The Best Hotel in Grass Valley, Sacramento and the Gold Country

A Main Street icon since the mid-1800s—when the A-list guest list included entertainer Lola Montez, writer Mark Twain, and Ulysses S. Grant—this two-story, historic-district hotel received a down-to-the-studs (in some cases bricks) makeover and reopened in 2020 as a boutique property. The 17 high-ceilinged guest rooms in the main hotel and 11 more across the back parking lot in the restored Purcell House contain a mix of antique, reproduction, and contemporary furnishings. Wide white subway-style tiles gleam in the bathrooms, whose 1-inch hex porcelain floor tiles and brass fixtures evoke days gone by. The ground-floor Golden Gate Saloon dates from 1852.