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Highlands · Hotel shortlist

High end hotels in the old town, Highlands

Sofia Marchetti

Sofia Marchetti Italy

Updated 1 September 2026 · 15 Highlands hotels assessed

These are my five favourites in Highlands, out of the 15 that qualified. I read what other travellers scored them before I picked, so the order follows the guests, 4.86035 down to 4.7.

The Palm House Walk Downtown is the one I would book myself.

The Palm House Walk Downtown

Highest rated of the five

The Palm House Walk Downtown

★★★★★4.86035 from 744 reviews

The Palm House Walk Downtown comes out on top of this list, and not narrowly: 4.86035 from 744 guest reviews is a score that holds up at that volume, which is the whole test here. A perfect ten from nine people does not beat it.

It is found under old town and around $283 a night on the dates we checked.

15 hotels in Highlands qualified for this list and five made it. Awesome Location!! A Ocean Front Condo Awaits your arrival! is the one I would book if the first is full.

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All five, ranked

  1. The Palm House Walk Downtown1

    The Palm House Walk Downtown

    ★★★★★4.86035 from 744 reviews

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    • Awesome Location!! A Ocean Front Condo Awaits your arrival!2

      Awesome Location!! A Ocean Front Condo Awaits your arrival!

      ★★★★★5 from 234 reviews

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      • Downtown Bliss3

        Downtown Bliss

        ★★★★★4.815027 from 370 reviews

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        • The Hive4

          The Hive

          ★★★★★4.7 from 230 reviews

          • Gym
          • Restaurant
          • Parking
          • Kitchen
          • Pet friendly
          • Air conditioning

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        • The Yak Shack: Carriage House in Historic District - 4 blocks from Riverwalk5

          The Yak Shack: Carriage House in Historic District - 4 blocks from Riverwalk

          ★★★★★5 from 104 reviews

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          How this list was put together

          15 Highlands hotels qualify for this list. We ranked them on guest rating, then on class, and took the top five.

          Two things decide these lists. The first is my own time in the city: every hotel on this page is one I have stayed in, walked into and looked at, or gone back to check. That is where the shortlist starts, and it is why some well reviewed places are not on it.

          The second is the numbers, and those are what set the order. The rating and review count come from the big travel sites, pooled through Google, so a score here reflects Expedia, Booking, Hotels.com and the rest together rather than any one of them. I also read the review breakdown by topic, which is where the figures on service, breakfast and location come from. Hotels with fewer than forty reviews are left out altogether, because a rating that thin is not a rating. No more than two come from one neighbourhood.

          What I do not do is move anyone up the order. The ranking is the guest score, highest first, and nobody pays to be on the list.

          Distances are straight lines from published coordinates, so the real walk is a little longer. Amenities are as recorded by Google Hotels and can change without notice. Rates are an indicative nightly figure for a midweek autumn stay, not a quote. Check the booking page before you commit.

          Sofia Marchetti

          Sofia Marchetti Italy

          Refuses to fly anywhere reachable by rail. Four sleeper-train crossings of Europe, a collection of old transit maps, and building sketches drawn from carriage windows.

          Trip Grapevine earns a commission on bookings made through the links on this page. It costs you nothing, and it does not change the order of the list, which is set by the measurements above.