AAA has named the 100 hotels that have achieved five-diamond status for 2008, and they include eight hotels appearing on the coveted list for the first time. The newly anointed five-diamond hotels are the Canyon Suites at the Phoenician, Scottsdale, AZ; St. Regis Resort, Monarch Beach, Dana Point, CA; the Venetian, Las Vegas; Umstead Hotel & Spa, Cary, NC; Four Seasons Resort Whistler, Whistler, BC; the Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman; the JW Marriott Resort & Spa, Cancun; and the Fairmont Mayakoba, Playa del Carmen, Mexico.
Sixty restaurants were also given five diamonds. New on the dining roster are the Penrose Room at The Broadmoor (Colorado's first five-diamond restaurant); Lautrec, Farmington, PA; Blue, Cayman Islands; and Le Basilic in Cancun.
With the 2008 selections, the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, the Greenbrier in West Virginia and Camelback Inn in Scottsdale reached 32 consecutive years with five diamonds, dating back to when the ratings were first published in the AAA TourBook guides. Two restaurants have had five-diamond status for 20 consecutive years (since the ratings were first applied to restaurants): the Inn at Little Washington Dining Room in Washington, VA, and Le Bec-Fin in Philadelphia. (RT)