Shutters on the Beach

Shutters on the Beach opened on 8 June 1993 on a Santa Monica site where beach clubs had stood since 1925. It is styled as a Cape Cod beach house, with rooms in the Beach House, right on the sand, and the larger Ocean House set back from the water, 198 rooms and suites in all. The Edward Thomas Collection runs it, as it does Hotel Casa del Mar next door. Michael S. Smith redesigned the rooms, suites and spa in 2005, and Nickey Kehoe redid the Living Room lobby in 2025. The hotel's art collection, rehung from time to time, takes in work by David Hockney and Claes Oldenburg.

Where the window faces sets the price. The Superior and Deluxe rooms have a residential view to the north or south, and the Partial Ocean View rooms see the water only in part. The Ocean View rooms, in both buildings, have two step-out balconies and a personal reading library, though their view can take in the pool below or the three-storey Beach House as well as the sea. The Ocean Front rooms, on floors 1 to 3 of the Beach House, face the Pacific directly. Above them come the suites, from the Santa Monica Suite, with a residential view, to the Beach House Suite, with two fireplaces and a den.

The reason to choose it is the sand. The beach is public, but the hotel opens straight onto it, with the paved beach path along its front, the water about 230 metres away across the sand and the Santa Monica Pier nine minutes' walk north. The resort fee covers a daily two-hour bike rental and weekend beach yoga. The heated outdoor pool, in the Ocean House courtyard, has a fireplace, cabanas and a view out to sea, and is for hotel guests and spa clients. The Living Room, with fireplaces, a terrace and live music on most nights, is the place for a sunset drink, and Coast serves breakfast from 7am and dinner until 9pm.

The trade is the bill and the view. The entry king starts around $740 a night on a December Tuesday, and with the 15 per cent tax, the $60 resort fee and $11.25 in tourism fees that comes to about $930 a night, before $90 for overnight valet. The entry rooms do not face the sea, so a sea view is a step of about $490 a night, and Santa Monica is a drive from the rest of the city: with the roads clear, the Hollywood Walk of Fame is 25 minutes away. Book it for a beach-first Los Angeles trip, a sunset on the sand and a bike ride along the path.