WP24 at the Ritz-Carlton Los Angeles sits on the 24th floor and features Wolfgang Puck's twist on Asian cuisine.

Los Angeles: A Real Downtown

While I wasn’t paying attention, Los Angeles got itself a downtown.

Consider the newly happening 900 block of West Olympic Boulevard. You can check into your choice of two luxury hotels, fine-dine at Wolfgang Puck’s newest Asian eatery, catch a show at the megacomplex L.A. Live or cheer on the Lakers at the Staples Center.

All this in a 10-minute stroll along one downtown city block. Imagine that, walking in L.A.

And I’m not talking about two hipster boutique hotel set pieces, either. I’m talking big ole serious brands that are destinations unto themselves: JW Marriott Los Angeles at L.A. Live and The Ritz-Carlton, Los Angeles—both in one glamour tower glittering above everything else in the Los Angeles night sky.

That certainly wasn’t the case downtown when I moved there 10 years ago, one more New York City transplant tilting at windmills in the “Day of the Locust” glow of the City of Angels.

Oh, sure, the guidebooks all insisted there was a downtown. We dutifully checked it all out: Frank Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall, the super-mod Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, art shows in Chinatown and MOCA, a trip to Spanish-speaking Santee Alley for shopping bargains. But it was always in and out, then back to the West Side for food, friends and nightlife.

Six years ago, we moved back to the East Coast, and I took my eye off the ball. (Having a baby does that to you.) Finally, we went back to L.A. for the first time last fall.

With us and L.A., it’s always love at first sight. And so it was again, especially the magnificent downtown. We stayed at the 54-floor tower whose first 24 floors are home to the JW Marriott, a luxury tier of the hotel brand (prices start at $209/night). On the 25th floor starts its sister property, the Ritz-Carlton (prices start at $259/night). Two hotels, one building. Double the fun.

During our 48-hour stay, I happily felt like Alice in two Wonderlands, slipping in and out of hidden hallways and elevators into fantastically different worlds of suites and rooftop pools, restaurants and lobbies.

Wonder #1. We can’t stop staring out the panoramic wall of windows within both our rooms (especially the Ritz-Carlton side). The cloudless sky and buildings below go on forever. Tiny cars on miles of streets, the Hollywood hills, the Hollywood sign. Magical.

Wonder #2. The two pools. The Ritz’s feels like swimming in a Getty museum in the sky, white and modern, way up on the 26th floor. The JW Marriott’s liquid blue is on the 4th floor. We swim in both and love both.

Wonder #3: WP24, Wolfgang Puck’s restaurant on the 24th floor of the Ritz. Panoramic views, walls lined with wine bottles, and Puck’s signature fresh, contemporary twist on Asian cuisine. It’s no surprise that Food & Wine recently picked it as one of the best U.S. restaurant openings of 2010.

Wonder #4: Amenities. The 8,000-square-foot Ritz spa is high-concept white on white. Its futuristic waiting area looks like a mad melding of the milk bar from “A Clockwork Orange” and the spa scene in the classic 1939 film “The Women.” On the 24th floor, the Ritz’s gym welcomes with its expansive layout, vistas and rows of gleaming machines. I could have moved in. (Not an entirely implausible idea, by the way. The top tower floors are for sale as permanent residences.)

Wonder #5: The lobby of the JW Marriott. It’s as big as an airplane hangar, Vegas-y but more modern-cool and arty. One wall of its lobby is a post-mod homage to the Getty Center, while the other side offers luminescent bars and wireless hangout areas.

Our final day, we perched on the long window ledge of our Ritz suite—pale woods, crisp white bedding, a silvery TV screen literally embedded into the bathroom mirror—transfixed by the freeways, tiny billboards and Hollywood hills. We are East Coasters now, but through the glass, I could see the panorama of our former lives. Our 4-year-old son stretched his arms and legs, pressing them against the ledge-to-ceiling wall windows as he took in the view.

Downtown L.A. had gotten to him, too. He was grabbing onto it all.

Getting There

From Dulles International, nonstop flights on American, United and Virgin America to LAX; and on JetBlue to Long Beach. From Reagan National, nonstop service on Alaska Airlines.