Hotels

The wait for tables is getting longer at Buck's, a popular breakfast spot for the tech elite and a weather vane for the Silicon Valley economy. Here, like everywhere else, Facebook is the talk of the town. "Charles Schwab was in the restaurant the other day, and I asked him to hook me up with some Facebook shares," said Jamis MacNiven, owner of Buck's, in the wealthy suburban enclave of Woodside. "He told me even he can't get Facebook shares. " The new tech boom officially gets underway Friday when Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg rings Nasdaq's opening bell remotely from the company's Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters, launching the largest initial public offering of stock in Silicon Valley history.

When he stayed at the Beverly Hills Hotel, the famously reclusive Howard Hughes would have roast beef sandwiches left for him in a crook of a tree, go on 2 a.m. treasure hunts for freshly baked pineapple upside-down cakes that were hidden on the grounds, and keep a phone booth inside his bungalow. "They'd switch different booths in and out of different bungalows because he [Hughes] didn't want to go through the hotel operator," says producer Richard D. Zanuck, who was told about Hughes by his father, 20th Century Fox co-founder Darryl F. Zanuck, also a frequent visitor to the picturesque pink hotel.

Santa Barbara -- what's not to love? Except maybe the prices, which means a weekend getaway can cost a pretty penny. The challenge to the Travel staff: Find nice hotels, good restaurants and enjoyable activities without breaking the budget. So we ate, we slept, we played, all in the name of research. Here's what we turned up. 223 Castillo St.; (800) 468-1988 or (805) 966-2219; www.brisasdelmarinn.com BRISAS DEL MAR, INN AT THE BEACH This hotel has probably never looked better.

With work set to begin soon on a $1-billion luxury hotel in downtown Los Angeles, developer Korean Air revealed some details about the tower that is expected to dramatically alter the city's skyline. The skyscraper will be the second-tallest structure in Southern California at 70 stories, only slightly shorter than the US Bank Tower office building, said Yang Ho Cho, the chairman of Korean Air. The design is still a work in progress, but guests are expected to be whisked by high-speed elevators to the lobby on the 70th floor, where they will check in. The top floor will also have a restaurant, bar and infinity swimming pool.

With the summer pool season approaching, a battle is brewing between advocates for disabled Americans and hotel owners over how to make public swimming pools more accessible to people with disabilities. At the center of the dispute is a new regulation that requires hotels and recreation centers that operate public pools and spas to install or order permanent lifts - costing between $2,500 and $6,500 each, plus installation - by May 21. The requirement also can be satisfied by pool ramps, which are much more expensive.

Anyone who needs a quick, inexpensive getaway that's within an hour of Los Angeles, here's a great idea with a great price: Catalina Island packages that come with ferry ticket and hotel starting at just $59 a night per person.  The deal: These Catalina Express Packages allow you to choose from 20 hotels in Avalon. Each hotel offers a different deal, and best prices are offered for Sunday-Thursday stays. A handy map on the website shows you how close each one is to the beach.

Most voters have by now received their sample ballots, and those who plan to vote by mail are sending in their applications. The June 5 election is underway right now. It is noteworthy for several reasons. Los Angeles County voters will be selecting a new district attorney, and this is the first time since 1964 that there is no incumbent trying to hold onto the seat. The field is wide open. To win outright in this nonpartisan race, a candidate must get more than 50% of the vote.

IT'S Frette at the Ritz Paris and the London Savoy, Pratesi at the St. Regis in San Francisco, Fili D'oro at the Plaza Athenee in New York and Anichini at the Signature at MGM Grand in Las Vegas. We're not talking designer cocktails. We're talking sheets -- an increasingly important amenity at hotels. Even workaday Holiday Inn Express recently spent $53 million upgrading linens, adding duvets and 200-thread-count sheets on beds in the chain's 1,400 North American hotels.

A trio of run-down, century-old hotels in downtown Los Angeles was sold to developers who hope to clean them up and make them attractive to young artistic types. A partnership called Bristol 423 bought the Baltimore, King Edward and Leland hotels at a bankruptcy auction for $9.8 million, real estate broker Matt Case of Madison Partners said. The hotels around 5th and Los Angeles streets were built between 1904 and 1910, when Southern Pacific Railroad's nearby station on Alameda Street was a key point of entry to the city, downtown historian Greg Fischer said.

For travel into Paris, consider the Paris Shuttle. It's similar to SuperShuttle here and offers shared rides from either Orly or Charles de Gaulle airports to your hotel. Currently, the one-way price for two is $27 each. Depending on the location of your hotel, you may not be dropped off first, but it is a chance to see other parts of the city (even if you're bone-tired). We book online in advance and have used them several times with no problems. Paris Shuttle, http://www.parishuttle.com Jeannine Christensen Orange

Anyone who needs a quick, inexpensive getaway that's within an hour of Los Angeles, here's a great idea with a great price: Catalina Island packages that come with ferry ticket and hotel starting at just $59 a night per person.  The deal: These Catalina Express Packages allow you to choose from 20 hotels in Avalon. Each hotel offers a different deal, and best prices are offered for Sunday-Thursday stays. A handy map on the website shows you how close each one is to the beach.

I love my dog. Sure, he has issues - what lover doesn't? He wheezes when he sleeps, or when he's awake. There is an unexplainable darkness to his soul that emerges when he's under extreme stress. He also has a taste for the blood in mosquito bites. (The vet thinks he might be a vampire.) Being from L.A., our dog is prone to anxiety attacks and an almost debilitating sense of envy, particularly when coming upon younger, fitter dogs, which almost all dogs are. The last time we weighed him, he was close to 300 pounds.

With Coachella 2012 barely in the books, get ready for an early shot at buying tickets and hotel packages for Coachella 2013 . Even though there's no lineup announced yet, advance ticket sales start at 10 a.m. PDT Thursday (today) and continue through 10 p.m. PDT May 24 for what's officially known as the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival. Next year's music fest again will take place over two weekends: April 12-14 and April 19-21. [Updated, 8:30 a.m. May 18: General admission and VIP advance purchase tickets for both weekends sold out quickly Thursday.

Americans plan to travel in slightly higher numbers this summer, according to surveys, starting with the upcoming Memorial Day weekend. But many will hold the line on spending for items such as hotel stays and entertainment because of high fuel costs and rising airfares. An annual survey by the American Automobile Assn. released Tuesday predicted that 34.8 million Americans will travel by all modes at least 50 miles from home during the holiday weekend, a 1.2% increase over last year.

Accor Hotels, which operate Novotel, Ibis, Pullman and other brands in India , is offering a 15% discount on rooms this summer as well as breakfast for two for just 1 rupee (roughly a penny). The sale is good at 15 hotels, including properties in Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru. The deal: You might recognize the name Accor because the company operates Motel 6 and other properties in the U.S. The Early Breaks offer requires reservations at least three days in advance to receive 15% off the standard room rate and breakfast for two for the equivalent of a penny.

Question: Can I be a greener hotel guest? Answer: You can and you should. But, as Kermit the Frog noted, it's not easy being green. The May 6 "On the Spot" column focused on behaviors of hotel guests that are wasteful and harmful to the environment. But, we should note, it's also up to the hotel to practice what the green gods preach. The question for those of us who are environmental novices - and I am one - is what is a best practice? I'd love to know if housekeeping is using environmentally sound products, but I don't have the expertise to assess that.

It's 10 a.m. and Ian Schrager has way too much energy for someone just in from New York and just out of morning meetings. As if fueled by multiple espressos, he bounds across the lobby of his new hotel, Le Mondrian, hand outstretched, a wide grin interrupting his rocky mug. He sits down in the almost empty restaurant and-- bam --lands in the middle of a conversation. "I have to say," he says, looking out the window at a hazy Los Angeles, "my wife is the best thing that ever happened to me.

Determined to prevent the Mongols motorcycle club from using a Lancaster motel to host its annual meeting this weekend, the city's mayor has taken steps to shut down the establishment. Mayor R. Rex Parris said the members of the Mongols, which law enforcement agencies consider a violent biker gang, are not welcome in Lancaster because they "are engaged in domestic terrorism . . . and they kill our children."

The Portland Hop. I know, it sounds like a dance craze in 1937. But really, it's what you do when Southern California gets you down and you need to drink small-batch beer, eat Northwestern locavore meals and see bike commuters in the rain. My wife, daughter and I hit Portland, Ore., for a few days last August. Here's the report. The bed. Once a Days Inn, the Hotel Modera (515 S.W. Clay St.; [503] 484-1084, hotelmodera.com; rooms for two start at about $129 in spring) got a serious upgrade before opening in 2008.

Los Angeles County voters face two tax measures on the June 5 ballot, and they are unusual for several reasons: They ratify taxes that are already in place and have been for more than two decades; the taxes apply only in unincorporated areas of the county; and all residents benefit from the taxes although few ever will have occasion to actually pay them. Measure H keeps the hotel tax in place at its current level. Measure L keeps a tax on landfill operators in place. H for hotels, L for landfills.