Hotel Belmar Galeria is the go-to boutique hotel to stay in the Romantic Zone for my wife and me. We have stayed for a week at a time many times since 2014.
Belmar is only four blocks from the beach, has a super friendly staff, has large bottles of purified water, coffee in the lobby in the mornings and hot showers.
I recommend booking a high-floor room with an outside balcony, which comes in handy for watching the busy street scene and drying out beach towels and swim suits in the sun.
We actually like the extra exercise of taking the stairs, and now that the buses are being converted from old diesels to new clean natural gas buses, the traffic noise and pollution is much improved. And with the new condominium tower being build just to the north of Belmar, the area is becoming even more desirable.