Best Life

The Suite Life: America's Best Boutique Hotels
May 2006

By Anthony Bourdain

There's nothing quite like arriving dirty and fatigued after a long time on the road - sleeping in hard beds between scratchy chain-hotel linens, enduring weak, unreliable plumbing - and then finally allowing yourself to succumb to the warm embrace of a world-class establishment. That first hot high-pressure shower bakes the pain out of jet-lagged muscle tissue.

You slide gratefully into soft, maximum thread-count sheets and pull a thick duvet over your head knowing that anything you need is a button-push away. And when you wake up, you don't have to rush to the window in hopes of discerning an identifiable landmark to tell you which city you're in - you know where you are. The perfectly maintained Victorian plumbing tells you you're back in London, inside the three adjacent townhouses that make up Hazlitt's. The 1940s vintage kitchenette heaped with empty Champagne bottles and half-eaten orders of orecchiette pasta, overflowing ashtrays, and the punk band who've apparently fallen asleep on your floor tell you you're at the Château Marmont in L.A.

The problem is that "boutique hotel" has lost its meaning as corporations, like Starwood with its W hotel chain, have gotten into a business that is about being singular. It takes more than U2 piped into the lobby and a staff dressed like Agent Smith from The Matrix to make a place special.

To me, L'Hotel (l-hotel.com) is a real boutique, a brass ram's head hangs over a narrow doorway on a charming side street in Paris' Saint-Germain-des-Pres neighborhood. At the tiny bar, photos of Johnny Depp and Sean Penn confirm that you are definitely not at the Marriott. Each of the intimate rooms around a graceful oval stairwell has its own character. The room to stay in is #16, the notorious "Oscar Wilde Suite," where the libertine had the good taste to die. But perhaps the most naughty feature of a hotel that seems designed to meet the desires of one's mistress is the small thermal bath and "relaxation area" tucked away in the cavern like cellar. Guests can reserve it for their personal use - without fear of interruption.

Travel used to be about going to new places and experiencing something of the local culture. At some hotels, it still is. At the Château Marmont, the service is what you'd expect from Los Angeles: dodgy but diligently tolerant of the unusual needs of the hotel's wildly eclectic clientele. Feel free to call room service and order up a case of fine wine and an assortment of power tools for the Hells Angeles who'll be joining you in your suite later. Sadly, the Chateau and L'Hotel are rapidly becoming the exceptions in an ever-changing world, so maybe what true sybaritic travelers need is a new definition - a "unique" hotel or a "bespoke" - for a special setting where the staff seem to actually care about you, where they look after your every need and never flinch, no matter how unique these needs may be. To that end, the editors of Best Life scoured the country for properties that remain true to the idea of boutique. Here are our selections for the Best Boutique Hotels for Grown-Ups. (Prices listed are the base price per night.)

Maison 140 Los Angeles

Brad Korzen and Kelly Wearstler, whose credits include the Avalon, Viceroy and Chamberlain hotels, scoured European antique markets to create a pocket of 1920s Paris a few blocks from Rodeo Drive. The hotel's romantic, candlelit Bar Noir features a mix of red French slipper chairs, Asian antiques, and Lucite stools. $259; maison140beverlyhills.com

The Jefferson Washington, D.C.

This 100-room D.C. institution, built in 1923 as a luxury apartment building, opened as a hotel in 1955. Defense attorney and power broker Edward Bennett Williams bought the hotel in the 1970s. His collection of antiquarian books and rare Thomas Jefferson manuscripts is on display in the cozy, antique-filled lobby. The hotel caters to Capitol Hill lawyers with amenities such as in-room snack baskets for all-night work sessions and a "law concierge" with information on law libraries and courts. The spacious suites feature galley kitchens and original artwork. $250; www.jeffersondc.com