Since opening last December, the Sky Lodge (435.658.2500, www.theskylodge?.com) has become the one thing Park City, Utah, has always lacked: a central gathering place as elegant and glamorous as the town itself. The lodge sits on a corner of Park City’s silver rush–era Main Street, just one block from the main chairlift at the Park City Mountain Resort. Despite its ultimate ski-town setting, the hotel eschews typical mountain motifs in favor of an ultramodern loft design.

Guests enjoy a virtual water park of double showers, hot tub, and bathtub in the majority of the hotel’s 33 glass-lined suites. The property’s elegant restaurants and bakery also defy expectations, as does the staff.

Forget lackadaisical Rocky Mountain ski-bum service; the employees here are attentive to the needs of every guest—from the concierge who hands you your freshly tuned skis every morning to the waiter who delivers your après-ski ahi miniburgers and the spa therapist who mixes herbs into your ofuro wooden bath. ($375–$3,750) —Finn-olaf Jones