West Baden Springs Hotel

Cave country's grandest room

★★★★★📍 French Lick Resort, Southern Indiana$$$

The dome is why you stay. Stepping into the atrium for the first time is a genuine architectural shock — the steel-ribbed ceiling floating high overhead, ringed by six floors of rooms, the scale amplified by the quiet. The hotel offers historic tours that explain how the dome was engineered, how the atrium floor was laid, and how a collapsing wreck was rescued by preservationists and partners in the 1990s and 2000s; the story is as compelling as the building. Evening is the best time to linger, when the dome is lit and the lobby bars and fireplace draw guests in.

Room craft: request an atrium-view room with a balcony for the signature experience, or a garden-facing room for quieter, often better-value nights. Rooms are traditional and elegant rather than cutting-edge. Use the shuttle to move between West Baden and the French Lick side of the resort for dining, the casino and golf; the two hotels together make a full resort weekend. Occasional private events can close the hotel to the public, so check before visiting as a non-guest.

Practicals and fit: West Baden Springs sits in the hills of Orange County, southern Indiana, about an hour and a half from Louisville and two from Indianapolis. Pair it with Marengo Cave's Crystal Palace and Dripstone tours, the region's state forests and the quiet back roads of Indiana's limestone country. Fit: couples, multigenerational families and architecture lovers who want their cave weekend to include one of the most memorable rooms in America.