West Baden Springs Hotel

Character and identity

A circular, domed-atrium resort marooned in rural Indiana, West Baden Springs is the kind of building you travel to see in its own right, an early twentieth century engineering feat that once served as a Jesuit seminary. The 243 rooms lean traditional, with embroidered silk bolsters, artwork pieced from vintage postcards, and Egyptian cotton linens; one-bedroom suites add iron beds and leather-topped tables. The clubhouse restaurant looks out over the Pete Dye Golf Course and runs from sweet corn chowder to breaded pork tenderloin, while Ballard's Bar pours cocktails directly beneath the atrium dome. Indoor and outdoor pools round out the amenities.

Who's it for

Bottom line

The reason to come is the building itself, a domed atrium with no real peer in American hotels, and the golf and grand-resort rhythms that surround it. Book a one-bedroom suite if you want the fuller room product, plan dinners around the clubhouse and an atrium cocktail at Ballard's, and accept that you are committing to the resort rather than a destination beyond it.