Santa Monica Hotels
 

Hi
We will be staying 2 nites at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills and want to move to a beach hotelfor 2 nites. Wehat is the best place in Santa Monica or near the beach. We would love something similar to the quality of the Peninsula or 5 star. Thanks!!

Shutters on the Beach is a very high-rated hotel in Santa Monica. For views and history, I would recommend the Fairmont Miramar. If you can drive an hour, the Surf and Sand in Laguna Beach is a fantastic choice.

Shutters on the Beach is a huge disappointment compared with the Peninsula. The rooms are more beach casual, not luxury-oriented. The location is great and the service is OK. I have stayed at botht the Peninsula BH and Shutters on the same trip before and was really disappointed with SHutters given that you get so much less hotel for the same price as the much better BH hotels which are only a few minutes drive away.
Loews is the other beach hotel to consider in Santa Monica, but I haven't been inside it.

True, yes-- but after all, Shutters IS a beach hotel, isn't it?

The Loews gets consistent mediocre marks from acquaintances (colleagues, clients) that have stayed there-- "not worth the money" is the usual level of opinion (motor-lodge level rooms). The aforementioned Miramar, however, gets consistent good grades. It is not the Peninsula either, but what is?

I forgot about the Hotel Oceana, a bit farther up Ocean from the Miramar. Boutique hotel with top-level service, and nice views of the ocean are available (beach is some 100 feet below at the foot of a cliff). Probably closer to the 5-star experience you're seeking.

We have stayed several times at the Oceana....it's a wonderful all suite boutique hotel.

I havn't stayed at any of these hotels but I live near Shutters and walk by it all the time and it is a very classy hotel with a very classy clientele. I can't say that for the Peninsula (and other "new" Beverly Hills hotels) - some of them feel like they belong on the Las Vegas Strip!

Gee, Veronica, I wonder whether the who's who of Hollywood producers, directors and actors would feel slighted to know that you think they hang out someplace (the Peninsula) which is lacking in class. Funny that none of the moguls or movers of LA gravitate to Shutters when it's time to have a meal, talk business, or hole up for the night. They all seem to end up in Beverly Hills at the Peninsula, Four Seasons, Bel Air and L'Hermitage.
I guess your sense of style and taste is a better barometer of class than theirs. (Or perhaps your green eyed lenses are distorting your perception).

Hi rwilliams: Actually I do know where "those kind of people" hang out because I work at a studio ... and have worked in the business for quite a long time!

You should also check out the Casa Del Mar Hotel which is located right next to Shutters. (both are owned by the same company) I actually prefer it to Shutters.

I read recently that tv star Sela Ward chose Shutters on the Beach as her favorite place to spend a pampered weekend away.

I don't know why I'm continuing this utterly worthless line of discussion, but for whatever it's worth, here's additional background to support the contention that the Peninsula BH is the celebrity hangout of choice in the area.
First off, the Pen is the only Mobil 5 Star, AAA 5 Diamond hotel in Southern California.
Numerous magazines searchable on the internet bill the Pen as "the ultimate VIP hotel in Southern California", "celebrity hotel of choice in the Los Angeles area", "the pied-a-terre for celebrities...", etc.
Its general manager was acknowledged as the best in the hotel industry by Cornell University's school of hotel administration.
The most powerful talent agency in Hollywood, Creative Artists' Agency, is based next door to the Peninsula. During busy periods nearly half of all breakfasts and lunches served in the restaurant at the Pen involve agents, celebs or producers.
Frequent guests include Cher, Ralph Fiennes, Michael Bolton, Michael Douglas, Winona Ryder, Whitney Houston, Melanie Griffith, Paul Newman, Jessica Lange, Roseanne Arnold. Mikhail Gorbachev has stayed there, as well as a host of other ambassadors and dignitaries due to the hotel's superior security practices, which serve to protect both political targets and celebrity privacy.
Among the famous celeb facts about the hotel: Carly Simon recorded her Christmas album in her room at the Pen, and both Courtney Love and Anna Nicole Smith OD'ed on drugs there.

Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel is very nice and a great location! We stayed there last year and really enjoyed it.

I know the late John F. Kennedy, Jr. used to stay at Shutters!

Beverly Hills is minutes from Santa Monica - changing hotels may be more trouble that that is worth - especially to leave the Peninsula.

If you want a couple of beach days, I'd consider going farther afield to Laguna Beach or to Santa Barbara.

Keep in mind that they are digging up Santa Monica Boulevard (it's going to take them 3 years to do) so the traffic in this area of town (Beverly Hills to the 405) is unbearable.

Veronica: It IS pretty nasty. Luckily, Wilshire, Olympic and Pico are still good west-east alternates between BH and the rest of the world (OK, Venice and Washington too).

Actually, all the roads have been torn up here in SM too (I'm at work down the street from the Miramar), so it's been less than Paradise trying to get around here as well. I'm always glad to get back home, where they're ripping streets up but spreading the pain out.

I find this Pennisula vs Shutters discussion rather bizarre. I too am "in the business" but based on the East Coast, not LA. A person can drive an S class Benz and be impressed but that does not preclude having a great experience behind the wheel of a new Mini Cooper S.

The Penninsula is a superb hotel from every perspective (yes I've stayed) BUT it would not be my first choice in "LA proper" --- the Bel Air would. The Penninsula is a little too "studio exec/agents on their phones jockeying for position by the pool who is so and so sitting with and is that blah blah talking to you know who and you look great lets do lunch" for my taste. The fact that "rwilliams" cites Cher and Michael Bolton as evidence of its exclusivity is in my opinion self defeating. I find the Bel Air far more discreet in its lay out, attitude and service.

That having been said, Shutters is a completely different experience. To criticise it for being a "beach hotel" is in to fact compliment it --- it is, after all, on the beach and therefore much more informal. People who want to escape having to always be "on" in LA head to Shutters (or obviously further up the coast).

To pick the Loews over Shutters is simply absurd. The only other comparable hotel in Santa Monica to Shutters is Casa del Mar.

Enjoy your trip!

PS And perhaps the Miramar for its lovely grounds.

Hey "johnc"....feel free to use all the information provided in the original post/question to construct your answer.

The original post specifically asked for "similar quality of the Peninsula".

As such, your points are irrelevant.

The poster is trying to suit his or her tastes, not yours.