About

About Staying in History

Hi, we’re Evan and Shannon Nickel. We’ve been chasing historic properties together since a profoundly impactful stay at the John Rutledge House Inn in Charleston changed the way we look at hotels.

Staying in History was born out of that appreciation. It’s the place where we share the properties and stories that prove the place you stay can be a highlight of the trip, not just a place to sleep.

We don’t do this for a living. We have day jobs, a soon-to-be toddler, and a house that needs work, and Staying in History runs on evenings and whatever weekends we can spare. What that means practically: exploring historic hotels is one of our favorite things to do, together, as a family. But it’s also changed the way we travel.

A few rules we’ve landed on:

• Slower than we used to travel. Fewer stops, more time in each place. It turns out this is also just the right pace for seeing a building properly instead of rushing past it.
• Support the place, not just the room. We try to eat in the hotel restaurant, buy a drink at the historic bar, take the tour if one’s offered. These places often survive because guests choose to engage with the history, not just sleep next to it.
• We’d rather book a room with a story than a room with a view. Given the choice between the renovated suite and the smaller original room where something actually happened, we take the smaller room.
• The town usually explains the hotel. We spend time in the surrounding area before we judge the property. A historic hotel rarely exists in isolation from the history around it.

What Happens Around Here

What Qualifies as “Historical”

Age alone doesn’t qualify a property — relevance does. We’re less interested in how old a building is and more interested in whether staying there teaches you something about where you are. For the full picture of how we research and choose properties, see How We Choose Hotels.

The Directory

Our property archive currently features over 500 historical hotels, inns, lodges, and resorts spanning dozens of countries. Properties are added through a combination of our own research and reader submissions. If you know of a property that belongs here, we want to hear about it!

We update the directory and publish new content on an ongoing basis, so if you haven’t found what you’re looking for yet, it may be coming. The best way to stay current is to subscribe to our newsletter below.

Get in Touch

Have a property that belongs here? Use our submission form to add it for consideration. For everything else, reach us at evan@stayinginhistory.com.