Southern California hotel reviews
The Redbury @ Hollywood and Vine
1717 N. Vine St., Los Angeles; (323) 962-1717, http://www.theredbury.com. Published rates range from $299 to $1,000 a night; discounts are available for extended stays.
Tour guides, developers and city boosters have long struggled to resolve Hollywood’s split personality. Glamorous in reputation, the city is often gritty in reality.
The creators of the Redbury @ Hollywood and Vine, a new boutique hotel at the famous intersection, cleverly channels the tension between the dueling personalities to create a mash-up of contrasting worlds. It’s old and new; rowdy and peaceful; elegant and raw; stinky and highly perfumed; designed for a quick cocktail or a weeklong stay.
-- Valli Herman
Read more: The Redbury, at the cross-streets of then and now (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
Ritz-Carlton
900 W. Olympic Blvd.; (213) 743-8800; http://www.ritzcarlton.com
From its tiny but distinguished lobby to our 24th-floor room (a generous 450 square feet), the Ritz’s look is more Asian, less Vegas, with lots of flowing-water imagery, abstract photography on the walls, art glass along the hallways. As we entered, the well-drilled doormen welcomed us in unison. Upstairs, we found the beds had handy adjustable reading lamps and a sliding bathroom door, just like our Marriott room. The flat-screen TV: 48 inches. In the bathroom, one sink and a 5-inch strip of leftover blue painter’s tape still clinging to the wall over the toilet.
-- Christopher Reynolds
Read more: J.W. Marriott and Ritz-Carlton liven downtown L.A. (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)
JW Marriott Hotel
900 W. Olympic Blvd; (213) 765-8600; http://www.lalivemarriott.com
Our 15th-floor room, among the hotel’s smallest, measured 375 square feet, with lots of orange and brown and a pair of groovy turquoise chairs under the window. The flat-screen TV: 42 inches. In the bathroom, one sink. When we realized we had forgotten a toothbrush, I called to see if a sundries shop was open, and the front desk parried expertly: No, that shop wasn’t open,, but they’d send a free toothbrush and toothpaste right up. Well played, Marriott.
We slept well, and our 5-year-old especially enjoyed hopping back and forth between the hotel pool and the 12-person whirlpool. Be warned, however, that the pool and whirlpool are positioned on a big fourth-floor terrace that catches a near-blinding amount of reflected light on sunny days. While Grace frolicked, I began to feel like a bug under some kid’s magnifying glass. Down on the ground floor, parts of the L.A. Market restaurant also gets showered with reflected light in the morning. Bring shades to breakfast.
-- Christopher Reynolds
Read more: J.W. Marriott and Ritz-Carlton liven downtown L.A. (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)
W Hollywood Hotel
6250 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood; (323) 798-1300, http://www.starwoodhotels.com
The W doesn’t want you to forget you’re in Hollywood the Hollywood of myth, glitz and glamour, not this still-seedy part of town. Guests enter on a red carpet stretching from the motor court through the lobby and onto the plaza fronting Hollywood Boulevard.
Tucked behind a renovated Metro Red Line station, the high-end 305-room hotel shares a block with the 143 luxury condominium Residences at W Hollywood, retail space and mixed-income apartments, an intriguing urban mix. There’s a hotel entrance off the Hollywood Walk of Fame, but the motor court entrance is around the corner on Argyle Avenue.
-- Beverly Beyette
Read more: W Hollywood guests feel the glitz (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Terranea Resort
6610 Palos Verdes Drive South, Rancho Palos Verdes;
(310) 265-2800, www.terranea.com.
The expansive resort is at once inviting and invigorating but not so grand that you’ll fret if your labels aren’t designer. The Spanish Mediterranean styling fits neatly into the area’s architecture; the commitment to environmental sustainability fits into the times. With free-standing villas positioned closer to the road, each painted and landscaped distinctly, the resort looks more like a housing development than a commercial enterprise.
-- Valli Herman
Read more: Terranea Resort: inviting and invigorating (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
SLS Hotel at Beverly Hills
465 South La Cienega Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90048
(310) 247-0315
www.slshotels.com
Paris-born designer Philippe Starck’s signature touches abound in the whimsical décor of the 297-room SLS. A horse sculpture balances a lamp on its head. The 177 chairs and 20 not-so-serious chandeliers are delightfully mismatched. Undulating curtains divide public spaces into cozy nooks. I loved the outdoor living room with its illuminated Plexiglas deer head.
My room ($395) had a nice terrace opening onto an interior courtyard. It was contemporary and so sleek that the bellman had to tell me that the Sony flat-screen TV was hidden inside a wall of smoky mirror. The king bed had Porthault linens, and tucked behind its glass headboard was a desk. The room, which had a tufted leather settee and table in one corner, was nicely arranged.
-- Beverly Beyette
Read more: Southern California’s new luxury hotels are ready to pamper (Jamie Rector / For The Times)
Montage Beverly Hills
225 North Canon Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90210
(310) 860-7800
www.montagebeverlyhills.com/
The 201-room Montage, a sister hotel to Montage Laguna Beach, was built to evoke Hollywood’s Golden Age. Room décor in this $200-million edifice is traditional, with dark woods and a gold and white palette.
My spacious king-bedded room ($395) had a pleasant interior courtyard view, a small terrace and a sitting area with a diva-worthy fringed chaise longue.
-- Beverly Beyette
Read more: Southern California’s new luxury hotels are ready to pamper (Christina House / For The Times)
Hotel Palomar
10740 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles; (310) 475-8711 or (800) 546-7866, www.hotelpalomar-lawestwood.com
The Palomar has carefully encased its “reduce, reuse and recycle” message in an atmosphere of chic. A renovation that gutted the former occupant, a Doubletree Hotel, kept the guest room sizes modest, but also shows that reusing an existing building needn’t sacrifice style or green principles.
Yet based on looks alone, you wouldn’t know the hotel endorses conservation programs. The rooms include cards (on recycled paper) that outline the Kimpton EarthCare program that supports, among other things, the Trust for Public Land, a nonprofit conservation group.
-- Valli Herman
Read more: The new eco-friendly Hotel Palomar is luxuriously green (Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)
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Portofino Hotel
260 Portofino Way, Redondo Beach; (800) 468-4292, www.hotelportofino.com
For a middle-aged gal, she’s looking pretty good. At 45, the Portofino Hotel & Yacht Club has emerged from a yearlong, $11-million makeover that has put this Redondo Beach inn back into competition with the other beach babes.
It’s the first complete renovation of the 161-room hotel since 1988, when 25-foot waves damaged six guest rooms and shattered the lobby’s glass atrium. Noble House Hotels and Resorts, the longtime owners, didn’t wait for Mother Nature’s cue to freshen up this time; it was more like Father Marketplace. To capitalize on its marina and oceanfront location, the hotel now offers the kind of sophisticated décor and dining that matches the new image it wants to project: upscale destination.
-- Valli Herman
Read more: Makeover benefits Portofino Hotel in Redondo Beach (Gary Friedman / LAT)
Huntley Santa Monica Beach Hotel
1111 2nd St., Santa Monica, CA 90403; (310) 394-5454, www.thehuntleyhotel.com
Not too long from now, we’re going to laugh that we ever thought deep shag carpets, low tables carved from wood chunks and white leather chairs were the epitome of cool. Wait, we did that already ... in the 1970s. And yet they’re back, and they’re all over the Huntley Hotel in
The couriers of cool have delivered this grandly remodeled beach hotel that’s so of the moment it will forever be stuck in that moment. Two blocks from the sand and a block from the Third Street Promenade, the 18-story rehabbed and renewed Huntley takes many design cues from the flamboyant hallmarks of ‘70s lounge culture and reinterprets them for 2007.
-- Valli Herman
Read more: Huntley Hotel: A ‘70s vibe on Santa Monica Beach (Lawrence K. Ho / LAT)
Four Seasons Westlake Village
2 Dole Drive, Westlake Village; (818) 575-3000, www.fourseasons.com/westlakevillage
With the promise of helping its guests conquer bad habits and illness in sumptuous luxury, the new Four Seasons Hotel in Westlake Village offers a kind of halfway house for those of us who don’t need (or want) full-time therapy, inpatient rehabilitation or personal trainers. Instead, you can get a mind and body tuneup or even an overhaul with help from pros -- and then order room service.
Check in and you can bound from a stress reduction workshop to your cheery, chinoiserie-accented room, or apply your personal trainer’s tips in the state-of-the-art fitness center. Perhaps you’ll soak in your marble bathroom’s oversize tub while reviewing the lessons of your self-improvement therapy or use the nutritionist’s advice to select from the spa-like menu at the hotel’s fine-dining restaurant, Hampton’s.
-- Valli Herman
Read more: Westlake Village Four Seasons: Luxury spa meets medical clinic (Ken Hively / Los Angeles Times)
US Grant Hotel
326 Broadway, San Diego, CA 92101; (866) 837-4270 or (619) 232-3121, www.luxurycollection.com/usgrant
The hotel’s phoenix-like resurrection wouldn’t be as remarkable without its absolute authenticity. Even after the extensive renovation, the period details of the guest rooms and common areas are evident, which means windows are wide, hallways are narrow and ceilings are high.
From the moment you enter the lobby, there’s a sense of time suspended: A grand piano resonates, lush, silky carpets absorb your steps, and employees radiate a genuine, almost old-fashioned sense of pride in fine service.
-- Valli Herman
Read more: US Grant Hotel, a Belle Epoque beauty in San Diego (Don Bartletti / LAT)
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Beverly Wilshire
9500 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills; (310) 275-5200, www.fourseasons.com/beverlywilshire
When the Beverly Wilshire injected $35 million into a renovation last year, the 79-year-old matriarch minding the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Rodeo Drive had hoped to change its appeal from the old-money elite who came to sleep and shop to younger and hipper crowds inclined toward minimalism and martinis.
When the scaffolding came down and the cozy, contemporary and gadget-wired rooms opened, the question was simple: Had this hotel buried its rich history to lure the young, rich and fickle?
-- Valli Herman
Read more: My, how the Beverly Wilshire has changed (Lawrence K. Ho / LAT)
