LA Hotels Top 5 Guide

On a sunny Fourth of July afternoon here in London, you’ll forgive us for allowing our thoughts to drift across the pond. Atlantic navigated, we’re soon on Chicago’s Jackson BLVD ready to drop the top of our hire-car and hit Route 66. Now LA looms up ahead, a shimmering promise of hip hotels and golden beaches. But where will we stay? If we’re going to continue acting out this daydream reverie, we’ll need a hotel to call home as the adventure unfolds…

We auditioned our favourite places to stay in the all-new Kenwood Travel LA Hotels Top 5 Guide. Which one would get the part in your holiday remake?

1. Beverly Hilton

The stretch limo of Los Angeles hotels? Since its $80 million re-vamp in 2007, the legacy of this enduringly popular hotel has entered a new chapter. Beverly Hilton guests are all set up to feel like the movie stars who sealed its a-list reputation: wile your afternoon away with poolside cocktails (the Beverly Hilton’s pool is the largest in Beverly Hills) before booking in at Bellezza Salon for a beauty treatment, ready to take tinseltown by storm. Dine-in at the famous Circa 55, the hotel’s authentic 50s-style restaurant and erstwhile Sinatra haunt, or explore the trendy diners and bars nearby that make this iconic neighborhood such a hit with locals and tourists alike.

2. Loews Hollywood Hotel

One for the view specialists. Choose to look out from your room onto the Hollywood sign or Hollywood BVLD and the TCL Chinese Theatre. You’re smack bang in the heart of LA action here, and while the sights and sounds on your doorstep will certainly keep you occupied, it would be a shame to overlook the hotel’s onsite charms. Exhale Spa for hydro detox; Preston’s for club sandwiches made your way and H2 Kitchen & Bar for knowing how it feels to dine beneath a Swarovski chandelier.

Loews Hollywood Hotel is known for its striking views and exteriors.

3. Sheraton Park Hotel at the Anaheim Resort

Proving Los Angeles holidays are more than just grown-up glamour, hotels like Sheraton Park Hotel at the Anaheim Resort flex the city’s family-fun muscles and give those traveling with children and teens a wonderful hotel experience just a short walk from Disneyland® Resort. Fully eleven acres of pools, pool bars, whirlpools, saloons, steakhouses and first-rate accommodations await discerning guests. And after all the excitement of a day at Disney®, it’s good to know all 490 rooms and suites come with the famous Sheraton Sweet Sleeper™ Bed as standard, so you’ll be sufficiently rested to do it all again tomorrow.

4. The Garland

It’s not just the name that evokes golden era sophistication. The Garland is a throwback to understated elegance, nestled quietly amid the buzz of North Hollywood, seemingly reserving itself exclusively for those in the know. Days spent among these Spanish Mission-inspired courtyards and shady balconies go by at a tranquil pace; the soft thud-thud of a tennis game often the only reminder that you could, should you feel like it, pick up the pace a bit. Or, as is more often the case at The Garland, simply order another Highball, spot some more celebs and soak up that Californian sunshine.

5. The Standard Downtown

Where affordable luxury meets design innovation. Hitherto our LA Hotels Top 5 Guide has covered A-list accommodation in Beverly Hills, Hollywood and Anaheim. But the city district that put LA’s starlit decadence on the map first was downtown. Flagship properties from hip hoteliers like Standard are helping to restore the area’s former glory, giving diners, shoppers and visitors an authentic nearby alternative to the arguably over-subscribed Silver Lake and Echo Park districts. Carrying the torch for The City of Angels’ urban charisma in a landmark 1930s building, The Standard Downtown leaves guests – especially those who attend a pool party on the split-level roof garden – with an unmistakeable sense of being part of something genuinely cool. As Conde Naste said, The Standard Downtown is one of the ‘world’s coolest places to stay’.