These vintage American motels will have you longing for the open road

A new title from Luster celebrates the rebirth of the vintage motel across the United States. Spanning 200 pages, Vintage Motels by travel writer Ellie Seymour brings together 40 evocative examples that define the typology – from New Mexico’s surviving El Rancho, opened in 1937 and where Hollywood icons such as Lauren Bacall and Marilyn Monroe stayed while filming in the region, to San Luis Obispo’s flamboyant Madonna Inn, active since 1958 and famed for its Copper Café and sugar-pink champagne cake.

‘I see motels as pop-culture symbols of freedom and escapism,’ says Seymour. Her fascination began after watching Ridley Scott’s (1991) Thelma & Louise, the ultimate road movie. ‘I was in awe of these two cool, rebellious women driving through America in a blue 1966 Ford Thunderbird convertible, hiding out in dive bars and motels along the way.’

The world’s first motel opened in 1925 in San Luis Obispo, California – roughly halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Designed by architect Arthur Heineman, the Milestone Mo-Tel coined its name when ‘Milestone Motor Hotel’ wouldn’t fit on the sign. With private garages, hot showers and a new sense of road-trip luxury, it set the tone for America’s love affair with the open road.

By the 1960s, more than 60,000 motels lined US highways – glowing beacons of mid-century freedom – before air travel and the Interstate Highway System diverted the traffic, leaving many to fade into nostalgic relics. A century on, the motel is firmly back in vogue. From the Pacific Coast Highway to Route 66 and the Catskills, classic roadside icons are being reborn with sharp interiors, chef-led diners and a renewed spirit of wanderlust. Once a stopover, now a destination.

‘There are still those no-frills, budget-friendly curb-side lodges people stop at for the night to break a journey,’ Seymour explains, ‘but now there are also beautifully restored motels that have become destinations in their own right – with all the luxurious features of a hotel.’ Each entry in the book explores a motel’s backstory, design ethos, facilities and character, offering both a visual journey and a practical guide for future road trips.

For Seymour, the perfect motel is built on a simple equation: ‘A super-comfy, spacious bed, easy access to good morning coffee, and a cosy bar to unwind in over a margarita or a negroni.’ She cites the Starlite Motel in New York’s Catskill Mountains and Silver Sands on the tip of Long Island as quintessential examples. ‘Both have pastel-toned 1950s drive-up buildings and immaculately preserved neon signs,’ she says.

While motels are often viewed as playful shrines to Americana and kitsch, their design language is deeply rooted in place. ‘Character, as well as architecture, shifts depending on region and geography,’ notes Seymour. ‘This became increasingly clear the further I got into the project.’

Coastal motels exude easy beach energy – like Hotel Palms in Florida or The Pacific Motel in California – while desert lodgings such as Hotel Wren in Twentynine Palms mirror the surrounding landscape’s sun-bleached palette. In Palm Springs, the exuberant Trixie Motel leans into the city’s hedonistic spirit, all bubble-gum pinks and poolside sparkle.

‘Those in mountain settings tend to feature darker, cosier tones and larger, multi-storey structures with generous communal areas and roaring fires, such as Scribner’s in the Catskills,’ Seymour adds. ‘In New Mexico, motels draw on traditional Southwestern influences, as at El Rey Court, or on Route 66 heritage, as with the Blue Swallow Motel in Tucumcari.’

Vintage Motels captures a uniquely American blend of nostalgia and modern reinvention, where the open road meets design-led restoration, and the stopover becomes the story.

You can find ‘Vintage Motels’ by Ellie Seymour on Amazon.