Malibu, California

I don’t think there’s a better place to go to sleep, or to wake up, than the Malibu Beach Inn. (I’m not talking about in LA, I mean, period.) It’s directly on the ocean—so much so that you have to check the tides before you head out on a beach walk! We left the sliding glass door of the balcony open so we could hear the waves crashing as we fell asleep, and then we woke up to the most epic sunrise. Since we didn’t have a car, we walked so much more than we normally would have. We had a great lunch at the Malibu Farm (there’s one that has waiter service at the beginning of the pier, but I prefer the one at the end, which usually doesn’t have a wait), just 5 minutes away on foot. After lunch, I checked out the Ranch at the Pier store, owned by One Gun Ranch, which has such a great edit—from their biodynamic trucker hats to Bamford products. After drinks at the hotel (where they make an excellent Negroni and martini!), we walked to dinner at the Surfrider, which was fantastic (although you normally have to be a guest in order to eat there). While I haven’t stayed there, it’s a favorite of many friends. And on our last morning, we walked up to the Malibu Country Mart, where we split a delicious breakfast burrito at Malibu Kitchen, then took a walk through the Malibu Lagoon. If you’re there early on a Sunday and you’re a car fan, check out Coffee and Cars. It turned out that even staying in Malibu, we were just fine without a car. Okay, maybe if we’d had the time to go hiking a car would have been necessary, but it was super easy and much cheaper to just Uber everywhere.

Other suggestions on our list that we didn’t have time for…all within walking distance: Broad Street Oyster Co (in the Malibu Country Mart), Taverna Tony (authentic Greek food), Malibu Seafood (an hour’s walk, but 5-minute drive. Go at sunset!), Nobu.