Beverly Hills, a Weekend

Beverly Hills is smaller than it looks. The flats are walkable; the hills are not. Most of a good weekend here is choosing to move slowly through it — and leaving the car where you can. We manage a number of houses in the city, from the flats to Trousdale. Here’s how we’d spend two days.

Friday

Settle in.

Arrive late afternoon if you can. The light on the flats around five is the reason people photograph this city. Drop your bags, walk the block, and keep the first night simple: one dinner, early.

Book it before you land. The tables worth having go a week out, and a concierge can hold one while you’re still deciding. The first night isn’t for the scene — it’s for the drive in to wear off.

Saturday

The full day.

Morning.

Coffee first, then a walk before the city wakes up. Beverly Gardens Park runs the length of Santa Monica Boulevard and is mostly empty before ten. So are the grounds at Greystone Mansion — open to the public, free, and the best view of the basin most visitors never find.

Midday.

Rodeo Drive is three blocks. See it once, early, and then leave it — the street is for looking, not for a Saturday afternoon. The better hours are spent on the side streets off Cañon and Brighton, or back at the house before the heat.

Afternoon.

Take the car up. Coldwater Canyon to the top, or Franklin Canyon for a flat, shaded walk that doesn’t feel like there’s a city below it. This is the part of Beverly Hills the postcards skip, and it’s the part worth the most.

Evening.

Dinner back in the flats, late. One room, no rushing. If you want a drink after, the hotel bars hold their standard better than the newer rooms — ask the team which is doing it well this season; it moves.

The city rewards the people who slow down in it. Most of Beverly Hills is best at the pace of a long lunch.