• 1. Where to Stay
• 2. Where to Eat
• 3. What to Do
• 4. Insider’s Tip
• 5. An Oddball Day

The Sunset Tower Hotel, inside and out.   (Photo: Courtesy of Sunset Tower Hotel )

Legendary Chateau Marmont (from $335)—with its quirky craftsman style and delightfully seedy vibe—was featured in Bruce Wagner’s Cellphone Trilogy and has hosted everyone from F. Scott Fitzgerald to Hunter S. Thompson to A.M. Homes, whose latest novel, This Book Will Save Your Life, was written in residence.

The Sunset Tower Hotel (from $265) has an equally impressive pedigree: Truman Capote lived here in the forties; Raymond Chandler mentioned it by name in Farewell, My Lovely; Judith Regan was a resident until her recent sacking. Thanks to last year’s $25 million overhaul, rooms now come with limestone bathrooms, wi-fi, and iPod docking stations.

Though it calls itself a boutique hotel, the elegant, mission-style Hotel Bel Air (from $395) is impeccably old school. For a dreamy writers’ retreat, book the 8,000-square-foot Herb Garden Suite, with its library, fireplace, and daybed-bedecked reading room.

For more affordable accommodations—and a prime Beverly Hills address—stay behind the red lacquered doors of Maison 140 (from $179). Part Left Bank pension, part Far East opium den, this 43-room residence drips with design superstar Kelly Wearstler’s mirrored chinoiserie and crystal chandeliers.

Published on January 31, 2007 as a web exclusive.