The Michelin Guide isn’t just for restaurants. The guidebook’s anonymous, difficult-to-please investigators are also concerned about hotels – and they have some thoughts on what’s in California.
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In 2024, Michelin started awarding “keys” to global hotels based on criteria like architecture, value and quality of service. Aside from that, it’s started picking out local lodgings that impressed for sheer visual splendor, as highlighted in this summer’s guide to “The 10 Most Beautiful Hotels in California.”
“Travelers to this aesthetically and culinarily blessed state will find a host of hotels that treat beauty as a serious tenet of hospitality,” writes Michelin. “Curating a list of the 10 most beautiful will always stir debate, but the selections below are undeniable contenders.”
If you trust Michelin for food, chances are you’ll trust its judgment on these inns, which include both SoCal and near-Bay Area destinations like Half Moon Bay and Sea Ranch.
The Michelin Guide’s 10 Most Beautiful Hotels in California
1 Rancho Valencia Resort & Spa, Rancho Santa Fe
2 The Madrona, Healdsburg
3 Terranea Resort, Rancho Palos Verdes
4 Rosewood Miramar Beach, Santa Barbara
The Post Ranch Inn was listed #5 on the top 20 hotels in Northern California Conde Nast Traveler Readers’ Choice Awards list and has been on the list multiple times before. (Post Ranch Inn)
5 Post Ranch Inn, Big Sur
6 The Maybourne Beverly Hills, Los Angeles
7 Ojai Valley Inn, Ojai Valley
8 The Ritz-Carlton, Half Moon Bay
The Sea Ranch Chapel in the Sonoma community of The Sea Ranch in 2025. (John Metcalfe/Bay Area News Group)
9 Montage Laguna Beach, Laguna Beach
10 The Sea Ranch Lodge, Sea Ranch
Source: guide.michelin.com/us/en/article/travel/most-beautiful-hotels-california