The Best Hotels in Malibu, by the Record
The best hotels in Malibu, by the professional record: Forbes Travel Guide and Michelin Guide have both weighed in, and their honors are what rank this list. Nobu Ryokan Malibu comes out on top.
Hotel June Malibu and Malibu Beach Inn hold the next two places. Michelin Guide shows up on more of this list than any other guide, with Forbes Travel Guide next.
-
Sixteen rooms on Carbon Beach, all teak, all facing the Pacific, and a rate that ensures the other guests are probably not stressing about it. Nobu Ryokan is a boutique hotel modeled on a traditional Japanese inn, which means the design is spare, the pace is slow, and the whole point is that nobody can easily find you. Chef Nobu Matsuhisa's other properties thrive on being seen; this one is structured around the opposite instinct.
-
-
Every room faces the ocean at this slim, swanky boutique hotel wedged between the Pacific Coast Highway and what the locals call Billionaire's Beach. Pale wood paneling, slate-bordered fireplaces, and custom white oak furniture keep things quietly serious, while the bathrooms go full futuristic with remote-controlled Toto toilets. Staff attend the beach chaises, and the waterfront terrace runs from morning avocado toast to late-night espresso martinis without ever dropping the mood.
-
Directly across Pacific Coast Highway from the break that gave it its name, the Surfrider Malibu is a boutique hotel that took a Fifties building and quietly made it the thing Malibu somehow never had. The team behind it, a Californian architect and a couple of improbable partners, kept the bones and let the ocean do the decorating. Rooms fill fast with people who'd rather wake up to surf reports than room service carts.