With the annual Hollywood award season in full swing, perhaps it’s time to revisit a favorite stop of the stars.

The Electric Fountain in Beverly Gardens Park, seen in the movie, “Clueless,” is located at the corner of Santa Monica and Wilshire Boulevards in Beverly Hills, California. Photo by Gene Korte.

Beverly Hills is a dazzling movie set that’s open to the public. That palm-tree lined avenue, isn’t that from “Beverly Hills Cop”? Didn’t we see Julia Roberts in “Pretty Woman” walk through the Art Deco lobby of the Beverly Wilshire Hotel? Surely that was Cher who realized she loved Josh in “Clueless,” as she walked by the Electric Fountain in Beverly Gardens Park? Cinema deja vu, it’s everywhere here. The Hollywood district itself is only a few miles away, but perhaps lackluster in comparison.

About a hundred years ago this 5.7 square mile piece of land was mostly a giant lima bean field. Today’s hometown industries are beauty and fashion, celebrities, their homes and their hangouts. The grass is greener and the flowers are prettier here. There are thousands of private and public gardeners in this small town of about 35,000 souls. And there are definitely a lot of high heels and cleavage. Your fingers will go numb googling through all the cosmetic surgeon listings in its three zip codes. The best known being 90210.

The streets are full of stretch limos, of course, Mercedes and BMWs, Bentleys and Ferraris, but it’s so walkable here, as the central business district is measured in blocks not miles.

Denver Post edited excerpt. Distributed by Tribune Media Services, INC. for World’s Fare Syndicate

© 2011-2013  Diana and Gene Korte

The Willard InterContinental Hotel, one of DC’s most celebrated hotels,  is located two short blocks from the White House. Photo by Gene Korte

Washington at holiday time is American tradition at its best, or surely it’s most abundant.  Hard to say how many Christmas trees are now sparkling, or how many light displays, winter parades, menorah lightings and musical or ballet performances grace our nation’s capital.  Even the National Zoo presents its own version of an end-of-year party called Zoolights.

And the hundreds of DC hotels put on their finery as well. The Willard Intercontinental Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue, for example, is two short blocks from the White House and dates back to the 1850s. This is where President Ulysses S. Grant coined the term “lobbyists” for those gentlemen who hung around the lobby, hoping to corral one of the many politicians having a bite to eat or smoking a cigar in the Round Robin Bar.

This hotel is still a magnet for politicians and has hosted every U.S. president, as either an overnight guest or as an attendee of social functions, from Franklin Pierce in 1853 to the current President Obama.

But it’s a fabulous family destination as well, especially during the holidays when decorations are outstanding and it’s easy to line up some of the best of DC stops, all within easy walking distance, http://www.washington.intercontinental.com.  The Willard also presents free holiday choirs and other musical performances in the hotel’s spacious lobby in late afternoons in December.

 If your plans take you and your family to our nation’s capital this holiday season, be sure to enjoy the tour of a fully decorated White House (http://www.whitehouse.gov), the free museums and monuments on nearly every corner (http://www.washington.org) and The Nutcracker ballet at the ornate Warner Theatre a block from The Willard, http://www.warnertheatre.com. 

This excerpted article was originally distributed by Tribune Media Services, INC. for the World’s Fare Syndicate.       © 2011  Diana and Gene Korte