10 Beautiful Hotels in America: From Waikiki to Aspen

America’s most beautiful hotels range from a Waikiki beach classic and a rebuilt Victorian seaside grande dame to a desert retreat carved into Utah’s canyon country. Here are ten that stand out for setting, history and design, with the facts you need to choose between them.

Beach and coast: Halekulani, Ocean House and The Setai

1. Halekulani, Waikiki, Oʻahu

Halekulani, whose name means “house befitting heaven”, stands on Waikiki Beach at 2199 Kalia Road. The site’s hotel history goes back to 1907, when a beachfront home became the Hau Tree hotel; it took the name Halekulani in 1917. Mitsui Fudosan rebuilt it, and the present hotel opened in 1984 with 453 rooms in five buildings on about five acres. Its signature pool is lined with some 1.2 million glass mosaic tiles forming a giant Cattleya orchid, and its restaurant House Without a Key, takes its name from Earl Derr Biggers’s novel of the same name.

2. Ocean House, Watch Hill, Rhode Island

The original Ocean House was a Victorian hotel built in 1868 on the bluffs of Watch Hill. By the time it closed in 2003, only 59 of its 159 rooms were usable. It was taken down in 2005 and rebuilt on the same site to look as it did around 1908, reopening in 2010 with 49 guest rooms and 23 residential suites above the Atlantic.

3. The Setai, Miami Beach

At 2001 Collins Avenue in South Beach, The Setai combines the restored eight-storey Art Deco Dempsey Vanderbilt hotel with a 40-storey aquamarine glass tower on the sand. It has about 120 rooms and suites, three pools and dark, modern interiors that feel far from pastel Miami.

Desert and mountains: Amangiri, Triple Creek Ranch and The Gant

4. Amangiri, Canyon Point, Utah

Amangiri opened in 2009 on a 600-acre site in the Glen Canyon region of southern Utah. Architects Marwan Al-Sayed, Rick Joy and Wendell Burnett designed the resort, which opened with 34 suites. The main pool wraps around a sandstone escarpment that reaches right into the water.

5. Triple Creek Ranch, Darby, Montana

This adults-only ranch resort sits among pines on the slopes of Trapper Peak, the highest summit of the Bitterroot Range in western Montana. Guests stay in private cabins, and excursions such as horseback rides and team penning take place on the sister CB Ranch, which covers more than 26,000 acres. It has been a member of Relais & Châteaux since 1996.

6. The Gant, Aspen, Colorado

The Gant offers condominium-style accommodation in Aspen, with separate living areas and kitchens that suit families and ski groups. It makes a practical base for skiing, summer outdoor activities, cultural events and Aspen’s historic downtown.

Historic city hotels: New Orleans, San Francisco and San Antonio

7. The Roosevelt, a Waldorf Astoria Hotel, New Orleans

Louis Grunewald opened the Hotel Grunewald in December 1893, in time for Mardi Gras. In 1923 it was renamed for Theodore Roosevelt in thanks for the Panama Canal, which had boosted the city’s trade. Huey Long ran his political operation from a 12th-floor suite in the 1930s, the Blue Room hosted Glenn Miller and Tommy Dorsey, and the Sazerac Bar, opened in 1938 and renamed in 1959, is still a city institution. Damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the hotel reopened as a Waldorf Astoria on 1 July 2009 with 504 rooms.

8. Palace Hotel, San Francisco

William Ralston’s Palace Hotel opened in 1875 with 755 rooms and was destroyed by the fires that followed the 1906 earthquake. The present building opened on the same site on 19 December 1909. Its Garden Court dining room occupies the space of the original hotel’s skylit Grand Court, Maxfield Parrish’s Pied Piper mural hangs in the bar named after it, and President Warren G. Harding died in an eighth-floor suite in 1923.

9. The St. Anthony, San Antonio, Texas

Opened in 1909 opposite Travis Park, The St. Anthony gained air conditioning, two extra floors and a new facade in 1935 under owner Ralph Morrison. Dorothy Draper redecorated it in 1959, it joined the National Register of Historic Places in 1986, and after a major renovation it reopened in November 2015 as a Luxury Collection hotel.

The Las Vegas showpiece: Bellagio

10. Bellagio, Las Vegas

Steve Wynn opened Bellagio on 15 October 1998, inspired by the village of Bellagio on Lake Como. Its fountains dance across an 8.5-acre lake in front of the hotel, Dale Chihuly’s glass flower ceiling Fiori di Como hangs in the lobby, and the free Conservatory and Botanical Gardens change theme with the seasons, drawing around 20,000 visitors a day. With 3,933 rooms, it is the largest property on this list by far.

Compare prices on the same dates and room type, and add resort fees and transfers to the total. For more unusual stays, see our distinctive hotel guide.

Sources