El Tovar

Lonely Planet review

With its unusual spires and dark-wood beams rising behind the Rim Trail, elegant El Tovar remains a grande dame of national park lodges. Spacious rooms (many with sleigh beds and rim overlooks), a dining room with panoramic views, and wide, inviting porches with rocking chairs offer visitors a comfortable and elegant place to relax after a long journey to the park. You don't have to be a guest here to enjoy its old-world ambience.

El Tovar was built in 1905 for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway and designed by architect Charles Whittlesey as a blend between a Swiss chalet and the more rustic style that would come to define national park lodges in the 1920s.