Sonoma County continues to stand at the forefront of luxury hospitality, with two of its Healdsburg-based properties, Montage Healdsburg and SingleThread Farms & Restaurant, earning top honors in the 2025 Forbes Travel Guide Star Awards. These two remarkable establishments have earned Forbes’ prestigious five-star luxury rating for the fourth consecutive year.

Forbes describes these annual awards as an “independent, global rating system for luxury hotels, restaurants, spas and ocean cruise ships.” The magazine’s Star Rating system puts an emphasis on reviewing service quality.

“Ensconced among the vineyards in Sonoma, Montage Healdsburg immerses you in Wine Country,” wrote Forbes. “The hotel, which debuted in January 2021, seamlessly blends into the landscape, with its 130 rooms tucked into bungalows that bear the same shade of brown as the heritage oaks that cloak them.”

The lobby at Montage Healdsburg. (Montage Healdsburg)

The Montage Resort has a reputation for attracting the rich and famous to its 250-acre estate nestled in the hills above Healdsburg. According to The Hollywood Reporter in 2022, pop star Justin Bieber and his wife, Hailey Bieber, are among the high-profile guests who have stayed at the property.

Among its sumptuous offerings, the resort boasts a 4,635-square-foot accommodation called the Guest House, starting from around $5,000 per night. Catering to well-heeled travelers, the hotel unveiled in 2021 its “The Sky’s the Limit” package, which runs up to $95,000. The package includes private jet flights from anywhere in the United States.

The Guest House, Montage Healdsburg’s presidential suite. (Montage Healdsburg) The pool at Montage Healdsburg. (Montage Healdsburg)

In addition to its five-star rating of the Montage Resort, Forbes also highlighted the Montage Spa and the resort’s restaurant, Hazel Hill, with their own four-star ratings.

The 11,500-square-foot Montage Spa includes 11 treatment rooms, a fitness center and a zero-edge pool.

But the resort’s commitment to tranquility extends beyond the spa.

“The terrace at Hazel Hill places you above Montage Healdsburg‘s vineyards, with the Mayacamas Mountains’ rolling hills unfolding beyond them and Mount St. Helena looming in the distance,” wrote Forbes. “It’s a stunning Sonoma scene. A fresh, seasonal meal will give you even more of a reason to linger and savor the scenery.”

English Pea Soup poured at the table over lavender, coconut yogurt and vintner’s coppa from Hazel Hill at Montage Healdsburg. (John Burgess/The Press Democrat)

A short drive south of Montage, located in downtown Healdsburg, SingleThread is the only three-star Michelin restaurant in Sonoma County. Run by husband-and-wife team chef Kyle Connaughton and farmer Katina Connaughton, the restaurant also has a five-room inn where guests can stay the night. (Forbes separately included the inn in its “recommended” list of places to stay.)

“To call SingleThread Farms a restaurant is akin to calling Buckingham Palace simply a house. This temple of haute cuisine in Sonoma County’s quaint town of Healdsburg delivers on the oft over-used promise of ‘farm to table,’” wrote Forbes.

Sourcing ingredients from its 24-acre biodiverse farm in the Dry Creek Valley, SingleThread serves a kaiseki-style 11-course menu.

“To source purveyors for SingleThread’s incredible array of seafood items, executive chef Kyle treks six times annually to Japan, the country that serves as inspiration not only for his lauded donabe clay pot cooking techniques, but also for SingleThread’s elegant and serene dining room interior,” wrote Forbes.

At SingleThread restaurant in Healdsburg. (Garrett Rowland/Sonoma County Tourism) An elegantly presented dish at the three-Michelin star SingleThread in Healdsburg. (John Troxell/Sonoma County Tourism)

Sonoma County’s list of award-winning properties doesn’t stop there. MacArthur Place Hotel and Spa in Sonoma received two separate four-star ratings from Forbes: one for the entire property and another for the recently refurbished Spa at MacArthur. Forbes also recommended the property’s restaurant, Layla.

Additional Sonoma County luxury establishments that were recommended by Forbes include Farmhouse Inn and Farmhouse Inn Restaurant in Forestville and Hotel Les Mars in Healdsburg.

The Forbes Travel Guide also handed out a plethora of awards to luxury hotels and restaurants in Napa this year. Auberge du Soleil, Four Seasons Resort and Residences Napa Valley and The French Laundry continue to garner five-star honors. Other Napa properties, such as Carneros Resort and Spa and its restaurant FARM and Solage, Auberge Resorts Collection, earned four stars, while Stanly Ranch, Auberge Resorts Collection and Archer Hotel Napa earned “recommended” distinctions.

Forbes Travel Guide Star Award inspectors rate properties based on up to 900 objective criteria, according to Forbes. The inspectors are always anonymous and spend at least two days staying at the hotels they review. See the complete list of 2025 awardees here.