True, the 600-thread-count sheets and lavish interiors of a five-star hotel are enticing. But the price tag — often upward of $1,500 per night — is prohibitive for most people. Just because you don’t book a room doesn’t mean you can’t get a taste of a fancy property. Here are six luxury hotels with experiences that allow non-guests to sample their charm.
San Francisco
The Huntington Hotel
Since 1924, the Huntington has served as a hive for high society and attracted celebrity guests like Cary Grant, Marlene Dietrich and Mick Jagger. That is until 2020, when it closed because of the Covid pandemic. In March, the Georgian-style property (named after Collis P. Huntington — one of the “Big Four” California railroad magnates) reopened with glamorous interiors by the designer Ken Fulk. The three-level Nob Hill Spa was part of the reimagining. Non-guests can book a treatment and then linger in the 9,000-square-foot space, enjoying the indoor pool, fitness studio, steam room and sauna. End the day at the Big Four (the hotel’s refreshed but still clubby-feeling restaurant) for one of its signature chicken potpies. (Treatments start at $100 for a signature 50-minute manicure.)
New York
Lotte New York Palace
The Lotte, erected behind six Neo-Italian Renaissance townhouses built by the tycoon Henry Villard in 1882, is part of New York’s Gilded Age lineage. The hotel is such a signifier of East Side prestige that it served as home to both the Bass and the van der Woodsen families on the “Gossip Girl” TV show. Non-guests can book the hotel’s weekly magic show, held in a salon in the landmark Villard Houses. The show, performed by the “chamber” magician Steve Cohen, harks back to intimate parlor-style magic shows popular at the turn of the 19th century. A maximum of 64 guests are invited to watch Mr. Cohen’s sleights of hand. To get into the old New York spirit beforehand, knock back a cocktail and a half dozen oysters in the Gold Room, which dazzles with the architect Stanford White’s original design and 19th-century lunette paintings by the artist John La Farge ($175 for the show; adults only).
Amsterdam
Pulitzer Amsterdam
The Nine Streets is one of Amsterdam’s most fashionable neighborhoods, and the Pulitzer, comprising 25 interconnected 17th- and 18th-century canal houses, is the perfect perch for those who swoon over historic charm. Each Thursday at 7:30 a.m., the hotel’s manager, Caroline van Kessel, leads a 4.5-mile jog for up to five people through the cafe- and shop-lined streets, along the canals, through the leafy, 150-year-old Vondelpark, and past the Anne Frank House and Rijksmuseum. Slots are first come first served, and non-hotel guests can stop by the front desk to join or book through the concierge. After the jog, visit the hotel’s garden for breakfast (€25 or about $30 for the run).
Paris
La Reserve
La Reserve oozes Parisian glamour: a Haussmann-style mansion built for the Duc de Morny (Napoleon III’s half brother), later owned by Pierre Cardin, it is now a 40-room boutique hotel on the tree-lined Avenue Gabriel. The striking Jacques Garcia-designed Duc de Morny library and Bar Le Gaspard are popular hangouts for dwellers of the chichi Eighth Arrondissement. A wine tasting in a private room behind the library offers non-guests a brush with the storied property. The 90-minute experience focuses on Cos d’Estournel, the Bordeaux estate in the northern Médoc. Led by a sommelier from the hotel’s three-Michelin-starred restaurant, Le Gabriel, participants taste four vintages (1.75-ounce pours) and discuss grape blends, terroir, aging and the estate’s 215-year history. Have dinner afterward in the lushly landscaped interior courtyard (€145 per person for the wine tasting).
Aspen, Colo.
Hotel Jerome
Hotel Jerome is a five-star take on the Old West, where burnished leather, rustic nailhead trim, kilim-patterned seating and taxidermy nod to Aspen’s silver-mining days. The Victorian property relishes its heritage as the town’s first hotel (opened in 1889) and offers biweekly history tours led by an Aspen Historical Society guide in period-inspired attire. As you walk through the first floor, you’ll hear about wild game dinners in the bear-skin-adorned restaurant, the Prohibition-era drink called “Aspen crud”— a vanilla milkshake spiked with bourbon — invented when the J-bar became a soda fountain in 1919, and how the U.S. Army’s elite 10th Mountain Division bunked on the floor during World War II (Tuesdays and Thursdays at 1:30 p.m.; $25 per person for adults; $20 for seniors; free for children 18 and under).
London
The Goring
The Goring, the city’s last family-owned five-star hotel, has been a favorite of the British Royal family (Kate Middleton spent the night before her wedding to Prince William in 2011 at the hotel) and a popular spot for prime ministers to meet since it opened in 1910. Steps from Buckingham Palace, the hotel oozes classicism, from red-liveried footmen to supremely English interiors featuring wall coverings from the heritage textile company Gainsborough Silk. On Thursday evenings, it hosts a three-piece jazz band in its Edwardian-leaning lounge, famous for oh-so-British cocktails like the Thank You, Your Majesty (Goring gin, St. Germain liqueur, crème de pêche, sherbet, rosé wine syrup and Champagne) and the Churchill Manhattan (Chivas Regal 12 year old Scotch, Karminia Barolo Chinato, Discarded Banana Peel rum, Cacao Blanc), in honor of the cigar-chomping prime minister. The evenings are free and open to the public. Tables are allocated on a first-come-first-served basis (shows from 6:15 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.).
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