OT Anyone familiar Los Angeles?

We are going to Los Angeles to see the sights in June. We need to find a hotel/motel that will be in a decent area and not break the bank. I am sure there areas that we don't want to stay in, so...

Does anyone know a good area where we should look for a room, or know of a particularly good hotel/motel in a good area?

La is dirty/ Do you plan on Disneyland, Knots Berry, Beaches. These are not in La proper.Do more looking on the internet before you leave. Many things to see and do in Ca. Plan ahead.

I will be in Anaheim this fall, sights are a long distance apart.

Open to all suggestions on sights to see, it's a side trip from our real destination of Vegas and the Grand Canyon. We have researched staying in the surrounding areas but I am still leery of making a reservation without advice.

Plan on seeing the sights in Hollywood, Santa Monica pier, etc

We stayed with our son, right downtown! Parking wasn't a problem, but $10 a day! The best thing we saw was the air and space museum at USC, they have a space shuttle and an SR 71! Better check on this online if interested, I may be wrong and things change.

Wife stayed in Ventura which is about 1hr north. She really liked it there.

we stayed in Long beach when visiting the area--was much nicer than LA

Spent a summer working downtown in LA - be carefull where you go, condition of an area can change by crossing the street. Some areas McDonalds close at 7pm, and CVS has armed security guards. The old theater district on the weekends has quite a few flea market shops, and pawn shops, all with security guards present. Hollywood is crowded and overrated - mainly junk shops trying to sell you plastic Oscar statues. The subway can get you anywhere you want to go, some nice places to stay downtown. Little Tokyo is small, but a nice afternoon visit and dinner location. Just be prepared to spend big bucks at any attraction you go see.

I grew up in Burbank, San Fernando Valley (just over the hill from Hollywood). The Marriott Hotel across from the Hollywood - Burbank Airport ( now called the Bob Hope Airport ) is nice, clean & in a better part of the L.A. area - at least it was when I was last there in 2002 . Lots of things to see in that area also - Disney Studios, Warner Brothers Studios, Universal Studios, Columbia Studios. Grew up just North of Columbia Studios & used to play in all of the various Studio's Back-Lots.

If you like old Trains, then Travel Town on Forest Lawn Drive is a "must see". There's also the L.A. Zoo close by; and the Griffith Park Observatory on the Hollywood side of the mountain - can be reached from BOTH sides by driving through Griffith Park. If you like Horseback Riding there's Pickwick Stables in Burbank -(Horse Rentals)- and all of Griffith Park (huge) to ride in.

Lots of Museums & Cultural Centers in L.A.; Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood; Hollywood Boulevard (trashy); Disneyland in Anaheim; Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park; etc.,etc.,etc. .

I could list more places than this site would allow me to post. LOL!

Doc :>)

When you're in the Las Vegas area, Death Valley is a "MUST SEE" , and especially Scotty's Castle in Death Valley.

Used to live & work in Death Valley (Mining) ; and I currently reside half way between Las Vegas, NV and Death Valley, CA , in Pahrump, NV .

Doc

Yes, be VERY CAREFUL where you go. AVOID East L.A. & South Central L.A., both VERY ROUGH areas of town - lots of Crime, lots of Shootings. TRUST ME, I KNOW. I used to work in both of those areas as a Firefighter / Paramedic & Ambulance Driver / Attendant. I was there during the first Watts Riots & the East L.A. Riots.

Doc

Your question is sort of like "we're going to Florida, y'all know a good place to stay?" It matters which "sights" you intend to see. The LA metro area extends from San Clemente in southern Orange county to San Fernando Valley in the north and from Santa Monica on the coast to San Bernardino in the east. This is a ridiculously vast area in terms of both distance and (more importantly) time.

Traffic can be insane in LA and Orange counties; locals know there are certain times of day you simply cannot drive. Think about where it is you want to go and when you want to go there. If you stay close to those places, your life will be simpler. Alternatively, if you will be driving AGAINST traffic, you'll have a lot less stress than driving with traffic. So if you stay in LA county and drive to Orange county every morning, it's a much easier commute than to stay in Orange county and drive to LA.

Having lived there for several years, I'm a bit partial to Long Beach. In the past twenty years, the downtown Long Beach area has really been cleaned up. ("downtown" being the vicinity of Ocean and Long Beach Boulevards) There are plenty of nice restaurants and hotels, although the latter will tend to be expensive. Be aware that in a distance of a few blocks you can go from an upscale neighborhood to a very bad neighborhood. This is true in general in LA, but it's particularly true in Long Beach. If you stay within a few blocks of the beach you should be OK pretty much anywhere. And if you're going to LA, you might as well stay close to the beach.

If you plan on visiting Disneyland, then I suggest you look at the nearby hotels; you can find reasonably priced places close by.

If you're bringing a big crew, definitely look into one of the extended stay places like Residence Inn. These have kitchens which can save you a lot of money, not to mention free breakfast and happy hour.

A few sites which aren't so well known but well worth visiting: The Gene Autry Museum, now known as the "Autry National Center" is a must-see for western history fans. The Huntington Library in San Marino is also quite interesting if you like art and/or gardens. For a short scenic drive, follow the coast south from Redondo Beach around the Palos Verdes peninsula to San Pedro. If you have time for a longer drive, the Angeles Crest Highway across the San Gabriel mountains is fairly spectacular.

There are some nice motels along the Pacific Coast highway near the ocean - and some not so nice. We liked a new Holiday Inn on the Pacific Coast Highway when we went to visit son in Redondo Beach. It is just north of Redondo Beach.

I know very little about L.A. but I do know about the traffic.
While it has been MANY years ago and I can only imagine how bad it is today.....
I use to drive into and out of L.A. once every week for two years pulling a set of doubles.
And I can say the best thing I ever saw about L.A. was it in the rear view mirror for the last time; but the desert between here and there sure was a pretty site after a rain.

LA is not like New York or Chicago. The downtown is not the real hub of action, night life resturants....it is more commercial/offices etc.
Mark said it right. Where in LA? What do you want to see? I suggest you drive down Sunset strip (kinda tacky but historic) walk down Rodeo Drive, visit Malibu and Venice/Muscle Beach.
LaBrea tar pits, See the Hollywood sign, see the stars in the sidewalk in Hollywood, Eat from the gourmet vender trucks.

Be careful! Are you at all street savvy? A ghetto with palm trees is still a ghetto. Metro LA is 50 miles wide and 110 miles long...solid traffic. LA county alone has more population than 35 states, and LA metro also includes parts of Ventura, Orange and Riverside counties.

Until you decide what specifically you plan to visit, I can't suggest a place to stay. But people in LA are just people, lke anywhare else. I would rather soak up the feel for the city on a first visit, rather than visit all the tourist sites, which are like tourist tours nationwide.

A great place but very hectic.

I worked in downtown Las Angles for 4 years. My recommendation would be, go somewhere else.

People used to talk about NYC the way most folks here talk about LA, "danger!". I think I'll just stay on the farm.

You worked in Los Angeles for four years and never learned to spell the city's name? That's remarkable.

We have good friends in San Pedro, right outside of LA. Can't say about a place to stay as we stayed at their house. As far as things to see I really enjoyed a tour of the USS Iowa which is open for tours in San Pedro, also toured the Queen Mary cruise ship which is nearby. The Peterson (of Hot Rod magazine) museam is also interesting for us gearheads.

You lived in California for several years, that helps explain things. Great example of the west coast attitude.

I am now in LA every week for work but I am not the expert like some of the guys that lived there. I have found a great area to stay though that is safe, fairly close to town, on a freeway and just a mile of two from open farm fields, Oxnard/Ventura area. It is on the 101 freeway about 45 minutes north of the big town. Beautiful area with friendly people. Big enough town that it has everything you might need but in the right hotel you can look out on rows after row of strawberries. I was there last week when Oxnard had their Strawberry Festival. Only a couple miles from ocean beach too.

For the record, I lived many more years in North Carolina and Texas than I did in California. Not to mention Colorado, Michigan and Egypt.

Oxnard, Thousand Oaks, Ventura all great suburban neighboring communities, but it ain't LA, "the real city".