Los Angeles Travel Forum

Hello everyone!
my boyfriend and I are going to LA for a week and we are looking for a nice and cheap place to stay around LA. He´s never been to CA before so we are renting a car and just drive around the famous places like downtown LA, Santa Monica, Venice Beach, Malibu, Santa Barbara, Hollywood, Universal Studios, Orange County, San Diego, etc. We are looking for something that is NOT right in the center of LA or Hollywood or anything like that because we´ll have a car to drive around anyway. We just need something nice, clean and cheap. No luxuries. Parking and breakfast will be a plus.
Any suggestions or recommendations will be much appreciated. Thank you guys!

The Super 8 out by the airport is pretty good. Has plenty of car parking and the rate includes a light breakfast. www.super8.com

Enjoy!

Santa Monica might be a good base for at least part of your trip. Hollywood, Beverly Hills, and Venice Beach are reasonably closeby, There are quite a few restaurants, shopping, and the Santa Monica Pier. There is some public transit, (www.bigbluebus.com), in case you wish to take a break from driving. San Diego is worth more than a day trip. Gary

How cheap is cheap?

The Doubletree Suites in Anaheim is extremely nice and you can get a room for about $129. It's close to the freeway so you can still get around to other areas in LA. There's also other hotels in Anaheim, like the Candy Cane Inn that are fairly inexpensive. Anaheim is very close to Orange County.

Also, in Orange County, The Island Hotel in Newport Beach has great deals. It used to be a Four Seasons, and if you feel like a bit of pampering, that's the place to stay. The deals are better on weekends.

Hmmm well, by cheap I mean something under $100. We´ll be spending 7 nights and I don´t want to spend a lot on accomodation.

Thank you all for your answers!

I always use Priceline or Hotwire to book my hotels in LA, can you use either one of those? Both are non refundable, non cancellable and you don't know what hotel you will get until after you bid but I've stayed at very nice airport area hotels for $65-75 per night, you can see which ones on my LA page. However, none of them had included breakfast and parking is always extra, I'd probably bid on a different area based on what you want to see.

www.biddingfortravel.com and www.betterbidding.com are terrific resources for using Priceline and Hotwire.

It might be the same motel John was speaking of, but check on the Super 8 Motel-Los Angeles-Culver City Area. It is in your price range. They have a free small breakfast, free parking, and an adequate location. You might also take a look at Los Angeles area hostels. There are quite a few. I believe some should have double rooms so you'd have privacy. Gary

you can get decent rooms below $100. I just finished my LA tour. I stayed in Hollywood Orchid Suites and i think the location is great. The accomodations have continental breakfast and free parking as well. Its right behind Kodak Theater. The rooms have kitchen so in case you want to save up, you can go to supermarket to buy food. You should also go to Famer's Market. Decent meals are just $10. And right beside it is the open air shopping place called The Grove(nice classy place). If you want to visit Universal Studios it is just one stop away from Hollywood/Highland Metro Station(very close to the hotel about 5min walk). 15mins traveling time from hotel to universal studios -tops.

Thank you all for your help and advises! I checked lots of places and their reviews and I decided to book one called Vagabond Inn (I stayed in the one they have in Vegas and really liked it). This Vagabond Inn hotel is $32 a night with a king double bed and with parking and breakfast is included. It´s located in Bell Gardens and after checking it on a map I thought it was pretty close to everything by car and liked the area.

Is this a bad option? anyone knows the hotel or area? I already booked for 6 nights but I can always cancel it...
thank you guys