HAWKINS INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC RELATIONS
Travel musings from the travel-obsessed staff at a New York luxury travel PR agency

An East Coast Girl’s First Trip to L.A.

I’ve always been curious about California. After growing up in New England, then moving to New York after college, California had reached an almost mythical status on my bucket list of places to visit.

It’s not that my life has been travel-deprived; to the contrary, I was lucky enough to spend two semesters exploring Europe while studying in France and Greece. I’ve also been out West before, spending a month in the wilds of Utah and Colorado the summer after high school — I just never made it to California.

This was much to my dismay, considering that I’d developed a slight fascination with the state. College friends who hailed from CA had a certain laid-back je ne sais quoi about them. The California-based media I’d consumed, including Sideways, Joan Didion novels, Californication (and everything else), further intrigued me. Plus, falling in love with New York made me want to see my own city’s West Coast foil.

Luckily, I got the chance to do just that a couple of weeks ago, when our client, Dorchester Collection, announced that it would host the much-anticipated Grand Final Event of its 2011 Fashion Prize at one of its LA-based properties, The Beverly Hills Hotel.

Not only did I get to fly to California to work at a glamorous fashion event, but I got to see both of our client’s LA hotels – no small privilege. Both The Beverly Hills Hotel, where I stayed, and Hotel Bel-Air, which was just renovated and where I had lunch and a tour, have rich and exciting Hollywood histories of the sort I’d watched and read about for years. To have the opportunity to experience both in one short three-day weekend is just one of the amazing perks of working in travel PR.

While the action-packed weekend had its ups (touring Bel-Air; achieving a near-perfect number of guests at the event; missing NYC’s first snowfall in favor of palm trees and sun; dining at the legendary Polo Lounge) and downs (being frisked at Newark Airport because I had 100 USBs in my carry-on; a seating plan snafu with some VIP guests; weakly sending our final press release in the LAX waiting area an hour before our flight home) — overall it was an unqualified success.

There’s still so much I want to see in California, but this trip was a pretty great start.

Me, standing in front of a historical display near the Fountain Coffee Room at The Beverly Hills Hotel. The display included photos of Marilyn Monroe’s last photo shoot before she died.

The newly renovated Lobby Lounge at Hotel Bel-Air.

On the runway in The Rodeo Ballroom at The Beverly Hills Hotel, before America’s Next Top Model contestants presented the Dorchester Collection Fashion Prize shortlist designers’ collections.

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