Where to stay in Los Angeles

For many Angelenos, Santa Monica represents the impossible dream: a low-key, tolerant beachside town with a relaxed air and easy access to the rest of the city. Set along a white-sand beach and home to some of LA’s finest stores, restaurants and galleries, this small community has little of the smog or searing heat that can make the rest of the metropolis unbearable. Friendly and liberal, Santa Monica is also a great spot to visit - a compact, accessible bastion of oceanside charm. Santa Monica is most certainly one of the best areas to stay in Los Angeles.

Everyone has heard of Malibu; it’s been immortalized in surfing movies since the 1960s, Courtney Love sang about it and it serves as the fictional home of Two and Half Men and Iron Man. While its pop, Hollywood image is not so very far from the truth, you might not think so on arrival. The succession of ramshackle surf shops and fast-food stands scattered along both sides of Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) around the graceful Malibu Pier don’t exactly reek of money, but the secluded estates just inland are as valuable as any in the entire country: Halle Berry, Jeff Bridges, Mel Gibson, John McEnroe, Steven Spielberg and Barbra Streisand are among numerous stars that have homes here. Zuma Beach and Point Dume State Beach bring in plenty of ocean lovers, too.

One of the largest ports in the world is Long Beach. 25 miles south of Downtown LA, Downtown Long Beach is quite flashy, with office buildings, a conference centre, hotels, a shopping mall, and some of the best preserved early twentieth-century buildings on the coast. Inland, running from Ocean Boulevard to Third Street, the three-block strip known as The Promenade is lined with touristy restaurants and stores that can get busy on weekend nights. To the south, Shoreline Village contains a generic collection of shops, funfair arcades and restaurants.