The Westside Property That Balances Barefoot Luxury With Urban Proximity

A Rooftop Above the Rest

There is something quietly radical about a rooftop pool on the Westside of Los Angeles. While Downtown towers and Hollywood Hills perches have long claimed the vertical high ground, the stretch of coast between Venice and Malibu has remained stubbornly low-slung, a landscape of mid-century bungalows and beach clubs that hug the horizon. Santa Monica Proper breaks that pattern, not with aggressive height but with thoughtful elevation. Its rooftop pool, the only one of its kind in the immediate area, offers a vantage point that feels both rare and earned, a place where the Pacific appears as backdrop rather than destination, where the city's westward tilt finally finds a perch from which to observe itself.

At Global Chic Voyage, we've watched the conversation around Los Angeles hospitality shift over the past decade. The city's hotel scene, once defined by the grand dames of Beverly Hills and the beach motels of the coast, has grown more nuanced, more attuned to the traveler who seeks both immersion and retreat. Santa Monica Proper, recently recognized as the top hotel in greater Los Angeles by Travel + Leisure's 2026 World's Best Awards, occupies a space that is neither purely urban nor entirely resort. It is a study in duality, a property that understands the value of proximity without surrendering the rituals of escape.

The Architecture of Arrival

The hotel sits a short walk from the Santa Monica Pier, close enough that the scent of salt and sunscreen drifts through the lobby in the late afternoon, yet far enough that the carnival din fades into a low hum. This is intentional geography. The building itself, designed by Howard Laks in collaboration with Kelly Wearstler, leans into California modernism without fetishizing it. Interiors are warm, textured, layered with materials that feel handmade: woven leather, terracotta, bleached wood. The palette is borrowed from the coast but filtered through a lens that privileges craft over cliché.

Wearstler's work here is less about statement and more about sequence. The lobby does not announce itself; it unfolds. Low seating clusters encourage lingering, and the transition from street to interior is gradual, almost cinematic. This is a hotel that understands the importance of the approach, the way a traveler's pulse slows as they move deeper into the property. It is a choreography we've come to appreciate in the best coastal retreats, a deliberate pacing that separates arrival from occupation.

The Spa That Hollywood Knows by Name

The wellness program at Santa Monica Proper has developed a reputation that extends beyond the typical hotel guest. The spa, tucked into the property's quieter corners, has become a draw for Los Angeles residents, including a roster of familiar faces from the entertainment industry. This is not the spa-as-amenity model, where treatment rooms sit idle except for the occasional guest massage. It is a destination in its own right, a place where appointments are booked weeks in advance and where the menu reflects a philosophy that blends European technique with Californian ease.

Treatments lean toward the regenerative: facials that emphasize lymphatic drainage, bodywork that incorporates stretching and breathwork, hydrotherapy that feels more ritual than routine. The staff is trained to read the body's signals, to adjust pressure and pacing without prompting. We've noted, in our visits to properties across Asia and Europe, that the best spa experiences share a common trait: they feel less like service and more like collaboration, a conversation between practitioner and guest. Santa Monica Proper achieves that balance, and it does so without the clinical sterility that can sometimes accompany high-performance wellness.

Beach Access as Baseline, Not Luxury

Santa Monica Proper does not merely gesture toward the ocean; it provides direct, unmediated access. This distinction matters. Too many coastal hotels treat the beach as scenery, something to be viewed from a terrace or framed by a window. Here, the property offers beach service, with chairs and umbrellas arranged on the sand each morning, and a concierge team that coordinates surfboard rentals, paddleboard excursions, and guided coastal walks. The beach is not an add-on; it is embedded into the hotel's daily rhythm.

This approach reflects a broader shift in luxury hospitality, one we've tracked across markets from Bali to the Amalfi Coast. The most compelling properties no longer treat natural assets as passive amenities. They activate them, integrate them into programming, and ensure that access is frictionless. At Santa Monica Proper, a guest can move from rooftop pool to ocean swim within minutes, and the transition feels seamless rather than logistically fraught. It is a small detail, but it speaks to a larger design ethos: luxury is not about distance from the world, but about ease of movement within it.

Dining That Reflects the Neighborhood

The hotel's restaurant, Onda, operates under the direction of chef Jessica Largey, whose resume includes stints at Manresa and Simone. The menu is Californian in the truest sense, built around seasonal produce and coastal seafood, but it avoids the trappings of farm-to-table dogma. Dishes are refined without being fussy, generous without being overwrought. A crudo might arrive with citrus and olive oil, its simplicity a testament to ingredient quality rather than a lack of ambition. A wood-fired whole fish, meant for sharing, echoes the communal eating traditions of the Mediterranean, adapted for a Los Angeles audience that values both flavor and informality.

Onda's terrace, open to the street, blurs the line between hotel dining and neighborhood gathering place. Locals reserve tables alongside guests, and the energy shifts throughout the day: quiet and focused at breakfast, lively and social by evening. This permeability is rare in hotel restaurants, which often struggle to attract anyone beyond their captive audience. Santa Monica Proper has managed to avoid that insularity, in part because the food is strong enough to stand on its own, and in part because the space itself invites rather than excludes.

The Rooftop as Social Laboratory

The rooftop pool, as mentioned, is the property's most distinctive feature, but its significance extends beyond novelty. In a city where rooftop spaces often skew toward nightlife, with DJs and bottle service and a scene that can feel performative, Santa Monica Proper has calibrated its rooftop for a different register. The pool is open to guests throughout the day, and while there is a bar, the emphasis is on daytime leisure: reading, swimming, low-key conversation. The furniture is comfortable, the shade plentiful, and the music, when present, is ambient rather than assertive.

We've observed that the best rooftop spaces function as social laboratories, places where a hotel's personality is tested and refined. Santa Monica Proper's rooftop suggests a property that values discretion over display, that understands its audience is looking for respite rather than spectacle. It is a choice that aligns with the broader identity of the Westside, a part of Los Angeles that has always prized understatement over ostentation.

Why This Recognition Matters

The recognition from Travel + Leisure's 2026 World's Best Awards is not merely a marketing accolade. It reflects a broader acknowledgment that Los Angeles hospitality has matured, that the city's hotel landscape now includes properties capable of competing with the world's best coastal retreats. Santa Monica Proper's ascent to the top position in greater Los Angeles signals a shift in traveler priorities: a preference for properties that integrate rather than isolate, that offer access rather than exclusivity, that balance design ambition with livable comfort.

For those of us who track luxury travel across continents, this recognition also underscores the growing importance of the Westside as a hospitality destination. Long overshadowed by Beverly Hills and Hollywood, the coastal corridor from Santa Monica to Venice has emerged as a locus of innovation in hotel design and programming. Santa Monica Proper is both a product of that evolution and a catalyst for its continuation.

The Verdict on Westside Hospitality

Santa Monica Proper succeeds because it does not try to be all things to all travelers. It knows its audience: the guest who values proximity to both city and ocean, who seeks wellness without dogma, who appreciates design without needing it to shout. It is a hotel that understands the luxury of choice, the freedom to move between rooftop and beach, between solitude and socializing, without friction or compromise.

In a city as sprawling and polyphonic as Los Angeles, where neighborhoods function almost as independent city-states, Santa Monica Proper has carved out a position that feels both specific and expansive. It is a Westside hotel, deeply rooted in its geography, yet it speaks to a broader ethos that transcends location. It is, in the end, a property that has earned its recognition not through spectacle, but through consistency, craft, and a quiet confidence in its own vision.

Credit: Proper Hotels