Santa Monica Travel Guide
Hotel Photo Booths / Hotel Fun / Santa Monica Hotels / Green Hotels / → All Tags
Smile! You're On Camera (If You Want to Be) at The Shore Hotel
Aside from having stylish and green guestrooms with Pacific Oceans views, an eco-friendly fitness center and an upcoming Blue Plate Taco restaurant, The Shore Hotel in Santa Monica has now added a bit of fun for their guests in the form of a digital photo booth.
Found in the lobby near the check-in desk the photo booth lets guest take either a single image or an old-school photo strip with the Shore Hotel logo (as you can see in the gallery below, the hotel's logo is everywhere!).
And keeping in line with the hotel's emphasis on being green and conserving waste, the photos are only emailable (no paper waste here) and you can share them on Facebook and Twitter as well. Cheeeeese!
Room rates at the hotel start around $220 a night.
Guess the Hotel / Green Hotels / Santa Monica Hotels / → All Tags
The Water Bottle Water Fountain isn't The Only Green Thing at the Shore Hotel
Two of you hotel experts were stumped but Dbenaderet was absolutely correct in guessing the hotel with the water bottle water fountain was the new Shore Hotel in Santa Monica.
After touring the hotel the other day, we're not so sure we've ever seen a more stylish yet totally green hotel from the construction of the building to the materials in the rooms down to the recycling bins under the desk. The hotel even employs its own Green Concierge. And below is the shot of the hotel's fitness center where we found the water bottle water fountain and which has a floor made from recycled rubber and tires.
Hotel Openings / Santa Monica Hotels / Hotel Opening Rates / → All Tags
Santa Monica's Shore Hotel is Open Now, For Sure
While the first weekend open for the new Shore Hotel in Santa Monica was a hot and sunny one, the temp cooled down a bit yesterday when we stopped by to check out the spot.
Still, the chilly weather didn't stop a few guests from hanging out by the street-facing pool (which can only be accessed with a hotel key card btw) and it looked like some sort of corporate event was happening in the lobby. We also spotted a few beach towels hanging over the railing of a room on the top floor as well as some beach chairs in the restaurant space where the Blue Taco restaurant is set to open.
Hotel Restaurants / Hotel Openings / Santa Monica Hotels / → All Tags
The Shore Hotel Will Also Taste Great, Thanks to Blue Plate Taco
Just yesterday after we learned how good The Shore Hotel in Santa Monica will smell, we learned how good the place will taste. The hotel, opening on October 1, has announced that Blue Plate Taco will be the restaurant that's serving up lunch and dinner to guests and non-guests seven days a week.
As the restaurant's name suggests, menu options will include tacos like the mouthwatering Lobster Truffle Tacos but also salads, grilled seafoods and meats and ceviches, all served with the restaurant's homemade tortillas. Also homemade? The margaritas flowing from Blue Plate Taco's full bar. Not a marg person? It's ok, the restaurant promises ice cold Mexican beer too.
Hotel Scents / Hotel Openings / Santa Monica Hotels / → All Tags
The Shore Hotel Will Sure Smell Festive When It Opens
What's that smell? Well, it depends on what month it is!
It's no secret here that HotelChatter is a little obsessed with hotel scents as we've been chronicling who smells like what for some time now. And now we've got a whiff of what the upcoming Shore Hotel in Santa Monica will smell like.
According to our top nose, the hotel is going to use a different scent each month. This immediately had us wondering if the hotel would smell like a Pumpkin Spice Latte since opening day is October 1, prime fall time.
But alas, the hotel is going to start off with "fresh" scents for the opening and then transition into seasonal ones. So will the hotel smell like turkey and cranberry in November and pine trees in December? We can only hope!
If you want to sniff out the Shore Hotel when it opens, rooms are currently avail on October 7 for a special grand opening rate of $220 a night. (That's actually down a lot from when we last looked too!)
Hotel Fun / Hotel Photo Booths / Santa Monica Hotels / Luxury Hotels / Beachfront Hotels / → All Tags
To Do in Santa Monica: The Cocktail Trolley, Photo Booth and Zoltar at The Casa Del Mar
We've already told you about the new gluten-free menus at Casa del Mar in Santa Monica, Calif. but we nearly forgot the most important part--gluten-free cocktails!
Regardless of where you stand on the gluten-free trend (silly or imperative), these gluten-free drinks are delicious. Even better, they are wheeled around on a little cocktail trolley and crafted at your behest by the hotel's mixologist. For instance, we requested something not too strong but not too sweet and we were given a Sunflower ($12) made with Absolut Citron, Veev Acai and Lemon Sour. Delightful.
Later on, the hotel let us sample some of the gluten-free entrees at Catch prepared by Chef Jason Bowlin such as a prosciutto and melon salad topped with burrata, rosemary and olive oil ($14) and a variety of spiedini or Italian-style kebabs, with swordfish, white prawns, pork tenderloin or beef. (Our fave was the prawns with chorizo, fennel and olives, $26.)
Fashion Hotels / Santa Monica Hotels / Los Angeles Hotels / Hotel Fun / Loews Hotels / → All Tags
Fred Segal Opens a Fashion 'Lending Library' at Loews Santa Monica
Let's be real here. When you come to Los Angeles for a trip--whether it be business, leisure or to meet up with that "director" who you met online in a chat room--you are going to want to see some celebrities. In fact, you won't go home unless you see one.
Now if you're staying on the Westside (and that means anything west of Beverly Hills), we usually recommend popping into glorious boutique fashion mecca Fred Segal for a guaranteed celeb sighting. After all Blake and Leo were spotted there last week. But Fred Segal is also great for, duh, shopping and now the Loews Santa Monica Hotel has wisely partnered up with the store to bring the fashion to its guests.
Hotel Construction / Santa Monica Hotels / Hotel Openings / Hotel Opening Rates / → All Tags
We So Excited for The Shore Hotel in Santa Monica
Yes, we just referenced Rebecca Black in that headline.
We've already told you how impressed we were with the interiors at the Shore Hotel opening in Santa Monica in October but when we drove by the hotel last week, we were equally impressed with its slick modern exterior going up on Ocean Avenue.
The hotel, once a dumpy Travelodge (and "dumpy" is us being nice), is giving Ocean Avenue a much-needed 21st century look with its u-shaped design and steel-trestle roof. There's also cool-looking three-tier sky bridge that connects the main building to a second building with more hotel rooms. Though that sounds like a lot of rooms, there's actually only 164 making it just a touch larger than a boutique hotel.
Hotel Openings / Hotel Opening Rates / Santa Monica Hotels / Beach Hotels / Hotel News / → All Tags
Santa Monica's Shore Hotel to Open in October at $250 a Night
When we last checked in with the new ocean-facing hotel in Santa Monica, The Shore Hotel, it was getting ready for an end of summer opening. That's not quite going to happen anymore but the hotel tells us that it will be accepting guests in October at $250 a night. Considering that most of the hotels along the ocean in SanMon start around $400 a night, the Shore Hotel is definitely a more affordable alternative.
And it's got a lot of cool things in it too like free WiFi, an outdoor pool, two restaurants and a fitness center.
Up in the guestrooms, there's "beach shades" of teal and orange and custom-made Teak wood furniture. The bathrooms will be sporting the peekaboo trend as there are rainshowers with a "one touch privacy screen." (You can get a better idea of that view from the photo below.) And if you're lucky--killer views of the Santa Monica Pier.
Adding to all this, the hotel is a Silver LEED property with a huge focus on sustainability in the common spaces and guest rooms. The hotel describes all their eco-friendly elements:
Hotel Bicycles / Hotel Fashion / Santa Monica Hotels / Kate Spade / → All Tags
The Kate Spade Bike Goes Round and Round at Shutters on The Beach
In Santa Monica, Calif. the June Gloom has finally lifted (on most days at least) to make way for perfect beach cruising weather. And now at the beachfront luxury spot, Shutters on the Beach you can do your cruising in high style, thanks to their new Kate Spade bikes.
The eye-popping green bikes are actually handmade Italian bicycles from Adeline Adeline but they've been styled by Kate Spade and the green is the brand's signature color.
Healthy Hotels / Hotel Restaurants / Santa Monica Hotels / → All Tags
Bye, Bye Burger and Fries, Here Come The Gluten-Free Menus
Hotel restaurants are getting savvy about catering to their diners palates. Several spots started offering vegan fare and now the Hotel Casa del Mar is going gluten-free on one of its menus. (But they aren't the first. Fairmont Hotels also made a similar move back in January and Vegas has done gluten free for a while.)
Unlike some eateries that only offer one or two appropriate dishes, the Santa Monica hotel's Catch restaurant has a substantial menu of gluten-free goodies, from crudo and salads to entrees and sides.
Hotel Construction / Santa Monica Hotels / Snapshot / Hotel Hype / → All Tags
The Shore Hotel Sure Has a Long Way to Go Before Opening
Yesterday, we told you that a new hotel would be coming to Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica-- The Shore Hotel, a 164-room, open-air hotel just steps away from the Santa Monica Pier and Third Street Promenade.
Here's what the hotel plans on offering guests when it opens at the end of summer:
Free WiFi throughout the hotel, pets are welcome, a personal trainer will be available, sightseeing tours will be offered, and there will be bike and roller blade rentals. If you don't feel like taking a dip in the Pacific, a solar-heated outdoor pool and patio will be under a steel-trestled roof. There also will be two restaurants, a 24-hour gym and plentiful underground parking.
But now we understand why we won't be able to stay there until after summer is over, on September 5. The joint still has a lot of construction to finish up. Still, the hotel will be infinitely better than what used to be there before, a dingy old Travelodge. As always, we'll be keeping an eye on it.
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