"When Shutters On The Beach opened its doors in 1993, it was the only hotel in L.A. with beach access. While that’s no longer the case, it remains one of the most celebrity-laden places to stay in the area. (During my family’s recent stay there, my young son was rescued from a momentarily stuck elevator by seemingly half of the Denver Nuggets, instantly minting him as a new NBA fan, though the hotel is perhaps more famous as the location for a million studio-sponsored celebrity interviews over decades.) Shutters also boasts an amazing art collection (Hockney, Lichtenstein, Motherwell, Diebenkorn, to name but a few of the artists in their arsenal), a lively social scene at its pool, and its location is a kind of perfection: anything in L.A. is within easy striking distance, yet it’s also the perfect escape when you’ve had too much of it all and need some quiet, reserved calm. Oh, yeah, that beach. –Corey Seymour, senior editor"