CHATHAM — Calling it “the Cape’s grand dame resort” that has “perfected the good stuff,” Condé Nast Traveler last week named Chatham Bars Inn to its 2022 Gold List as one of 45 of the Best Hotels & Resorts in the World.
The choices on the annual Gold List are made by the Condé Nast Traveler editors from around the globe and represent, according to its website, “the places and experiences (editors) carry in their hearts.” The list of “destinations we treasure,” it said, “is made by humans for other humans — something we need more than ever in this day and age.”
Chatham Bars Inn was the only resort named in New England and one of just 14 on the Gold List of Best Hotels & Resorts in the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean.

“Thrilled” and “ecstatic” were the reactions of resort staff described in a written statement about the honor. Managing director Gary Thulander said he is thankful to the staff “who consistently strive to be the best” as they work toward the goal of sharing “the best sense of place of Cape Cod,” and he said he is also thankful for supportive guests, families and the community.
Chatham Bars Inn, at 297 Shore Road, is a year-round oceanfront resort on 25 acres, with 217 rooms and suites in 30 separate buildings, a spa, multiple restaurants, an eight-acre seasonal farm, a quarter-mile private beach and a variety of recreational and boating options, according to a press release. The resort opened in 1914 as a luxury hunting lodge for wealthy Bostonians and is a short walk from downtown Chatham.
The resort “has long excelled at letting family and luxury happily coexist,” said Condé Nast Traveler editor Cassie Shortsleeve in writing about her choice for the Gold List. She said that with its “mastery of contradictions — palatial and homey; sandy feet and designer sandals; kid’s menus and an adults-only spa — CBI has been loved by those who have been coming for generations.”
Cape Cod restaurants:Farm-to-table is on the daily menu at Chatham Bars Inn
The reason, she said, is that “every inch of the property’s 25 acres … is intoxicating.”
“There’s the cool Atlantic breeze hitting the bluff, a sand-swept wedding in the distance …, a private beach launch to a secluded sandy spot. There’s an oceanfront pool, downtown Chatham steps away, a lobby fireplace roaring upon your return. It oozes nostalgia.”
Chatham Bars Inn has also been named to Condé Nast Traveler’s Readers’ Choice Awards for the past five years in a row.
The other locations chosen for the 2022 Gold List in the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean included two each in California, Las Vegas, Hawaii and Florida, as well as spots in New York City, Chicago, Charleston, Vancouver and St. Bart’s.