{"id":264244,"date":"2026-08-12T23:12:07","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T23:12:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/264244\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T23:12:07","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T23:12:07","slug":"hotel-bethlehem-named-nations-best-historic-hotel-for-6th-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/264244\/","title":{"rendered":"Hotel Bethlehem named nation’s best historic hotel for 6th time"},"content":{"rendered":"

The win streak just keeps going \u2014 Hotel Bethlehem has once again been named the best historic hotel in the United States.<\/p>\n

For the sixth consecutive time<\/a>, the Bethlehem landmark won the top spot in USA Today\u2019s 10Best Historic Hotel\/Resort contest<\/a>, with the latest victory announced Wednesday during a gathering of guests and staff in the hotel\u2019s ballroom.<\/p>\n

Hotel staffer Nina Colanse pulled the winner\u2019s name from an envelope for the reveal, earning cheers from and champagne for the audience, confetti and the message \u201c6X NATIONAL CHAMPIONS\u201d on a projection screen.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn today\u2019s travel landscape, filled with shiny new resorts and ultra-modern skyscraper hotels, a bit of yesteryear is often welcome,\u201d the 10Best webpage said. \u201cEach of these 10 classic accommodations \u2014 nominated by a panel of experts and voted as the best by readers \u2014 has witnessed a great deal of history, and each has held true to its historic roots and unique sense of place.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Hotel<\/p>\n

Hotel Bethlehem staff, local officials and business owners celebrate Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026, after the hotel was named the best historic hotel for the sixth year in a row in USA Today\u2019s 10 Best Historic Hotel competition. (Jonathan Broady\/Special to The Morning Call)\n<\/p>\n

\"Hotel<\/p>\n

Hotel Bethlehem staff, local officials and business owners celebrate Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026, after the hotel was named the best historic hotel for the sixth year in a row in USA Today\u2019s 10 Best Historic Hotel competition. (Jonathan Broady\/Special to The Morning Call)\n<\/p>\n

\"Hotel<\/p>\n

Hotel Bethlehem staff, local officials and business owners celebrate Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026, after the hotel was named the best historic hotel for the sixth year in a row in USA Today\u2019s 10 Best Historic Hotel competition. (Jonathan Broady\/Special to The Morning Call)\n<\/p>\n

\"Nina<\/p>\n

Nina Colanse, a restaurant server, opens the results with Bruce Haines, managing partner at Hotel Bethlehem, on Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026, after the hotel was named the best historic hotel for the sixth consecutive year in USA Today\u2019s 10Best Historic Hotel competition. (Jonathan Broady\/Special to The Morning Call)\n<\/p>\n

\"Nina<\/p>\n

Nina Colanse, a restaurant server, opens the results with Bruce Haines, managing partner at Hotel Bethlehem, on Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026, after the hotel was named the best historic hotel for the sixth consecutive year in USA Today\u2019s 10Best Historic Hotel competition. (Jonathan Broady\/Special to The Morning Call)\n<\/p>\n

\"Bruce<\/p>\n

Bruce Haines, managing partner at Hotel Bethlehem, speaks Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026, after the hotel was named the best historic hotel for the sixth year in a row in USA Today\u2019s 10 Best Historic Hotel competition. (Jonathan Broady\/Special to The Morning Call)\n<\/p>\n

\"Bruce<\/p>\n

Bruce Haines, managing partner at Hotel Bethlehem, speaks Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026, after the hotel was named the best historic hotel for the sixth year in a row in USA Today\u2019s 10 Best Historic Hotel competition. (Jonathan Broady\/Special to The Morning Call)\n<\/p>\n

\"LoriAnn<\/p>\n

LoriAnn Wukitsch, president and CEO of Historic Bethlehem Museums & Sites, speaks Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026, after the Hotel Bethlehem was named the best historic hotel for the sixth consecutive year in USA Today\u2019s 10 Best Historic Hotel competition. (Jonathan Broady\/Special to The Morning Call)\n<\/p>\n

\"Donna<\/p>\n

Donna Sabol, Senior Vice-President & Chief Quality, St Luke\u2019s University Health Network, speaks Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026, after the Hotel Bethlehem was named the best historic hotel for the sixth consecutive year in USA Today\u2019s 10 Best Historic Hotel competition. (Jonathan Broady\/Special to The Morning Call)\n<\/p>\n

\"Kurt<\/p>\n

Kurt Landes, president and general manager of the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, speaks Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026, after the Hotel Bethlehem was named the best historic hotel for the sixth consecutive year in USA Today\u2019s 10 Best Historic Hotel competition. (Jonathan Broady\/Special to The Morning Call)\n<\/p>\n

\"Hotel<\/p>\n

Hotel Bethlehem staff, local officials and business owners celebrate Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026, after the hotel was named the best historic hotel for the sixth year in a row in USA Today\u2019s 10 Best Historic Hotel competition. (Jonathan Broady\/Special to The Morning Call)\n<\/p>\n

\"Hotel<\/p>\n

Hotel Bethlehem staff, local officials and business owners celebrate Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026, after the hotel was named the best historic hotel for the sixth year in a row in USA Today\u2019s 10 Best Historic Hotel competition. (Jonathan Broady\/Special to The Morning Call)\n<\/p>\n

\"Hotel<\/p>\n

Hotel Bethlehem staff, local officials and business owners celebrate Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026, after the hotel was named the best historic hotel for the sixth year in a row in USA Today\u2019s 10 Best Historic Hotel competition. (Jonathan Broady\/Special to The Morning Call)\n<\/p>\n

\"Bruce<\/p>\n

Bruce Haines, managing partner at Hotel Bethlehem, speaks Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026, after the hotel was named the best historic hotel for the sixth year in a row in USA Today\u2019s 10 Best Historic Hotel competition. (Jonathan Broady\/Special to The Morning Call)\n<\/p>\n

\"Bruce<\/p>\n

Bruce Haines, managing partner at Hotel Bethlehem, speaks Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026, after the hotel was named the best historic hotel for the sixth year in a row in USA Today\u2019s 10 Best Historic Hotel competition. (Jonathan Broady\/Special to The Morning Call)\n<\/p>\n

Show Caption<\/p>\n

1 of 15<\/p>\n

Hotel Bethlehem staff, local officials and business owners celebrate Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026, after the hotel was named the best historic hotel for the sixth year in a row in USA Today\u2019s 10 Best Historic Hotel competition. (Jonathan Broady\/Special to The Morning Call)\n<\/p>\n

Expand<\/a><\/p>\n

Leading up to the announcement, hotel managing partner Bruce Haines referenced the late Ralph Schwarz,<\/a> who helped with restoration efforts of the early Moravian settlers\u2019 landmarks<\/a>. Schwarz had the vision, Haines said, that historic Bethlehem would become the next Colonial Williamsburg.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was all about preservation,\u201d Haines said. \u201cHe was all about that we have something really special here. We just need to market it and clean it up, get ready and create a great tour guide program to make it happen. And in my mind, we\u2019re there. We\u2019re there now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA congratulations to everyone on the team at the hotel and the community because without you, we wouldn\u2019t be No. 1,\u201d LoriAnn Wukitsch, president and CEO of Historic Bethlehem Museums & Sites, said. \u201cAnd the reason that we differentiate ourselves from the other spectacular historic hotels and communities in our country is this community and our sense of place.\u201d<\/p>\n

No other hotel has won the honors more than Hotel Bethlehem, which first took the top spot in 2021 after finishing second in 2020 and third in 2019.<\/p>\n

USA Today added the historic hotel category to its 10Best contest in 2015. A panel of industry experts and editors at the news organization chooses the nominees and then readers vote for their favorite.<\/p>\n

The Lehigh Valley has done well in USA Today\u2019s 10Best contests<\/a>. Other winners and nominees include:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Musikfest,\u00a0which was recently named the top music festival\u00a0for a fourth time.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Coca-Cola Park, home of the Lehigh Valley IronPigs,\u00a0named the top minor league ballpark\u00a0in March.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Shankweiler\u2019s Drive-In Theatre, which won Best Drive-In Theater in May.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Easton Public Market, named the best public market in 2023 and again in July.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom, which has won or been nominated in different categories such as iHalloween-themed attraction, best lazy river and best wave pool.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Christkindlmarkt, nominated several times as best holiday market,\u00a0most recently in 2025.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Allentown\u2019s West End World of Food Festival,\u00a0which received runner-up honors in 2025.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0Easton Garlic Festival, nominated in 2024, finishing eighth.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The Outlets at Wind Creek Bethlehem,\u00a0named eighth-best outlet mall in 2025.<\/p>\n

\u2022The Peeps Chick drop, voted the sixth-best New Year\u2019s Eve drop in 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The win streak just keeps going \u2014 Hotel Bethlehem has once again been named the best historic hotel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264245,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,2376,60,182,139,434,28,432],"class_list":["post-264244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-business","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-northampton-county","tag-pennsylvania","tag-top-stories-tmc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}