I can still see that Oregon lighthouse clearly. The cabin by the lightning field in New Mexico too. And the mystical Mexican hideaway.

Since I started writing about travel for the Los Angeles Times near the end of the last century, I've slept in close to 500 hotels and bed-and-breakfasts, not counting rental houses and cruise-ship cabins, campsites and airport seating areas. Most of these places have faded and merged in memory, but some stay with you.

For instance, the Hotel Latvija in Riga, Latvia. In the early 1990s, I checked in and found a maid sitting on my bed-to-be, smoking a cigarette and watching TV. ("Very good film. Ten minutes," she said, waving me aside.) And there was the $10-a-night tourist inn in Tabas, Iran, that greeted me with lizards, mice and knee-weakening bathroom sensory effects.

But let's save the whining for another story. I'm here to talk happy hotels — places that made me feel as if I were in exactly the right place at exactly the right time.

They tend to be pricey, because the world usually works that way. But this isn't just about money or luxury. These are places that stick with you, often because of amazing, far-flung locations, and often thanks to profound hospitality or institutional character, such as the multi-generational feel of Eatons' Ranch in Wyoming.

After I made the list, I realized it had no big-city hotels, even though I've stayed in a bunch. Hmm.

I found a few of these hotels in 2009, but this list reflects 18 years of traveling (including a few revisits). Each lodging has surely changed since I checked out, some substantially. (Most regrettably, my favorite under-$100 lodging, the Hotel de la Pelissaria in Saint-Cirq-Lapopie, France, closed late in 2009, so I had to strike it from the list.) But great places tend to endure. Along with my photos from original visits, I've included updates here, including what these places now cost. (Brace yourself.)

Here, alphabetically, are my top 14.

-- Christopher Reynolds, Los Angeles Times staff writer