Hotels + Hospitality
Best Sports Team: Seattle Seahawks
Seattle loves a winner, so it’s no surprise that our two-time Super Bowl champions snagged this award. After the February 2026 win, nearly 1 million fans turned out to cheer on the Hawks along the 2-mile victory parade route—many people skipped work, school, and other obligations, treating the event much like a national holiday. Runner…
Best Financial Advisor/Broker: Chad Mortenson
Planning for the future can be overwhelming, especially when it comes to your finances. Rather than go it alone, hiring a financial advisor can ease the stress of thinking about big life decisions. With nearly a decade of industry experience, Chad Mortenson excels at helping Northwesterners with financial planning, retirement goals, estate planning, college savings,…
Best Real Estate Agent: Chris Cooley
Real estate agents are local celebrities in their own way—their faces turn up on signs, mailers, shopping carts, and billboards. But when it’s your house and your money on the line, a good one is worth knowing. Edmonds-based Windermere broker and condo specialist Chris Cooley has spent more than 25 years in the business. His…
Best Resort/Hotel: Populus Seattle
Once again, Populus Seattle has taken the gold for Best Hotel. A gem in Pioneer Square, this 120-room property—part of the neighborhood’s Railspur micro-district—is an adaptive reuse project that converted the century-old Westland Building into an inviting, art-forward space with a beloved rooftop bar, Firn. (It’s the only rooftop bar in the neighborhood.) The rooms…
Best Event Space: Snoqualmie Casino & Hotel
A wedding for 100 or a conference for 2,000? Snoqualmie Casino & Hotel has room for both, with Cascade Mountain views and the forests of the Snoqualmie Valley as a backdrop. The property’s 12 event spaces range from smaller meeting rooms to a new 22,100-square-foot ballroom, part of its major 2025 expansion. The hotel makes…
Best Casino: Snoqualmie Casino & Hotel
Snoqualmie Casino & Hotel debuted its $400 million expansion last year, adding a hotel, spa and fitness facility, a larger convention center, and expanded gambling space. Now, visitors can play and stay with ease: the hotel features more than 200 rooms, and six on-property dining options vary from a classic steakhouse to a coffee-forward café….
Creative Collections: Destination Museums Worth the Trip
Seeing art in person isn’t just visual; it’s visceral.
Museums will always be destinations, but you don’t need to go to the Met or the Louvre to enjoy the ride. And the thrill isn’t limited to paintings—a fighter jet, a historic cipher machine, or a field full of vintage neon also delivers an emotional impact that can only be experienced with the intimacy of…
An Interior Unfolding at 1 Hotel Hanalei Bay
On Kauai’s North Shore, a better mind, body, and spirit is just one stay away.
On a recent trip to Kauai, I learned three things about myself. I don’t do well being totally alone with my thoughts. Even when I think I’m packing light, I’m overpacked. I have been working out wrong for my entire life. OK, that last one might be a bit of an exaggeration, but it turns…
Summer Getaway: The Quiet Side of Jamaica
Perched above the sands of the island’s South Coast, Bluefields Bay is an idyllic destination that feels refreshingly off the beaten path.
Escape to Bluefields Bay Villas on Jamaica’s quiet South Coast. Discover an off-the-beaten-path luxury resort with private pools and personal chefs.
A Lighthouse Stay on Bellingham Bay
Hotel Bellwether’s refreshed waterfront stay, dapper lobby dog, and scenic route north turn the short drive from Seattle into a real getaway.
The first sign that Bellingham was going to feel farther away than it is came in Edison, over a rich, flaky pastry. Earlier this spring, I was invited to stay at Hotel Bellwether, and my friend and I headed north from Seattle, a roughly 90-mile drive that usually takes about an hour and a half…
Elevated Gaming, Now With a Luxury Stay
Debuting a new era in Pacific Northwest gaming, the opening of the now Snoqualmie Casino & Hotel, transforms a premier gaming destination into a full-scale getaway–pairing top-tier play with the convenience and comfort of an upscale luxurious overnight stay just 30 minutes from downtown Seattle. Snoqualmie Casino & Hotel offers one of the most expansive…
No Longer a Last Resort
The new wave of luxury-forward Mexico all-inclusives delivers cultural immersion and culinary delights.
Thanks to years of party-goers jetting south in the winter, the mention of a Mexico all-inclusive resort tends to conjure a specific image: wristband-wearing revelers in a crowded pool, dancing the Macarena to booming music, and the relentless buzz of the frozen margarita blender. Luring guests with all-you-can-drink packages and stocked buffets, these hotels left…
Queen of the Hill
A 1918 landmark reworked with design cues drawn from early industry.
Seattle’s historic MarQueen Hotel has unveiled an extensive renovation that blends contemporary comforts with vintage glamour. Originally built in 1918 as the Seattle Engineering School, the brick building at the bottom of Queen Anne Avenue provided housing for students developing the Ford Model T. The refreshed design, by Cusack + Co. Interiors, features historic wood…
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