Creative Commons licensePhoto by flickr user jiazi

Flamboyant, brash, hip and exciting, Los Angeles is a sprawling city of mega-bucks, mega-stars and mega-egos, where nobody seems to do anything by halves. Different areas of the city are like separate villages with their own distinctive personalities. Taken one at a time the bits of this metropolitan jigsaw seem friendlier, more appealing to explore and easier to get to know and it is worth putting almost as much thought into where you want to be based as which hotel you want to stay in. Top choices are the newly revamped Hollywood with its film studios and Walk of Fame, Beverly Hills with its shops and the Santa Monica and Malibu beach areas. Wherever you decide to stay, there is easy access to other areas and no shortage of things to do, from celebrity spotting, visiting Universal Studios, the huge Griffith Park or the Getty Center, checking out the vibrant nightlife or just watching the spectacular Pacific sunsets. The order by which the hotels are listed bears no reflection on our preference.

Written by Leonie Glass