Santa Monica shimmies | Engine room of California cool | Living the lux life

Sexy cars, food with Michelin cachet, wicked wines, and a beachy, noise-cancelling hotel … reclaim the Good Life in Santa Monica

I’m waiting for my ride. It’s a gleaming white 1964 Mercedes-Benz 220SE, carpeted, with a dashboard of tortoiseshell and burnt caramel leather.

Its playmates are on the way, too – a 1959 Chevrolet Corvette, a 1971 Ford Mustang that’s the colour of English mustard, a 1964 Jaguar E-type in British racing green, and a 5.6 metre red leather lounge room on wheels: the 1975 Cadillac Eldorado whose U-turn defies physics.

These wheels are pep pills. Says Daren Johnson, founder and CEO of Hollywood Classic Cars, “Cars like these make people happy. You look at them and smile.”

Hollywood Classic Car Convoy enroute to Malibu

Our convoy is heading north from Santa Monica to Malibu, on California’s Pacific Coast Highway. A Maverick chopper will then airlift us to the Presqu’ile Winery in Santa Maria Valley. It’s part of a long weekend that is the bomb: Michelin-star food, fine wine, restorative spa treatments, monogrammed pillows, and a five-star hotel that’s a noise-cancelling bubble.

From surf to startups

From the very beginning, Santa Monica has been on the radar for its movie-star cars, palatial living, bodybuilding surfing and Beach Boy harmonies. Indeed, this trailblazing town may have invented The Good Life.

As the town’s biographer Paula A. Scott notes, “Santa Monica has always lived on the edge: on the edge of the North American continent, on the edge of the Pacific Ocean, on the edge of Los Angeles, on the edge of greatness, occasionally even on the edge of ruin, but always on the cutting edge.”

Today, the buzz comes via its tech industry and start-ups, health and wellness pitstops, and a creative economy. It’s a hub for movers and shakers, celebrities, and travellers looking for Lifestyle – and luxury hotels.

One of them, the Regent Santa Monica Beach, is proving to be the new hub of California cool.

Santa Monica muscles in on fitness culture. Photo: Susan Skelly

A love letter to sand and sea

Formerly Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel, and after a $US150 million rebuild, the establishment has bedded down a stellar first year, picking up a Michelin Key and appearing on Esquire magazine’s Best New Hotels in the World 2025 list (described as “a love letter to the sand and the sea”) and the Travel + Leisure It List 2025: The 100 Best New Hotels of the Year.

With 167 guest rooms and suites, the hotel literally presides over Santa Monica Beach. You could happily bunker down for the duration of a stay. West-facing windows frame the beach and the famous Santa Monica Pier to the north. It’s a beach scene alive with seagulls, cyclists, joggers, and fitness freaks doing chin lifts, cartwheels, and balancing on beams.

Dusky view from an Oceanfront King room to the Ocean and the famous Santa Monica Pier. Photo: Supplied

An Oceanfront King room has its own foyer, several places to just “be”, a curated book selection (Surf Tribe, portraits of freckly surfers by Stephan Vanfleteren, is a page-turner), a jazz soundtrack, and a bathroom with a come-hither bath and Perricone MD products.

It’s the epitome of thoughtful luxury. Pillowslips are monogrammed; books have bookmarks placed as if by fairies; near empty toothpaste is replaced; there’s fast turnaround laundry.

The art of chill

I book a 60-minute Energy of Tianzi massage in the Guerlain Wellness Spa (where treatments are inspired by rare orchids and honeybees) and a 90-minute make-up lesson. The pool, which looks like a film set with its daybeds, cabanas, bar, and beach vista, beckons. I check out a sunset from the Malibu Sunset Suite with a Gintonico, a ruby coloured cocktail personalised from a gin cart that looks like a science experiment, with beakers of cinnamon, star anise and dried orange.

Add to cart: Gintonico, anyone? A sunset tipple. Photo: Susan Skelly

But explore one must. In the Regent’s orbit is Palisades Park, a 10-hectare green space, perched above the Pacific Coast Highway. There’s Third Street Promenade with boutiques, eateries and talented street performers. Santa Monica Art Museum is saying goodbye to A Day with David Bowie – photos by the late Christine de Grancy. The new Museum of Illusions Santa Monica has 80 exhibits that challenge reality with optical illusions, visual tricks and hands-on science.

Serious art lovers can seek out the Getty Villa in Malibu which houses the collections of  J. Paul Getty, showcasing Greek, Roman, and Etruscan antiquities.

Third Street Promenade street performer. Photo: Susan Skelly

Eat to the beat

Food rules in southern California, from Michelin-starred restaurants and hotel fine dining to farmers’ markets, wholefood outlets and tacos on Venice Beach just south. At the Michelin-starred Citrin, chef and owner Josiah Citrin is working the room and happy to chat. The food, French smarts meet California sunshine, is a knockout – from citrus-cured Hamachi tuna crudo and foamy lobster bolognese to venison with a glossy poivrade sauce and a dinky take on pavlova.

Citrus-cured tuna crudo fit for a garden party at Citrin. Photo: Susan Skelly

Citrin is a curtain raiser to an equally memorable degustation dinner the following night at the Regent’s Orla by Michael Mina, which nods to Egyptian, Greek and Mediterranean flavours. Black truffle saganaki, harissa-grilled lamb chops, tuna falafel, and prime fillet with black garlic vinaigrette are among the temptations.

Uber over to Beverly Hills to drop in on Rodeo Drive, Maru Espresso Bar and Erewhon, a wholefood outlet that is pricey food porn. Order the $US20 Hailey Bieber Strawberry Glaze Skin Smoothie – frozen strawberries, avocado, honey, collagen powder, almond milk and sea moss gel. A hungry-person portion of grass-fed wagyu is $US63. Maybe, on the side, an $US8 slice of mango marinated in lime juice, and chipotle spices.

Presqu’ile Winery, a showcase of Santa Barbara’s best wines. Photo: Susan Skelly

Meanwhile, back at the bucolic Presqu’ile Winery, a recce around gleaming fermentation tanks, a lab, concrete “eggs”, and the barrel cave is taking place. The multi-level facility, built into a hillside, uses a gravity-flow system to ensure the winemaking has minimal intervention. We taste signature cool-climate Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Syrah, from Santa Barbara County, during a Fall Mezze of grilled-top sirloin, salsa verde, Panzanella salad and chocolate lava cake.

After a cellar inspection, a glamorous lunch at the Presqu’ile Winery. Photo: Susan Skelly

Our helicopter whirs us back to Van Nuys Airport via craggy valleys and folded hills, past hot air balloons, and over lakes. Cars are waiting to transport us back to the Orla Bar with its oval dome, brass fittings, superb wine list – and another dazzling sunset.

The inside story: a 1975 Cadillac Eldorado. Photo: The Mogli

THE SPEND: Rooms at Regent Santa Monica Beach start at $US825. The Classic Car, Iconic Coast package starts at $US2,700 for a minimum two-night stay; reservations: +1 (844) 461-1747. For general bookings and more information, visit santamonica.regenthotels.com/

The writer was a guest of IHG Hotels & Resorts