HIGHLANDS
Trailborn Highlands: The Coolest Hotel in Highlands, NC, for Design-Loving Travelers
$$$$
★★★★★
Written by Eric Barton | May 9, 2025
I showed up at Trailborn Highlands after a winding drive through mountain switchbacks, half-convinced I’d taken a wrong turn into a Wes Anderson film. Just off downtown Highlands, the Trailborn feels like a hideout—quiet, shaded, the kind of place where they hand you a packet of wildflower seeds when you check out.
Trailborn is the first hotel I’ve stayed at that manages to be both design-forward and dog-forward. My labradoodle made himself at home in the Midcentury-meets-the-outdoors lobby while I tried to act like I hadn’t just Instagrammed the rack of beach cruisers out front.
The rooms are exactly what you want in a mountain hotel: cedar wood, pour-over coffee, cooler totes for your next picnic, robes that make you feel like a person who owns property in multiple time zones. There was a fireplace in our ground-floor room, and if you're lucky enough to get one, cancel your dinner plans. Sit there and let the day fall off you.
The on-site restaurant, the Highlands Supper Club, is tucked inside a restored log cabin that feels like it might’ve once hosted illicit poker nights. Executive chef Aaron Kulzer’s food leans wood-fired and local. The roast chicken with collards and baked rice tastes like recipes perfected through multiple generations of genteel .
It’s not luxury in the usual Highlands sense. It’s cooler than that—less clubby, more intentional. You’re just as likely to meet a couple from Charleston on their third glass of natural wine as you are a Brooklyn designer scoping out tile choices.
In December 2024, Trailborn entered into a long-term agreement with Marriott International, bringing its portfolio of outdoor-centric hotels, including Trailborn Highlands, under the Marriott Bonvoy umbrella.
Just the same, Trailborn isn’t trying to be the next big thing in Highlands. It just is. And for a town that’s curated to within an inch of its life, that kind of effortless charm feels almost radical.
Eric Barton is editor of The Adventurist and a freelance journalist who splits his time between Asheville and Miami. He has reviewed restaurants for more than two decades and has written for publications including Food & Wine, Outside, and Men’s Health. Email him here.
