Ten Great American Hotels

Brown Palace, Denver, Colorado
Palace is the word. But Brown's not the colour, he?s the adventurer and entrepreneur Henry Cordes Brown who decided, in 1892, that what the cowtown of Denver needed was a grand hotel in Renaissance style. Designed by the same chap as the State Capitol around the corner, the triangular edifice is a veritable sculpture in red Colorado granite. It also had the nation?s first atrium lobby, eight storeys high, and views of the mighty Rocky Mountains.

Apart from luxurious, historic rooms it has one of Denver?s best pubs (The Ship, going strong since prohibition was repealed in 1934) and certainly Denver?s finest restaurant, The Palace Arms. Visitors include everyone from the Beatles, during their 1964 tour, and Bill Clinton, during the 1997 world summit. www.brownpalace.com

Don Cesar, St Petersburg, Florida
Palatial pink rococo resort right on St Petersburg beach that oozes the style of the wild Twenties...which is when F. Scott Fitzgerald and his beautiful chums used to drop by. It?s got it all...a huge pool where uniformed chaps bring drinks that look like they should have little umbrellas in even if they don?t, where the tennis courts are home to lithe, tanned players who look like they should be in films (and who may well be). www.doncesar.com

Hotel Pattee, Perry, Iowa
Tiny place (34 rooms) in a tiny place (pop 7,200) in America?s agricultural heartland, but an architectural beacon dating back to 1913. Colonial revival exterior and dark, warm Arts and Crafts interior. Built when the Milwaukee Railroad was still puffing past, the place was an oasis of elegance. In the seventies, however, new owners felt the place would be more appealing if all its beautiful fittings and woodwork were ripped out. That was pretty much that until the mid-Nineties when it was bought by caring locals and underwent a ?7million revamp, restoring the library?s huge stone and copper fireplace, the lounge in the style of architect Frank Lloyd Wright and stylish rooms with individual themes (designer William Morris, Italian, American Indian, etc) and the restaurant with real train doors.
www.hotelpattee.com

Mt Washington, New Hampshire
The queen of classic East Coast resorts, dating from the turn of the last century. The stone and painted wood edifice can be seen for miles as it sits on a plateau in the rolling White Mountains...from where you get awesome views of Mt Washington, the highest mountain in the east. The entrance hall is a like a cathedral with chandeliers and the plush carpeted corridors have the feel of the Queen Mary. In the summer lounge on the enormous porch; in the winter (and it?s only a few years since a multi-million pound investment in double-glazing and insulation allowed it to open year-round) ski at its very own area, Bretton Woods a mile away. Eat in the main dining room with orchestral accompaniment to get the full flavour of the past.
www.mtwashington.com

Menger Hotel, San Antonio, Texas
Deep in the heart of Texas, in fact right next door to the fabled Alamo, the glorious Spanish mission church where Davy Crockett fell during the battle for freedom from Mexico. Wonderfully simple whitewashed place dating back to 1859. The waft of the ceiling fans and the delicate garden courtyard make this a haven from the heat and the city outside. Part of history, too, as the place where President Teddy Roosevelt recruited his Rough Riders in the bar, and where the likes of Oscar Wilde and Sarah Berhhardt used to mix it with wild borderland types. www.historicmenger.com

Arizona Biltmore, Phoenix, Arizona
The height of high desert living, a monument to style and art thanks to architect Frank Lloyd Wright. His low-rise stone and glass home studio complex Taliesin West may be a short drive away, but this is very different, albeit still with his organic architecture...using the stone and the wood of the deserts and their mountainous backdrop. Palatial - 734 rooms and villas and eight swimming pools in 39 acres - and kitted out with oak Mission-style furnishings in surroundings where 1930s desert deco meets the West. www.arizonabiltmore.com

Hotel Del Coronado, San Diego, California
Technically in Coronado, a peninsula sitting across from the city itself (the drive over the bridge is a tourist attraction in itself) , this is still THE place to stay, just as it was in 1888 when it threw open its doors. A sprawling, whitewashed, red-roofed Victorian clapboard mansion with attitude. The Duke and Duchess of Windsor stayed here, an Anglo-American Royal connection much played upon with its air of pre-war elegance, whether in the Prince of Wales dining room or out on the hot, white sand. That said, more people may remember it as the backdrop for Marilyn Monroe and Tony Curtis putting on the style in Some Like It Hot. www.hoteldel.com

Hotel Fairmont, New Orleans, Louisiana
One of the oldest grand hotels in America, now 110 years old. Most people head for the French Quarter for quaint hotels with little balconies, but this, a five-minute walk away is a forerunner of a tower hotel, sophistication in the business district. It might now be in its third century but the feel inside is definitely the Jazz Age of the Twenties. Safe, too, in a city known for its storms. I spent several nights under curfew there during hurricane George several years back and crowds of locals were checking in...one boy even carrying his rabbit and hutch into the lift.
www.fairmontneworleans.com

Sun Valley Lodge, Ketchum, Idaho
Where the first rich folks went when the idea of winter holidays took hold. In the wilds of the northern Rockies, the faux Austrian resort opened in 1936 hot on the heels of the Sun Valley ski area, attracting Hollywood wild boys such as Gary Cooper. Author Ernest Hemingway, too, who wrote some of For Whom The Bell Tolls here (and who lies in Ketchum cemetery). It?s an exquisite centre for a winter driving holiday(the late afternoon cocktails in the open air hot circular swimming pool are a tradition) while summer is equally attractive. Still gets the stars too...Arnold Schwarzenegger amongst them. www.sunvalley.com

Salish Lodge, Snoqualmie, Washington State
Remember Twin Peaks, the bleak, twisted TV murder mystery? Well, Snoqualmie is the little Pacific Northwest town where it was filmed. Twin mountain peaks form a backdrop to the real-life diner that really does serve up excellent cherry pie...and the Salish is the dark, brooding lodge where Agent Cooper stayed, right above the crashing Snoqualmie Falls. In reality it?s a 91-room lodge with a dreamlike quality that, with its stunning setting, is a divine retreat whether you were a Twin peaks fan or not. www.salishlodge.com

13 June 2005