travel awards

9 Dallas hotels and restaurants awarded in 2025 Forbes Travel Guide

Congrats go to the Ritz-Carlton Dallas.

Ritz-Carlton, Dallas

The prestigious Forbes Travel Guide, a global rating system for luxury hotels, restaurants, spas, and ocean cruises, has recognized 28 Texas properties on its 2025 awards list, including nine in Dallas.

The 67th annual list spans nearly 2,200 properties around the world, with three levels of ratings: Five-Star, Four-Star, and Recommended. To determine the ratings, inspectors visit every hotel, restaurant, spa, and cruise ship in person, visiting anonymously as a typical guest to review the quality and condition of each property and its overall guest experience. Participants pay a fee to be considered, but no one can buy a rating.

New for 2025, Forbes Travel Guide unveiled its inaugural cruise restaurant ratings.

"Behind every Forbes Travel Guide Star Award lies a thousand small gestures: the concierge who tracks down a hidden café beloved by locals, the chef who sources ingredients from a generations-old farm, the spa therapist who crafts custom aromatherapy blends from native flowers," the report said.

The Ritz-Carlton Dallas was one of only three total Texas properties to earn five stars, with the other two based in Houston: The Post Oak Hotel, and the Post Oak's luxurious spa.

Two Dallas restaurants that appeared in the 2024 ratings did not appear in the 2025 list: the now-closed Greenville Avenue restaurant Carte Blanche (which had earned five stars) and the French Room (Recommended), which is open for afternoon tea only, following the pandemic. Dallas' Adolphus Hotel (Recommended) also did not appear this year.

The only new Texas property in this year's guide is The Ritz-Carlton Dallas, Las Colinas hotel in Irving, which earned a Recommended rating.

These are the properties in Texas that made the 2025 list, by category:

Restaurants:

Garrison, Austin: 4-star
Fearing's, Dallas: 4-star
The Mansion, Dallas: 4-star

Hotels:

Archer Hotel, Austin: 4-star
Austin Proper Hotel, Austin: 4-star
Commodore Perry Estate Auberge Resorts Collection, Austin: 4-star
Fairmont Austin, 4-star
Four Seasons Hotel Austin, 4-star
The Ritz-Carlton Dallas: 5-star
The Joule, Dallas: 4-star
Hall Arts Hotel Dallas, Curio Collection by Hilton: Recommended
Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek, Dallas: Recommended
The Ritz-Carlton Dallas, Las Colinas: Recommended (new)
The Post Oak Hotel at Uptown Houston: 5-star
Four Seasons Hotel Houston, 4-star
Hotel Granduca Houston: 4-star
The Houstonian Hotel Club & Spa: 4-star
The St. Regis Houston: 4-star
Hotel Emma, San Antonio: Recommended
Mokara Hotel & Spa, San Antonio: 4-star

Spas:

Fairmont Spa Austin: 4-star
The Spa at Four Seasons Austin: 4-star
Verbena Spa at Austin Proper Hotel: 4-star
The Ritz Carlton Spa, Dallas: 4-star
The Spa at the Joule, Dallas: 4-star
The Spa at the Post Oak Hotel Houston: 5-star
Trellis Spa, Houston: 4-star
Mokara Spa, San Antonio: 4-star

The Forbes Travel guide started in 1958 as Mobil Travel Guide, a guidebook for US motorists. They created the original Five-Star rating system for hospitality in the US.

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best hotels in dfw

Dallas-area hotels rack up top honors in 2026 U.S. News & Forbes lists

Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek/Facebook

Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek has kept its elite status as the best resort in Texas for 2026.

More than a dozen Dallas-Fort Worth hotels and resorts have earned new accolades in U.S. News and World Report's prestigious list of the best Texas hotels in 2026, and five Dallas properties earned four- or five-star ratings in Forbes Travel Guide's 2026 Star Awards.

Dallas' grand Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek topped the list as the No. 1 best Texas resort for a second consecutive year, and it appeared as the 7th best hotel in Texas. The Ritz-Carlton Dallas was honored as the No. 3 best Texas hotel, and it additionally ranked No. 85 in U.S. News' separate ranking of the best hotel in the U.S. for 2026.

The publication's Best Hotels rankings annually examine over 31,000 hotels and resorts across more than 400 destinations in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, Bermuda, and Europe to "help travelers find the hotel that suits their needs." Hotels are ranked based on industry awards, star ratings, and online guest reviews.

Two more Dallas-area hotels ranked among the top 10 best hotels in the state: The Joule (No. 6) in downtown Dallas and the Omni PGA Frisco Resort & Spa (No. 9).

Other Dallas-Fort Worth hotels that made it among U.S. News' top 50 best hotels in Texas include:

No. 11 – The Adolphus, Autograph Collection, Dallas
No. 18 – Bowie House, Auberge Collection, Fort Worth
No. 20 – The Ritz-Carlton Dallas, Las Colinas, Irving
No. 21 – Hall Arts Hotel Dallas, Curio Collection by Hilton
No. 24 – Hotel Crescent Court, Dallas
No. 29 – Warwick Melrose - Dallas
No. 34 – Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center, Grapevine
No. 35 – Hilton Anatole, Dallas
No. 36 – Hotel Drover, Autograph Collection, Fort Worth
No. 38 – The Crescent Hotel, Fort Worth
No. 40 – The Westin Dallas Southlake
No. 41 – OmniDallas Hotel, Dallas
No. 50 – Delta Hotels by Marriott Dallas Southlake

Dallas hotels recognized in Forbes Travel Guide's 2026 Star Awards
Forbes Travel Guide recognized 25 Texas properties in its 2026 Star Awards rankings, with seven Dallas-area restaurants, hotels, and spas earning either four- or five-star ratings.

To determine the ratings, anonymous inspectors visit every hotel, restaurant, spa, and cruise ship in person, visiting as a typical guest for a minimum of two nights to review the quality and condition of each property and its overall guest experience. According to the rankings' methodology, inspectors pay their own way and no one can buy a rating.

The Ritz-Carlton, Dallas was the only Dallas property to earn a prestigious five-star rating. Houston's opulent Post Oak Hotel and its hotel spa were the remaining Texas properties to be awarded five-star ratings for 2026. The Post Oak Hotel has been awarded five stars for six consecutive years, and it also maintained its elite status as Texas’ only double five-star rated hotel and spa, according to a press release.

These are all of the Dallas properties that made the 2026 list, by category:

Restaurants:

Fearing's Restaurant: 4-star
The Mansion Restaurant: 4-star

Hotels:

The Ritz-Carlton Dallas: 5-star
The Ritz-Carlton Dallas, Las Colinas: Recommended
Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek: Recommended

Spas:

The Ritz Carlton Spa: 4-star
The Spa at the Joule: 4-star

Two Dallas properties are missing from the 2026 Star Awards, despite being highlighted in the 2025 awards: The Joule and Hall Arts Hotel. In January 2026, the Hall Arts Hotel joined Marriott Bonvoy’s Autograph Collection, which explains its absence from the 2026 rankings.

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