Best Luxury Hotels in LA – Beverly Hills Hotel

Fittingly for a city of velvet ropes and guest lists, the Beverly Hills Hotel has a red carpet running up its entrance steps.

There’s no irony, but they get away with it. After all, this Dorchester Collection icon (and we don’t use that word lightly) is the quintessential Los Angeles hotel.

From the dealmakers in the Polo Lounge to the celebs hiding away in the spacious bungalows, all manner of tastemakers and wannabes have stopped by the Pink Palace at some time or another.

They come to be part of a long line of “Hollywood royalty” that the hotel gleefully celebrates: to follow in the footsteps of Charlie Chaplin, John Lennon, and Marilyn Monroe; to relax in luxurious guest rooms updated a few years ago by Alexandra Champalimaud; and to hear classic film tunes being played underwater in the pool.

Best Amenity: The hotel gift shop has bags and beach towels in its signature banana leaf print, plus Stieff stuffed bears, and a selection of books and prints.

Can’t-Miss Experience: A guided tour of Beverly Hills architecture in honor of Paul Revere Williams, the first Black architect to join the American Institute of Architects, and the creator of thousands of buildings in L.A.

Travel Masters Say: There is really nowhere more iconic and the service and style are unmatched. It’s maximalist in the best way possible with the iconic entrance and pink poolside vibes. Make sure to grab a cabana and if you can, book one of the standalone bungalows—if those walls could talk, they have seen it all.

From $1,145 per night

Best Luxury Hotels in LA – The Maybourne Beverly Hills CA

The Maybourne Beverly Hills comes with a sterling pedigree; the namesake hotel group also operates Claridge’s and The Connaught in London. 

So it’s not surprising that this former Montage exudes refined elegance throughout—not least in the top floor Residences, with their own private lobby, EV charging, and personalized housekeeping and butler services.

The rest of the 205 redesigned guest rooms house mid-century furniture and collectible artworks.

Expect expertly made cocktails and an intimidating choice of tipple at the popular Whisky Bar, which also features a humidor with more than 1,000 cigars.

The rooftop Dante, meanwhile, is the acclaimed New York institution’s first outpost on the west coast.

Take a seat on the terrace and take in the view with something fresh from the Mediterranean-inspired menu: burrata with semi-dried tomatoes, perhaps, or tuna sashimi crudo with eggplant relish caponata.

It all goes down well with a glass of bubbly and some world-class people-watching.

Best Amenity: The poolside cabanas, which can host six guests and feature TVs and mini fridges—as well as hand-delivered cocktails and snacks from Dante.

Can’t-Miss Experience: Tour the neighborhood in a bright pink, electric and open-air Moke.

Travel Masters Say: Perfectly located and known for its top-notch gym and spa. The hotel is elegant but still feels modern and fresh with a blend of European sophistication and California flair.

From $950 per night

Best Luxury Hotels in LA – Regent Santa Monica Beach

This sizable hotel raised the beachfront lodging game when it opened in 2024, bringing the Regent brand back to the U.S. with a bang.

Taking up an entire city block and located right behind the famous Muscle Beach near the Santa Monica Pier, it was formerly a Loews but received a $150 million makeover to bring it into IHG Hotels and Resorts luxury portfolio.

Highlights include the spacious lobby, the Greek- and Egypt-inspired delights served up at Orla restaurant, and the 10,000-square-foot Guerlain Wellness Spa.

Here, options include Crystal Vibes, where you’ll enjoy a sound bath on a mattress full of gems, and Skin Surfing, a “radio frequency facial treatment.”

Drop in, tune out, and revitalize—then head out to explore the lively delights of Santa Monica’s boardwalk.

Best Amenity: The nightly $90 resort fee covers access to electric bicycles, beach butler service, and a contribution to marine conservation efforts.

Can’t-Miss Experience: The Tableside Gintonico at Orla restaurant, which is a lavish gin and tonic concoction with botanicals, served via an OTT set of glass flasks on a vintage bar cart by your table.

Travel Masters Say: The Côte d’Azur reinvented on the Pacific, radiating coastal glamour through Riviera‑inspired design and effortless barefoot elegance.

From $1,100 per night

Best Luxury Hotels in LA – Nobu Ryokan

Nobu Ryokan brings the brand’s signature style and peacefulness to a stretch of prime Malibu real estate. 

It’s all calming water features, stone paths, lots of teak, and gently swaying grasses—and crucially only 16 guest rooms, which means very few other people.

The hotel delivers direct access to the beach (a rarity here) and there’s an outpost of the namesake restaurant two doors down. Guests get priority booking or can order that black cod with miso direct to their room.

Wake to the blinds rising over another sunny day by the Pacific, go performative surfing (the hotel offers a package which includes an hour of surfing yet two hours of photography), and explore Malibu.

Best Amenity: The Art of Bathing, the closest thing Malibu has to an onsen experience. Here it includes Champagne, bath salts, and various wellness amenities.

Can’t-Miss Experience: Sake at Sunset, a selection of sake flights as the sun sets, as the name might suggest. It also includes a Nobu app and a traditional Japanese sake cup set to take home.

Travel Masters Say: Real beachfront privacy—this spot is all about discretion and you’re likely to see some notable people there, who always feel at ease in this set-up. The design makes this feel like a total peaceful respite miles away from bright lights with a gorgeous Japanese/Southern California aesthetic. There are only a few keys here so the service is very personalized and you never feel like it is even remotely crowded.

From $2,000 per night

Best Luxury Hotels in LA – Shutters on the Beach

Shutters has long had the East Coast/Nancy Meyers beach house vibe on lock. Rooms and suites here are decked out with handmade California King beds, hardwood floors, and comfy armchairs in statement prints.

Shelves are stacked with hardback books and vases and walls adorned with sea life prints.

The recently renovated Living Room (lobby) is a classic Santa Monica see-and-be-seen spot full of banquettes, cocktail tables, and artworks by local creatives.

One Spa offers restorative massages and facials Wednesday through Sunday; and Coast Beach Café and Bar is a buzzy indoor-outdoor space for salads, seafood and a popular brunch.

On sunny days, the ocean breeze wafts off the beach and through the loungers and cabanas set just back from the sand.

When June Gloom or a morning mist sets in, fireplaces in the lobby—and many rooms—bring cheer and warmth.

Best Amenity: Pets get pampered, too. A $125 fee will ensure your dog enjoys a bed, bowl, and stuffed toy during their visit while grooming and walking services are available.

Can’t-Miss Experience: The beachside picnic, where staff will set you up on a prime patch of sand with deckchairs, stripy blue umbrellas, pillows, and lanterns, and keep you fed with wraps and lobster rolls.

Travel Masters Say: Cozy and comfortable with that classic beach house vibe. Always feels warm and inviting. Living room in the lobby with live music, a buzzy bar, and beautiful ocean views.

From $720 per night

Best Luxury Hotels in LA – The Ritz-Carlton Los Angeles

Any Los Angeles hotel worth its salt has a pool or a restaurant somewhere vertiginous, but the Ritz-Carlton commands some of the best and most panoramic views of the city.

Occupying the top four floors of a striking slab of contoured glass among downtown L.A.’s high-rise cluster, it offers 360-degree vistas from the outdoor spaces, the suites and rooms, and the 23rd-floor Club Lounge.

The whole place is an elevated (in both senses) escape from the street level bustle, but it’s also within strolling distance of the L.A. Live complex including the Crypto.com Arena and the Grammy Museum.

When you’re feeling hungry, Sendero is a “collection of independent dining experiences that take you on a culinary journey down the Pan American highway.”

In practice, that means a Latin steakhouse (Leña), a Mexican and Peruvian spot (Corteza), an homage to Buenos Aires (Volante), and an Agave Library for a tequila or mezcal to finish off the night.

Best Amenity: The Ritz-Carlton’s Ritz Kids offering is a cut above your usual kids’ club offerings.Expect cultural immersion and small-group care, rather than your usual chicken-nuggets-and-a-movie affair.

Can’t-Miss Experience: The chocolate sculpting master class will have you creating something chocolatey, sculptural, and hopefully resembling the kind of creations left in rooms for VIP guests. It also includes sparkling wine and an apron to take home.

Travel Masters Say: Downtown’s gleaming power perch, uniting L.A.’s cultural energy with five-star polish and skyline views that shimmer like champagne.

From $685 per night

Best Luxury Hotels in LA – Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills

The pool and restaurant here are just a mere 12 stories up by comparison, but still promise plenty of viewpoints.

The Rooftop Beverly Hills is a chic spot full of comfy couches in dark green where chef Peleg Miron’s team serve up lobster burgers, crispy tuna rice, and more to an appreciative crowd. Snag one of the edge tables if you can.

The hotel itself is an Art Deco–inspired treat with guest rooms conceived by Pierre-Yves Rochon, who’s designed the Four Seasons Hotel George V in Paris and London’s Savoy.

Don’t miss the Swiss-born La Prairie Spa, which offers a wide range of treatments including the three-hour Beverly Hills Renewal, encompassing an Amber Mud Masque, a dry scalp massage, and a 45-minute full body massage before a facial.

Best Amenity: The ‘Suite Rides’ collection, a portfolio of ridiculous cars that you can use for free if you book a suite.

Think Ferrari Portofino, Bentley Bentayga, or Lamborghini Urus. Because if you’re going for a drive down Rodeo, you need to look the part.

Can’t-Miss Experience: The American Girl Experience, if you’re here with kids. It includes a personalized shopping experience at the nearby American Girl shop and a doll set to take home.

Travel Masters Say: Jules Maury of Scott Dunn raves about the rooftop scene.

From $972 per night

Best Luxury Hotels in LA – Casa Del Mare

The striking, substantial building housing Casa Del Mar has history.

Since it first opened as a private beach club for Hollywood elites in the Roaring Twenties, it’s been a casino, a longevity center, and a facility for soldiers during World War II.

Since 1999, the beachside property has been home to Casa del Mar, a sister property to Shutters and a comfortable getaway for those that want to be right by the Pacific.

Guest rooms are decked out in muted coastal blues and offer ocean views, the SEA Wellness Spa specializes in hydrating and anti-aging facials, massages, and nailcare, and a restaurant, lounge, and bar serve a variety of salads, seafood, and cocktails.

But it’s all about the location. The 22-mile Marvin Braude Bike Trail runs right outside if you’re feeling energetic.

The pier is steps away if nostalgic seaside treats appeal. Or acres of sand await if you’re feeling lazy.

Best Amenity: Terrazza restaurant, which has unbeatable views and a weekly calendar of events including Build Your Own Poke Bowl, Caviar on the Coast, a Sunday roast, and whisky flights (yes please).

Can’t-Miss Experience: Cruise the Coast, a package that includes the use of a Ford Mustang convertible or a Mercedes-Benz SUV for a PCH adventure, followed by two 60-minute massages.

Travel Masters Say: It offers stunning views of the beach and the famous Santa Monica Pier—and is great for multi-room accommodations and large suites with a bright, breezy, and beautifully coastal feel.

From $1,035 per night

Best Luxury Hotels in LA – Hotel Bel-Air

Hotel Bel-Air is another Dorchester property and another haunt favored by Marilyn Monroe—along with Elizabeth Taylor and Princess Diana among others.

They may be long gone, but visitors today will discover a world of discrete opulence and al fresco relaxation behind its foliage-filled entrance gardens.

The sculpture garden invites a thoughtful meander through the trees while the oval pool lined with loungers is perfect for an afternoon dip or reading a few pages of something undemanding on a languid L.A. afternoon.

You’d never know it used to be a horse-riding ring. 

The toughest choice when the sun dips is where to take tea: at the Living Room, where a British inspired menu includes egg sandwiches, salted caramel cream puffs, and a glass of champagne, or in the Patisserie, which dishes out cookies, lemon meringue tarts, and banana pound loaf cake.

Wherever you eat and however you spend your time, Hotel Bel Air really does feel tucked away from it all.

It’s 12 acres of private bliss up in the canyons above Los Angeles.

Best Amenity: The Family Time option offers 50 percent off a second, adjoining room for children.

So you can bring them with you but, you know, not have them with you.

It also includes a breakfast credit of $150, champagne for parents and a gift for the kids. 

Can’t-Miss Experience: Cocktails and live jazz on a weekend at the Bar & Lounge.

Travel Masters Say: A storybook hideaway where swan-dotted lagoons, bougainvillea, and hushed pathways evoke the enchantment of a vanished Hollywood era.

From $1,005 per night

Best Luxury Hotels in LA – Beverly Wilshire a Four Seasons Hotel

In perhaps the most filmed city in the world, the Beverly Wilshire has been immortalized on screen more than most.

Pretty Woman is just the most famous in a series of movies that includes Clueless and the 2008 Sex and the City film.

The 1928 building, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, is instantly recognizable and has hosted everyone from Elvis to Steve McQueen.

Today, it houses an 8,000-square-foot spa, a Mediterranean pool modelled after Sophia Loren’s Italian villa pool, dozens of rooms and suites in trademark Four Seasons style, and several huge suites.

The Veranda Suite comes with its own private entrance and features a glamping tent on the rooftop terrace.

Dining includes Cut by Wolfgang Puck and the BLVD overlooking Rodeo Drive.

Best Amenity: The concierge can secure VIP tickets to sporting events and amusement parks. You just have to choose if it’s Disneyland or Universal Studios, the Lakers or the Dodgers. Or all of the above.

Can’t-Miss Experience: The macaron crafting class, in which pastry chef Yoon Lee leads you through the process of building, decorating, and filling the treats. Young chefs take home an apron.

Travel Masters Say: Hollywood classicism at its grandest, where Rodeo Drive allure and Four Seasons finesse meet beneath crystal chandeliers.

From $934 per night