Condé Nast Traveler today announced the results of its 31st annual Readers’ Choice Awards with The Hermosa Inn retaining its top 10 ranking and moving up one slot to No. 8 of the 10 Best Hotels in the U.S., plus it held its top spot for the second year in a row as No. 1 in the Top Hotels in the Southwest with a score of 98.31.
“We are honored to be recognized by Condé Nast Traveler as the top hotel in the Southwest and one of the 10 Best Hotels in the U.S. in the 2018 Readers’ Choice Awards. To achieve these prestigious awards two years in a row makes us exceedingly proud,” said Managing Director Stephen Ast. “Once again, this exemplifies the outstanding hospitality and service provided by our remarkable team while creating authentic and memorable guest experiences that are unmistakably Arizona.”
More than 429,000 readers submitted millions of ratings and tens of thousands of comments, sharing their recent travel experiences of the world’s cities, islands, hotels, resorts, cruise lines, airlines, and airports–good or bad. The following highlights of the editors’ summary for the 2018 rankings illuminates some of the reasons The Hermosa Inn continues to top the Readers’ Choice Awards:
“Quiet. Small. Subdued. This is what travelers seem to be craving this year.”
“The properties that impressed you most were smaller and less flashy than in years past (the Sagamore Pendry Baltimore was your favorite hotel in the U.S.) and our small-cruise-ship list is longer than it’s ever been suggesting that the right kind of less *is* more.”
“You may not need a passport to visit these hotels, but they’ll still take you worlds away.”
The Hermosa Inn resonates with guests due to its quintessential blend of rustic elegance and authentic southwestern charm. “We are passionately committed to retaining the legacy and historic appeal of the original home and studio built by Arizona’s famed and first cowboy artist, Lon Megargee, in the early 1930’s,” said owner Ron Allred.
Old West meets modern luxury in the hotel’s 43 casitas that feature in-room beehive fireplaces and open-air private patios that create a tranquil respite for guests looking for a romantic hideaway, an intimate family vacation, or a secluded executive retreat. Graciously appointed with European white oak floors, expansive bathrooms with clawfoot bathtubs and furnishings that are generous in size and comfort, the casitas feature wrought iron and wood canopy king beds draped with gauzy sheers; authentic, mesquite tables and dressers handcrafted in Tubac, Arizona; and over-sized wingback leather
chairs. Upholstered benches, pillows and rugs stay true to the local environs with sophisticated Southwestern patterns in a soothing desert palette of sienna red, with dusty tans, muted golds and greens. Wood shutters frame the expansive windows in both the bed and bathroom, while the walls in both are appropriately adorned with Lon Megargee prints. The deluxe casitas feature a truly unique design: vaulted ceilings with a retractable skylight, allowing guests to control how much overhead natural light they choose to enjoy.
The culinary centerpiece of The Hermosa Inn is LON’s at the Hermosa, a AAA Four Diamond Award-winning restaurant renowned for its globally inspired Arizona fare and its celebrated wine program that has received Wine Spectator Magazine’s “Award of Excellence” from 1996 through 2014 and has received a “Best of Award” since 2015. Age-old cooking methods of smoking, roasting and wood-grilling are employed along with European techniques to create a cuisine utilizing the flavors of the region. Menus are designed around the seasons and a Chef’s Tasting Menu is offered weekly to showcase the creativity of the culinary team, led by Executive Chef Jeremy Pacheco, a ninth generation Arizonan.
LON’s offers memorable cuisine in an authentic and elegant adobe dining room, surrounded by some of the most dazzling scenery the state has to offer. With wood-beamed ceilings, rustic tile floors and unique ironwork, the ruggedly elegant dining room features the artwork of Megargee, which perfectly captures the essence of this colorful cowboy’s era. Boasting views of Camelback Mountain, the expansive and lushly-landscaped patio features a massive wood-burning fireplace, a three-tiered stone fountain and several wrought iron chimineas, creating the perfect setting for savoring Arizona’s leisurely days, mountain sunsets and starry nights.
The hotel’s much loved and lauded bar, LON’s Last Drop, is appropriately named after Megargee’s most famous painting: “Last Drop From His Stetson,” which was commissioned by the Stetson Hat Company in the 1920’s, and to this day appears on the inside of every top-of-the-line Stetson hat. Guests can sit at the roughhewn bar and enjoy the indoor/outdoor experience with sliding glass windows that open to the extensive patio or relax by one of the many indoor and outdoor beehive fireplaces flanked by leather wing-backed chairs and savor the casual menu, daily happy hour and live entertainment on weekends. Consistently revered as the ‘best dining patio in the Valley,’ the outside patio, with five fireplaces and cozy conversational couches, makes it the ultimate gathering spot with the simplest of ingredients – creative cocktails, globally-inspired Arizona fare, unrivaled views of Camelback Mountain and perfect Arizona temperatures.
The Condé Nast Traveler’s Readers’ Choice Awards are the longest-running and most prestigious recognition of excellence in the travel industry and are commonly known as “the best of the best of travel.” Under Editor in Chief Pilar Guzmán, the Readers’ Choice Awards have become more selective and specific to the passions that inspire today’s travelers.
The Readers’ Choice Awards are announced in the November issue of Condé Nast Traveler, on newsstands nationwide. The full list is published exclusively online, at www.CNTraveler.com/rca.
