
When it initially opened in September 1926, the Breakers loomed massive on the Lengthy Seashore, California, skyline … at a hovering (for the time) 14 tales.
After it was reflagged because the world’s eighth Hilton within the Thirties, it grew to become often called top-of-the-line resorts on the West Coast, attracting Hollywood golden age glitterati like Elizabeth Taylor and Cary Grant. Since then, it has modified arms a number of occasions and was most just lately a retirement house.
Associated: TPG’s 16 favorite hotels in California for every type of traveler
Nowadays, the lodge — which reopened as a Fairmont in November 2024 after a multiyear, $150 million renovation — is perhaps dwarfed by the encircling edifices. But it surely retains a regal air because of its inimitable Spanish Revival type and imposing silhouette.
The interiors, in the meantime, have been gorgeously redone with an eye fixed towards artwork deco aptitude (assume: rounded velvet furnishings and polished brass lighting fixtures) whereas retaining authentic components like ornate crown molding and old style mail chutes nonetheless intact.
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We obtained a primary take a look at the lodge days after its opening. This is what the expertise was like.
Fairmont Breakers Lengthy Seashore location
The Fairmont Breakers Lengthy Seashore sits smack dab in the midst of downtown Lengthy Seashore, proper alongside Ocean Boulevard. The lodge is slightly below 7 miles away from Lengthy Seashore Airport (LGB), which takes round 20 to half-hour by automobile to succeed in. Relying on visitors, you’ll be able to count on to pay round $40 to get to and from the airport through a ride-hailing service.
The property can also be 25 miles south of Los Angeles Worldwide Airport (LAX), and a journey from there can take anyplace from 40 to 75 minutes and price upward of $80 in case you are utilizing a ride-hailing service. An alternative choice is John Wayne Airport (SNA), which is 25 miles southeast of the lodge in Santa Ana, California. The drive from there can take round 40 to 60 minutes and price roughly $70 when utilizing a service like Uber or Lyft.
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In case you’re already visiting Los Angeles, it is simple to succeed in the lodge through primary thoroughfares. It sits only a brief distance off Interstate 710 (often known as the Lengthy Seashore Freeway).
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Fairmont Breakers Lengthy Seashore reserving particulars
The Fairmont model is a part of Accor and participates within the Accor Live Limitless loyalty program. Members can earn factors on stays when reserving instantly by way of Accor at a price of 25 factors per 10 euros ($11) spent and redeem them in increments of two,000 factors to save lots of 40 euros ($44) on lodge payments. Reserving as a member by way of Accor additionally opens up preferential charges that may embrace reductions and add-ons akin to free breakfast or on-property credit.
Charges on the Fairmont Breakers Lengthy Seashore begin at $349 per night time.
Standout options
- You will wish to try the lodge’s a number of swanky watering holes, together with the rooftop Halo venue and the foyer jazz lounge Alter Ego.
- The constructing has attractive historic options, in addition to superbly redone rooms and public areas.
- Friends can anticipate inexpensive room charges with on-property advantages when reserving instantly by way of Accor.
Drawbacks
- Although renovated, the constructing is previous, so some rooms have quirky configurations.
- Workers are nonetheless discovering their footing, and whereas service is real and heat, it isn’t as polished accurately quickly.
- Sadly, the lodge is not a part of any of the credit card luxury hotel booking programs but.
The vibe at Fairmont Breakers Lengthy Seashore
“That is the mayor of Lengthy Seashore,” our server at Nettuno mentioned as she set down a plate of Caledonian prawns with Calabrian chili butter, indicating a person entertaining a big feast at a close-by desk.
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He was simply considered one of many locals we discovered testing the newly opened lodge in November. The spa was principally booked throughout our two-night keep, and each the glamorous eating room at Sky Room and the gardenlike lounge at Halo on the higher flooring have been full of curious Lengthy Beachers desirous to strive the meals and drinks on the metropolis’s hottest new lodge.
Little doubt the fanfare will settle down over time and the gang combine will veer extra towards out-of-town enterprise vacationers and households testing Lengthy Seashore’s longstanding sights. However for now, it was good to see a mixture of guests and locals alike.
Rooms at Fairmont Breakers Lengthy Seashore
Though it had 330 lodging again in its authentic heyday, after the latest renovation, the Fairmont Breakers Lengthy Seashore now homes simply 185 rooms and suites. These begin with 279-square-foot Fairmont King rooms and vary as much as the Breakers Two Bed room Suite on the twelfth flooring.
I stayed in a Fairmont Bay View King, which is a couple of classes greater, about 20 sq. ft bigger and round $50 per night time costlier than a normal room. It was on the finish of the hallway on the lodge’s ninth flooring and supplied views of the Port of Lengthy Seashore and San Pedro Bay by way of massive home windows that permit in loads of pure gentle.
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The room had a brief entry hallway and a small closet that have been most likely vestiges of the historic room footprint.
The room’s coloration palette was impressed by the port, with tones of commercial grays, cloudlike whites and swirls of blue and gold on the rugs, plus some framed seashells above the king-size mattress. The spotless white linens, woven straw wall accents and bleached wood flooring gave the room a clear, modern look.
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Connected to the wall in a single nook was a big flat-screen TV. To the opposite aspect of the mattress, there was a small kind of multipurpose space that includes a spherical, marble-topped desk that doubled as a spot to eat and work. It had one heavy armchair with a ropelike body (one other nod to the close by port’s industries) subsequent to it. There have been additionally a Nespresso machine and complimentary bottles of water.
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Probably the most spectacular characteristic was the toilet, which was surprisingly massive for an previous lodge constructing. The area included a protracted marble countertop with two sinks and mirrors, a separate water closet with a frosted-glass door and a marble spa-style moist space that contained each the bath and the bathe.
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There was a wall-mounted, hand-held showerhead and one other overhead one with a number of stream capabilities, together with a mister. Each the vainness and the bathe space have been stocked with Le Labo Rose 31 merchandise.
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Although on the small aspect, the room’s recent look and spacious rest room created an opulent atmosphere equally suited to each leisure and work journeys.
Food and drinks at Fairmont Breakers Lengthy Seashore
There are 5 bars and eating places on the Fairmont Breakers Lengthy Seashore, and even a brief keep is sufficient to expertise most, if not all, of them.
Nettuno
Nettuno is the lodge’s primary restaurant and sits subsequent to the reception space within the foyer. Its eating room has hovering double-height ceilings anchored by squared-off columns with antiqued-mirrored surfaces and Corinthian capitals which might be lovely contrasts to the modern artwork on the partitions and the chainlike chandeliers strung throughout the ceiling.
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The breakfast menu presents requirements like avocado toast with child kale, cherry tomatoes and stracciatella on seedy entire wheat ($18) and an egg white omelet with seasonal herbs, mushrooms and goat cheese ($20), plus pastries like a fluffy blueberry-olive oil muffin ($6) and a wide range of coffees, teas, juices and smoothies ($6 to $16).
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The lunch and dinner menus characteristic principally coastal Italian fare like zucchini blossoms full of lemon-herb ricotta ($24), artichoke tortelli with brown butter and sage ($28) and tiramisu ($10).
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Sky Room
Sky Room, which takes up many of the lodge’s thirteenth flooring, dates to 1938, when Conrad Hilton took over the property and turned a penthouse suite into one of many West Coast’s toniest eating places.
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It’s trying as splendorous as ever once more thanks to a whole restoration. It is easy to image your self right here throughout its prewar pinnacle as you cozy up in one of many huge round velvet cubicles or on the intimate two-tops by the home windows, all illuminated by a blinding fluted gentle fixture that seems to ripple because it runs practically the size of the eating room.
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Open just for dinner Tuesday by way of Saturday, Sky Room appears like a throwback to the supper golf equipment of yore because of the bustling, neatly uniformed workers, a cocktail listing of previous favorites and a roster of continental classics you may need discovered on a few of the authentic menus — oysters Rockefeller and clams on line casino, anybody? You’ll be able to really spot a few of the Thirties menus adorning the partitions close to the doorway.
Begin with piping-hot parkerhouse rolls with whipped cultured butter ($8), then tuck into specialties like luscious Dungeness crabcakes with smoked trout roe and caviar butter ($28) — there’s even an entire caviar menu, if that is your factor.
Deliver a couple of mates to indulge within the California wagyu beef Wellington with mushroom duxelle, bordelaise sauce and prosciutto encased in a flaky pastry crust ($165), or go lighter with the juicy entire John Dory (fileted tableside, after all) with yuzu-kosho beurre blanc and herb salad (market value based mostly on weight). The wine listing options bottles from world wide, together with the likes of chardonnay from Western Australia’s vaunted Vasse Felix vineyard ($105 per bottle).
Order the bananas Foster ($22) to finish your meal with a bang … or slightly a flambe because the workers units the dish alight proper at your desk.
Halo
Halo appears like a bit of secret tucked away on the lodge’s high flooring. Inside, glazed inexperienced tiling, pink wallpaper with unique leaf motifs and a superbly lit, deep-veined alabaster bar all create the sensation of a Caribbean backyard get together.
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That is solely heightened by the tropical cocktails, just like the startlingly blue Clarified Prime Ground Mai Tai ($19) with Bacardi Ocho rum, Plantation Stiggins pineapple rum, Wray & Nephew overproof rum, Grand Marnier, lime, mango and pineapple.
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Come the hotter months, the out of doors terrace ought to be the most effective place on the town to catch the sundown and views of Catalina Island throughout the channel.
An added historic oddity? In case you search for on the lodge’s belvedere, you’ll be able to nonetheless spot a World Conflict II pillbox gun turret from when the constructing shaped a part of the nation’s coastal protection.
La Sala
On the road aspect of the foyer, La Sala is designed to really feel like a comfy solarium with jade-green chinoiserie wallpaper adorned with blossoming bushes and a palm-shaped brass and crystal chandelier overhead. Friends and guests can cease in for barista-made espresso and tea drinks, cocktails and lightweight bites all through the day and night.
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Alter Ego
Moodily lit and adorned with emerald velvet chairs and Henri Rousseau-like floral prints on the partitions, Alter Ego is situated simply off the foyer. There will likely be reside jazz most nights to accompany artistic twists on basic cocktails, together with updates on the daiquiri and the soiled martini.
The drinks to order, although, are the specialty Outdated-Fashioneds, together with one impressed by California’s redwoods with Outdated Forester bourbon, varied house-made botanical tinctures, “campfire” bitters, a smoky mist and even an edible pine cone ($23).
Facilities and repair at Fairmont Breakers Lengthy Seashore
On the japanese finish of the bottom flooring, the Fairmont Breakers Lengthy Seashore has a small health middle and a bi-level spa.
The health middle has a plethora of window-facing Technogym cardio machines, together with treadmills and stationary bikes, plus racks of weights, resistance bands, kettlebells and steadiness balls, amongst different gear. There’s additionally a water dispenser so you’ll be able to replenish your personal bottle.
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Subsequent door, the Fairmont Spa has an ethereal reception space replete with cream-colored marble and modern brushed brass lighting fixtures, plus loads of counter area to show the merchandise integrated into the remedies, together with objects from Biologique Recherche, Venn and Lola’s Apothecary.
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There are separate males’s and ladies’s locker rooms with steam rooms and bathe amenities, in addition to a pre- or post-treatment lounge space with blond timber partitions and chaise-style seats separated by diaphanous curtains.
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The therapy menu contains intriguing choices like a Venn supercharged facial (60 minutes for $260) and the signature Breakers therapeutic massage you can tailor to your preferences (60 minutes for $220).
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Up on the third flooring, the lodge now encompasses a small out of doors pool and deck with loads of lounge chairs, some seating vignettes and a pool bar (although it was not open throughout our keep).
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Service on the lodge couldn’t have been hotter or extra enthusiastic. There have been a couple of opening-week hiccups, akin to a server bringing the incorrect dish or a sure glass of wine on the menu not being accessible, however these have probably been ironed out by now.
Out and about
For these not acquainted with the world, there’s a lot to see and do in Lengthy Seashore.
Households may wish to stroll to the Aquarium of the Pacific and the waterfront the place harbor cruises and ferries to Catalina depart. The close by Terrace Theater hosts performances all year long, and varied seashores in addition to the Lengthy Seashore Museum of Artwork are fast drives away. There’s additionally outlet purchasing, plus the impartial boutiques of Retro Row, close by. As for enterprise vacationers on the town for conferences or conferences, the Lengthy Seashore Conference & Leisure Middle is conveniently located subsequent door.
Accessibility at Fairmont Breakers Lengthy Seashore
Outdated resorts, particularly these with landmark standing that prohibits drastic modifications to their infrastructure, can typically be hit and miss with regards to accessibility, however the Fairmont Breakers Lengthy Seashore has integrated loads of accessible options into its renovation.
The lodge’s primary entrance and floor flooring are step-free, so these in wheelchairs can entry all of the areas. There are additionally elevators to each flooring, together with a small wheelchair elevate as much as the pool deck from the third flooring. Talking of the pool, it has a chairlift at one finish to help of us with restricted mobility into the water. The spa additionally has wheelchair-accessible showers in its locker rooms.
The lodge’s hallways are all broad sufficient to accommodate wheelchairs, and there are seven room and suite classes with mobility- and hearing-accessible amenities. They embrace bathroom and bathe seize bars, and closet rods, towel racks and viewports lower than 48 inches excessive. These designed for hearing-impaired friends embrace visible alarms and doorbells.
Testing
In contrast to lots of the different entries on our listing of the best hotels that opened in 2024, the Fairmont Breakers Lengthy Seashore will not be a brand new lodge. Reasonably, it’s a landmark reborn, one with a storied legacy courting again practically a century that also manages to really feel utterly recent because of its new lease on life. Having already garnered the curiosity of locals, who come to hang around in its grand public areas, it is solely a matter of time till phrase will get out and vacationers from farther afield begin realizing what a particular keep awaits them.
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