Editor's note: For each hotel's most up-to-date safety protocols and Covid-19 precautions, call before making a reservation.

Travelers who seek out grand historic hotels want more than luxury; they want to be surrounded by the elegant ghosts of other eras who once sipped champagne and fanned themselves on balconies overlooking the sea. Florida offers plenty of these glorious hotels, all within a few hours’ drive of downtown Sarasota. Our editors had the arduous task of discovering five of the finest, and we all agreed that nothing compares to these beautiful, stately hotels steeped in history and created as places to enjoy life at its fullest.