Best Marin Luxury Hotels

Whether you’re visiting Marin or just looking for a relaxing staycation, splurging on a hotel is a sure way to find your new favorite escape. Enjoy vast oceanfront views, the diverse flora and fauna on the properties and delicious meals to look forward to during your stay. Each of these luxury options has their own bit of charisma, offering perks like this and beyond.

Featured Photo: The Inn Above Tide

The exterior of Waters Edge Hotel, one of the best luxury hotels in Marin, features a beige facade with wooden accents, potted plants, and a pergola. The entrance is marked by double wooden doors and a blue sign that reads "Waters Edge Hotel." An outdoor balcony is visible on the upper level.
Photo: Waters Edge Hotel

Waters Edge Hotel

The Waters Edge Hotel is a boutique hotel that sits on the edge of the Tiburon waterfront, with panoramic views of San Francisco Bay and the city skyline. This stylishly appointed hotel is an ideal location for guests looking for a peaceful getaway with all the amenities of a luxury hotel. The rooms and suites are designed with a coastal aesthetic in mind, featuring high-end linens, soft lighting, and a calming color palette. The hotel also features a variety of on-site amenities, including a fitness center, complimentary continental breakfast and a nightly wine and cheese reception. Guests can also take advantage of the hotel’s complimentary bike rentals to explore the surrounding area. One of the best aspects of the Waters Edge Hotel is its location, which provides guests with easy access to a variety of water activities.

HIGHLIGHTS:

  • Part of what makes their location so ideal is the one-minute walk to the Ferry landing for those looking to hitch a ride to San Francisco, Oakland or Angel Island.
  • Worry not about missing breakfast on the days you wish you could stay in bed, because breakfast will be brought to your room every morning. You can even choose to enjoy it in front of a cozy fire — every room has a fireplace.
A bright and airy bedroom in one of the best luxury hotels North Bay, featuring a large bed with white linens and blue accent pillows. The room includes two bedside tables with lamps, a wooden dresser, two armchairs with a small table, and large windows offering views of trees and a marina.
Photo: Courtesy of Casa Madrone and Spa

Casa Madrona Hotel & Spa

From its perch above the Sausalito waterfront, Casa Madrona Hotel & Spa gazes down with patrician elegance, the tall windows taking in the whole of San Francisco Bay. The hotel started life as a Victorian mansion built in 1885, and even with numerous additions it maintains that crooked-pinky feeling. A 2002 addition houses 31 more modern rooms, many of them with private balconies. Tucked amongst the extensive gardens are casitas designed for the utmost privacy. Seaweed wraps and salt scrubs are among the sought-after spa treatments; once youre suitably relaxed, enjoy a custom cocktail on the roof deck, considered among the best in the North Bay.

HIGHLIGHT:

  • A member of the Mosaic hotel group, Casa Madrona offers a wealth of amenities including laundry service and an electric car charging station.
A cozy living room in this luxury hotel features a beige sofa with red cushions, a wooden coffee table with various books, a classic white fireplace with a mirror above it, and a black wood-burning stove. Large windows with beige curtains provide a scenic view of trees and hills outside.
Photo: Courtesy of Cavallo Point and Spa

Cavallo Point

Look around Cavallo Point today and you’d be forgiven for likening the extensive horseshoe-shaped compound to one of the Adirondack resorts renowned for Dirty Dancing-style revelry. But in fact this enclave of isolation directly underneath the Golden Gate Bridge was once Fort Baker, a military installation dating back to 1902. Rooms in the historic officers’ quarters are reminiscent of a Greek revival mansion, with wide front porches and turn-of-the-century woodwork, while rooms in the new wings feature radiant heat floors and plate-glass windows, some with stellar views of the Golden Gate Bridge. Dogs living their best lives frolic on the property’s expansive front lawn and are arguably just as pampered as two-legged guests.

HIGHLIGHTS:

  • Cavallo Point’s dining options, American bistro Farley, signature restaurant Sula, and cozy gathering spot, Sula Lounge, are favorites of locals looking to celebrate a special evening.
  • The sprawling complex also includes hiking trails and a Healing Arts Center & Spa, with a cypress-shaded outdoor meditation pool and a tea bar serving health-giving infusions.
A cozy wooden deck at one of the best luxury hotels in North Bay features a cushioned lounge chair with rolled white towels. A round wooden side table holds two drinks and binoculars. Behind, a glass sliding door reveals an indoor area with a fireplace and scenic views of water and distant buildings.
Photo: Courtesy of Inn Above the Tide

The Inn Above Tide

Binoculars in every room and balconies that jut directly over the water are just two of the reasons to stay at The Inn Above Tide, a bayside lodge. The main one is, of course the view, which couldnt be more spectacular — almost every one of the 31 rooms looks directly out at the city, with Alcatraz and Angel Island in the foreground. Sit on your glass-enclosed balcony and watch the city lights twinkle on, outlining the iconic skyline. The complimentary breakfast is served buffet style in the dining room or delivered to your room, and youll also be fêted with a wine and cheese reception every evening from 5 to 7pm. 

HIGHLIGHTS:

  • While theres no restaurant onsite, that just gives you an excuse to try out a few of Sausalitos dining establishments starting with Napa Valley Burger Company next door. But Italian is the way to go in Sausalito, whether you prefer Poggio with its old-school classic ambiance or Osteria Divino, which serves its fresh California-inflected Italian dishes to the accompaniment of live music on Friday and Saturday nights.
  • Stay with the Italian theme and finish the night at Bar Bocce, its outdoor terrace glowing with lantern light.
A cozy bedroom with white walls and wooden floors features a neatly made bed with white linens and a blue blanket. Two bedside tables with lamps flank the bed. Large windows with light beige curtains brighten the room, evoking the charm of luxury hotel suites in hotels North Bay offers. A wooden wardrobe stands in the corner.
Photo: Kristen Loken

Nick’s Cove

Nicks Cove has been serving seafood from a working pier for more than 80 years, since Yugoslavian immigrant Nick Kojich arrived in the Tomales Bay hamlet of Marshall and began offering crab and shrimp cocktails to passing motorists. As tourist traffic increased in the early 1930s, he added waterfront fishing shacks for weekenders. Today Nicks Cove is arguably better than ever. In late 2022, for the first time in 15 years, all 12 rustic-chic cottages got a got outfitted with new furniture, bedding, towels, décor, paint/wallpaper, floors, and more. Don’t worry — the fresh look and feel still evokes the historic inn’s classic spirit and legacy.

HIGHLIGHTS:

  • Its all about seafood here, and why shouldnt it be — the area once celebrated TomalesBays bounty with clam digs, crab feeds, and believe it or not, stingray and shark derbies. Youll taste the freshness in the much-praised restaurants Tomales Bay clam chowder, enlivened with leeks and bacon, or Oysters Nickerfeller, the signature dish of proprietor Dena Grunt, who just released a cookbook.
  • And dont miss a stop by the Croft, as the team calls the onsite garden, from which its likely your salad or breakfast fruit came.
A cozy bedroom in one of the best luxury hotels North Bay has to offer, featuring a bay window with seating adorned with decorative pillows in neutral and warm tones. The bed, dressed in white and grey linens, has accent pillows. Soft natural light filters through the window, highlighting the serene ambiance.
Photo: Courtesy of Olema House

Olema House

Theres no better way to explore the Point Reyes National Seashore than from Olema House, positioned as it is on the edge of the park itself. Behind the inn, a wide lawn slopes down to a tumbling brook, across which the parklands begin. Those more interested in local food and culture will be just as happy with the location, five minutes from the village of Point Reyes Station with its galleries, shops, bakeries, and the Cowgirl Creamery artisanal food hub. Every room faces onto the lawn, tall glass windows framing views over the creek to Inverness Ridge and Mt. Wittenberg beyond. All the rooms have radiant heat-warmed floors, a welcome addition on foggy nights. Onsite restaurant Due West and its artisanal market stay true to their setting in a 19th-century roadhouse, serving local cheeses, baked goods, and other picnic makings.

HIGHLIGHT:

  • With just 22 rooms and two cottages surrounded by four acres of greenery, the new Tablet Hotel Group property has a decidedly intimate feel.
  • The rooms themselves are airy and open, some featuring vaulted ceilings and others a loft-like arrangement.
  • The aesthetic is both classic and contemporary; elegant and rustic furnishings blend nicely into the wood-and-stone backdrop

Did we miss your favorite hotel?
 Let us know — email us at stay@localgetaways.com or tag us @localgetaways.

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