Long Beach Travel Forum

Hello there!

I'm from the Uk and i'm travelling around california this summer and can't wait!
I've decided to stop off at long beach for 1 day/night but i'm not sure what area to stay. I'm 24 and looking for a good night out, with a cheap but clean hotel. Any information would be a great help.

Thank you Sarah xx

Hi. Have you been to California before? I would stay in the Santa Monica area rather than Long Beach. It has a nice pier, nice bike trails, nice shopping, many beaches (should not miss Venice). Not sure what you like to do so I'll stop here - but for "overall tourist activities", I would stay in Santa Monica.

I agree with Nomad. Santa Monica over Long Beach. You should have a good day and night out in this area, even a British Pub, "Ye Olde King's Head" on Santa Monica Blvd. See website: www.yeoldekingshead.com. As mentioned, Venice Beach, but also the Marina del Rey area with restaurants, hotels, beach, 1000's of boats. Look at VTers tips on Santa Monica, Venice Beach, and Marina del Rey and see for yourself.

I'm spending a month travelling around california and i'm already visiting santa monica, huntington, newport, san diego etc. someone said that long beach was nice for a night so justing wondering where abouts to stay really. thank you for your help.

In that case, make it a fun night and stay aboard the Queen Mary. Kind of like old home week reunion with the Queen. Great views of the Long Beach Harbor. The hotel rooms are really cabins on the Queen Mary, and some are small, but hey, it's the Queen Mary, by Jove. Website: www.queenmary.com

Long Beach is about 30-45 minutes from Santa Monica on the 405 - depending on traffic. If you want to go and have some drinks in LB, then it's a good idea to stay there - otherwise I would not bother to pack/unpack and just stay in Santa Monica.

By the way, not sure if they told you about South Coast Plaza - a pretty nice mall off the 405, has many stores and is a bit south of Long Beach, in case shopping is in the plans.

Enjoy California!

Long Beach has a lot of nice areas to stay in. As stated above you can try the Queen Mary which is right across the bridge from Pine Street, but you would need to take a cab to get anywhere. Right off of Pine St. there are plenty of hotels. I don't know what you consider cheap, but the Renaissance is on the corner of Pine and Ocean Blvd. There is also the Hyatt, Hilton, Sheraton, Holiday Inn, etc within walking distance. If you head down Ocean blvd there are also many smaller hotels that are on the bluff over looking Long Beach and yes Long Beach has an actual beach. It might not be the best beach but it is really nice. It has a great bike/walk way that leads you right up to belmont shores and the pier heading one way and shoreline village and the pike the other. Any given day you will see plenty of windsurfers and kite boarders here. If you go even a little further south you'll run into the Belmont Shores/Naples/Alamitos Bay/2nd Street area of LB. This is a really cool part of LB also a really trendy spot as well. a couple really nice smaller hotels here too. Great shopping area and plenty of restaurants/bars. I guess it all depends on your budget and what you want to do when you're out here.... have fun!!!!

I used to live in Long Beach and would recommend checking it out. On second st. there are some cool botiques, restaurants and bars....on Pine St. you can see the restaurants. My favorit in Shoreline Village is The Yard House. It is a fun cool place right on the water.
To find a place to stay try Golden Sails hotel on PCH for Cheap. Or the Marriott next to the Long Beach airport.
I hope this helps.
Jackie

I haven't stayed at any of the hotels in long beach. There were some small hotels next to the "beach" (along Ocean Dr) that looked interesting. Most of them are close to the art museum and the Bluffs park. I like that area because I used to go jogging there and met some nice, good looking joggers there. People also fly kites there.

As far as the areas to go out to. Pine Ave is a good area for young people. There's a nice variety of bars, restaurants and clubs and you can just park your car at one of the public parking places and walk from place to place til you find a one that's your style. The Rock Bottom was recommended once to me. It's on Ocean couple blocks away from Pine. You can also check out Good Vibes Cafe, it's small but the 2 owners there are friendly. There's a Irish themed pub that I can't remember the name of (possibly The Auld Dubliner)--it's always packed with a varied crowd. Some people have said the Mai Tai bar is cool, but I haven't gone there yet. I don't drink so, I'm just passing on what my friends like and I haven't been to any of these places other than to meet people.

If you get to the Belmont Shore area on 2nd Street, you should try eating at Open Sesame (Meditaranian Restaurant that's always busy). Order the garlicy potatoes! I also like the Phuket Thai that's on 2nd street also. There's a really good Burrito place there too.

Even though Long Beach isn't really a good tourist spot. But, I do hang out there from time to time because I really like the vibe from the people there. There's a kind of a smaller scale feel like San Fransico there. The younger crowd tends to be more liberal and more down to earth than some of the other hi fi areas of Los Angeles county.

Pine and 2nd Street areas are safe to walk around at night.

oh yeah,

you may also want to look into taking a ferry to catalina island.
check out jenn_d's page for some info on a bi-plane ride
if you like the sea, long beach has one of the best aquariums.

I live in Long Beach, renting an old Spanish duplex on 1st street, near the ocean. Recently we took a little mini-vacation, booking a great room at the Hilton down the street for a few days, on Ocean, and were impressed with the room, the staff, and the excellent view from our balcony---I think we were on the 11th floor. If I remember correctly, it was not really pricy for the deluxe room with balcony; they brought in a fridge for us, and welcomed our 2 small dogs as well. The room service was good, but fairly expensive, and you would want to avoid the nearby park, which seems to contain many homeless people camping out...but the area is eclectic and safe, and it's near Pine, the Pike, and other attractions.

Long Beach has an interesting grunge element to it, and a great cultural mix which you may not find elsewhere. We have had a few stays at the Coast Long Beach Hotel, right on the water and not extremely expensive, which were very nice, and it's near the Queen Mary, which can be seen well from the hotel. Their staff were also genuine, down-to-earth, and helpful, and their room service was good. You may want to check out their website; I know they are remodeling so things may have changed somewhat at the Coast.

Good luck--we spent some time in England a few years ago, and I wish to God I had gotten better information and planned more carefully. It would have been a much better trip.