The Beverly Hills Hotel

The Beverly Hills Hotel predates the city that surrounds it—Beverly Hills incorporated two years after the hotel opened in 1912—and its pink stucco, green striping and Martinique banana-leaf wallpaper form perhaps the most recognisable design language in American hospitality. Twelve acres of gardens, palms and bougainvillea keep Sunset Boulevard's traffic a rumour.

Hollywood history is the house specialty: the bungalows sheltered Monroe, Taylor and Chaplin, and today's 23 continue the private-hideaway tradition with fireplaces, patios and, in some, private pools. Main-building rooms wear soft peaches and greens with modern comfort beneath the nostalgia. Service runs polished and personable, well practiced at discretion.

The Polo Lounge remains an entertainment-industry canteen where deals still happen over McCarthy salads, while the Cabana Cafe serves the city's most storied pool scene—loungers whose telephones once paged studio bosses. A refreshed spa and fitness pavilion round things out. For visitors who want Los Angeles with its mythology intact, no address delivers more atmosphere per square foot.