Part of the City of Los Angeles, backing up to the Santa Monica Mountains, Bel Air is indisputably home to the rich and famous. Devised in the early 20th century, Bel Air is 20 miles west of Downtown Los Angeles and has at its core one of the nation's most august icons, the Bel Air Country Club. Driving through Bel Air, though, reveals little, as its expensive homes are hidden behind gates and within lush foliage. Meeting venues in Bel Air are similarly discreet.
Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) is the main airport servicing this neighborhood. In the Los Angeles suburb of Westchester, the airport is 16 miles south of Bel Air and reached by driving down I-405, while the closest convention center is Downtown's Los Angeles Convention Center, with 720,000 square feet of exhibit space and 147,000 square feet of meeting space, which is approximately 10 miles away to the southeast.
Technically, Bel Air has only one hotel, the opulent, 103-room Hotel Bel-Air, which will reopen this summer after two years of renovations that have added a spa and 12 new hillside villas that promise some of the best views in California. It is possible, however, to stay elsewhere and just come for the rarified air. Nearby hotels sit on Bel Air's borders, either in Beverly Hills, Westwood, Brentwood (at least Brentwood hotels that sit alongside I-405, the division from Bel Air) or on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), which abuts Bel Air in the neighborhood of Westwood. These area hotels include the 208-room Angeleno, 160-room Luxe Hotel, 258-room W Hotel Los Angeles-Westwood and 61-room UCLA Guest House.
Bel Air meeting venues and restaurants are also few; the two exceptions are the Bel Air Bar & Grill that sits on I-405 (the J. Paul Getty Museum is opposite it, but that is in Brentwood) and the Champagne Bar at the Bel-Air Hotel. Serving contemporary American fare, the Bel Air Bar & Grill can host private parties, as will the Champagne Bar when it reopens later this year with the rest of the hotel. UCLA's campus (see guide on Brentwood/Westwood) in Westwood, which is adjacent to Bel Air, does have event spaces.
Fun fact: The Beverly Hillbillies was actually filmed in Bel Air; the Clampetts' house being 750 Bel Air Rd.
For all venues in the area, browse the Los Angeles event venue directory.
