California | Out There magazine | Luxury and Experiential Travel Inspiration

Travel inspiration

Inspiring edifices
West Hollywood, California, USA

One of my favourite things about travelling is finding inspiration for my dream home. West Hollywood is a real-life mood board. This compac...

Outdoor escapism
West Hollywood, California, USA

A red-tailed hawk circles weightlessly, high in the otherwise empty blue sky above me. My mind is crystal clear. I’m aware of everything ar...

The Shape House & Cryo Cafe, West Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

The Shape House & Cryo Cafe: hot and cold, in the name of wellness

In West Hollywood, there’s a kind of pressure to be the very best person you can be, inside and out. For some people, it’s about honing the...

Steven Reigns, West Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Steven Reigns: poetry in motion
West Hollywood, California, USA

“The opening of our library in West Hollywood in 2011 was a big moment for me,” explains the passionate young man sitting opposite me. Stev...

Tom Kiely
West Hollywood, California, USA

There’s no better way to connect with a new place than by talking to the locals and when those locals also happen to head up the Tourism Bo...

Heritage Classics, West Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Classic beauty
West Hollywood, California, USA

Los Angeles may be a car city, but West Hollywood itself is extremely walkable. So, imagine the irony of me pounding the pavements of Santa...

Eric Buterbaugh
West Hollywood, California, USA

Accepting a casual offer from a friend to arrange the flowers for a book launch – a bold step when he had never so much as touched a flower...

John Duran
West Hollywood, California, USA

The Mayor of West Hollywood, ‘Call me John’ Duran’s opening gambit to me goes a little something like this: “Welcome from the people of the...

The Abbey, West Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Down at The Abbey with Todd Barnes
West Hollywood, California, USA

No trip to West Hollywood would be complete without at least one trip to The Abbey. Situated just off Santa Monica Boulevard, this cour...

Valley inspired
Napa Valley, California, USA

Dawn is breaking over Yountville, Napa. A light, crisp breeze kisses my forehead and wakes me from my sleepwalk. It’s a perfectly clear Napa...

Desert modern
Palm Springs, USA

Palm Springs is the soothing, sun-drenched Yin to Vegas’ hedonistic Yang. I learnt that while it has only relatively recently become a g...

Where’s Dorothy?
West Hollywood, USA

Yes, I’m a friend of Dorothy. I learnt the true meaning of this phrase on my recent visit to West Hollywood. Nothing to do with the Wizard o...

Hotels & resorts

Kimpton La Peer Hotel, West Hollywood, California, USA

Kimpton La Peer Hotel
West Hollywood, USA

We’ve learned that West Hollywood is the sort of place where both residents and visitors have travelled the world and experienced the very ...

Palihouse, West Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Palihouse West Hollywood
West Hollywood, California, USA

The first time we stayed here, some six years ago, the service was so bad it became our benchmark for how not to run a hotel. On our arriva...

The Chamberlain, West Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

The Chamberlain
West Hollywood, California, USA

The Chamberlain is one of our go-to landmark hotels in the US. It’s not grand or opulent, but we love the fact that being tucked away in th...

Andaz, West Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Andaz
West Hollywood, California, USA

We can’t say that we’ve ever really had the urge to throw a TV out of a hotel window. But when in West Hollywood ... just kidding. In any c...

Solage, an Auberge Resort, Calistoga, USA

Silicon-valley millionaires mix with social-media fashionistas at this country-club style property. A team of cute staff in crisp polo shirt...

Belmond El Encanto, Santa Barbara, USA

Belmond is synonymous with taking something from the majestic, golden-age of hospitality and injecting luxurious, modern vigour into it; and...

The Scarlet Huntington, San Francisco, USA

On our ascent to the chic and lofty heights of Nob Hill, we were faced with a whimsical Straits-Chinese, boudoir fantasy – a happy confusion...

Post Ranch Inn, Big Sur, USA

This is one of those properties with a reputation that precedes it. Everywhere we went in California, the mere mention that we were visiting...

Auberge du Soleil, Rutherford, USA

We knew before we arrived at the Auberge that we were staying at one of Napa’s finest, when the people we told gasped out loud. We soon lear...

Ritz Carlton, Half Moon Bay, USA

If you are a golf fan, you’ll absolutely love this property. But even if you’re not, its setting is dramatic – not to mention romantic, perc...

Four Seasons L.A, at Beverley, Los Angeles, USA

We’re not great at celebrity spotting, but at the iconic Four Seasons Los Angeles at Beverley Hills, we couldn’t help but see them – we quic...

Meadowood, St Helena, USA

As if Meadowood is not a spectacular enough a property, the Meadowood Spa would be reason alone to check into the hotel. Set in an exclusive...

The Palace, San Francisco, USA

If like us, San Francisco was your entry point into Burning Man, a great place to top or tail the experience is the newly renovated Palace H...

Viceroy Palm Springs, Palm Springs, USA

I had a perfect moment at the Viceroy. It was my birthday and I was lying there, basking on a sun lounger beside the swimming pool...

The London, West Hollywood, USA

It was impossible not to hear a quintessentially La-la-land conversation when soaking up the California sun on the rooftop pool deck of The ...

Hyatt Century Plaza, Los Angeles, USA

The Hyatt Century Plaza has it all: Spacious, modern rooms with a balcony to catch the sunrise over breakfast, a sprawling pool and jacuzzi ...

The Standard, West Hollywood, USA

On our balcony overlooking the hotel pool, we wake to an up-close-and-personal view, and some of the best people-watching money can buy. Som...

The Chamberlain, West Hollywood, USA

From the moment the cab turned down into the lush tree-lined Westmount Drive, a calm oasis from the L.A. traffic, our respective blood press...

Palihouse, West Hollywood, USA

When you walk through the doors of the Palihouse Holloway, something doesn’t quite connect. Billed primarily as an extended stay hotel, we w...

Mondrian, West Hollywood, Los Angeles, USA

Years in from its last refurb, this place is still fabulous. Despite becoming somewhat of an LA landmark, it retains so much of the minimali...

Intercontinental San Francisco, California

InterContinental Moscone Center, San Francisco, USA

This is an unconventional choice for us, but there’s something really charming about the suites in this hotel. Some look back into SF, but o...