Beverly Wilshire, Beverly Hills, California

Hollywood’s classiest upscale hotel transforms itself on request into an urban resort for sightseeing families.

You might have heard of the Beverly Wilshire, a legendary hotel smack dab in the epicenter of posh Beverly Hills, especially if you’ve seen the movie Pretty Woman, filmed there some years ago. Fortunately, the glamorous reality lives up to the cinematic legend and the location just doesn’t get any better than the corner of Wilshire Blvd. and Rodeo Drive in the world famous 90210 zip code. 

What you may not have heard is that this timeless hotel has transformed itself from just a great hotel into a upscale urban family destination.  A $35 million renovation in 2006 yielded cool, understatedly elegant rooms, with all the right touches and amenities, whether you’re a Queen or a Kid.

Along with the new look comes a special family package, “Beverly Under the Hills,” which makes every guest a celebrity.  Special family amenities start at check-in, where kids are offered their pick of toys from a little red Welcome Wagon.  Upon entering the guest room, kids will find a star-shaped cookie with their name on it (if you’ve provided their names/ages when making reservations), lush kid-sized robes (available for purchase), age-appropriate parenting gear (crib with baby products, stool for the sink and toilet), and soda and candy for teenagers.

But the biggest arrival surprise to greet families is the ice cream extravaganza from the in-house Serendipity Scoop Factory. Parents will have to make do with mere champagne and truffles. The Serendipity Scoop Factory prize is a one-time treat courtesy of the hotel (you can order as many as you’d like during your visit and charge them to the room) and can be scheduled at any point in the stay.

The attitude of the management and staff is that all kids deserve V.I.P. treatment.  The Guest Relations team guides the family amenities program with great energy and boundless imagination in pursuit of the special touches that will please the younger set. They are available to help shape and book your plans for touring a rich trove of family-attracting sights, whatever your interest. The staff can provide (for purchase or in-house reference) several guidebooks for the kids to memorize, such as “The Koolest Kid, The Ultimate Guide to Beverly Hills and Beyond” and “The Ultimate Teen Guide to Shopping.” The concierge has an insider’s knowledge of the newest cool shops and star-sighting venues.

The Beverly Wilshire’s public facilities are especially grand. The hotel has a mid-sized outdoor pool on the second floor deck for young and older and, adjacent to it, a newly expanded spa and fitness room for guests over 16-years. The gravitational pull of the world-renowned Beverly Hills shopping district across the street will draw all ages to cross over from window shopping to the buying side.

Surrounded by all these riches, you may never need to get into a car, but if you want a lift to more distant shopping, the hotel provides free shuttle service within a three-mile radius in one of two house Rolls Royce Phantoms. (That’s one the kids will keep talking about.)

And there are still the Universal Studios tour, Disneyland, the beach at Santa Monica, Six Flags Hurricane Harbor water park, great exhibits at the La Brea Tar Pits, Peterson Automotive Museum, or any of Hollywood’s many cultural icons and historic sights to see. In a weekend, we never got to any of these. We just couldn’t pull ourselves away from the hotel.