An indulgent long weekend in WeHo
Indulge. Repent. Repeat.
This will become the mantra of my wife, Kerry, and I during a long weekend of self-regulated revelry in West Hollywood.
For every drink sipped at the rooftop pool of the London West Hollywood Hotel, there will be an hour of cycling in Beverly Hills spying the mansions of the rich and famous.
The morning after a winepaired dinner at Lucques on Melrose Avenue, an hour at the trendy urban sweat lodge is de rigueur.
Another dinner at Sunset Boulevard hot spot Tesse requires next-morning jogging in the Hollywood Hills.
But the indulgence of playing with The London’s real-life bulldog mascot, Winston, requires no repentance at all. He’s just so cute and cuddly.
We picked West Hollywood for our long weekend of balance because it’s the epicentre of weather-perfect Los Angeles.
And as our Bikes and Hikes LA cycling guide Zach Signote exkick plains, West Hollywood is the California capital for anythinggoes fun.
As such, WeHo, as it’s called by those in the know, is an enclave for the stylish LGBTQ+ community, A-list Hollywood celebrities, entertainment industry titans and tourists.
We see such diversity on the sceney, 10th-floor, cabana-ringed and palm-treed rooftop pool of The London while lounging and sipping those aforementioned drinks.
As its name suggests, WeHo is its own 4.9-square-kilometre city smack dab in the middle of Los Angeles, west of Hollywood proper. West Hollywood is home to famous stretches of Sunset Boulevard, Melrose Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard replete with shops, restaurants, bars, talent agencies and TV headquarters.
Back on our bikes, we pass it all on our way to adjacent Beverly Hills to glide past the mansions of the rich and famous.
Full disclosure: they are electric-assist bikes, which means we still have to pedal but e-boosts in when we need them on the tony neighbourhood’s inclines.
We flit past Beverly Hills’ only highrise, Sierra Towers, which Cher, the Osbournes, Lindsay Lohan and RuPaul call home.
There are the sprawling estates of Jennifer Aniston (when she was married to Brad Pitt), Tom Cruise (when he was married to Katie Holmes), Michael Jackson (where he overdosed), Elvis (in his heyday) and Mick Jagger (when he was getting some satisfaction).
With some exercise under our belts, we reward ourselves with lunch at Gracias Madre, a vegan Mexican restaurant on Melrose, where we order jackfruit tacos and an enormous margarita for two.
Then, more pool time at The London before heading out to Lucques for pan-roasted barramundi fish paired with Gruner Veltliner wine from Santa Barbara County.
The next morning, to effortlessly work off the indulgence, we drop by the West Hollywood outlet of Shape House — an urban
sweat lodge. We’re wrapped in infrared blankets and heated to 77 C for an hour while we sip alkaline water and watch repeats of “That ’70s Show” on TV.
The profuse sweating promotes weight loss, reduces stress and soreness and gives you a big metabolic boost for 36 hours.
Invigorated and armed with the promise of faster metabolism, we Uber to The Grove outdoor mall for some shopping and lunch before more pool time back at The London and dinner at Tesse on the Sunset Strip.
At Tesse, I’m sure we obliterate all the benefits of our sweat by gorging on caviar on toast, lobster sausages with french fries double fried in duck fat, and chocolate soufflé.
Oh well, I went for a run the next morning to soak in the palmtree scenery and say goodbye to California before returning to Canada’s upcoming winter.
Air Canada flies to Los Angeles from Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver.