Palihouse Santa Monica

For LA’s version of a stylish, low-key beach town, Santa Monica is rather short on stylish, low-key hotels. Enter the Palihouse Santa Monica. It’s not as conspicuously glam as some of the competition, and, tucked away on a residential street a few blocks from the beach, it’s certainly not as much of a scene; it’s just a perfectly tasteful, highly livable hotel, a historic 1927 Mediterranean Revival masterpiece that’s been given a fresh coat of paint and a light, contemporary makeover by the ever-on-point Pali hotel group. (Repeat guests will appreciate the fact that a further renovation has added air conditioning to the mix.)

Palihouse’s specialty is creating hotels so comfortable you could quite literally move in. They do a substantial long-stay business, and, even for short-term guests, there’s a warmth that larger hotels and some too-cool boutiques tend to lack. In a way, the formula is simple: guest rooms with space to spread out, bedding made of all the right feathers and threads, free wired and wireless internet, supersize screens. Their tendency toward the homey shows in the small details, like windows that actually open — a hotel amenity that really shouldn’t be worth commenting on, but these days is, especially so close to the Pacific.

Opt for anything above the entry-level “classic” rooms and you’ll get a fridge, a range and a full stock of high-end kitchen appliances — though at every level there’s 24-hour in-room dining and an in-room stock of treats from Dean & Deluca. The point is that you could treat the room like a pied-à-terre, entertaining and, to a certain extent, taking care of yourself — but if you’d rather be made to feel like you’re very much on vacation, with day-to-day chores such as cooking better left back home, Palihouse is more than up to the task.

And it’s all executed with a distinct Southern California flavor, evidenced most of all in the lobby. With its Malibu tile floors, its wood-burning fireplace and a private patio just on the other side of those blown-glass doors, it’s the perfect place to hang out with a coffee and a newspaper.

How to get there: Palihouse Santa Monica is a 25-minute drive from Los Angeles International Airport. Valet parking is available at a surcharge.