Shutters: Gray Shingle on the Sand

Santa Monica’s beach is twenty-five to forty minutes from downtown Los Angeles. Shutters on the Beach stands at One Pico, the first luxury hotel built on this sand in decades when Edward and Thomas Slatkin opened it in 1993. Their father had owned the Beverly Hills Hotel. The sons took a bankrupt beach parcel and raised a Cape-and-shingle house that faces the Pacific as if the ocean were the lobby. It is still independently owned. The luxury is the location first and the rooms second: white trim, gray cedar, shutters that actually work, a bed from which the water is not a rumor.

The interiors continue the beach-house idea with more finish than a cottage: proper baths, linens that justify the rate, ONE Spa on the first floor, 1 Pico for dinner that takes Southern Italian tradition to the coast. Hidden gems are the Cottage shop, a pool cabana reserved through the concierge, seasonal beach yoga at the front desk, the beach concierge on the promenade when the season allows. Book an ocean room. Book the spa if the day should include stillness. Nearby, the Pier, Third Street Promenade, Main Street, and the long walk toward Venice are all on foot. Palisades Park sits on the bluff if you want grass and the same horizon.

inland. What you gain instead of a hotel two blocks off the water is the rare Los Angeles night that ends with sand under the balcony. The graceful cons are weekend crowds on the path and rates that follow the view. Parking is valet and not a secret. Guests who wanted mountain silence will drive to Montecito. Guests who wanted the most popular and visually honest beach rest in the city will understand the shingles.

Shutters on the Beach is a Citywide Spotlight Diamond Destination because it is family-held, unique to this exact stretch of sand, and still the house professionals book when the assignment is the Pacific at the door. Choosing it rather than a bluff hotel is choosing proximity, a family that already knew how a great hotel behaves, and a morning that starts with the tide.