The Oldest Hotel in Each Country, Mapped

When planning a trip, some travelers look for modern hotels with cutting-edge amenities. Others want their lodgings to have a little more character—something these destinations have plenty of.

To put together this map of the oldest hotels in different countries around the world, the Australia-based insurance company Budget Direct researched the hotels of nearly every country to find which businesses have been operating the longest. Hayakawa in Yamanashi, Japan, is home to the oldest hotel on Earth. The Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan hot spring inn first opened in 705 CE, and it's been owned by the same family for 52 generations.

Nine out of the 10 oldest hotels on the map are located in Europe. Travelers to the Black Forest of Germany can stay at Gasthaus zum Roten Bären, or the Red Bear Inn. Parts of the building date back to before the surrounding city was founded in 1120, but it likely didn't start operating as an inn until the 14th century. In the U.S., the hotel with the longest history is Maine's Seaside Inn. It's said to have been around since 1660, which makes it more than a century older than the United States itself.

Budget Direct used color coding to indicate the age of each country's hotel. Purple indicates a hotel built before 1000 CE, dark blue is 1001 to 1300, light blue is 1300 to 1500, green is 1501 to 1700, yellow is 1701 to 1900, and pink is 1901 to 2021. You can check out the full map of the oldest hotels in each country below.