Los Angeles Travel Forum

My brother and I are going to be traveling to Los Angeles in mid Sept this year and I am needing advice on what to do and where to stay. We are definitely traveling on a budget , we are going to be renting a car so transportation is already taken care of. We are looking for a cheap hotel (100.00 or less per night ) in a good area and we are going to splurge on a very nice restaurant so any suggestions there would be great. We are looking for something that's not a chain... We will be staying for 1 week and we are the typical tourist and interested in all the tourist locations, we are also wanting to check out the celebrity cemeteries. And finally .....What's the weather that time of the year (Mid-September ) ?

Holy Cross in Inglewood, Forest Lawn in Glendale, and Westwood Memorial Park in Westwood have the most celebrity cemeteries. A great website for the listings of the celebrities final resting place is: http://www.hollywoodusa.co.uk/celebrity-graves.htm

The weather is very warm for September and some days can be hot. Now and then a fog will build up, so the temps stay down. It is very difficult to forcast weather in Los Angeles.

The weather in September is the best. It is still really late summer weather and beautiful. LA is a big city. I prefer some of the beach ciites like Santa Monica, Laguna or San Diego. Laguna or Newport Beach are a quick drive to Disneyland and Knotts Berry Farm. Catch a sports game at the Staples Center or a concert at the Nokia theatre. Visit the Disney Concert Hall. Don't miss the Getty museum or the small just redone Getty Villa in Malibu-It has lots of Roman antiquities. San Diego has Sea World and a beautiful Harbor. Santa Monica is fun and shopping on Rodeo Drive is expensive but looking is fun. If you like scruffy people you can go to Hollywood and look at head shops and the scientology center..Perhaps catch a play at the beautiful Pantages theatre which is right there. Have fun!

Due to extreme climatic changes the World is experiencing at the moment, trying to predict the weather can be difficult because of local, on the day variations.
Most places now are seeing weather conditions well outside the norm.
The information below should be used as a guide only.

Here is the average weather for Los Angeles for this time of year.
Enjoy your holiday.

September.
High 83f / 29c
Low 63f / 17c
Rain 0.40in / 9.0mm
Rain days 2
Hours of sun 9
Daylight hours 12
UV level 8 = Very High
Humidity = Moderate
Sea temp 64f / 18c

I visited the Hollywood Forever cemetery, there are quite a few stars buried there. Make sure to bring along information from the attached site so you know who you are looking for.

http://www.hollywoodusa.co.uk/MemorialParks/hollywoodforever.htm

I read somewhere that Forest Lawn isn't particularly fond of people coming to hunt for celebrity graves, you can still visit but don't expect them to help you find the graves.

I don't know if you are interested or able to use one of the blind bidding sites like Hotwire or Priceline, I always book my hotels in LA using that and stay for $75 or less at 4* hotels near the airport. I wouldn't recommend LAX as a great place to stay but if you look at the more tourist oriented areas like Santa Monica or Beverly Hills you might find a good deal on a great hotel.

Take a look at www.biddingfortravel.com or www.betterbidding.com for tips on how to use both of them, they are non refundable and non cancellable.

Try priceline.com

I would recommend staying in Santa Monica or Marina Del Rey. Use www.hotwire.com to get a great deal on a hotel in one of these locations.

For the hotel, we stayed in Westin Bonaventure downtown, if you're staying on weekends, chances are hotel rates are lower!

Westin downtown is a few meters away from the tourism office and to the metro (subway). You can also walk to the Disney Concert Hall and Museum of Contemporary Art.

In this article LA for free, I've mapped out the way to get to the Walk of Fame and Universal Studios using the Red Line subway and then bus 720 to get to Rodeo Drive and Sta. Monica Beach.

http://www.ehow.com/how_4907060_act-visit-its-top-sights.html

Please note though that the bus may encounter traffic so best to start your day early.

For a summary, you can view http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/7f095/b80ac/9/