Los Angeles

Los Angeles turns imagination into industry. Hollywood, Pacific beaches, hillside architecture, contemporary art and a culture of reinvention create a sprawling metropolis where entertainment, design and California light shape a distinctly American idea of possibility.

Los Angeles was founded in 1781 as El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles, and grew from a farming town into the capital of the film industry. Today it is less a single city than a constellation: Hollywood and the hills above it, Beverly Hills and Bel Air, downtown’s revived historic core, and the beach towns of Santa Monica and Malibu.

Its culture is spread across that landscape. The Getty Center crowns a hilltop in Brentwood, LACMA and the Academy Museum share Wilshire Boulevard, and Frank Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall anchors downtown. Modernist houses by Neutra, Schindler and the Case Study architects dot the hillsides, and the Griffith Observatory watches over the whole basin.

Los Angeles is pleasant in almost every month, with a dry Mediterranean climate. Spring brings wildflowers and mild days, though May and June often begin under a coastal marine layer locals call June Gloom. September and October are the warmest months at the beach, with long, golden evenings and warm water for swimming.

Winter is mild, with occasional rain between December and March and snow visible on the San Gabriel Mountains. It is also awards season, culminating in the Academy Awards, and Frieze Los Angeles brings the art world to the city in February. In summer, concerts under the stars at the Hollywood Bowl are an essential Los Angeles evening.

The great hotels of Los Angeles belong to the west side. Hotel Bel-Air hides in a wooded canyon with its own swan lake; The Beverly Hills Hotel, the Pink Palace, has stood on Sunset Boulevard since 1912; The Peninsula Beverly Hills and Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills face each other near Santa Monica Boulevard; and Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills stands among quiet residential streets.

LVXVRY books Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills through Four Seasons Preferred Partner and Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills through Hilton for Luxury — at the official hotel rate, with the privileges each programme attaches to the stay. For Hotel Bel-Air, The Beverly Hills Hotel and The Peninsula, LVXVRY advises on and arranges the stay directly, whether for the studios, the galleries or the coast.