“You know, the Pitts were here this season,” whispered Julie Wright, a real estate broker at Snowcreek Resort in Mammoth Lakes, California.  No one was around, but she kept her voice low, as if she were telling me a secret. Julie was discreet and respectful, and just as excited as the hoards of fans that snapped blurry cell-phones pictures of “BAMPSZ” from ski lifts. Mammoth is definitely hot after a visit by Brangelina and their kids this past February. In ski season, the mountain town on the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada Mountains is always bustling with So Cal families on winter holiday. I imagine that the Pitts just wanted to do some snowboarding, eat chili out of a bread bowl, and teach their kids how to pizza wedge down Mammoth Mountain, just like everyone else.  

I’ve never met a Rockefeller and my last name is certainly not Carnegie or Vanderbilt, but during my stay at The Point  I was given a taste of what it must be like to be a bold-named guest of one of America’s wealthiest and most hospitable families. Originally built in the early 1930s as Camp Wonundra—the mountain home of William Avery Rockefeller (John D.’s nephew)—The Point is now an exclusive 11 room Relais & Chateaux retreat where everything including all food, drink and activities is included and nothing is too much to expect, just as the Rockefellers hosted their friends here for years.

It all started with a Ferrari. When San Diego real estate magnate Edward Kaen recently found himself craving one of the Italian sports cars it dawned on him that the same aesthetics that make the Ferrari so irresistible could (and should) be applied to a hotel. Kaen promptly bought a land-marked, five-story brick building in the city’s trendy Gaslamp District (it is to San Diego what Soho is to New York City). 

Cabo San Lucas at the southern tip of the Baja peninsula  may be awash in mega-size, mega-service, mega-resorts, and many of them are at the top of people’s lists of places to stay before they die. But Casa Natalia  in the neighboring 17th Century town of San Jose del Cabo, offers a more intimate option that’s every bit as chic and indulgent. Owners Nathalie and Loic Tenoux  like to say that the word Casa in the name of their 16 room high design boutique hotel means “home,” not merely “house.” The couple actually lives in a penthouse over the hotel’s acclaimed restaurant (where Loic is Chef) and they’ve worked hard to make you feel at home too.

It’s a bold hotel that tries to be the coolest kid in town in a city that created the coolest music in the world but nine years ago International House set out to out-hip everyone by turning an old Beaux-Arts style building in the Central Business District into an $11 million reflection of the great city of New Orleans through a thoroughly modern prism. A recent top to bottom spiffing-up courtesy of LM Pagano, designer of choice for Nicolas Cage and Johnny Depp, has only increased the cool quotient.

The night I checked into the Inn of the Five Graces felt like it should have been dark and stormy: It was difficult to come to terms with desperately wanting to be in a nice, warm bed on a night that was, in fact, starry and cool. I'd been stuck driving for no less than 14 hours, straight across the West Texas plains and eastern New Mexico to Santa Fe, and by the time I parked my car, I was exhausted, irritable, and starving. At this point, almost midnight, I was so happy to be done with the driving that I would have happily accepted a futon mattress and an empty pillowcase, which I could stuff with my jacket. ­

It’s rare that a hotel manages to satisfy both the business traveller and moms and dads, but Denver’s iconic Brown Palace Hotel & Spa does it with old-world style. Business travellers will appreciate the fact that the hotel is downtown Denver’s only Mobil four star property, the complimentary use of a Mercedes and driver in the mornings and evenings, the more spacious executive rooms on floors eight and nine and the complimentary shoe shine.

According to Wikipedia, "Southern hospitality is a phrase used in American English to describe the idea that residents of the Southern United States are particularly warm and welcoming to visitors to their homes, or to the South in general.­

I’ve always found the Catskills to be one of the most relaxing places to visit.­ Growing up, I spent long summer holidays at my grandparents’s home near the region, located nearly two­ hours from New York. And once I moved to the Big Apple, the slower pace, antiquing, and delicious local cuisine drew me to towns like New Paltz and Woodstock­.

When we pulled up to the imposing mansion, I gave the cab driver a more lavish tip than usual.  Since he was dropping me off at the Wentworth Mansion, one of Charleston's most luxurious properties, I felt a little guilty he had to get back to work while I was in for a generous amount of pampering. The first thing I noticed upon climbing the steps and opening the heavy door to the mansion were the beautiful stained glass windows, glinting in even the partial sun.  I planned to gather my light bags and head up to my room myself, but as one employee told me with a stunned look upon her face, “This is the Wentworth.  No one schleps here.”