, which has DJs at weekends and a raucous bingo night on Thursdays. Breakfast is DIY and included in the price (love the smashed avocado on rye). Alternatively, borrow a bike and cycle 10 minutes to Ditch Plains Beach for quesadillas from the Ditch Witch food truck, or join the line of hipsters for burritos at Joni's in town. And while in the East Coast's premier surf spot, it would be churlish not to at least attempt to ride a wave: Ruschmeyer's will provide a board and lessons.
**Address:**161 2nd House Road, Montauk, New York
Telephone: +1 631 668 2877
Website: www.chelseahotels.com
Price: Doubles from about £170
Auberge du Soleil, California
After three decades, this wine-country pioneer, balanced on a hillside overlooking Napa Valley, remains a favourite. Even for jaded souls who think they've seen it all, the light-filled rooms - just 52 of them, mostly intimate, Mediterranean-style stucco cottages - are a delight. With French doors, private terraces and fireplaces, they're designed for comfort, privacy and relaxation. An olive grove shades the grounds, and a large sculpture garden makes for a pleasant walk to and from the main house, pool and Michelin-starred restaurant. Dinner on the patio is a must: choose from chef Robert Curry's seasonal menu - the excellent roast pork belly, kampachi sashimi and seared tuna with fava purée are standouts - and say yes to head sommelier Kris Margerum's thoughtful wine pairing. The massive spa has a central courtyard lined by hammam-style sauna and steam rooms, outdoor showers and hot and cold plunge pools. A leisurely afternoon here is a treat, not least because of the sunshine-soaked views.
Address: 180 Rutherford Hill Road, Rutherford, California
Telephone: +1 707 963 1211
Website:www.aubergedusoleil.com
Price: Doubles from about £455*Reports from: Britt Collins, Marion Fox, David Kaufman, Eimear Lynch, Kate Maxwell, Adriaane Pielou, Charles Runnette, Bonnie Tsui, Jeremy Wayne
This feature was published in Condé Nast Traveller USA Special September 2014*