Fodor's Expert Review Beverly Hills Hotel

In a high-rise building right on the beach, this upscale hotel is popular with both vacationers and businesspeople and has a long-standing reputation for gracious hospitality. The service is excellent and facilities, such as The Sugar Club restaurant, are superb. If your plan is to loll around in your bathing suit, get yourself to one of the many loungers around the pool, the focus for this hotel. There are lots of extras thrown in—like free ice pops, sunscreen, and poolside smoothies. The public lounge, festooned with huge floral arrangements and yards of gathered drapes, serves a full silver-service tea in the afternoon, and a pianist plays in the evening. Guest rooms are fairly small, but all have terrific sea views, particularly those on the upper floors. Suites are more spacious and villas have an open beachlike feel and private plunge pool.