Thanksgiving falls during one of the best times in the American travel calendar. The country is in a celebratory mood, cities put on their autumn best, and the long weekend gives enough time to do a destination properly. Choose to be in the middle of a great American city with all its noise and festivity, or find something quieter and more deeply rooted in local character; here are five cities that reward a Thanksgiving visit, and the hotels recommended by our hotel gurus that make them.

New York City, USA

New York at Thanksgiving needs very little introduction. The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is one of the great pieces of civic theatre anywhere in the world, drawing over three million people to the streets and tens of millions more to their televisions. The parade route runs from 77th Street down to Herald Square, and the best spots go quickly, but the spectacle is worth the effort. Beyond the parade, the city is at its most autumnal: Central Park's trees are at the tail end of their colour, the ice rinks have reopened, and the restaurants, which is to say, the finest concentration of restaurants on earth, are doing their best Thanksgiving menus. New York takes the holiday seriously.

• The Hoxton Williamsburg occupies a former water tank factory on Wythe Avenue in Brooklyn, a few minutes' walk from the East River and the Brooklyn Brewery. The 175 rooms draw on the building's industrial past and the neighbourhood's creative present: locally made ceramics, books curated by nearby shops, bespoke bedding, and warm, unpretentious interiors. The rooftop bar and restaurant offer panoramic views of the Manhattan skyline across the water, and the lobby café is the sort of place locals use as a working hub rather than just a hotel facility. If Manhattan's hotel prices and density feel overwhelming at Thanksgiving, Williamsburg is the sane alternative.
• Boro Hotel sits in Long Island City, Queens, just two subway stops from Midtown Manhattan. The rooms are unusually generous for the New York area, with floor-to-ceiling windows and private balconies on many floors giving unobstructed views of the Manhattan skyline. The interiors take their cues from the neighbourhood's industrial heritage, with Tom Dixon and Hay Studio furniture, Frette linens, and cement-tiled bathrooms. The rooftop bar is one of the city's most underrated spots to watch the sun go down behind the Manhattan skyline.
• Gansevoort Meatpacking sits in the heart of one of Manhattan's most consistently fashionable neighbourhoods, at the corner of Ninth Avenue and 13th Street, steps from the High Line, Chelsea Market, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. The hotel's 186 rooms were recently renovated and lean into an art-forward identity: Banksy and Richard Hambleton originals hang in the lobby, and throughout the rooms and common spaces, works by Stephanie Klein and Olivier Weppe connect the property to the district's history. The rooftop pool bar is an institution among New Yorkers who know about it.
• The Marlton is a century-old Greenwich Village hotel restored by hotelier Sean MacPherson, who combined the building's original Beaux-Arts bones with French bistro influences to create something that feels genuinely residential and rooted in place. Jack Kerouac and other figures of the Beat generation spent time here, and the hotel has not entirely shaken that literary, slightly bohemian atmosphere. The rooms are small, as rooms in Manhattan's older buildings tend to be, but beautifully done: herringbone wood floors, brass fixtures, marble bathrooms, and crown mouldings. The ground-floor restaurant Chez Nous is popular with the neighbourhood residents as much as with hotel guests.

Charleston, South Carolina, USA

Charleston at Thanksgiving is Southern hospitality at its finest. The city's restaurants go to great lengths for the holiday, the weather in late November is mild enough to walk the historic streets comfortably, and the absence of the summer crowds makes the city's genuine character easier to find. The antebellum architecture, the cobblestone lanes, the Battery's waterfront walk, the City Market — all of it is best appreciated at this quieter time of year. Charleston also has some of the finest food in America, a fact that has nothing to do with the season and everything to do with the city's deep culinary roots.

• Fulton Lane Inn occupies a pair of historic buildings behind King Street: one built for the Charleston YMCA in 1889 and another for a Civil War blockade runner turned tailor in 1912. The inn sits in a quiet alley in the heart of the historic district and offers 27 rooms with high ceilings, canopy beds, working fireplaces, and whirlpool tubs in many. Breakfast is delivered to rooms each morning, and guests are invited to a daily wine-and-cheese reception at the sister property, Kings Courtyard Inn, next door. The hotel has real Southern warmth and a strong sense of place.
• The Restoration is an all-suite boutique hotel on King Street, spread across five connected historic buildings surrounding a courtyard. The 18 suites combine exposed brick and restored original wood floors with contemporary furnishings and full kitchens, creating something closer to a very well-designed pied-à-terre than a conventional hotel room. The rooftop pool and the Watch Rooftop Kitchen restaurant offer panoramic views over Charleston's skyline, and the daily breakfast basket delivered to each suite is one of the hotel's many thoughtful touches. Travel and Leisure named it among the top Charleston hotels.
• The Loutrel opened in the French Quarter with 50 rooms, a Michelin Keys designation, and a quietly confident personality that sets it apart. The lobby, designed to evoke Charleston's deep-verandah traditions, has a swing in the entrance and a relaxed atmosphere that puts guests at ease from the moment they arrive. Rooms combine antique charm with contemporary comfort, and the complimentary minibar snacks, nightly turndown, and daily "finest hour" cocktail reception mean the hotel's generosity is felt throughout. The rooftop lounge has good views of the historic city.
• Zero George Street is a collection of five carefully restored antebellum buildings on a quiet residential street in the Ansonborough neighbourhood, connected by courtyards and gardens. The 18 rooms and suites are among the most individually conceived in Charleston, with wide-plank floors, antique furniture, and terraces that look out onto the mature gardens. The hotel runs a cookery school, and the restaurant is one of Charleston's better dining destinations in its own right.

San Antonio, Texas, USA

Thanksgiving in San Antonio is a warm, generous, and deeply Texan experience. The River Walk is festively decorated by late November, the weather is reliably pleasant, and the city's restaurants — which have grown enormously in ambition and range over the past decade — put on menus that take the occasion seriously. The Alamo and the old Spanish missions offer a version of American history quite different from the New England narrative that dominates the holiday's storytelling, and the Pearl District, built on the site of a 19th-century brewery complex, has become one of Texas's most engaging urban neighbourhoods.

• Noble Inns is a collection of bed and breakfasts in the King William Historic District, a neighbourhood of grand antebellum mansions just south of downtown along the San Antonio River. The Oge House, the flagship property, is an 1857 antebellum mansion with ten suites, each furnished with antiques, period paintings, and fireplaces. Breakfast is served on the patios in the garden or delivered in-room, and the grounds include a tennis court and hot tub. It is a very different proposition from a conventional hotel, and for those who want to experience San Antonio's historic depth, the King William District is the right address.
• Omni La Mansion del Rio sits directly on the River Walk, in a building that began its life as a Catholic school in 1852. The 338-room hotel retains the hacienda-style architecture of its original structure, with a central courtyard, a riverside terrace, and rooms overlooking the water. The location is as good as anything on the River Walk, the Las Canarias restaurant is a genuinely fine place to eat, and the hotel's history gives it a character that many of its neighbours on the same strip lack.
• Hotel Emma is the Pearl District's flagship and one of the finest hotels in Texas. The 146-room property occupies the former brewhouse of the Pearl Brewery, a Second Empire structure from 1894 that has been transformed by design firm Roman and Williams into something genuinely extraordinary: exposed pipes and valves preserved as architectural sculpture, antique wood and buttery leather furnishings, a bi-level library stocked with over 3,700 books, and the Sternewirth bar set in one of the old fermentation silos. The surrounding Pearl District is walkable, with excellent food and drink, and home to a Saturday and Sunday market that is one of the best farmers' markets in the American South.
• Thompson San Antonio is the newest of the four options and the most design-forward, a contemporary hotel in the city's increasingly lively downtown corridor. The rooftop pool and bar have strong views of the city, the rooms are well appointed and generously sized, and the hotel's position puts guests within easy reach of both the River Walk and the Pearl District.

San Francisco, California, USA

San Francisco at Thanksgiving is the city at its most autumnal and most itself. The summer fog has cleared, the air is crisp, and the city's extraordinary restaurant scene is in full swing. A Thanksgiving meal in San Francisco is a particular thing: the city's proximity to some of California's finest farms and vineyards means the produce on the plate is exceptional, and the restaurants' cooking ambitions are considerable. Beyond eating, the city's museums, the Golden Gate, the Ferry Building market, and the neighbourhood-by-neighbourhood exploration that San Francisco rewards, are all better in the quiet of late November than in the crowds of the summer.

• Palihotel San Francisco sits in the Tenderloin on Market Street, in a building that dates from 1907. The hotel's design pays close attention to the building's age, with warm tones, original details preserved where possible, and a neighbourhood café on the ground floor that serves the local community as much as hotel guests. As a Paligroup property, it brings strong aesthetic sensibility and a commitment to giving each hotel a genuine sense of place rather than corporate sameness.
• Beacon Grand was formerly known as the Sir Francis Drake Hotel and has occupied its corner of Powell and Sutter, overlooking Union Square, since 1928. After a thorough renovation, it reopened with its Art Deco grandeur intact and substantially improved facilities. The ornate lobby, the Prohibition-era secrets built into the building, and the Starlite Lounge on the 21st floor — which offers panoramic views of San Francisco's hills — all survived the renovation. The Post Room restaurant and bar, with live music on Friday and Saturday nights, is one of the city's better hotel dining rooms.
• Phoenix Hotel is the long-established counterpoint to San Francisco's grander hotels, a mid-century motel near the Tenderloin whose guest book has included the Beastie Boys, David Bowie, Joan Jett, and a roll call of musicians and artists who have passed through the city over the past four decades. The courtyard pool is heated year-round, the rooms are modest and direct, and the atmosphere is about as far from corporate as a hotel can get.
• Argonaut occupies a historic waterfront building in the Fisherman's Wharf neighbourhood, close to Ghirardelli Square and with views of the Golden Gate Bridge from the upper floors. The 252 rooms lean into the city's maritime history with navy blues, exposed brick, and original timber beams from the 1907 building. It is a well-run, characterful hotel in a neighbourhood that repays exploration, and the views from the best rooms are among the finest in the city.

New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

Thanksgiving is not quite New Orleans's most famous season, but it is one of its most genuinely pleasurable times to visit. The heat and humidity of summer are long gone, the massive Jazz Fest and Mardi Gras crowds are months away, and what remains is the real city: the best restaurants in the South operating at full capacity, the French Quarter and the Marigny at their most atmospheric, the music on Frenchman Street every night of the week, and a population that has a constitutional inability to have a bad time. A Thanksgiving meal in New Orleans, where the cuisine is deeply rooted in French, Spanish, African, and Native American traditions, is something quite unlike anywhere else in America.

• Inn at the Old Jail occupies a Queen Anne Victorian building in the Tremé neighbourhood that began its life in 1902 as an overnight lockup for the New Orleans Police Department, then served as a library and community centre, and was left in ruins by Hurricane Katrina before its meticulous restoration into a nine-room guesthouse. The rooms are spacious, the restoration is excellent, and the host Todd is one of those rare innkeepers who genuinely loves his building, his neighbourhood, and his guests. The Tremé is the oldest African American neighbourhood in the United States and one of New Orleans' true cultural hearts.
• Melrose Mansion sits on Esplanade Avenue at the edge of the French Quarter in a 19th-century mansion with large French windows, ironwork balconies, and pillared verandas. The all-suite property combines hardwood floors and beamed ceilings with a simple, elegant white design, and the outdoor pool is a genuine rarity in the French Quarter. The location puts guests within a short walk of Frenchman Street's music venues and the restaurants of the Marigny, while remaining slightly removed from Bourbon Street's more energetic entertainment.
• Q & C Hotel Bar sits between the French Quarter and the Warehouse Arts District, and takes its name and character from the city's tradition of quality and craftsmanship. The rooms pay homage to New Orleans culture with strong design references to the city's history and architecture, and the bar — named among the top ten happy hours in the city by St. Charles Avenue Magazine — draws both hotel guests and locals with its handcrafted cocktails and locally inspired food.
• Maison Metier is one of New Orleans' most refined hotels: a guest-only retreat in the Warehouse Arts District with 67 rooms styled as Parisian chambers, with tall ceilings, wide windows, and curated original artworks. Mornings begin with breakfast in the Breakfast Room; evenings are spent in Salon Salon, the hotel's bar accessible through a deliberately concealed door. A nightly charcuterie and wine hour, an honour bar in the lounge, and coffee left outside the door each morning in a basket are among the details that distinguish this from a more conventional hotel stay.

Still not sure? 

• Browse through our full list of accommodation options in New Hampshire,
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