The 15 Best City Hotels in the Continental U.S., According to Travel + Leisure Readers

Winning a top spot in this category is a fine balancing act. This year’s top hotels juggle urban sophistication with a purposeful interior design, from delicately elegant to breezily contemporary. Convenient access to the local scene is a given, whether that consists of evening theater production or the best shopping in town, and so too are superb dining and attentive service. When it comes to high standards, that’s something all these hotels share.

How Voting Works

Every year for our World’s Best Awards survey, T+L asks readers to weigh in on travel experiences around the globe — to share their opinions on the top hotels, resorts, cities, islands, cruise ships, spas, airlines, and more. Over 186,000 T+L readers completed the 2024 survey. A total of more than 700,000 votes were cast across over 8,700 properties (hotels, cities, cruise lines, etc.).

Hotels were classified as either resort hotel, city hotel, inn, or safari lodge based on their location and amenities, and they were specifically rated on the criteria below:

• Rooms/facilities
• Location
• Service
• Food
• Value

For each characteristic, respondents could choose a rating of excellent, above average, average, below average, or poor. The final scores are averages of these responses.

What Readers Loved

Readers cast their votes for hotels with a sense of cosmopolitan savoir-faire paired with artistic (or historic) sensibilities. Take the Lancaster Hotel in the No. 2 spot, first built in Houston, Texas in the 1920s, yet today boasts a 200-plus collection from contemporary artists based in its home state. Or, the haute Raffles Boston in the No. 3 spot (one of three Boston honorees in this category this year), in which guests can find copper accents in the interior design inspired by Paul Revere’s successful but little-known copper plating company.

Two stately repeat winners from last year include Charleston’s Wentworth Mansion (No. 5) and New York’s The Lowell (No. 14), while a notable southern addition is the 67-room Maison de la Luz (now rebranded under Hyatt with the name Maison Métier) in New Orleans. This site in The Big Easy encourages travelers to visit cultural institutions such as the Ogden Museum of Southern Art and the Free People of Color Museum. The service at these properties stood out too, especially at The Jefferson, Washington D.C., the No. 13 winner. One reader noted the staff at this historic hotel never compromises quality, showing that “increasing(ly) rare ability to maintain luxury standards and staff over the years.”

There are just two West Coast properties on this list — and one of them scooped the No. 1 spot. Read on to learn about the Pendry Newport Beach in California.

The Winner

Pendry Newport Beach

It’s little wonder this 295-room newcomer to California’s fashionable Orange County landed a spot on Travel + Leisure’s 2024 It List, our annual collection of the best hotel openings worldwide. Pendry Newport Beach bears the brand’s stamp of contemporary design — this time with a relaxed Southern California aesthetic — amid an urban home base. Plus, nightlife touches include a members-only club, thoughtful investments in wellness offerings, and a pet-friendly policy.

For readers, it checked all the boxes to make it the top choice for a city stay in the U.S. “I loved this hotel for a quick weekend of dining and shopping in Orange County, and dining at Set Steak & Sushi was delicious,” wrote one voter. “The Pendry Newport Beach has the best spa among the Pendry locations, with offerings like cryotherapy and medispa facials,” added another. And the hotel’s location is a home run: Pendry Newport Beach is cozily set between the town’s Big Canyon Nature Park and the Fashion Island shopping mall, and a 15-minute drive to Newport Beach.

The Full List

1. Pendry Newport Beach: California

Reader Score: 99.29

2. Lancaster Hotel: Houston, Texas

Reader Score: 97.64

3. Raffles Boston: Massachusetts

Reader Score: 97.09

4. Four Seasons Hotel One Dalton Street, Boston: Massachusetts

Reader Score: 96.77

5. Bellyard, West Midtown Atlanta, A Tribute Portfolio Hotel: Atlanta, Georgia

Reader Score: 96.56

6. Maison de la Luz: New Orleans, Louisiana

Reader Score: 96.53

7. Wentworth Mansion: Charleston, South Carolina

Reader Score: 96.46

8. Virgin Hotels New York: New York

Reader Score: 96.3

9. Hotel Saint Cecilia: Austin, Texas

Reader Score: 96.25

10. Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills: California

Reader Score: 96.22

11. The Bristol Hotel: Bristol, Virginia

Reader Score: 96.16

12. The Lowell: New York, New York

Reader Score: 96.13

13. (tie) The Jefferson, Washington D.C.

WBA Hall of Fame honoree. Reader Score: 96.00

13. (tie) The Whitney Hotel Boston: Massachusetts

Reader Score: 96.00

15. Viceroy Washington D.C.

Reader Score: 95.86