Vintage & Retro Hotels, October 2026 Hotels With a Vintage Soul

Les Suites Cinabre are two private apartments above the boutique of Cinabre, the Parisian silk accessories brand, in the Cité Bergère, a 19th-century passage in the 9th arrondissement. The street has barely changed in two centuries and is now partly listed as a historic monument. Each suite measures 100 square metres and was designed by Necchi Architecture. One has warm brown tones, rosewood furniture and a winter garden, and the other has a bold floral tapestry, a large curved sofa and an English-style wooden bathroom. Fabrics come from Pierre Frey, the handmade beds from Hästens, and the robes, scarves and stationery from Cinabre itself. Opéra Garnier is a short walk away.

Marqí is difficult to categorise, which is part of its charm. Set in Colares near Sintra, the hotel mixes Portuguese details with a playful visual language that moves between 1970s California, 1980s Danish design and vintage Mediterranean references. Colourful tiles, marble, retro lighting and eccentric objects give the property more of a private creative house atmosphere than a conventional hotel.

Sun Ranch brings a slice of 1970s California to 55 acres of rolling farmland in the Byron Bay hinterland, pairing timber ranch houses, vintage furniture, earthy Spanish influences and seriously good communal spaces with the landscape of Coopers Shoot. Accommodation ranges from adults-only Pool Suites to two-bedroom barns, while the rest of the property is made for lingering: a 25-metre mineral pool overlooking the hills, the sunken Lair lounge, Cowboy Bar, open-air Field House, wood-fired sauna and ice baths. Horse rides, morning yoga, long lunches and margaritas add to the ranch fantasy, with Bangalow two minutes away and Byron Bay around 12 minutes by car.

Martine Inn feels like stepping into an eccentric private seaside estate from another era. Built in the early 1900s for heirs of the Parke pharmaceutical family, the oceanfront property now has just 25 individually furnished rooms filled with museum-grade American antiques, claw-foot tubs, carved beds and wood-burning fireplaces. The strongest rooms face directly across Monterey Bay, while breakfast is served overlooking the rocky coastline and the gardens hide courtyards, fountains and a vintage MG collection. Monterey Bay Aquarium and Cannery Row are close enough to reach on foot, but the atmosphere here is much more old-Pacific-Grove than polished Monterey resort.

The TWA Hotel occupies Eero Saarinen's TWA Flight Center at JFK Airport in New York, a 1962 landmark of mid-century design that sat abandoned for nearly two decades before reopening as a hotel in 2019. The original terminal now holds restaurants, bars and the famous Sunken Lounge, while 512 rooms sit in two new wings behind it, with views of the runways or the historic building. The restoration followed Saarinen's original plans, using the same materials wherever possible. On the roof, an infinity pool and bar look out over arriving and departing planes, and below ground, the 24-hour gym is one of the largest of any hotel. Retro furniture, vintage uniforms and a restored Lockheed Constellation plane complete the trip back to the golden age of air travel.

Swell Hotel Byron turns a former roadside motel into a 16-room adults-only hideaway with a distinctly 1970s mood, combining earthy tones, curved forms, woven textures and tropical gardens. Rooms open towards greenery or the pool, while the shared spaces move between a mineral swimming pool, bar, infrared sauna, ice bath and wellness areas for yoga and treatments. Its location is unusually convenient for Byron Bay: the centre is only a couple of minutes away on foot and Belongil Beach is around four minutes away.

Post Ranch Inn stretches across 100 acres above the cliffs of Big Sur, with 40 rooms and houses designed to disappear into the landscape. Icon Architect Mickey Muennig used redwood, glass, curved forms, living roofs and stilted structures to respond differently to the forest and the Pacific edge, creating everything from cliff houses suspended 1,200 feet above the ocean to triangular tree houses among the redwoods. The experience is intentionally quiet — rooms have no televisions or alarm clocks — and much of the stay revolves around the landscape itself, from infinity pools and guided nature walks to yoga, meditation and stargazing.