Business Travel Guide Los Angeles, California
To the outside world, Los Angeles appears to be dominated by the entertainment industry, but the five counties that encompass this sprawling metropolitan area dwarf several New England states. Not only is Los Angeles the largest consumer market in America but it's also one of the preeminent economies in the world. In addition to movies and albums, L.A. produces high-tech components, state-of-the-art aircraft, and designer furniture. It is also an international financial services hub and one of the epicenters of the fashion industry, while its world-class universities support burgeoning biotechnology and green energy industries. Business travelers are just as likely to take a meeting by the beach in Santa Monica or at a studio in Burbank as they are to occupy a conference room in a downtown skyscraper. L.A. may have a reputation for being laid-back, but in a new global economy, this diverse 21st century city—a place with one foot in the Pacific Rim and another in Latin America—is an international business powerhouse. And after your work is done, L.A. offers unlimited dining and recreational opportunities.
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Facts
to Know Before You Go |
Transportation:
Rental Cars:
Los Angeles County alone sprawls for more than 4,000 square miles (about the size of Connecticut), so cars and freeways are the most common means of travel. Even with L.A.'s notorious gridlock traffic, this will likely be the easiest way to get around. For visitors unfamiliar with the city, it is wise to rent a car equipped with a GPS system.
Public Transportation: Trains
are gradually becoming more popular, though,
and Metrolink
commuter trains connect Downtown Los Angeles
with the suburbs. Within Los Angeles' five-county metropolitan area, these trains—as well as a modest but growing subway and light rail system—take passengers to dozens of local destinations. Despite the perception of L.A. being anti-public transit, there's also a comprehensive bus system serving the city and its suburbs.
Taxis and Shuttles: Expect
to pay a flat fee of approximately $47 for
a trip between LAX and Downtown. There are
at least a dozen airport shuttles to choose
from, but most charge less than $20 for a trip
from the Convention Center to LAX. |
Information:
For weekly business news, useful company lists, coverage of major corporate deals and executive profiles, check out the Los Angeles Business Journal. The Los Angeles Times is the most widely read newspaper in L.A. Its business section is published daily and offers extensive coverage of the financial aspects of the entertainment industry. The Daily News, the San Fernando Valley's local paper, is also an excellent source of information with daily business news. |
Internet:
Travelers to LAX will find wireless Internet access in sections of every terminal. |
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Located across the street from the Beverly Hills city limits, this hotel is one of the area's best, and an entertainment industry favorite. The hotel's 285 spacious rooms and suites are business-friendly without sacrificing elegance. Each features its own balcony, high-speed Internet access, a wireless-connect telephone system, videocassette and CD players, and TVs in the bedroom and bathroom. The Business Center offers state-of-the-art computer facilities, and there are several grand public rooms for business and social functions, along with a separate kosher kitchen. Guests can take advantage of the fourth-floor terrace with its outdoor pool (a prime spot to talk over a major deal), Jacuzzi spa, sundeck and tented exercise center. In addition to 24-hour concierge service, an especially nice bonus is the complimentary limo service to Rodeo Drive. Gardens restaurant, with its series of intimate dining rooms and a seasonally changing menu, is a serene power-breakfast, lunch and dinner spot.
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Santa Monica's landmark on the sand has become a pure jewel by the beach. Casa Del Mar has been lavishly restored to the opulent grandeur it exuded when it opened as Club Casa Del Mar in 1926, built for the then-incredible sum of $2 million. Reopened in the fall of 1999 after a $60-million renovation, the hotel features luxurious guest rooms, suites and penthouses, many of which offer private views of the beach. Freshly cut flowers, arrangements of seashells and gauzy curtains accent such lavish room amenities as state-of-the-art sound systems and white marble bathrooms complete with tubs featuring computer-programmed massaging water jets. Additionally, guests enjoy in-room chill bars, featuring bath and personal care products from Murad, sun block, gel masks, ZEN cards and more, all available for purchase. High-speed WiFi is offered in all accommodations, and ocean view suites come with iPods on request. Recreation and relaxation may be pursued in the fitness center or by the pool and garden terrace. Casa del Mar Spa is a space where life's stresses and worries melt away with the ministrations of trained aestheticians. Catch, aptly named for its menu of fresh seafood, offers fine dining and fabulous shoreline views. The bar, featuring lighter fare and the same beautiful beach scenery, is quite popular. Nine meeting facilities are available for impressive business and social events, including the dramatic Colonnade Ballroom with the beautiful loggia. Business and leisure travelers have made this place a real success story.
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A quintessential big city hotel, this Bunker Hill institution offers 439 rooms and fourteen suites—all with complimentary high-speed Internet access. Amenities include a health club, a heated outdoor lap pool, a sauna, a steam room, jogging paths, a spa and the added bonus of fresh flowers galore. The guest quarters are spacious and contemporary, with stocked mini-bars, city views and sophisticated electronics. Nineteen business rooms also include oversized desks, printers, fax machines, photocopiers and even office supplies. With a business center and banquet rooms, this is a popular spot for meetings, and the Grand Café offers views of the adjoining waterfalls and reflecting pool. For a more refined meal reserve a table at Noé, a sophisticated urban retreat that shatters the stodgy image of the traditional hotel dining room.
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The SLS at Beverly Hills is the first hotel venture of the SBE group, the folks that have already brought L.A. hot spots including Katsuya, Area, Hyde, S Bar and XIV. With Phillippe Starck once again at the design helm, they offer up the recently opened SLS, a centrally located hotel with 297 guest accommodations (both rooms and suites). With custom-designed furniture, Frette linens, high-speed Internet connectivity, MP3 sound systems, flat-screen televisions, 24-hour room service, and even 32 allergen-resistant "Pure" rooms, the SLS has considered your every need. They have even planned two lobbies, one a "Private Guest Lobby," where only those registered are allowed; the other, The Bazaar, is party central with its maze of bars, dining spaces and shopping areas, courtesy of celebrity Spanish chef José Andrés. There is dining poolside and in the seven private cabanas; and with its SBE connection, the SLS concierge will offer shuttle service the company's Los Angeles restaurants, lounges, and nightclubs. By booking here, you can take a business meeting in the afternoon and be rubbing shoulders with Lindsay and Paris at night. Hardly your staid business hotel, the SLS reflects a quintessentially L.A. sense of style that will impress your hip clients.
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This corporate hotel sets standards for service and efficiency in the airport hotel genre. Enormous in size—740 rooms—and offering a generous selection of standard amenities just blocks from LAX, it's most popular with convention-goers, pilots and airline attendants crashing out until their next red-eye flight. The property features many amenities (e.g., a heated pool, a spa and a health club) usually reserved for luxury hotels far from the exhaust of taxiing 747s. Each guest room provides the signature Westin Heavenly Bed (every little bit of comfort helps this close to the runways) and high-speed Internet access. Another bonus for travelers: 24-hour room service, a business center, secretarial service and meeting facilities for up to 1,700 people. |
| Best Power
Lunch |
From the hipper-than-thou to the perennially reliable, here's where the deals are made over tuna tartare or tortellini. |
Grauman's
Chinese Theatre
6925 Hollywood Blvd.
Hollywood, CA 90028
323-464-8111
www.manntheatres.com
Whether the name Chinese Theatre calls to mind the old newsreel clip of Marilyn Monroe putting her hands into wet cement amid popping flashbulbs, or the comic "I Love Lucy" sequence when Lucy gets her foot stuck in a hardening bucket of cement, chances are that you already have a picture of this famous movie theater courtyard in your head. Take in a current feature in the 1,500-seat auditorium, a Hollywood relic as ornate and nostalgic as its legendary Pagoda-like façade. This stretch of Hollywood Boulevard, with its star-studded Walk of Fame and cheesy tourist attractions, is experiencing a major renaissance that's bringing chic new clubs, hotels, restaurants and boutiques to the long-neglected neighborhood. Kinara
Spa
656 North Robertson Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90069
310-657-9188
Kinara ("on the edge" in Hindi) is beloved by numerous celebrity clients including Halle Berry, Sharon Stone and Rebecca Romijn. It's the co-creation of restaurateur Christine Splichal (Patina Group) and dermal doyenne Olga Lorencin, who have pooled their impeccable taste, experience and vision to create this private oasis in the Design District. The spa menu at the beautiful Eastern Indian-, Balinese- and French-inspired space is extensive and includes: facials, hydrotherapy baths, body scrubs, massages or body wraps—all customized and delicately balanced with the finest natural ingredients and Lorencin's cutting-edge skin technology. The Kinara Café, with its contemporary macrobiotic cuisine, is reason enough to linger at the spa. Rodeo
Drive
Rodeo Dr. & Wilshire Blvd.
Beverly Hills, CA 90212
www.rodeodrive-bh.com
One of the most famous streets in the world, Rodeo Drive captures the spirit of Beverly Hills past and present and is a quintessential part of the L.A. experience. Paved with cobblestones and surrounded by Italian arches and wrought iron streetlamps, Via Rodeo (the chicest section of Rodeo Drive) looks more like a film set than an authentic European village, but its world-famous boutiques—the rarefied names upon which the street's reputation was built—include Cartier, Tiffany and Valentino. While doing some shopping, or window-shopping, be sure to check out Frank Lloyd Wright's eccentric Anderton Court, a small cluster of shops designed by the renowned architect in the 1950s. The Getty Center
1200 Getty Center Dr.
Brentwood
310-440-7300
www.getty.edu
Far more than simply a museum, The Getty has not only become an L.A. icon but also defies the city's stereotypes. It is the kind of gathering spot rare in a city that made urban sprawl fashionable, and pulls it off in the context of world-class architecture—something more plentiful in L.A. than the city's East Coast detractors like to admit. Most importantly, the massive travertine-clad complex, designed by Richard Meier, boasts an endless collection of art that encompasses Impressionist masterpieces, Greek antiquities and a stunning collection of gilded furnishings from the height of the French monarchy. Friday and Saturday evenings, The Getty stays open into the evening, and a sunset dinner at the museum's exceptional full-service restaurant combines innovative contemporary American cuisine with awesome views of the metropolis.
Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Gardens
1151 Oxford Rd.
San Marino
626-405-2100
www.huntington.org
The posh community of San Marino, just south of Pasadena, is home to the former estate of railroad tycoon Henry Huntington, which has become one of Southern California's most alluring attractions. Occupying 120 acres of perfectly manicured rolling hills are a series of botanical gardens featuring over 15,000 species of flora, such as the Desert Garden, Shakespeare Garden (the flavor of the English countryside), and tranquil Japanese Garden with koi-filled stream. In the midst of a three-acre rose garden is the charming Tea Room, which should be included in any Huntington experience. The Italiante estate has been converted into art galleries and a world-renowned library containing rare manuscripts and one of the earliest known Gutenberg Bibles. Gainsborough's The Blue Boy and Sir Thomas Lawrence's Pinkie are among the prized works of art lining the walls of Huntington's former mansion.b crawl. No need to book, just grab a schedule and turn up at the designated hour. (Author: Roger Grody)  |
* Rodeo Drive image by Torsten Bolten
(Updated: 05/07/09 KR)
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See
our list of L.A.'s 10
Best Business Hotels
