Beverly Hills, 9021: Oh! Checking into the Beverly Hills Hotel for its centenary year
The Beverly Hills Hotel, aka The Pink Palace is still the place to be seen in Hollywood, says Siobhan Grogan. From celeb-spotting to relaxing, this is still a rare paradise at 100 years old
Within a few short hours of arriving in Los Angeles, I’m sitting metres away from two of the most famous women in the world. While I attempt to stave off impending jetlag with dinner after checking in to the Beverly Hills Hotel, Kim Kardashian and Ivanka Trump are deep in conversation on the other side of the restaurant.
By the following morning, their meal together has made headlines around the world. Turns out, this is an average Sunday night in the Beverly Hills Hotel. Every bit as famous as any of its celebrity guests, the distinctive pink hotel near upmarket shopping street Rodeo Drive is the reason Beverly Hills exists in the first place.
Built in 1912 on bean fields surrounded by barren hillsides, the hotel was created to lure wealthy visitors to a prospective new neighbourhood, with a school and post office included on its grounds. Other buildings sprang up around the hotel and Beverly Hills was named a city in its own right in 1914. Hollywood – a ten-minute drive away – may be known as the centre of the film industry, but this is where its biggest stars call home.
Almost every A-lister imaginable has checked in over the years and the hotel embraces its vintage Hollywood links, recently redesigning some of its bungalows in honour of former legendary guests. Elizabeth Taylor honeymooned here, Charlie Chaplin shot a film in the hotel and Howard Hughes lived in one bungalow for decades, getting the chef to hide roast beef sandwiches in the trees so he could snack as he wandered the grounds at night. Katharine Hepburn learned breaststroke in the palm-lined pool and Marilyn Monroe stayed countless times, celebrating Christmas with Joe DiMaggio in one bungalow.
Much remains the same even now, including the white jacketed-waiters, rose-thronged gardens and the distinctive splashes of pale pink throughout, a shade so specific that the hotel owns the trademark. Yet the hotel isn’t a relic from a bygone era either. It unveiled a chic new spa last year, recently renovated its pool cabanas and counts everyone from Leonardo DiCaprio to Lady Gaga as regulars, hosting the pre-Oscars dinner each year.
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The week before I stay, Keanu Reeves performed an impromptu set in the bar with Jimmy Fallon, while Nick Jonas and Priyanka Chopra are fellow guests when I’m there. For the best chance of celebrity sightings, sit at the counter of in-house diner the Fountain Coffee Room for breakfast or a banana split, or book a table in the fairy-lit courtyard of the Polo Lounge for dinner. Though it’s tempting to stay and people watch all day, it’s worth venturing beyond the red-carpeted entrance.
Nearby Canon Drive is the best place to eat, while Beverly Drive is great for shopping if you don’t have a Rodeo Drive-sized budget. Head towards the Hollywood sign looming over the city in the distance and you’ll pass the hip shops and restaurants of Melrose Avenue and nearby Paramount Studios, where a two-hour tour offers an entertaining glimpse of the only major studio still in Hollywood itself. Afterwards, stop at the Hollywood Walk of Fame to spot hand prints in the pavement from the likes of Judy Garland, Clint Eastwood and Tom Cruise.
A sprawling, sun-baked city, LA is actually a collection of several cities in one, most notably West Hollywood, Beverly Hills and Santa Monica. Each has its own police force andmayor, with different colour street signs revealing which city you’re in at any time. It’s almost impossible to get around without a car, with the beaches of Santa Monica almost an hour from the farthest reaches of Hollywood even if you avoid congested rush-hour traffic.
Once a favourite with the likes of Grace Kelly and Monroe, locals including Oprah Winfrey and Beyoncé are now regulars at the restaurant
If you don’t fancy driving, a private tour guide is a great way to maximise sight-seeing in a short time. Mine points out everything from the former Playboy mansion to the building used as Nakatomi Plaza in Die Hard as we whizz through the city. He even drives through the Westwood Village Memorial Park cemetery, where the likes of Farrah Fawcett and Dean Martin are buried and Marilyn Monroe’s marble headstone is stained pink from fans’ lipstick kisses. The new Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on Wilshire Boulevard is a little less eerie.
Opened in late 2021, the museum offers a comprehensive insight into the film industry with exhibits ranging from movie costumes and original storyboards to the giant backdrop of Mount Rushmore used in Alfred Hitchcock’s North By Northwest. There are areas devoted to animation and special effects alongside special pop-up exhibitions, including ones on Black cinema, Pedro Almodovar and The Wizard of Oz when I visited.
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There’s also the chance to be filmed accepting a weighty, real-life Oscar in front of a simulated audience at the Dolby Theatre. If you really want to feel like an A-lister though, spend a final few days at the Hotel Bel Air, a sister property to the Beverly Hills Hotel. Hidden on a canyon in LA’s most exclusive neighbourhood, it’s a luxe retreat from the rest of the city, with its own river and flower-filled gardens concealing secret fountains and courtyards.
Once a favourite with the likes of Grace Kelly and Monroe, locals including Oprah Winfrey and Beyoncé are now regulars at its restaurant owned by celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck, who has catered the Academy Awards Governors Ball for nearly 30 years.
Its LA’s most exclusive hideaway, a tropical oasis in the heart of this gritty, glamorous city that, despite serious competition, is still the biggest star in town.
Book the Beverly Hills Hotel yourself
Rooms at The Beverly Hills Hotel start from $775 (approx. £640) per night and rooms at Hotel Bel-Air start from $695 (approx. £575) per night, both based on two sharing a Superior Room. Book both at dorchestercollection.com; Virginatlantic.com flies to Los Angeles from London Heathrow from £443 per person in economy. Private tours of LA can be booked at tourdujour.net.