Beverly Hills is one of the best-known cities in Los Angeles County. Rodeo Drive and its designer stores get most of the attention, but the city has been tied to Hollywood, architecture, and high-end hospitality for more than a century. Historic hotels sit a few minutes from old estates, landscaped parks, and residential streets that become surprisingly quiet once you move away from the main shopping blocks.
It is also much easier to explore than Los Angeles as a whole. You can walk around the Golden Triangle, stop for lunch without crossing half the city, and then drive into the hills when you want to see a different side of Beverly Hills. Stay into the evening, and the pace changes again.
So, once you have taken the obligatory look at Rodeo Drive, what else is worth your time? Here are seven of the best things to do in Beverly Hills.
1. Walk Rodeo Drive
You may as well start with the street everyone already knows.
Rodeo Drive runs through the heart of Beverly Hills and packs many of the world’s biggest fashion houses into just a few blocks. Prada, Gucci, Cartier, Armani and other familiar names are here, while Two Rodeo Drive at the Wilshire Boulevard end adds cobbled walkways and another cluster of boutiques.
You do not have to be shopping to enjoy Rodeo Drive. It is worth walking the full stretch and taking in the street itself rather than stopping briefly for a photo. Along the way, look down for the Rodeo Drive Walk of Style, where bronze plaques in the pavement honour influential names from fashion and entertainment, including Giorgio Armani, Tom Ford, Gianni Versace and Donatella Versace.
There is plenty to notice above street level too. Many of the boutiques are designed to make as much of an impression as the collections inside, with distinctive façades and carefully detailed storefronts that add to the character of the walk.
The Beverly Wilshire sits at the southern end of Rodeo Drive, opposite Two Rodeo. From there, you can continue towards Beverly Gardens Park or turn into the streets around Canon and Beverly Drive for lunch.
Window-shopping remains free, which is useful information on Rodeo Drive.
2. Explore Greystone Mansion and Gardens
A short drive uphill takes you somewhere that feels completely removed from the shopping district.
Greystone Mansion was completed in 1928 for Ned Doheny, his wife Lucy and their family. Today, the City of Beverly Hills operates the 18.3-acre estate as a public park, with terraces, gardens and views across the Los Angeles basin. The city bought the property in 1965 and formally dedicated it as a park in 1971.
The grounds are currently open every day, with shorter winter hours. Admission and parking are free, and you do not need a reservation to explore outside.
Getting inside the mansion takes a little more planning. The first floor and theater open during the city’s Inside the Mansion program on one weekend day each month from January through November, and special programs generally require booking.
Even without an interior tour, Greystone is worth the trip. Walk the stone courtyards, gardens, and terraces and give yourself enough time to explore instead of treating it as another photo stop.
You may also recognize parts of the estate. Greystone has been used extensively for film and television shoots over the years.
3. Take a Self-Drive Through Beverly Hills
Central Beverly Hills is easy to explore on foot. The hills are another matter.
Once you leave the Golden Triangle and head north, the streets widen, the traffic thins out, and the city starts to look very different. Beverly Drive leads towards Coldwater Canyon, while roads closer to Sunset Boulevard take you past mature gardens, hillside properties and a mix of architectural styles.
This is best treated as a drive rather than a celebrity-house hunt. Stay on public roads, keep moving and remember that these are residential streets, not an outdoor museum.
If Beverly Hills is part of a wider day around LA, you can rent a luxury car and build the drive into your route rather than relying on short transfers between stops.
For this article, we are rotating to different models from those used in the earlier Los Angeles guides. The Porsche 911 Carrera 4S combines all-wheel drive with a 3.0-liter twin-turbo flat-six, giving you a compact sports-car option for a day focused mainly on driving.
The Mercedes AMG G63 takes a very different approach. It has a five-door body, four-wheel drive and a 4.0-liter biturbo V8, so it gives you a larger vehicle when passenger access and cabin space matter more than keeping the car small.
Do the drive earlier in the day if you can. Beverly Hills can look wonderfully peaceful in photographs. The traffic surrounding it has not received that message.
4. Book a Tour of Virginia Robinson Gardens
Greystone is easier to visit. Virginia Robinson Gardens requires more planning, which is part of what makes it interesting.
The Robinson mansion was built in 1911 and was one of the first homes in Beverly Hills. Virginia and Harry Robinson developed the estate around the house, and it later became known for both its gardens and the parties held there.
Today, you cannot simply turn up and wander in. Visits are by appointment, and the property offers docent-led historical, garden and behind-the-scenes tours by advance registration. Standard tours are around 90 minutes, so leave enough room in the day rather than trying to squeeze one between other stops.
The gardens are the obvious draw, but the history adds more depth. This was an estate built when Beverly Hills was still developing into the city people recognize today, so the house provides a useful glimpse of what the area looked like before Rodeo Drive became the main attraction.
Greystone gives you more freedom to wander. Robinson Gardens gives you a guided look at one of Beverly Hills’ earliest estates.
Both are worth seeing. Just do not arrive at Robinson Gardens without a booking and hope charm will get you through the gate.
5. Find the Beverly Hills Sign, Then Keep Walking
There is nothing wrong with taking the obvious photograph.
The Beverly Hills Sign and Lily Pond sit inside Beverly Gardens Park on Santa Monica Boulevard. The sign is about 40 feet long, and the restored lily pond in front of it has become one of the city’s most recognizable photo stops.
Take the picture. Then keep going.
Beverly Gardens Park stretches for 1.9 miles between Wilshire Boulevard and North Doheny Drive. Along the route, you will find a cactus garden, rose garden, sculptures, fountains and a walking path, so there is far more here than the sign itself.
At the western end is the Electric Fountain, which dates to 1931. Its central sculpture depicts a kneeling Tongva figure and references the area’s earlier Rancho Rodeo de las Aguas history.
The park works especially well after Rodeo Drive because it shows how compact central Beverly Hills actually is. You can go from designer stores to public gardens without turning the afternoon into another LA traffic experiment.
Allow at least half an hour. More if you are not in a hurry.
6. Have Lunch at the Polo Lounge
Some restaurants are worth visiting because the food is good. The Polo Lounge comes with a lot of history attached as well.
It sits inside The Beverly Hills Hotel on Sunset Boulevard, one of the city’s best-known hotels. The dining room and patio have been associated with Hollywood lunches for decades, but you do not need an industry meeting scheduled at the next table to enjoy it.
Lunch currently runs from 11 am to 3 pm, with seating inside or outside on the patio. The restaurant also serves breakfast, Sunday brunch and dinner.
This is not really somewhere to rush through. Book ahead, leave enough time for lunch and enjoy the setting rather than spending the whole meal checking where you need to be next.
There is a dress code, which is worth reading before turning up straight from the pool. The hotel asks diners to avoid sportswear, flip-flops, swimwear and several other very casual options, with additional restrictions after 4 pm.
For something more casual at the same hotel, the Fountain Coffee Room is a small counter-style restaurant serving breakfast and lunch. It currently has 19 stools, so “small” is not just marketing language.
Either way, lunch at The Beverly Hills Hotel gives you another side of the city without adding another sightseeing stop.
7. Turn Beverly Hills Into a Chauffeur-Driven Evening
Beverly Hills works particularly well in the evening.
Rodeo Drive becomes quieter, hotel entrances get busier, and the restaurants around Canon Drive, Beverly Drive, and Wilshire Boulevard take over from the daytime shopping crowd. This is when trying to move your own car between every stop can become more annoying than useful.
Instead, make the evening one route. Start with drinks at a hotel or bar, head somewhere else for dinner, and add another stop afterwards if you still have the energy.
A Los Angeles chauffeur service makes sense here because the driver can stay with the itinerary rather than simply taking you from one address to another.
Again, choose the vehicle around the group. The Rolls Royce Cullinan chauffeur service is listed for four adults, with room for three large suitcases and two carry-ons.
For a larger party, the Mercedes Sprinter chauffeur service is configured for group travel, with the exact seating setup confirmed when you book.
That is more useful than picking a vehicle because one looks better outside a particular restaurant.
And when dinner is over, nobody has to draw the short straw and drive home.
Explore Beverly Hills With STARR Luxury Cars
Beverly Hills is easy to reduce to Rodeo Drive, but that misses quite a lot. Spend a little longer here, and you can move between historic estates, public gardens, old Hollywood hotels and quiet streets without travelling very far at all.
A self-drive luxury car rental in Los Angeles works well when Beverly Hills is one stop in a bigger day around the city. If dinner, drinks and several evening stops are involved, a chauffeur service in Los Angeles may be the easier option.
If you are staying longer, our guide to luxury things to do in Los Angeles has more ideas beyond Beverly Hills. Planning the day around a celebration instead? Have a look at these luxury birthday ideas in Los Angeles too.
