LA Hotels: All the Light
LA natives love to ask “where do you stay?” instead of “where do you live?”
Where to Stay?
When I think about where I stay, or to stay, it’s usually regarding a short-term stint somewhere, typically a hotel sort of situation.
Related, here are a handful of these short-term stints, or stays, in LA.
This is from a roster of criteria inclusive to:
The Appeal & Comfort of Rooms
Location & Neighborhood: Views & Proximity to Things
Food & Restaurant
Coffee & Breakfast
Other Amenities like Pool, Gym, Spa, Rooftop
& Vibe, or Energy of the Place
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LINE LA
The Line in Ktown is one of the most upbeat places of color and elevation. It’s in the midst of Ktown right on Wilshire. Call me biased as I’m Korean, but it’s my favorite.
The exterior palette is in itself a carnival to behold. The interior doubles down and mixes pops of the rainbow with muted concrete and porcelain white industrial feels.
The standout colored windows of the Line building
View of LA from the room
Alfred Coffee has a space there alongside a communal coffee workplace that’s cool and inviting. Openaire, the rooftop restaurant and bar is an excellent one with strong drinks and a whole greenhouse look that is quite a sanctuary. Right by the pool of the hotel, it adds to the experiential ambiance of the LINE. The small plates are decadent, modern Asian fusion with an emphasis on Korean. LINE LA gets a solid A for ambiance especially.
Freehand DTLA
The Freehand with branches in major cities is whispered about in LA for its via Miami tiki bar, Broken Shaker, and unbeatable rooftop vibe. The drinks are good and the environment gives you those conquering LA city views.
The rooms of the Freehand are a Southwest style, comfortable, and sleek. The restaurant located on the first floor is also one of the hippest in LA, the Exchange, which serves falafel mezze and hummus galore. They also have delicious mocktails here.
Situated right downtown, the Freehand is not on the outskirts of anything, nor remote in terms of natural environment. This is a full-city stay. The Freehand is a purely LA immersion and top-notch at that.
Broken Shaker, Image by Tanenhaus
Proper Santa Monica
The Proper in Santa Monica is just blocks from the beach, not to be confused with the DTLA location.
Its location delivers a laidback beach vibe with an upscale bohemian angle to it. The interior and style of the place is an expensive chaos, it feels like a 70s movie set vomited with an antique collector’s favorite pieces, and an in-demand designer’s display. It’s lovely.
There’s also the Ayurvedic Spa Surya on-site that hosts a plethora of treatments. If you’re new to the notion of Ayurveda, it’s an ancient Indian-derived health and wellness system that includes everything from oil massage to steaming.
Check out my post on the immersion of Ayurveda here.
The treatments at Surya are mild, they’re esoteric and gentle massage treatments. However, if you’re accustomed to Shirodhara and the like, then the treatments at Surya are more dainty than what is typical in India. It’s a less rigorous cleanse and leans more heavily on the pampered spa experience.
Lounge area of the bar
STILE DTLA by Kasa
The Ace was an institution of DTLA. Renovated as STILE DLTA and like the Freehand, it’s nestled in the city with decadent rooftop views. Like the Freehand it hosts its pool there alongside an elegant bar and food area that feels like a Joshua Tree rooftop stylization.
The drinks on the roof are great, the food is mediocre, but the ambiance is immaculate. The restaurant and coffee spot on the first floor is also worthwhile.
Cathedral draw of the rooftop pool area
Westin Pasadena
The Marriot Westin in Pasadena is a relaxed and sweet place. The rooftop pool and view feel almost European. The ambiance of this location serves LA but a subtlety of it, not city immersion, not beach-esque either, its own embrace of Southern California on a street of East LA.
The outdoor restaurant is laidback and enchanting. California Pizza Kitchen is next door. The hotel is near to the best spots of downtown Pasadena. If you’re looking for a quiet escape but want to feel pampered as well, this is the place.
Monarch Resort Dana Point
The Waldorf Astoria Monarch is in Dana Point, more resort than hotel, and a little drive outside of LA proper. It’s right on the beach, actually it has its significant stretch of beach, and a whole environment of vacation activities and amenities. There’s a golf course, pools, gym, fitness classes, spa, e-bikes, tennis, and water sports to be organized such as whale watching or surfing. There’s a coffee spot and gift shop, a few restaurants with beach fair food, and a golf cart to take you to and from down towards the beach.
More lush than stays in the actual desert, if you’re an LA-er looking for an outside-of-LA staycation beyond Palm Springs, look no further. If you’re a family looking for a family vacation spot, look no further.
The resort’s pool and hot tub overlooking the green
The private beach of the resort, swimmable, walkable, beautiful all
The quad of the main hotel adjacent to the gym and under the restaurant balcony
Fire pit on the deck
If you’re going with kids, I recommend requesting the fire-pit rooms so that you can indulge in the housemade s’mores kits and make it a campfire delight every evening.
Bottom line
LA is a massive city that comprises many cities within it. There are then a ton of hotels within each of these. These are my tops for particularly chosen flavors of the city in both city entity and outside of it. They all deliver rejuvenation and nuanced community feels within the larger mascot, the greatest city of LA.
