Figueroa Hotel, Los Angeles, CA. Moorish-romantic touches like ottomans, lanterns, and magic-carpet rugs give this 1920s hotel an Old World vibe. The theaters and sports arenas of the L.A. Live and Staples Center are right across the street, but it’s just as easy to stay put at the candlelit bar by the bougainvillea-shrouded pool. From $148.
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Hotel Maya, Long Beach, CA. With a cheerily mod lobby, a waterfront pool with cabanas that seem to float, and a brightly colored nuevo Latino vibe, the 196-room Maya is a touch of the tropics in SoCal and got an upgrade in 2009. Ask for a room facing the harbor, not the docks. If you’re headed downtown, a water taxi is definitely the stylish way to go. From $148.
Pacific Edge Hotel, Laguna Beach, CA. Perhaps it’s the moment when a beach sherpa scurries out with your chair and umbrella on the white-sand beach that happy shock sets in. Or when you’re curled up in a yellow Adirondack above the waves on your beachfront balcony that you’ll shake your head in giddy bafflement. How you can be camped out at a chic hotel on the prettiest stretch of beach in Laguna and not be going into credit card debt is best left a mystery. Here, the shag carpets and polyester pillows of a former 8-building Vacation Village were ripped up, making way for sassy chartreuse walls, Endless Summer surf art, and pillow menus that you’ll appreciate when you’re not on the sand, in one of the 2 pools, or finally taking that surf lesson. From $149.
The Cottage Inn, Lake Tahoe, CA. This 22-room B&B is classic Tahoe all the way, down to the knotty-pine paneling, hammocks hung under evergreens, and the path down to a private beach for a bracing dip in the blue, blue lake. Mornings, there’s breakfast on the deck (or, if it’s nippy, in by the fire); afternoons, wine and cookies for the nibbling. From $145; 2-night minimum.
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The Crescent Hotel, San Francisco, CA. Union Square’s shopping and shows are just down the street, but the hotel’s jazzy Burritt Room bar is a great reason to stay put, Sazerac in hand. The 79 rooms are teensy but stylin’, with white leather headboards, oversize black mirrors, and exposed brick. From $149.
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Carmel Mission Ranch, Carmel, CA. Yes, this is his place—Mr. Million Dollar Baby and “Make My Day,” the man with 4 Oscars and a face crinkling into monument-dom. But in an era when celebrity enterprises inspire deep suspicion—see “debit card, Kim Kardashian”—Clint Eastwood’s Mission Ranch delivers. Many Carmel digs tend to be fussy and claustrophobic (not to mention overpriced), but the minute you turn into Mission Ranch’s drive, your blood pressure drops at the sight of so much beautiful space: simple, milk white board-and-batten buildings scattered near a curve of Carmel Bay, with Point Lobos floating on the horizon. Cottages aren’t cheap, but many rooms are so reasonable, you’ll begin to suspect this is Clint’s thank-you gift to all of us who’ve been filling multiplex seats for years. Or maybe he just likes it here—last time we took in the ranch’s Sunday jazz brunch, he was there too, looking like he was having the time of his life. From $145; 2-night minimum.
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Hotel Modera, Portland, OR. A luxe-redux of a frumpy former Days Inn in downtown, the 174-room Modera skimps in only one way: the price. It has a clean-lined modernism, but there’s warmth in the details—like black walnut floors, faux-fur bedspreads, and outdoor firepits. The coolest spot is the courtyard, where you’ll dig the living wall of native plants. From $139.
Bright Angel Lodge & Cabins, Grand Canyon, AZ. The people’s national park lodge Let the fancy national park hotels—the Ahwahnees and El Tovars—host the platinum-card-toting swells who order their personal assistants to carry them down to Plateau Point and back up again. That’s not Grand Canyon’s Bright Angel Lodge. Like the national parks themselves, Bright Angel is democracy in action, awe for everybody. That mile-deep canyon outside the front door? For you! The mule rides you book at the front desk? Yours too. And so are the rickety but charming cabins, the ice cream parlor, and—best of all—the lodge’s fireplace, its rock layers perfectly duplicating those of the canyon, from Vishnu Schist to Kaibab Limestone. And all these pleasures come at prices just about anybody can pay. E pluribus amazing. From $113.
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Hotel Terra, Jackson Hole, WY. Before Memorial Day, you can slip into this stylin’ eco hotel for as low as $125. Soak up luxe touches like flat-screen TVs, heated bathroom floors, deep tubs, and a third-floor infinity pool that looks out over the village and up the mountain’s slope. From $125.
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Petit Hotel Hafa, Sayulita, Mexico. The laid-back vibe at this family-owned boutique hotel suits Sayulita’s slow charms. But the joint’s got style too, with Moroccan- and Mediterranean-inspired decor in the 6 rooms and rooftop lounge. Wander the 2 blocks to the beach or hit up owners Christophe and Marina for other local faves. From $50; 3-night minimum.
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