Hotel Bel-Air, Mr. C make Conde Nast Traveler’s best hotels list

Prepare to dream. The Conde Nast Traveler’s 2012 Hot List of new hotels, resorts, spas and restaurants is out -- offering lots of travel fantasy fodder.

Editors, not travelers, compiled the list of the best 121 new (which includes the seriously renovated) hotels in the world. These in the West made the cut:

--Hotel Bel-Air, 701 Stone Canyon Road, L.A., which just emerged from a two-year renovation. Its Prairie spa also won a best-spa mention.

--Mr. C Beverly Hills, 1224 Beverwil Drive, L.A., scored high marks for its high-rise style.

--Hotel Lautner, 67710 San Antonio St., Desert Hot Springs, is a Midcentury landmark with just four units. “ ‘Mad Men’ in a terrarium,” Conde Nast calls it.

--Saguaro, 4000 N. Drinkwater Blvd., Scottsdale, Ariz., is a splashy and colorful new brand from Joie de Vivre Hotels.

--Aulani, 92-1185 Aliinui Drive, Kapolei, Hawaii, the high-end $800 million Disney beach resort. on Oahu

Editors visited a 172 hotels in 49 countries to vet amenities, location, comfort, etc..

Local restaurants and chefs singled out for the Hot Tables list include A-Frame (Roy Choi) in Culver City and Picca (Riccardo Zarate), Red Medicine (Jordan Kahn) and Son of a Gun (Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo) in Los Angeles.

My hands-down favorite list was Best Perks and Extras for the year: an airport transfer in a Maserati at the Hotel Missoni Kuwait, the sea turtle bath toy at the Jumeirah at Etihad Towers in Abu Dhabi, and the super-sized bed at the Jumeirah Dhevanafushi in the Maldives.

Check out all the Hot List 2012 entries.