Los Angeles Hotels

Over the last two years, San Francisco-based Joie de Vivre hotels took a shine to the Los Angeles area, renovating and opening several hotels in Southern California, including the Hotel Erwin in Venice and Shorebreak Hotel in Huntington Beach. Generously sized rooms are breezy and cheery; service is impeccable. All of which makes for a boutique experience without the weighty price tag.

The ambitious revitalization of the city's downtown, anchored around the L.A. Live complex along Figueroa Street and Olympic Boulevard, also brings foot traffic and well-deserved attention to a once-neglected district of deco buildings and high-rises. Hotels like the Ritz-Carlton and JW Marriott are moving in and getting in on the action.

Along with the bigger multistory hotels, smaller inns and lodges have also opened for low-key, eco-minded stays, with green construction becoming a bigger trend. Consider booking one of the three charming Venice Beach Eco-Cottages, or a homey casita at the Loz Feliz Lodge, where innkeepers stock the kitchen with organic mint tea and the bathrooms with bamboo-fiber towels.

In a city dedicated to sun, sand, and surf, hotels smartly maximize the views, so spotting a sliver of ocean blue from rooms and rooftops is easy. The recently redone Hotel Shangri-La, across the street from the beach in Santa Monica, debuted an indoor-outdoor rooftop bar and lounge perfect for catching sunsets. The London West Hollywood, awash in ebony and gold, offers spectacular vistas of downtown Los Angeles and Century City.

While newer hotels race to keep up with the Joneses, classics like the elegant Peninsula Beverly Hills and even more storied Chateau Marmont seem to only get better with time, anticipating all a guest might need and want with seamless perfection.