How to visit Beverly Hills on a budget

The pool at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, Beverly Hills. Photo / Supplied

I am sitting outside Il Pastaio, an iconic Italian restaurant on the intersection of Brighton Way and North Canon Drive in the city of Beverly Hills on a typically sunny Californian day.

It's the type of restaurant with chic awnings, crisp linen and glamorous wait staff who look as if they've walked off the set of The O.C.

As I plunge my eco straw into a glass of organic green juice and pick at my Paccheri Alla Justin Bieber — a saucy rigatoni with pink sauce named after its famous patron — meme sensation and Turkish butcher "Salt Bae" glides past me on a giant Segway wearing his signature shades.

A man across the street whips out a long lens camera from his backpack and starts taking photos. Despite Salt's C-grade celebrity status, anyone with a familiar face is open slather for the paps in this town.

I try to explain to my table-mate that New Zealanders have close to zero interest in celebrities, but seconds later I am literally eating my words as I take another forkful of Bieber's rigatoni, swept up by the reality show unfolding in front of me as pedestrians clamour for selfies with Salt Bae.

The famous Beverly Wilshire Hotel, Beverly Hills. Photo / Supplied

It's easy to be swept up in the glamour of this city — and yes it's a city, its own entity completely separate from the rest of Los Angeles. It even has its own council and rotating mayor, its own newspaper the Beverly Hills Courier; and could probably afford its own currency if it wanted — the average household income here is approximately US$2 million (NZ$3.1m), remarkable given the city is contained within a tidy radius of 1500ha.

I take a luxury 30-minute transfer from the Private Suites at LAX. My driver, Kevin Sanli of Beverly Hills Car Rental, is well versed in the luxury market, shuttling everyone from celebrities to Qatari princesses to and from the airport. Offering commentary along the way, he's interrupted by the smoke coming from the Californian fires in the distance, offering some perspective as we make our way into one of the most glamorous cities in America.

Lifestyles of the rich and famous: exploring Rodeo Drive

Beverly Hills' reputation means that for most economy class travellers, it's a town on the way to more affordable lodgings in West Hollywood or downtown LA.

But you'll be happy to discover boutique hotels with four-star ratings that are surprisingly comfortable and close to everything you want to see. I check into one, the Luxe Rodeo Drive, before heading straight out on a personalised guided walking tour to shake off the jet-lag, and push through my newly acquired timezone.

The Another Side Tour takes me around the city's "Golden Triangle" — a cross-section of three major Beverly Hills roads: South Santa Monica Boulevard to the northwest, Wilshire Boulevard to the south and Canon Drive to the east — its focal point, my home for the week, the famous luxury strip of Rodeo Drive.

My guide takes me along Rodeo, where glistening storefronts from Louis Vuitton to Saint Laurent stand shoulder to shoulder. One unique Beverly Hills institution, the House of Bijan, is worth checking out to discover a local luxury icon founded by an Iranian immigrant Bijan Pakzad whose back story is a fascinating example of the American dream. Opening on Rodeo Drive in 1976, Bijan (who died in 2011) accumulated a rolodex of high-profile celebrity clients, including five American presidents, who swear by his glamorous designs.

There's even House of Bijan parking meters rendered in the brand's signature sunflower yellow. If you consider retail therapy a professional sport (and you have the budget), there's no shortage of boutiques to help you live out your Pretty Woman fantasies.

In fact this year, the much-loved film celebrates its 30th anniversary, and the city's iconic Beverly Wilshire Hotel with its Italian Renaissance exteriors, immortalised in the film, has a host of themed events to mark the milestone, from a DIY Pretty Woman cocktail upon arrival, to a Pretty Woman-themed day at its spa.

Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills. Photo / Guy Coombes

Even if you don't have the six-figure salary of Richard Gere's character in the film, there's plenty to do that doesn't require a platinum American Express card.

Areas such as South Beverly Drive are a low-key option, including Urth Cafe at number 267 (great organic coffee), Cafe Istanbul at number 326 — a no-frills Turkish eatery that's perfect for anyone on a budget — and Australian celebrity chef Curtis Stone's discreet Maude restaurant, a casual dining experience with a menu that changes seasonally and a fun private wine loft upstairs for the perfect intimate nightcap.

There are myriad art galleries and art boutiques with some of the most enviable collections in the world here too. The tour dovetails towards via Rodeo, modelled on a quaint European cobblestone street. Here, I discover an impressive art gallery, Galerie Michael, housing a collection of Picasso and Salvador Dali.

Around the corner at 9465 Wilshire Boulevard is one of my favourite public artworks — a surreal 18-foot high lacquered aluminium sculpture called The Unconscious by Austrian sculpture artist Franz West. From here, we stroll towards the iconic Beverly Gardens Park and I come across a typically whimsical Yayoi Kusama sculpture gifted to the city in 2007, before making a pit-stop across the street at a pop-up shop/art exhibition hosted by French luxury brand Louis Vuitton. While the pop-up is now closed, it's an indication of what's to come, as many of the city's iconic luxury retailers look at other ways to localise their shopping experiences for the city's steady stream of high-income tourists.

Art is, of course, one of those things that allows you to show off how much you earn, and the city of Beverly Hills has created its own Arts & Culture Commission since June 2019, with the aim of promoting and nurturing the arts and cultural life of Beverly Hills.

Exploring suburban Beverly Hills

The array of buildings in surrounding neighbourhoods offers peaceful respite too. A stroll down famous palm tree-lined Canon Drive is worth one tourist shot while you're in town, and as we look around, it's clear to see money really is no option here.

It's not unusual to see homes that range from Southern Antebellum style to the popular Spanish Mission style so prevalent in LA (I even manage to convince my guide to take me towards "Casa Walsh", the Spanish style home of Brenda and Brandon Walsh from Beverly Hills 90210).

Some were purely bonkers. Like the mansion with a roof shaped like crashing waves, painted blue. Further along, we come across "The Witch's House" a spooky Beverly Hills landmark that's had its own cameo in the 1995 film Clueless.

Greystone Mansion, Beverly Hills. Photo / Dan Ahwa

Grand homes are a great way to understand the city's cultural and historic wealth. One must-visit is the Greystone Mansion — a 55-room Tudor-style estate, a gift from oil tycoon Edward L. Doheny to his son Ned Doheny and his family. Added to the National Register of Historic Places, the mansion for hire has featured in everything from The Bodyguard to Mariah Carey music videos.

If your curiosity teeters on the morbid, a look through the guest bedroom in the east wing of the mansion is worthwhile. Here is where Ned was found dead in 1929, four short months after the family moved in, alongside his long-time friend and hired assistant, Hugh Plunkett. Was it suicide? Was it due to unlawful business dealings? Were Hugh and Ned actually lovers? Rumours have swirled in the decades since, only adding to the mansion's tragic glamour.

A seven-minute Uber ride west, and I find myself at another estate, albeit one with a less grisly past — the Virginia Robinson Gardens. Built in 1911, it was once the residence of retail giants Virginia and Harry Robinson and the first luxury estate built in Beverly Hills, sitting on six acres of lush plantation. Inside the mansion, the home has been faithfully maintained with much of the Robinsons' original furnishings intact.

Home to the biggest plantation of King Palm trees outside Queensland, the gardens offer respite and calm away from the glitz of Rodeo Drive, and have a starry history of their own — Marlene Dietrich stayed the night and Charlie Chaplin often played on the famous tennis court surrounded by vibrant bougainvillea. Standing in the spot where Tinseltown's icons once played was a surreal moment I'll never forget.