LA-- where to stay?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:USC, Scripps, Occidental. They are all over so staying near a college will likely make no sense. We'll have a car there.

LA traffic is bad enough that I’d still consider the school locations. I’d recommend somewhere around Glendale/Pasadena. That’ll put you near Occidental College and better positioned for Scripps. Unless you had additional site seeing in mind.

I guess my concern about Pasadena is the recent fire.... was it not badly affected?

Only a small part of Pasadena burned- the farthest northeast corner that borders on Altadena, and it was only a few streets. Anywhere south of Orange Grove Blvd is totally fine.

[Anonymous]

I like staying in Santa Monica.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:USC, Scripps, Occidental. They are all over so staying near a college will likely make no sense. We'll have a car there.

LA traffic is bad enough that I’d still consider the school locations. I’d recommend somewhere around Glendale/Pasadena. That’ll put you near Occidental College and better positioned for Scripps. Unless you had additional site seeing in mind.

We are staying in Glendale this spring for our L.A. visit. We are only there a few days. Since L.A. is so big, nothing is central. Downtown didn’t look appealing, Hollywood- been there done that, and Santa Monica looked decent, but we settled on Glendale, which looks nice enough and the rooms were cheaper.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:USC, Scripps, Occidental. They are all over so staying near a college will likely make no sense. We'll have a car there.

LA traffic is bad enough that I’d still consider the school locations. I’d recommend somewhere around Glendale/Pasadena. That’ll put you near Occidental College and better positioned for Scripps. Unless you had additional site seeing in mind.

We are staying in Glendale this spring for our L.A. visit. We are only there a few days. Since L.A. is so big, nothing is central. Downtown didn’t look appealing, Hollywood- been there done that, and Santa Monica looked decent, but we settled on Glendale, which looks nice enough and the rooms were cheaper.

Blech. Glendale is miserable

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would not stay at an Air BNB.

Can you say more? why not? We would also consider a hotel of course

We have family in LA and always stay at Airbnbs. Never had an issue in the last 10 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:USC, Scripps, Occidental. They are all over so staying near a college will likely make no sense. We'll have a car there.

LA traffic is bad enough that I’d still consider the school locations. I’d recommend somewhere around Glendale/Pasadena. That’ll put you near Occidental College and better positioned for Scripps. Unless you had additional site seeing in mind.

We are staying in Glendale this spring for our L.A. visit. We are only there a few days. Since L.A. is so big, nothing is central. Downtown didn’t look appealing, Hollywood- been there done that, and Santa Monica looked decent, but we settled on Glendale, which looks nice enough and the rooms were cheaper.

Blech. Glendale is miserable

It probably is, but so is most of L.A.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:USC, Scripps, Occidental. They are all over so staying near a college will likely make no sense. We'll have a car there.

LA traffic is bad enough that I’d still consider the school locations. I’d recommend somewhere around Glendale/Pasadena. That’ll put you near Occidental College and better positioned for Scripps. Unless you had additional site seeing in mind.

We are staying in Glendale this spring for our L.A. visit. We are only there a few days. Since L.A. is so big, nothing is central. Downtown didn’t look appealing, Hollywood- been there done that, and Santa Monica looked decent, but we settled on Glendale, which looks nice enough and the rooms were cheaper.

Blech. Glendale is miserable

What are the other options? L.A. is so big that no location is central. Hollywood, been there done that, and not impressed. Downtown doesn’t have much going on, other than Skid Row, Beverly Hills doesn’t appeal to me and Santa Monica looks OK, but is too far for most of what we want to do. I’m sure as a place to lay our heads for two or three nights, Glendale is fine.

[Anonymous]

OP here -- thank you! This is very helpful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here -- thank you! This is very helpful.

Where did you decide to stay?

[Anonymous]

Some of these posts make me sad. LA has so many wonderful parts. Yes, they’re not Hollywood, Beverly Hills or downtown. Try the coastal areas, such as Venice Beach. See if there are Airbnbs among the Canal District, or Santa Monica. I also loved my stay at Channel Road Inn, a B&B in Santa Monica. Beautiful place near a couple restaurants with free bikes to access the paved path along the beach. More central to the city but still neighborhoody, Larchmont village has some properties on Airbnb. I also like Pasadena.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some of these posts make me sad. LA has so many wonderful parts. Yes, they’re not Hollywood, Beverly Hills or downtown. Try the coastal areas, such as Venice Beach. See if there are Airbnbs among the Canal District, or Santa Monica. I also loved my stay at Channel Road Inn, a B&B in Santa Monica. Beautiful place near a couple restaurants with free bikes to access the paved path along the beach. More central to the city but still neighborhoody, Larchmont village has some properties on Airbnb. I also like Pasadena.

But OP is going to LA to tour colleges with one of them being significantly inland. They can be miserable in 2+ hours of traffic each day, or they can stay in some place bland, yet convenient.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some of these posts make me sad. LA has so many wonderful parts. Yes, they’re not Hollywood, Beverly Hills or downtown. Try the coastal areas, such as Venice Beach. See if there are Airbnbs among the Canal District, or Santa Monica. I also loved my stay at Channel Road Inn, a B&B in Santa Monica. Beautiful place near a couple restaurants with free bikes to access the paved path along the beach. More central to the city but still neighborhoody, Larchmont village has some properties on Airbnb. I also like Pasadena.

I’m not a LA fan, but I do agree that there are some great neighborhoods/areas. As mentioned earlier in the thread, I think the challenge is finding something that’s centrally located. For example, say you were vacationing in LA, and wanted to go to the beach, take in a Dodger game, see Hollywood and maybe Goto Koreatown. No matter where you stay, you will be fighting traffic.

[Anonymous]

We stayed in Santa Monica for a similar itinerary. We booked late morning tours in Claremont and at Oxy and left Santa Monica with plenty of time to get there. The traffic definitely can be awful, but it was great staying by the ocean and having dinners in Santa Monica.

Hope you have great visits!