L.A. is not one hotel town, it's eight. Broadway's restored deco palaces, the Sunset Strip's old-Hollywood holdouts, Beverly Hills grandeur, two rooms that open straight onto Santa Monica sand and a Silver Lake pool that feels like a friend's place. Pick the neighborhood first, then the room.
Tap a gold pin and jump to the card below.
A 1926 building put up as a women's hostelry, now Spanish Colonial arches, a courtyard bar and art by women only. Downtown history that still knows how to throw a party.
Pip’s Tip A 1926 women's hostelry, now Moroccan courtyard and the coffin-shaped pool. Women artists throughout.
Kelly Wearstler layered tile, textiles and Mexican and Moorish references over a 1920s YWCA. The rooftop pool and Cara Cara are where the room really earns its rate.
Pip’s Tip Kelly Wearstler did the interiors, and it shows. Rooftop pool and Cara Cara, the priciest of the three.
A 1920s Broadway office block redone in warm sixties Los Angeles palettes. Sensible rates, a rooftop pool over the theatre district and lobby seating people actually work from.
Pip’s Tip Best value downtown. A 1920s Broadway office block in warm sixties palettes, rooftop pool included.
Inside Gehry's Grand LA, across from Disney Hall. Bright, high-floor rooms, a pool deck facing the skyline and Jose Andres running the kitchens downstairs.
High floors above L.A. Live, so you walk to the arena and back. Quiet corridors, a serious spa and a 26th-floor lobby that makes the city look organized.
Open since 1927 and still the most atmospheric room on the boulevard. Spanish Colonial lobby, the Tropicana pool out back, cabanas that stay busy after dark.
Newer build, dark walnut and brass, floor-to-ceiling glass. Bar Lis on the roof draws a dressed crowd and the Hollywood Sign sits right there in the sightline.
Mid-century warmth without the theme-park version of Hollywood. The fifth-floor pool deck looks straight up at the hills, and Capitol Records is a short walk.
A 1929 Loire-style pile above the Strip, run on discretion rather than polish. Book a bungalow, sit in the garden, understand why people never quite leave.
1931 Art Deco, immaculately kept, phones-down policy in the Tower Bar. Rooms are calm and cream-colored, and the pool terrace holds the whole basin below.
Big glass building on the Strip with Martin Brudnizki interiors, two pools, a members club and Merois upstairs. Modern Sunset done with real money and restraint.
The old Montage, reworked by the Maybourne group with British service standards. Corner of the Golden Triangle, rooftop pool, and a terrace built for long lunches.
Twelve acres of banana leaf wallpaper, bungalows and the Polo Lounge patio. Since 1912 the room where deals get made over breakfast. Still worth the money once.
Wearstler again, this time in raw plaster, rattan and bleached wood. The rooftop pool and Calabra look over the Palisades, and the beach is four blocks down.
Actually on the sand, white shutters and all. Rooms with balconies over the bike path, fireplaces in the lobby and 1 Pico for dinner without leaving the building.
Half a block off the boardwalk, unpretentious and loud in the right way. Kassi Rooftop catches the sunset and Abbot Kinney is a fifteen minute walk east.
A small courtyard hotel at Sunset Junction with a heated pool at the center. The eastside address you want if the plan is records, tacos and late dinners.
Exposed concrete, full-wall windows and a greenhouse restaurant in the drive. The best base for Koreatown, where the evening runs on barbecue and noraebang until late.
The Strip's old-Hollywood holdout, dinner in the Tower Bar still beats anything newer.
Group rates when the family travels. Members hear first.
Palm Springs, Atlanta, Houston and ten more markets are on the way. Join the family and help us build the guide.
