The Top 2 Hotels in Venice

The Hotel Erwin sits steps from the Venice boardwalk in a neighborhood still negotiating its shift from beach town to boutique destination, its rooftop bar catching the Pacific light while surfers drift past below. The rooms carry the studied casualness of a California dream—vegan minibars, sunset sightlines—that feels less like irony than capitulation to what the area has always wanted to be.

The century-old Waldorf Building, once home to Chaplin and the Z-Boys, now operates as a modest boutique hotel that opens directly onto Venice's boardwalk, where the bohemian chaos of the beach still sets the tone. A place more interested in proximity to the scene than grandeur, it sits at the edge of Los Angeles proper, asking you to embrace the neighborhood's scrappy independence.