California

Shade is a sun-drenched blend of by-gone beach scene and daring West Coast design aesthetic in a habitual L.A.-area hot spot. The 38 rooms are both ultracomfy...more

Though the Sè is very much a visual feast—with a massive bronze front door, a grand staircase framed by faux sand dollars, lamps covered in gray...more

Welcoming guests since 1893, San Ysidro Ranch has long been an elite hideaway: John and Jacqueline Kennedy honeymooned here, and it was the wedding site for...more

This mid-mountain lodge—Lake Tahoe's first new-build hotel in decades—hangs its hat on service, starting the moment you pull into its roundabout....more

Inside an iconic, 100-year-old columned Nob Hill landmark, the Ritz-Carlton is San Francisco's most formal luxury hotel. Polished marble floors, Oriental...more

It's a Ritz, so you know the drill: 123 elegant rooms done up in sophisticated neutral palettes, marble bathrooms with rain showers and flat-screen TVs, and a...more

Fifteen minutes south of Laguna Beach, this sprawling Mediterranean-inspired resort sits on a 150-foot bluff with panoramic vistas of the Pacific. Rooms have...more

Atop bluffs looking onto the Pacific, this six-story lodge has an "ambience reminiscent of the Scottish moors." Rooms and villas blend into the natural setting...more

This 2008 "adaptation of Palladian architecture" has bronze and wood doors and windows, brickwork replicating that found in Siena's main square, and wrought...more

A shrine to the Summer of Love, the Red Victorian is the place to go if you're sick of chain hotels and want some local color—psychedelic color, in this...more