Santa Monica is one of the best-known regions of Los Angeles. With its iconic pier, rolling beaches, and vibrant culture, it is the perfect place to base a vacation in the city. Santa Monica has some of L.A’s best restaurants, nightlife, and art and is located within striking distance of many other incredible parts of the city. If you’re looking for the best possible place within Santa Monica to make your vacation stay special, you can do no better than the incredible Viceroy Santa Monica.
The Viceroy Santa Monica has long been considered one of the most fantastic stays in the entire city. Recently, it was ranked on Travel+Leisure’s Top 15 City Hotels in America, and in the Condé Nast review of the best hotels in Los Angeles, the Viceroy Los Angeles came in at #2. But while the Viceroy has always been an incredibly beautiful hotel perfectly located steps from Pacific Ocean beaches, recent renovations to the building make it an even more incredible spot to vacation.
During the pandemic, when the flood of tourists and business people that would normally inhabit the Viceroy Santa Monica halted, the building took advantage of this by undergoing major renovations. The building underwent some design-based renovations to improve upon the unique and artistic look of the hotel, but there were also a lot more intensive changes that will dramatically improve the hotel experience.
The renovations the Viceroy underwent cost $21 million. For that money, they’ve made some dramatic changes that only improve the hotel’s standing as one of the top places for luxury-seeking travelers to make their temporary home.
The Viceroy Santa Monica is perfectly situated to catch some L.A sun and the renovations made its poolside experience all the more extravagant. The outdoor patio has been expanded to accommodate a larger crowd, and the addition of open-air cabanas makes it the absolute perfect place to curl up with a cocktail and a good book.
The Viceroy Santa Monica also re-stylized their lounge area, created new meeting spaces, and drastically improved the fitness center. The other big addition is the Sugar Palm on Ocean Avenue, the lunch and dinner restaurant located on the ground floor. It is an indoor-outdoor dining experience with a wraparound bar and seating that enter the pool area. It is the perfect place to spend a warm California evening with incredible cocktails, delicious seafood, and lounge and cabana seating.
One of the aspects of the Viceroy that is best-known is the incredible art within the building. Los Angeles is a city with a massive art scene, and Santa Monica is one of its centers. The Viceroy Santa Monica honors that creativity by collaborating with local artists and creators to utilize art and design elements to give the hotel a one-of-a-kind look. The recent renovation only continued that legacy of creativity.
The Viceroy Santa Monica’s focus on art is a product of the overall Viceroy mission of utilizing innovative art forms from sculptures and painting to Augmented Reality. This initiative is called A Canvas For Discovery and is present at many Viceroy locations across the world.
Several different artistic elements are present at the Viceroy Santa Monica. For one, the hotel utilizes massive, winding mural art to decorate the building’s exterior, providing it with a unique and sunny West Coast look. The hotel also features a collection of original pieces that use augmented reality and painting to alter photographs of the iconic Andy Warhol. This collection is called “The Lost Warhols” and was created by photographer and mixed-media artist Karen Bystedt alongside the famed Getty Museum.
The Viceroy Santa Monica also features esteemed and rising Los Angeles-based artists such as Monica Perez, whose pandemic-influenced collection “Melt Into Love” is another recent addition following the renovation.
The Viceroy Santa Monica is a luxurious hotel with incredible rooms, amazing views of the surrounding area, and incredible proximity to the ocean. Santa Monica is one of Los Angeles’ most famous areas for a reason, and the Viceroy Santa Monica is the ideal place to base a trip to this area.
Following a year where travel and commerce in the area ground to an unexpected halt, the Viceroy Santa Monica made the most out of this break by renovating the building. With some incredible additions, including the continuation of the hotel’s devotion to the arts, the Viceroy Santa Monica cements its reputation as one of the top stays in the country.
