Tucked among Southwest Montana’s remote Rocky Mountain peaks, One&Only Moonlight Basin is the first US property in the ultra-luxury brand’s glittering portfolio. And from its sumptuous accommodations to its lovingly crafted service culture to the once-in-a-lifetime deep-West adventures it puts at guests’ fingertips, it shines like a star.
Bringing the outdoors in is a defining principle at One&Only Moonlight Basin, an ultra-luxury resort that opened in November 2025 near the remote Southwest Montana town of Big Sky. In its public spaces, whether capacious or cosy, expansive glass walls beam in sweeping panoramas across pristine forests to the soaring, pyramidal Lone Mountain, the centrepiece of Big Sky’s huge, world-class ski area. In the guest accommodations, every bed, bath, balcony and hot tub is meticulously positioned to serve breath-stealing alpine views.
And what an outdoors. Set in the northern Rockies’ Madison Range at an elevation of around 2,100m (7,000ft), One&Only Moonlight Basin sits in 240 acres of private land swathed in lush lodgepole pines, encompassing 15 miles of trails for hiking, mountain-biking, Nordic skiing and more, and a pair of crystalline lakes with a beach, where guests can swim, kayak or fish for trout. Beyond, the site is surrounded by another 17,000 acres of permanently protected alpine land, which provides critical habitat and migration routes for wildlife including elk, moose, bears and bobcats, and forms part of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, with the western entrance to the eponymous national park just an hour’s drive from the resort.
It’s this abundance of unique natural riches that led the Dubai-based One&Only brand to open its first-ever US property – the 14th in its worldwide portfolio – here a few short weeks before our visit (a second US resort in New York’s Hudson Valley, as well as new sites in Fiji and Antigua, are also in the pipeline).
The resort radiates out from three main lodges housing 73 generous rooms and suites. And while these buildings, the work of Seattle-based architectural practice Olson Kundig, are monumental in scale, with bold neo-Modernist lines and lashings of black steel and plate glass, they deftly avoid dominating their surroundings and sit harmoniously within the site’s rugged landscaping.
Inside, strong classic Western ranchcore cues, with copious use of stone, timber and leather, blend with the buildings’ industrial lines to create a warm, welcoming aesthetic that’s both fiercely stylish and elegantly understated. A handful of statement works in the main public spaces – with Tracy Linder’s suspended installation Vortex, created from bison, elk and horse ribs collected on her Montana ranch a striking example – announce an impressive art collection that, property-wide, features around 80 per cent locally based artists.
Tucked between stands of lodgepole pines in the surrounding grounds are 19 spacious one- and two-bedroom individual cabins. Beyond these, 38 sumptuously appointed four- to six-bedroom rentable private homes (with 24 more in the pipeline) complete the versatile accommodations offer. Interiors throughout have a pared-back, modern-alpine feel with nods to Scandi and Japanese Zen, while full-height glass keeps the natural setting the star attraction.
Competition for that title, meanwhile, is fierce. The resort has three restaurants, all of them giving pride of place, in different ways, to the best of local produce. Wildwood, in the Main Lodge, serves refined, ranch-to-table fare, with grass-fed bison and steelhead trout popular menu staples. The Landing, in the outlying Sky Lodge, where skiers can connect to Big Sky resort via a private heated gondola, elevates alpine comfort-food classics, with a huge chicken schnitzel a firm favourite, often accompanied with the bar’s signature ‘beer boot’, a nod to European après-ski shenanigans.
Akira Back, meanwhile, is the more dressed-up dining destination at One&Only Moonlight Basin. Named for the Aspen-born ex-pro snowboarder-turned Michelin-starred executive chef who has wildly successful restaurants all over the world, this handsome, low-lit space has the buzz of a hot-right-now Manhattan dining room and serves exquisitely executed modern Japanese fare. Taking the advice of the friendly international team manning the sushi station, we had our most memorable dinner in years here – miso black cod with yuzu sake foam, amazu cucumber salad and kimchi-glazed Brussels sprouts.
Then there’s the spa. It’s another monolithic building which Olson Kundig’s design smarts make approachable and cocooning. It comprises eight treatment rooms, plunge pools, a steam room, a sauna and a 17.5m (56 ft) indoor pool, with a glass wall that cantilevers open, weather permitting, to link the space with an outdoor terrace featuring a large Japanese onsen and cold plunge pool – all, of course, with front-row mountain views. Signature cryo-detox rituals and full-body treatments designed by German longevity guru Augustinus Bader are among the therapies on offer. There’s also a boutique, roomy gym and movement studio offering a variety of classes, and a tranquil relaxation room where guests are offered oxygen as standard to help them adjust to the resort’s high altitude.
And all that’s just on site. Ravishing Southwest Montana is also guests’ oyster, and an extensive menu of experiences includes hiking routes, horseback riding, fly fishing at nearby Blue Ribbon-certified sites, fat-tyre biking on snow, and a range of expert-led excursions into Yellowstone National Park, whatever the season.
Another One&Only hallmark is a level and style of service that, while highly polished and attentive – the staff-to-guest ratio here is three to two – is also warmly human. On our arrival, charming host team member Victoria invited us outside to take part in the resort’s signature welcome ritual, which involved ringing a rough-hewn metal triangle hug at the front door, then choosing one of a selection of custom branding irons smouldering on a fire to char a design into a disc of local pine, in homage to local cowboy tradition. Minutes later, we received a breezy welcome text from Alex, one of the two-person host team assigned to make any arrangements or reservations we might need during our stay (hosts here are known too for thoughtful extra touches, such as having a roaring fire and steaming soaking tub ready in guests’ rooms when they return from an outdoorsy excursion). All of the youthful, international team greet guests with One&Only’s signature hand-on-heart gesture and a sunny smile.
It’s an inspired touch that, should guests wish, team members are free to take the time to chat and share their own experiences of Moonlight Basin and Montana, and wherever they may be from, that somehow roots all the rarefied pampering and polish in a relaxed sense of authentic interaction with place.
Photography courtesy of One&Only Resorts
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While you’re OutThere
Newly opened for the 2025/6 ski season, Kircliff is the crowning achievement of a ten-year, $150-million program of improvements that have made Big Sky one of North America’s very best ski resorts. This two-storey, glass-and-steel structure sits atop Lone Peak, at 3,403m (11,166ft), the ski area’s highest point, and on a clear day unfolds spine-tingling views of more than ten mountain ranges spanning Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. And thanks to the resort’s lift system, you don’t need to be on skis or a snowboard to get up there.
