“Back To The Land” Hotels

It feels like there’s a shift happening in travel right now toward the rooted, the seasonal, and the soil—back to the land. Maybe it’s nostalgia for analog summers of capture-the-flag and the chirp of crickets on the porch, or pulling the thread harder on the farm-to-table movement and sourdough starters: we want to feel closer to nature, to how things are made and where they come from. This list is our attempt to map that impulse across four distinctly American traditions.

The farm stay is definitely having a moment—hotels turning their attention to the orchards, the veg patch, the barns, and the working land around them, whether that means a serious agritourism operation or a restless flock of chickens. The guest ranch has been rebranding for a while, trading dusty bunkhouses for more polish without losing the horsemanship, clay pigeons, or fly rods. The cabin had its cultural reckoning in the early days of Instagram, and safari-style glamping is now ubiquitous, even on a grassy patch of NYC: it’s light on the land, high on comfort, and you can unzip right into nature.

Together they feel particularly right to gather into a list on the occasion of the country’s 250th birthday: a reminder that the American landscape itself remains a beautiful destination.

P.S. ICYMI, last year we did our favorite American Lake Hotels List, which makes a good companion to this one! 

FARM STAYS/AMERICAN AGRITURISMOS

Suddenly, all eyes are on hotels shifting more of their attention to the soil around them – the orchards, the veg patch, the barns and, of course, the farm too. Whether that means a working farm or a single restless flock of chickens, here’s where to get out in the field. We’ve left vineyard stays off this list – too many to include, and that’s coming soon as a roundup all its own.

Northeast

Maine 

The Waterford Inne, Waterford – A charming 19th-century homestead turned farmhouse inn in the woods of western Maine. Tallulah’s – their 12-seat seed-to-plate restaurant – crafts up plates for their seasonal weekend suppers with farm-fresh ingredients and harvests from their garden. Locals like to keep an eye on their summer makers’ markets or foraging workshops in their 17 acres of beautiful farm land.

Vermont