Beverly Hills
California


The Experience

Located on legendary Sunset Boulevard in the country's most celebrated Zip code, 90210, near major movie studios and the famed shops of Rodeo Drive, the equally renowned Beverly Hills Hotel continues to hold its own with the film world's elite, even wooing a new generation of admirers. Ever since it opened in 1912, the Pink Palace has seen Hollywood's movers and shakers consummating deals in the Polo Lounge and affairs in the private bungalows. Today, even its trademark cursive logo and palatial pink look haven't gone out of style -- the hotel remains a City of Angels icon.

The Rooms

Joined by hallways papered with the hotel's giant banana-palm print, guest rooms start at a healthy 425 square feet and sport the trademark pink and green colors (with an occasional yellow); even bathrooms are decked out in pink Grecian marble. The gestalt is Hollywood Glamour: Rooms feature beds draped in diaphanous white, chaise longues for dramatic reclining, tufted ottomans, and curtains and chairs in the same jaunty stripe that the hotel famously uses in its poolside cabanas. Go for one with a balcony, looking south to Beverly Hills. And for celebritylike seclusion, reserve a bungalow, just like the world's most famous lovers (Liz and Richard, Yves and Marilyn) have done. Like real homes, each has a living room with baby grand piano, a dining room, a wood-burning fireplace and a private entrance.

The Service

Is any request too much? Not here. Consider the guest who so adored the Dungeness cracked crab from room service that he later had it, along with his favorite waiter, flown back home…twice. Even puppies have it good: The hotel gives them cookies from the bakery and tucks them into their own pink doggie beds.

The Highlights

Hollywood keeps coming to the Polo Lounge as the Brad Pitt generation discovers its secluded banquettes and the simplified menu of new chef Robert Allen. And then there's poolside dining at the Cabana Club Café, where you'll spend as much time craning your neck as picking at your Cobb salad (still the signature dish) and where you're almost guaranteed a glimpse of some boldfacer bravely leaving a cabana to take a dip. Strut past palm trees and fragrant gardens out to the tennis courts, where there's a Wimbledon champion pro to help your serve. Then hit La Prairie Spa, which offers treatments that are not only Botox-free (!) but, like the experience of staying here, aren't available anywhere else.

-- Kathleen Beckett

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