Travel

Once again, we find ourselves confused by a World's Best list from Travel + Leisure. The magazine has just released its 2015 T+L 500 guide which always makes us giddy as we love seeing which hotels are hot and which are not. But when we noticed that the best hotel in Los Angeles is the Hotel Bel-Air . it felt like someone popped the pretty balloon we had been holding. And then knocked over our ice cream too.

That's because the Hotel Bel-Air has been closed for over a year for extensive renovations. It is not expected to reopen until July .

So, how did this happen? According to T+L, the 2015 T+L 500 guide is "based on 2015 World's Best Awards readers' survey results. As part of the survey, Travel + Leisure readers rated hotels on several characteristics including rooms/facilities, location, service, restaurants/food, and value."

So this must mean that T+L readers are voting based on their pre-2015 experiences at the hotel. And we're not so sure that those experiences are ones we'd like to have.

The list-makers at Travel + Leisure don't strictly cater to single jetsetting types. There's an active sect of family travelers out there, and those that don't consider Disneyland the Alpha-Omega of getaways. Sorry, Mickey.

The hotel's site explicitly tells prospective travelers not to "worry about the kids," citing activities like Camp Coyote exploration as a selling-point. The Camp is an educational program designed for kids aged 4-12, where they can partake in "scavenger hunts, outdoor games and Southwestern-inspired cooking classes," with a full day of Camp priced at $70.