Picture a morning when your kids gather warm eggs from a henhouse in the Smokies while you finish a second coffee on the porch, or an afternoon when they push a toy sailboat across a pond in Central Park while you browse Madison Avenue with a stroller the hotel lent you. The seven hotels below are made for days like that, with interiors adults will linger over and setups that make family travel feel easy.
Rancho Valencia (Rancho Santa Fe, California)
Courtesy of Rancho Valencia.
Every morning at Rancho Valencia, a carafe of fresh orange juice shows up at your casita without anyone asking. The 49 casitas are Spanish Colonial through and through, with terracotta floors, hand-painted tile and a fireplace on the patio, and they're big (900 square feet at minimum). Tennis is the main event here, and the junior clinics are a great way to hand the kids off for a morning. Reserve a table at The Pony Room for your first night for a menu that will impress young and old(er) alike.
The Resort at Paws Up (Greenough, Montana)
Courtesy of The Resort at Paws Up.
If your family's idea of a great day involves horses, Paws Up in western Montana is hard to top. The resort covers 37,000 acres along the Blackfoot River, and kids can ride, fly fish, and even help move cattle. The tents come with a camping butler who builds your fire and handles the s'mores, which is about as civilized as camping gets. Bigger families should look at the log homes, since they come with a full kitchen and a few bedrooms to spread out in.
The Nantucket Hotel & Resort (Nantucket, Massachusetts)
Courtesy of The Nantucket Hotel & Resort.
It's an easy walk from the ferry to The Nantucket Hotel & Resort, though you'll probably ride up in the hotel's 1938 bus anyway, because the kids will insist. The building is a restored 1890s hotel with plenty of cedar shingles and a slightly goofy blue-whale motif that turns up on pillows and bath toys. Suites go up to four bedrooms (some designed by Lily Pulitzer), and many have kitchens and washer-dryers, which on an island vacation turns out to matter a lot. There are two pools, one for families and one just for adults, and a kids' club in summer.
Blackberry Farm (Walland, Tennessee)
Courtesy of Blackberry Farm.
Food and wine people have been raving about Blackberry Farm, in the Tennessee foothills of the Smokies, for years, and that reputation is well earned (the wine cellar is enormous, and the farm makes its own cheese). What surprises many guests is how good it is for kids thanks to the on-site Camp Blackberry. They can gather eggs in the morning, meet the farm animals, fish the ponds, and spend the afternoon on the trails. The cottages have stone fireplaces and big porches with rocking chairs, giving families some welcome space away from the main house.
The Mark (New York City)
Courtesy of The Mark Hotel.
The only city hotel on this list sits a block from Central Park on the Upper East Side, and it's probably the most stylish of the bunch. Jacques Grange designed the interiors, including that famous black-and-white striped lobby floor. The family perks are charming and very New York: loaner Maclaren strollers, a toy sailboat to take to the Conservatory Water pond, even a sled for Cedar Hill after a snowstorm. Book the Slumber Party package, and they'll set up a kid-sized tent in your suite with cookies and a movie.
The Pridwin (Shelter Island, New York)
Courtesy of Pridwin.
East End families have treated the Pridwin as a summer tradition since 1927, and a two-year renovation by Cape Resorts kept the old-fashioned charm (lots of rattan and wicker, bright colors) while updating everything else. Families usually take one of the 16 cottages near Crescent Beach. The summer schedule is the real appeal, with croquet, campfire singalongs, dive-in movies at the pool, and bedtime stories for little kids. Sunsets over the Sound are spectacular, so plan dinner around them.
Under Canvas Mount Rushmore (Keystone, South Dakota)
Courtesy of Under Canvas Mount Rushmore.
A short drive from the monument and from Custer State Park, Under Canvas has set up a camp of safari-style tents in the Black Hills. The tents have real beds, wood-burning stoves, and private bathrooms, and the Stargazer tents have a window over the bed for looking at the night sky. For families, the tents with an attached kids' tent (two twin beds) are the way to go. Evenings are simple and mostly involve s'mores and board games around the fire. But there are always scheduled activities like watercolor painting and scavenger hunts.