Los Angeles

• California in a Fortnight? - California
• Frankly, my dear, you'll love it - Charleston
• Blown away by the Windy City - Chicago
• Blown away by Chicago - Chicago
• Haunted by Hemingway - Florida
• We have the keys to unlock Florida - Florida
• My Love Match with Las Vegas - Las Vegas
• The town that cloned Europe - Las Vegas
• A Chorus of Angels - Los Angeles
• LA: An actresses guide - Los Angeles
• The Stars Bite Back - Los Angeles
• Hotel of high fashion - Miami
• Miami Spice - Miami
• Alien Town: Roswell - New Mexico
• How the kids went Cajan - New Orleans
• Seta and the City - New York
• Glamour by the sea - Santa Barbara
• Celebrity Hotels - USA
• Escape to Sundance - Utah
• Dealing in Dreams - Las Vegas
• On the hunt for Hotel California - Los Angeles

MIRRORS ON THE CEILING and pink champagne on ice, sang The Eagles in their 1977 classic Hotel California – a place where ‘you can check out any time you like but you can never leave’.

This dissolute hostelry was a metaphor for the worst excesses of Seventies LA, insisted The Eagles – they weren’t thinking of a real hotel. The argument was undermined by having the exclusive Beverly Hills Hotel on the cover of Hotel California, one of the most successful albums ever.

The lyrics have been a source of endless confusion: what accounts for the desert highway’s warm smell of ‘colitis’, a chronic digestive disease? Actually the desert smells of ‘colitas’, presumably a flower but no one is sure.

And why, when the hotel captain is asked to bring some wine, does he respond that they haven’t had that ‘spirit’ there since 1969? We all know wine isn’t a spirit but fermented grape juice.

In Seventies LA, there was famously just one hotel living the Hotel California dream. It became such a sad cliche for bad rock-god behaviour that it ended up being featured on the film that spoofed all such celeb indulgences: This Is Spinal Tap.

If you’d checked into the Continental Hyatt House on LA’s Sunset Boulevard at almost any time in the Seventies, you would have discovered one major band or another behaving badly.

In 1972, the Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards heaved the television from his hotel room and threw it over the balcony on to the pavement of the Sunset Strip, where it smashed to smithereens.

The Riot Hyatt

Five years later Led Zeppelin’s John Bonham rode a Harley-Davidson down a corridor of the same hotel, while in 1971 Jim Morrison was evicted for choosing to dangle from his balcony by his fingertips over the traffic below. The Doors’ Robby Krieger was moved to dub the place the ‘Riot Hyatt’ after which it became generally know as the Riot House.

But just as some of those bad boys of rock have discovered gentrified respectability, crazy-living rock hotels have had to grow up.

Late last year the Riot House was reopened and renamed Andaz West Hollywood after a £35million refurbishment, making it one of the most cutting-edge in Los Angeles.

While in days gone by the hotel played host to everyone who was anyone on the music scene, these days rather than Motorhead’s Lemmy scaring the natives you’re more likely to bump into Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher, who are big fans of the hotel’s restaurant, supposedly part-owned by Justin Timberlake. Kate Winslet hosted an Oscars bash there.

But that doesn’t mean to say it’s lost any of its edgy cool factor - or that the relaunch represents a desire to distance the hotel from its legendary heritage. The minimalist, urban decor sets it apart from the rest of the city’s extravagant splendour – the concrete-coloured floor in the lobby is decorated with candles and metallic vases, creating an intimately rock ‘n’ roll environment.

LA has the whole package

The rooftop terrace boasts some of the best views of LA. The same can be said for the glass-walled ‘sunrooms’ that each room has instead of a balcony (a clever move designed to avoid plasma TVs ending up like Keith Richards’s old set, perhaps).

The glass of the sunroom is embedded with a motto – ‘You’re Alive, Do Something’ for example – and there is certainly a lot to do in Los Angeles.

LA has the whole package. Sun, shopping, sights, sea and celebs – the dream destination for anyone who aspires to live like an A-lister. (If you want to know what an A-lister’s life looks like, Johnny Depp’s home can be seen from the roof)

A few minutes’ walk from the Andaz are some of the most iconic bars and restaurants. The notorious nightclub The Viper Room, formerly owned by Depp, and the scene of actor River Phoenix’s fatal drug overdose in 1993, lies ten minutes down the Sunset Strip.

Mel’s Drive-In Diner, renowned for its burgers and milkshakes, is a firm favourite with the in-crowd - even Victoria Beckham has been spotted tucking in here. Authentic Fifties, it offers the kind of food you always associate with the US and is surprisingly cheap.

Over the road, the Mondrian Hotel’s Sky Bar is billed as only for guests or those who exercise real Hollywood clout, although lesser mortals can usually gain entry on quiet nights. Inside, the delicate lighting and lush plants help to create an air of utter tranquillity.

Disneyland approach to retailing

Anyone who enjoys shopping could spend a week doing just that in the high-end malls. One of the best is The Grove on West 3rd, which has a Disneyland approach to retailing. There is even an old-fashioned trolley to take shoppers from one end to the other.

Next door is the Farmers’ Market, slightly less luxurious than the nearby Whole Foods but a lot more authentic.

Follow West 3rd Street for LA’s famous vintage boutiques which, while not noted for the cheapest clobber, do offer some amazing designer finds. The best is Polkadots & Moonbeams.

But the one place synonymous with Los Angeles shopping is Rodeo Drive. We might not all be able to afford much of what’s available here but to walk down the street itself is one of LA’s ‘must do’ activities.

If the Andaz West Hollywood is reluctant to make the link with The Eagles’ ill-reputed Hotel California (mirrors on the ceiling and pink champagne on ice would be a nice touch for the junior suites), it’s an interesting sign of the times that other hostelries around the world are choosing the name as a canny marketing device.

What else, for example, would explain the existence of a Hotel California in Newquay, Cornwall (‘one of the best three-star hotels in Newquay’)? Of course, it was the Atlantic Hotel in Newquay that featured prominently in the The Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour. But that’s another rock ‘n’ roll legend altogether.