Top places to stay in Utah.
Salt Lake City's development as a destination followed its transformation from an isolated settlement in the Great Basin into the political, commercial, and transportation capital of the Intermountain West. The Salt Lake Valley had long been part of the homelands of Indigenous peoples, including the Northwestern Shoshone and Ute, before Mormon pioneers led by Brigham Young arrived in 1847. The new settlement developed around Temple Square, where religious administration, commerce, and accommodation for visiting church members became closely connected. Early boardinghouses and inns served emigrants, merchants, and travelers crossing the western interior. The completion of the transcontinental railroad at Promontory Summit in 1869 transformed access to Utah, bringing greater numbers of commercial visitors and tourists interested in the surrounding mountains and Great Salt Lake. The Walker House, established in 1872 by the prominent Walker brothers, became an important downtown hotel serving the expanding business community. Mining wealth, railroad investment, and the growth of regional trade subsequently encouraged more ambitious hospitality development. The Knutsford Hotel opened in 1891, introducing an imposing Victorian establishment associated with the city's increasing commercial sophistication. The Hotel Utah opened beside Temple Square in 1911, becoming Salt Lake City's defining grand hotel. Financed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and designed by Parkinson and Bergstrom, its elaborate interiors and prestigious accommodations attracted political leaders, entertainers, and international visitors. The Newhouse Hotel, completed in 1912, reflected the ambitions of mining magnate Samuel Newhouse and the growing importance of downtown business travel. The Hotel Utah ceased lodging operations in 1987 and subsequently became the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, preserving an important architectural landmark. The opening of the Little America Hotel in 1974 strengthened the city's reputation for substantial full-service hospitality, drawing upon the hotel tradition established by Earl Holding. The 2002 Winter Olympics brought international attention and major investment in transportation, accommodation, and visitor infrastructure. Subsequent downtown redevelopment introduced contemporary luxury properties and sophisticated boutique hotels. Salt Lake City's hospitality industry now serves religious visitors, business travelers, convention delegates, and mountain recreation enthusiasts, reflecting a distinctive history shaped by migration, mineral wealth, transportation, and the emergence of Utah as an internationally recognized outdoor destination.
Salt Lake City occupies a broad mountain valley between the Wasatch Range and the Oquirrh Mountains, with hotels distributed across a carefully organized street grid and surrounding districts shaped by civic institutions, commercial development, and proximity to exceptional alpine terrain. Downtown forms the principal hospitality center, with substantial hotels concentrated near the Salt Palace Convention Center, major office buildings, and established shopping streets. The district's architecture combines historic commercial structures, contemporary towers, and broad avenues framed by mountain views. Properties near Main Street provide convenient access to restaurants, cultural venues, and the city's light-rail network. Temple Square occupies a distinctive position within the northern downtown landscape, surrounded by expansive religious architecture, landscaped grounds, and substantial visitor facilities. Nearby hotels offer convenient access to the city's principal historic institutions and a comparatively formal urban setting. Eastward, the Central City neighborhood introduces a more residential atmosphere through traditional apartment buildings, historic houses, and established commercial streets. Boutique accommodation and smaller urban hotels provide access to neighborhood restaurants and cultural attractions. The adjoining East Bench districts rise gradually toward the Wasatch foothills, where residential streets and landscaped properties offer expansive views across the valley. South of downtown, the Granary District presents an emerging creative environment through converted industrial buildings, independent restaurants, and contemporary mixed-use developments. Its former warehouses and commercial structures provide a distinctive architectural setting for design-oriented accommodation. Farther south, the Ballpark neighborhood combines established residential streets with substantial commercial corridors and convenient transportation connections. Westward, the Gateway district occupies a redeveloped railway and industrial landscape near the central transportation hub. Contemporary hotels stand alongside shopping complexes, entertainment venues, and public gathering spaces, offering convenient access to regional rail services. Northwest of downtown, the Marmalade District preserves a quieter residential environment through historic cottages, traditional houses, and tree-lined streets climbing toward Capitol Hill. Smaller accommodation properties provide an intimate alternative to the principal business hotels. The nearby Capitol Hill neighborhood offers elevated perspectives across the city through substantial historic residences and landscaped public spaces. Eastward, the University District extends around the University of Utah through collegiate buildings, research institutions, and established residential neighborhoods. Hotels near the campus serve academic visitors and travelers seeking access to the surrounding foothills. Southward, Sugar House offers a lively neighborhood setting through independent shops, restaurants, and substantial residential development near landscaped parks. Its accommodation provides a more local experience within reach of the central city. Beyond the urban grid, the mouths of Big Cottonwood and Little Cottonwood canyons provide access to mountain communities and ski resorts. The surrounding foothill hotels and residential properties offer convenient connections to hiking, skiing, and alpine recreation. Across Salt Lake City, accommodation ranges from prestigious downtown hotels and contemporary business properties to intimate neighborhood retreats and mountain-oriented lodging, with the surrounding peaks providing a dramatic geographic presence throughout the metropolitan landscape. Foresyte may earn a commission when you book.
Foresyte Travel's top five choices.
5. The Cliff Lodge
The Cliff Lodge rises directly from Snowbird in Little Cottonwood Canyon, the ski area founded by Ted Johnson and opened in 1971 on terrain shaped by an earlier era of silver and lead mining. Snowbird developed around Johnson's vision for a destination-scale mountain resort linked to the exceptional snowfall and steep topography of the Wasatch Range. The Cliff Lodge opened in 1974 as a massive concrete structure designed to withstand the canyon's severe alpine environment and place lodging immediately against the ski terrain. Its architecture became inseparable from Snowbird's modernist development, joining the resort's aerial tram and compact base complex within the narrow canyon floor. The Cliff Lodge captures the ambitious engineering and purpose-built mountain architecture that transformed Little Cottonwood Canyon from a historic mining landscape into an internationally recognized ski destination.
4. Kimpton Hotel Monaco Salt Lake City
Kimpton Hotel Monaco Salt Lake City occupies the former Continental Bank Building at Main Street and 200 South, embedding the hotel within the historic commercial core of downtown. Architects George W. Kramer and Emil Schacht designed the building, completed in 1924 during a period of substantial banking and office construction in the growing western city. Its richly detailed facade and vertical proportions preserve the architectural character of an era when Main Street concentrated Salt Lake City's leading financial institutions, department stores, and businesses. Kimpton converted the historic office building into Hotel Monaco in 1999, bringing the San Francisco-founded boutique hotel company into Utah. Hotel Monaco represents the adaptive reuse of Salt Lake City's early twentieth-century commercial architecture as the downtown core evolved beyond its traditional banking and retail functions.
3. Hyatt Regency Salt Lake City
Hyatt Regency Salt Lake City opened in 2022 beside the Salt Palace Convention Center as the long-planned headquarters hotel for Salt Lake County's principal convention complex. Portman Architects designed the 26-story tower as an integrated component of the convention district, physically connecting the hotel with the Salt Palace and adding a major vertical element to the surrounding downtown blocks. The project followed decades of expansion at the Salt Palace site, whose convention history stretches from the original 1969 arena through demolition and reconstruction during the 1990s. Its completion strengthened the city's infrastructure for large national conventions by placing substantial hotel capacity directly against the exhibition complex. Hyatt Regency captures Salt Lake City's twenty-first-century investment in downtown density and its effort to compete more aggressively for major convention business.
2. The Little America Hotel – Salt Lake City
The Little America Hotel traces its name and history to Earl and Carol Holding's association with the original Little America travel complex established along U.S. Route 30 in Wyoming. Holding acquired that roadside enterprise in 1952 and built it into the foundation of a hospitality and energy business that subsequently expanded across the American West. Little America Salt Lake City developed along Main Street as the family's operations grew, bringing the company's western hospitality model into Utah's capital. The Holdings later created Grand America directly across the street, establishing two related properties at dramatically different architectural scales along the same downtown corridor. Little America represents the Salt Lake City expression of a family enterprise that grew from a remote Wyoming highway stop into a substantial western hospitality company.
1. The Grand America Hotel
The Grand America Hotel opened in 2001 as Earl and Carol Holding's most ambitious hospitality project in Salt Lake City, developed in advance of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. The Holdings conceived the property as a grand European-inspired hotel, commissioning interiors filled with marble, handcrafted woodwork, tapestries, crystal chandeliers, and other decorative arts sourced through an extensive international program. Its expansive scale introduced a new architectural anchor to the southern edge of downtown directly opposite the family's established Little America property. The hotel became closely associated with Salt Lake City's Olympic-era transformation, when transportation, public spaces, sporting facilities, and hospitality infrastructure underwent major investment before the Games. Grand America stands as one of the clearest physical expressions of the capital investment that accompanied Salt Lake City's emergence onto the international Olympic stage.
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