Hotel del Coronado: The World's Greatest Places of 2026 by Perri Ormont Blumberg for Time

The story goes like this: In April 1920, Hotel del Coronado hosted a ball for 1,000 guests in honor of Edward, Prince of Wales' visit to San Diego. At the time, his future wife, Wallis Warfield Spencer Simpson, lived in Coronado, a chi-chi peninsula in San Diego Bay, then married to her first husband. Years later, in 1936, the newly crowned King Edward abdicated the throne to marry the American heiress—cementing the Del’s place in a century of gilded transatlantic lore. Today, the hotel writes a new chapter. Fresh off a seven-year, $550 million reimagination, the resort maintains its Belle Époque grandeur following its first large-scale renovation since its 1888 opening. Unlike many hotel renovations—an infinity pool here, high-tech bidets there—the Del focused on painstaking restoration and preservation befitting its status as a National Historic Landmark.

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