Los Angeles' ocean view hotel restuarants

At the Malibu Beach Inn, there are views of the restored Malibu pier and surfers beyond and Carbon Beach to the south. The waves literally come in just below the dining room's windows and the outdoor deck (above). (If you're a fan of HBO's "Entourage," the hotel's romantic ocean side deck was the location used for the lunch scene where Eric intended to propose to Sloane).

Further south in Santa Monica at the Hotel Shangri-La, in an Art Deco-styled dining room that faces Santa Monica's wide beach, chef Dakota Weiss' menus are always innovative.  (Check out the hotel's rooftop view in the photo above! Nice.)

Baleen, the Portofino Hotel &Yacht Club's harbor side restaurant, faces luxe sailboats and ocean cruisers docked in the Redondo Beach Harbor. Wild sea lions can sometimes be heard barking just offshore. 

Dinner with an ocean view -- that's just so L.A.

Malibu Beach Inn
22878 Pacific Coast Highway
Malibu, CA  90265
310-456-6444

Hotel Shangri-La
1301 Ocean Avenue
Santa Monica, CA 90401-1019
310-394-2791

Portofino Hotel & Yacht Club
260 Portofino Way
Redondo Beach, CA 90277
310-379-8481

Ocean view Pierpoint Inn Ventura

Drinking tea and taking in the Pacific Ocean view. Waves are a light jade green today.


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WP24 bar at Ritz-Carlton Los Angeles

The setting:


The view:


Details: wine rack as screen


A warm glow:

Biltmore Coral Gables

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3/25/10

My life is like a story: that's why I'm a writer.


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W Hollywood nighttime scene

Score One for Mid-Century Los Angeles

Score One for Mid-Century Los Angeles

Century Plaza Hotel made the news this week: curvy 1966-built edifice was saved from demolition by preservationists. Will be revamped into a mixed-use project with some hotel rooms becoming condos.

Hotel Roosevelt's Guess Ad

Way to monetize Hollywood's Hotel Roosevelt!

Workers add on a sleek Guess ad just in time for Hollywood Boulevard's most media-busy week.



I'm really liking all the Alice in Wonderland art.

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Hotel Maya

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Sunday brunch test post

Stay, park & fly at LAX and Burbank airports

If you're outbound from Los Angeles (LAX) or the Burbank airport, consider a park-and-fly option at an airport hotel. Certainly better than taking an early morning shuttle or trying to find a parking space at long term parking (though the days of the airport parking lots completely filling up on holiday weekends are a quaint memory of more robust economic times).

At LAX, the newly renovated 405-room Holiday Inn (free Wi-Fi and a McDonald's out the front door) has two parking packages. Book a room for $99 plus tax and park for seven nights or book one night at $109 and park for 14. There's a 24-hour shuttle to the airport on standby. Airport parking lots range from $12 to $30 so there is some savings and a convenience factor to consider; I would propose that an early morning flight is a deal breaker.

The super-stylish Sheraton Gateway-- interiors are by designer Kelly Wearstler--has three, seven and 14-day parking packages from ($143/night plus tax). Parking package rates here a higher but the rooms are larger than most with the best decor of any airport hotel and a Starbucks on site.

The Marriott Airport Burbank has a seven night parking package that starts at $169/night. A shuttle is available to the airport but the terminal is so close, and if traffic is backed up, it's probably quicker to walk.

Twitter deals from Los Angeles hotels

If you want to save money on your next L.A. or SoCal hotel night, you might want to check out twitter.com. More than just an online diversion and a means to cyberstalk your favorite celeb or athlete, twitter is an invaluable travel tool, especially if you have a favorite hotel. As twitter becomes more mainstream, hotels are using them to reward guests...instantly. Recently there have been tweets for giveaways such as free wine tastings at the Standard Downtown LA (standrdtla), room night contests at the Hotel Erwin (hotelerwin) and many more specials that are announced first to a hotel's twitter followers.

Tuesdays are #traveltuesday. When you log on to twitter expect many tweets on travel deals and trends--Joie de Vivre Hotels is expert at teasing contests. Follow them directly via Venice's Hotel Erwin for room night specials as low as $59! Morgans Hotel Group, the company behind West Hollywood's Mondrian Hotel, also promotes its many fab events--right now there's pop up shop of Kiki de Montparnasse's alluring lingerie at the hotel.

Other L.A. hotel twitterers: Standard Hollywood --follow them for DJ announcements and cool events like Ping Pong by the pool every Saturday afternoon; O Hotel--the downtown boutique hotel announces wine and tapas nights; and Montage Laguna Beach--reading Chef Craig Strong's inspiring Thanksgiving menu (pumpkin soup spiced with chorizo, sunchoke-filled hand-rolled pasta and a Huntsinger Farms' turkey with a a brioche-chestnut stuffing) is reason enough to follow along.

And of course, you can follow me @writerkathymcd or dm me if you want to know where to stay in L.A.!

L.A.'s most star-studded hotel: The Millennium Biltmore

Surprisingly Los Angeles' most Hollywood-connected hotel is not where you'd expect. It's in downtown L.A. The Millennium Biltmore, which just celebrated its 86th anniversary, has entertained the movie world's most famous from Rudolph Valentino to Jamie Foxx and hosted the Academy Awards eight times in the 1930s and 1940s (1937's banquet is above). But more significantly, the hotel has long been a favorite of TV and film productions and has some serious credits.

The grand Rendezvous Court elicits a sense of déjà vu-you've been here before via countless TV shows, commercials and films. Because of its classic Beaux Arts architecture and gilded public spaces, the Biltmore easily plays vintage Manhattan (as in a recent Mad Men episode) or attracts the CSI:NY crew, and actor Gary Sinise. NBC's Heroes recently used the hotel's vast catering kitchen. NBC's Chuck and ABC's Castle TV series were also in the house during the busy summer production season. A small hallway off the lobby showcases the hotel's many historic photos-form the early Oscars to Cocoon, which famously includes the hotel's art-tiled indoor pool. Interested in learning more about the hotel's important place in L.A.'s cultural life? The Los Angeles Conservancy, Southern California's vital historic architecture preservation organization, conducts docent led tours of the hotel every Sunday at 2 p.m.

Downtown Los Angeles: One tower: two hotels

1992 was the last year a new hotel, built from the ground up, opened in downtown L.A. George W. Bush was president and the Lakers' home court was the Forum. The streets emptied after work and few people actually lived downtown.  

Much has changed in 17 years. Once abandoned office buildings are loft residences; there are dozens of new restaurants, bars, clubs and art galleries in the historic core and downtown's population now numbers close to 40,000.

February 15, 2010 is the opening date for two newly built hotels within one shiny 54-story glass tower: a 123-room Ritz-Carlton and 878-room JW Marriott. My tour of the still-under-construction property began in what will be the Marriott's three-lane entryway and portico. The Ritz has its own entrance and lobby across from the just-opened Regal Cinemas.

The JW Marriott's glass walled lobby faces out onto LA Live's plaza and Nokia Theater's side. Crystal curtains and sandstone facing were partially under wraps but both will preside over the hotel's slightly elevated bar called Glance. On the 23rd floor, there will be martinis-with-a-view at the Ritz's yet unnamed bar and fine dining restaurant that look out to downtown's skyscrapers. The chef will be announced soon but think famous and from L.A. On the 26th floor will be the Ritz's infinity pool and leafy pool deck.

Room designs are in the final tweaking stages for both hotels. At the Ritz expect swiveling glass table-tops for desks, white granite for countertops, black-and-white tiled showers with rain head shower fixtures (some rooms will have tubs) and an opaque glass wall that separates bath from sleeping area. Nicely done: a room length couch just under the window. Flat screens TV, iPod dock and easy access to a power strip will be built in. The look is super-contemporary, not the classic American traditional Ritz-Carlton style you may know from other properties.

I'll check back with the project as it gets closer to completion. Reservations are available online now. All should be up-to-speed by June when L.A.'s largest convention, the E3 Expo of interactive entertainment ( aka video games) takes over the adjacent LA Convention Center.

A sensual feast: Los Angeles' SLS Hotel

Since its November 2008 opening at the edge of Beverly Hills, SLS Hotel has made a substantial impression. Up on the roof, hotel guests are treated to L.A.'s most artistic pool scene envisioned by Philippe Starck. The Bazaar, the hotel's Starck-designed restaurant with innovative cuisine by Jose Andres, remains a tough reservation and a total celeb magnet. (Ryan Gosling sat at the adjacent table when I had dinner there some months back--handsome and charming, a nice combo. Maria Sharapova was on the patio for a photo shoot the next morning.)

Andres definitely courts the bold names: Lake Pau Gasol (also a Spaniard) often dines in; the Huevos a la Cubana, a dish of 12 tiny quail eggs served sunny side up, is named after the chef's pal, actor Andy Garcia: and First Lady Michelle Obama is a fan of his D.C. restaurant Oyamel.  Among Bazaar's outstanding tapas  are the molecular "modern" olive that floats in a small spoon and dissolves perfectly as you slurp it up and the Philly Cheesesteak--two bites of airbread, stuffed with wagyu beef and creamy cheddar. At the Ciel spa, there's  treatments include the body softening sugar aroma glow.

A feast for the senses all around.