Top 10: the best luxury hotels in Los Angeles
An insider's guide to the top luxury hotels in Los Angeles, including the best places to stay for cool rooftop pools and bars, designer spas, fine dining – and plenty of celeb-spotting opportunities – in locations including Beverly Hills, West Hollywood and Santa Monica.
A tranquil oasis in the heart of Beverly Hills that delivers on every level. The magnificent hotel itself is exquisitely beautiful both inside and out, and a stay is enhanced by uniquely personalised service and a five-star experience that could really be six-star, if such a category existed. Built in classic Renaissance style, the hotel looks like a French Riviera palace and is beautifully illuminated at night. Tucked away behind tall trees and barely visible from the road, it is lavishly discreet rather than showy. Winding walkways lined with lemon trees and palms make the grounds feel like a picturesque maze.
? The best hotels in Los Angeles
Oh, if the palm-printed walls of The Beverly Hills Hotel could talk. Elizabeth Taylor honeymooned here with six of her seven husbands; Faye Dunaway learnt how to swim in the pool; and a Yoko Ono and John Lennon 'bed-in' was staged in one of the bungalows. So many parts of the property have become recognisable, from 1970s post-Academy Awards photoshoots to today’s Instagram feeds, such as the bubblegum pink plaster walls framed with huge Mexican palms; the green candy-striped pool beds; and the inviting porte cochere. The banana leaf wallpaper that adorns the corridors and public areas is perhaps the most distinguishable (and copied) wallpaper in the interiors world.
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A luxurious hotel with sweeping views of the Pacific. Casa del Mar started as a beach club in the Roaring Twenties for Hollywood A-listers, and is one of only two hotels in the Los Angeles area with direct beach access. It now exudes casual elegance and style. The design is a mixture of quintessential coastal California and classic Italian with its ornate Spanish tiled floors and Venetian chandeliers. The grand entryway segues into the hotel’s signature double staircase and spacious two-storey lobby lounge. It manages to be visually striking, while also warm and lively — with four blue and white indoor cabanas where you can relax over a cocktail and listen to the nightly live music.
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A wonderfully creative hotel full of fantastical ideas: chairs shaped like teacups and white bathrooms that glow like the futuristic spaces in ‘2001 A Space Odyssey’. There’s a rooftop pool, gym and Philippe Starck-designed spa. The rooms, with their faux mink bedspreads, have a glam modernist feel. Saam restaurant does molecular gastronomy: think cotton candy foie gras, liquid olives and dragon’s breath popcorn. The SLS Patisserie serves up treats worthy of Alice in Wonderland.
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Hobnob with the occasional celebrity at this seaside American beach house in Santa Monica. Artworks by David Hockney and Roy Lichtenstein decorate the public areas. Balconied bedrooms make you feel like are staying at your own private beach cottage, with their white wooden shutters that open to catch the sea breeze. The outdoor pool deck has private cabanas and chaise lounges, while the hotel’s casual-chic restaurants and bars afford gorgeous sunset views. Guests can step outside straight onto the Santa Monica beach promenade and bicycle trail.
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Where movie stars once frolicked during Hollywood's golden age, this landmark hotel is popular with a young, svelte crowd that lounges poolside on sunny days. Oh so fashionably chic, in the heart of Hollywood, near famous landmarks and scores of restaurants, bars, and nightclubs. No other lodgings in Hollywood have as much character as this luxurious 1927 hotel, where the first Academy Awards ceremony was held. A plain fa?ade hides an exquisite interior done in Spanish Colonial Revival style, with leather sofas, wrought-iron chandeliers and colourful tiled fountains.
Inside an all-white, high-rise building, this boutique hotel exudes class. A baby grand piano, overstuffed sofas and marble floors adorn the lobby. Outside, rose bushes and California citrus trees bloom on landscaped grounds that are hidden from the street by a high wall, making it almost like a private retreat. Concierge staff are top-notch, as is the on-site restaurant by Cipriani's of New York. Smart, sophisticated guest rooms have all the right touches, from sleek imported furnishings to a wet bar for shaking up a nightcap cocktail.
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Next to the Sunset Strip, LA's best-known playground for rock stars and wild-child celebrity VIPs, this high-rise hotel in West Hollywood is a sophisticated retreat. Spacious suites come with private balconies for unwinding, or head to the rooftop pool where you can laze in a cabana all day long. Looking like a private apartment building, this white high-rise blends into the neighbourhood. Inside, it's all about being enveloped by luxury, staring in the gleaming marble-clad lobby where velvet-covered sofas await.
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Hotel Bel-Air looks like Barbara Cartland’s dream hotel, with its pink stucco front and Swan Lake, but you’ll also find sensuous modern rooms, an incredible Wolfgang Puck restaurant and giant redwoods in the magical 12-acre gardens. The elegant bar is one of the most romantic spots in town. Everyone is treated like a VIP at the Bel Air, which is quite a feat considering the celebrities usually in attendance (Julia Roberts, Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman to name but a few).
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Away from the bustling promenade and the beach, this is a hideaway for a glamorous crowd of jetsetters and the occasional Hollywood celebrity. The high-rise hotel looks impressive even from the outside, where bas-relief panels hang above the grand entrance. The hotel's public spaces are gorgeous, including a lobby dolled up with shag rugs, glowing candles and butterscotch leather seats. The social hub is the rooftop Penthouse restaurant and lounge, where VIPs can be spotted having drinks and dinner.
