PRICE:
Frommer's Highly Recommended

Part of the $615-million Hollywood & Highland project to restore Hollywood to the glory of its heyday, the Renaissance Hollywood opened in late 2001. The hotel now serves as Oscar-night headquarters for the frenzy of participants and paparazzi attending the Academy Awards in the Kodak Theater next door. Despite its high profile, the hotel is principally a convention property and not quite as elite or elegant as the media hype might have you believe. Nonetheless, its commitment to the history of the area infuses it with far more personality than most chain hotels. Wood-paneled headboards and Technicolor furniture (think The Jetsons meets IKEA) paint guest rooms as swinging '50s bachelor pads. Rooms on the seventh floor and up offer truly impressive views. One-third look toward the Pacific Ocean, one-third face the skyline of Downtown L.A., and one-third take in the lush Hollywood Hills (yes, you can see the sign). The hotel's location makes getting around on foot unusually easy in a town where most destinations require navigating L.A.'s notorious freeway system. Sightseeing is virtually unavoidable since the hotel shares the same block as two of the city's most famous landmarks -- the Hollywood Walk of Fame and Grauman's Chinese Theatre. The Hollywood Bowl is less than a mile away (check with the concierge about shuttle service), and the subway stops under the hotel complex, offering access to Universal Studios and destinations farther afield.

Copyright: Excerpted from Frommer's Los Angeles 2009, (c) 2008, Wiley Publishing, Inc.

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