Just 45 minutes from LAX airport Avalon Hotel is a Beverly Hills boutique bolt-hole that sports retro-fabulous '50s furniture (think Charles Eames chairs George Nelson lamps & tables by Isamu Noguchi) a vintage hourglass-shaped swimming pool & a very cool award-winning restaurant. Service is seamless in a country where the word 'service' actually means something. The custom-made beds are big covered in Porthault linen & very well sprung. If it was good enough for Marilyn Monroe...