Trip to LA

That Dave Fella

Hey guys,

I don't usually post in H/A but I thought this would be the best place to ask for some advice.

My friends and I are going to be heading to Blizzcon and we're staying in California for 8 nights, we're staying in Anaheim by Disneyworld/The Convention centre for 5 of them and will hopefully be spending the last 3 in LA or thereabouts.

What I'm wondering is, can anybody reccomend a nice hotel that's reasonably priced and in a nice enough area. I don't want to turn down the wrong street and go home without all my stuff :P

I'm not mad about shopping but being near a few shops so I can buy presents and maybe pick up a few things would be nice too. I don't really know if there's much to do in LA in August except go to the beach so we'd probably just walk around and go to some restaurants and stuff.

What's the public transport like for getting around, if it's decent enough I don't mind being a bit outside of the city. None of us will be able to drive so getting a car wouldn't be an option.

TL;DR

Looking for a nice, reasonably priced hotel in LA that's in a nice area.

kaliyama

Uh, most places in LA where there's stuff to do are nice enough where you don't have to worry about it. Public transit sucks in LA. Thus, where you should stay depends on what you guys want to do. Live music, dancing, bars, museums, and what sort of each very much changes the advice i'd give. Are you flying out of LAX?

Dalboz

I know there's the Best Western Gateway Hotel in Santa Monica on Ocean Blvd., which basically overlooks the beach and is a short walk to the Santa Monica Pier and two blocks from the Third Street Promenade (basically an outdoor shopping area with theaters, restaurants, street performers and such). As kaliyama said, public transportation sucks pretty much everywhere in LA, but in that area it should be fairly easy to grab a bus or a cab. How easy it is to get to your destination via those transports is another question that I can't really answer. There are also other hotels on Ocean (it's basically a string of hotels and condos right there), but the Best Western is the only one I can name.

There's the Radisson/Huntley Hotel on Second Street which is also has pretty much the same access, but is also probably more expensive. There's also some hotels on Santa Monica Blvd. further inland, including a Comfort Inn and a Days Inn, and I know that buses pass in front of those, and while I'm not sure of their destinations, they'll probably drop you off at the same locations that you have access to from the Best Western.

That Dave Fella

Yeh we're flying into and out of LAX.

That Best Western sounds good and seems to be nice enough and the cost isn't too much.

@kaliyama: Everyone apart from me would be 21 at the time of being there, I'll be 21 and I've some pretty convincing fake id so I suppose we'd probably try and hit some bars while we're there. I also know a few people in the area so I'd probably be trying to organise a get together. Are there some nice restaurant in the area near to the Best Western that Dalboz mentioned?

Dalboz

That Dave Fella wrote: »

Yeh we're flying into and out of LAX.

That Best Western sounds good and seems to be nice enough and the cost isn't too much.

@kaliyama: Everyone apart from me would be 21 at the time of being there, I'll be 21 and I've some pretty convincing fake id so I suppose we'd probably try and hit some bars while we're there. I also know a few people in the area so I'd probably be trying to organise a get together. Are there some nice restaurant in the area near to the Best Western that Dalboz mentioned?

There's a nice Mexican restaurant at the end of the Santa Monica Pier. There's a ton of restaurants on Third Street, ranging from Italian, Greek, a French Bistro, etc. There's a King's Head Pub on Second Street and...I think it's Santa Monica Blvd. If you want to try a Tommy's burger (the famous Tommy's chiliburgers, unique to LA) there's one that's...in walking distance, although a bit of a walk, on Lincoln and Pico. There's a lot of places to eat around there, and I haven't been to a majority of them, so I couldn't really list them all for you. The ones on Ocean Blvd. themselves immediately around the hotels tend to be a little more upscale, but it's a short walk, only about a block or two, to find anything else. A lot of the restaurant will post menus in the window or outside, so it's really just a matter of walking around and seeing something that you might be interested in.

If you want to hit a bar and get a good view of Santa Monica, there's a really nice bar (recently redesigned) on the top floor of the Radisson/Huntley, and you can overlook most of the coast and Santa Monica itself from up there. It's actually really nice to see at sunset.

That Dave Fella

That bar sounds pretty cool and the nice selection of restaurants is nice. Do you know if you have to be staying in the hotel to get into the bar, also how strict are bars/clubs on ID? Do they require a passport for non - US citzens?

Do either of you know much about Anaheim and if there's anything decent around there apart from Disneyworld. I know it's about 45 minutes outside of LA itself so getting 2 buses there and back again isn't really appealing.

NotYou

There is no worthwhile public transportation here. Rent a car. LA is HUGE. If you want to take a bus from one side to the other, be prepared for it to take all day.

That Dave Fella

The problem that we have is none of us will be able to drive.

Mr Blonde

I don't live near Anaheim so I can only speak about the LA and the Westside....

Seriously, there is no public transport worth taking. You really need to find a way to rent a car and be stuck in traffic just like me.

Check out the Natural History Museum. Not sure when you're going to be here, they have a new exhibit called B-Movies and Bad Science on the weekends NHM

I hear the car museum is pretty cool, and I'll be taking my g/f there this or next weekend. Petersen Car Museum The Getty is awesome and famous (the new one will be closer to you) and 3rd Street Promenade is pretty nice. You can catch a comedy show at the The Comedy Store/URL] or The Comedy and Magic Club

Avoid Hollywood like the plague, it sucks.

PM me if you want to ask about anything else.

pacbowl

That Dave Fella wrote: »

The problem that we have is none of us will be able to drive.

Nobody walks in L.A.

That said, you will be confined to the surrounding area. No Santa Monica, La Brea Tar Pits, Universal, Burbank Studios, Hollywood, Manhattan Beach for you unless you want to take bass ackwards Metro rides and look up train/bus schedules. 3 or 4 days is enough to see most everything, but you really need your own car.

No offense, but Anaheim is home to Disneyland, The Discovery Center and not much else as far as sight seeing goes. I'm sure there are some really nice local gigs to hang out at and eat at around the Blizzcon area, but as far as the California Tourist experience goes, you need a rental car.

Horus

I think its best to get a hotel at LAX and I think Disney has a shuttle which might be worth checking.

LA Metro maps
http://www.metro.net/riding_metro/maps/default.htm

I been to Anaheim a lot and I don't know what there is for tourist other than Disney. They do have a city walk where you walk around and some bars.

Santa Monica has a nice night scene (although there is a lot of homeless ppl) just public transportation from there to Anaheim will be long.

public transportation from Santa Monica to Disneyland


Holler I live right next to LAX if you need more info.... like you'll see my house when landing

That Dave Fella

Thanks for all the info guys, I'll sit down with my mates and see what we think.

Dalboz

Yeah, Disneyland is really the only thing I can think of in Anaheim. It's not a very pedestrian friendly place. Neither is LA. Santa Monica itself is fairly easy to stay in and walk, though, and have a variety of stuff, but then you're stuck here unless you want to jump through a bunch of hoops to get anywhere else (or on the Westside; as was mentioned about the Getty Center, that should be fairly easy to get to by bus).

As for the bar I mentioned (called Toppers), no, you don't need to be staying at the hotel. Most bars are fairly stringent about carding. I've never heard of them needing to see a passport, although that doesn't mean they don't, just that I've never heard of them needing to.