Hotel W/Shuttle Service from LAX

I just cancelled all kinds of ressies due to a change in cruise. East coast to west coast departure, so I'm starting over:eek:

I'm going to fly into LAX 1 day before and our ship leaves from LA/Long Beach. We'll be arriving in the AM, so if we want to buzz around the city, I assume we should stay in the city...or not?

We won't have a car, so to cut expenses, I'm looking for a hotel with airport shuttle and possible shuttle to the port. Does this exist in LA?

Otherwise, if we can catch a shuttle to the hotel, then paying for a shuttle to the port is not an issue.

Where do you suggest we stay, in or out of LA? Where? Hotel?

Thank you, thank you, thank you:)

There are no hotels that provide both. The port is too far away. You can either stay in a hotel near the airport, then pay for taxi or shuttle to the port, or take a taxi or shuttle to a hotel in San Pedro or Long Beach and then they will shuttle you to the ship.

What cruise line are you on? There is a difference between the Long Beach cruise pier (Carnival only) and LA port (in San Pedro, also called the World Cruise Terminal, all the other cruise lines).

If you want to take a LA city bus tour, your best bet would be to stay near LAX and see if you can get an afternoon only tour. You won't get to see much. There are few tours that leave from Long Beach or San Pedro, and by the time you get there in the afternoon and get settled, you really won't have much time. If you want to see something of the LA area, come two days before, or stay another day after your cruise.

What I would do is to check out the threads here about where to stay. LAX hotels aren't near any good sights. And I imagine many of the main hotels in Santa Monica or Long Beach have sightseeing tours that pick up from them (check out some of the sightseeing tour websites and you should get some info about pick up locations).

The airport hotels are basically good if you are coming in really late or departing on an early morning flight (we stayed at the LAX Marriott after our wedding as we had a really early flight the next morning). But other than that, you'll be having to catch many taxis just to go eat or sightsee.

I would agree that it would be rare if a hotel has shuttles to both the airport and the port as that's quite a distance.

The place not to stay is downtown LA. Not a really nice area and far, far away from the airport, the ports, and any really interesting sights.

Thanks for the info. After reading through lots of posts, I ended up going for a hotel in San Pedro, that way we'll already be there...no rushing:)

Thanks again.