Luxury Travel in the USA: A Regional Guide to America's Finest Stays

One country, seven seasons

The mistake first-time visitors to America make is treating it as a single destination. In luxury travel terms the United States is a rotation: the mountains in winter, the northern coasts in summer, the desert in the shoulder months, Florida and Hawaii when the rest is shut. The traveller who understands the calendar can stay at the finest level all year without ever fighting a crowd or paying an avoidable premium.

What follows is the country region by region — what each does best, when to go, and what a high-end house or lodge costs. Rates are indicative planning figures; the festive weeks and event weeks carry their own pricing everywhere.

The regions at a glance

The Mountain West

Aspen and Jackson Hole are America's two great mountain answers, and they answer different questions. Aspen is the social mountain — four ski areas, a real town, and a summer season of festivals that rivals its winter. Jackson Hole is the wild one: the Tetons, the elk, and a summer of rivers and national parks that many now prefer to the skiing.

Both run double seasons — deep winter and high summer — with the value in between. June and October in the mountains are the connoisseur's windows: the houses open, the rates soft, the crowds elsewhere.

The coasts

California's coast is a May-to-October product: the marine layer burns off by late morning, the light goes gold, and the oceanfront houses from Big Sur to Santa Barbara earn their rates. Winter is moody, cheap and largely closed.

New England is the opposite rhythm — a concentrated, fervent summer. Nantucket and the Hamptons pack a European season's worth of social energy into ten weeks, with rates to match: the shingled summer colonies are among the most expensive rental inventory in the country in July and August, and some of the most pleasant value in June and September.

The warm refuges

When the north closes, the country rotates south. The desert Southwest comes into its own from October to April — Scottsdale's resort estates, Santa Fe's adobe houses, Utah's canyon country — dry air, enormous skies, and golf and hiking weather precisely when the coasts are grey.

Florida does winter with polish from Palm Beach to the Keys, and Hawaii simply never closes: Maui and the Big Island trade seasonal swings for trade winds, with the festive fortnight the only true crunch. The Lowcountry — Charleston, Sea Island — fills the shoulders with the most civilised spring and autumn in the country: porches, golf, oysters and tidal light.

How to plan the year

• Winter (December–March)

  Ski the Mountain West — Aspen for the scene, Jackson Hole for the wild — or take the sun in Florida, the desert or Hawaii. Festive weeks book a year out everywhere warm or snowy.

• Spring (April–June)

  The Lowcountry's peak and the desert's farewell, then the California coast and the mountains' quiet June. The best-value season in the American calendar.

• Summer (July–September)

  New England's ten fervent weeks, the Mountain West's second season, and the Pacific coast at its warmest. Book the famous islands by the previous winter.

• Autumn (October–November)

  The desert reopens, the Lowcountry has its second spring, the mountains turn gold, and Florida and Hawaii ramp back up. The last shoulder rates before the festive machine starts.

The booking calendar

American peak inventory runs on a long fuse: the best ski houses for festive and Presidents' weeks and the prime Nantucket and Hamptons summers are committed six to twelve months out, often by the same families each year. Shoulder seasons — June in the mountains, September on the northern coasts, October in the desert — remain bookable weeks ahead and are where the value lives. Thanksgiving behaves like a holiday week everywhere warm.