Where to stay in LA?

We booked the 49-day South America cruise and our disembarking port is Los Angeles on March 23, 2019. We would like to stay several days to visit LA, go to Warner Brothers, etc. Any suggestions for hotels and in which area to stay?

You can also post on the West Coast Departures board for additional suggestion.

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=62

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

We booked the 49-day South America cruise and our disembarking port is Los Angeles on March 23, 2019. We would like to stay several days to visit LA, go to Warner Brothers, etc. Any suggestions for hotels and in which area to stay?

We always stay at the Doubletree Marina Hotel in San Pedro.....they have great rates...waterfront location....free cruise parking...and provide complimentary shuttle service to your Princess ship and back if needed.

http://doubletree3.hilton.com/en/hotels/california/doubletree-by-hilton-hotel-san-pedro-port-of-los-angeles-LGBSPDT/index.html

We always stay at the Doubletree Marina Hotel in San Pedro.....they have great rates...waterfront location....free cruise parking...and provide complimentary shuttle service to your Princess ship and back if needed.

 

http://doubletree3.hilton.com/en/hotels/california/doubletree-by-hilton-hotel-san-pedro-port-of-los-angeles-LGBSPDT/index.html

Thanks for sharing. Good to know.

Tony

If your plans involve Warner Brothers tour (which is in Burbank in the SFV) and other places in Hollywood (on the other side of the mountains from Burbank), Universal Studios, or around there....you might want to consider staying in that area of LA. San Pedro is a bit of a distance from the Burbank/Hollywood area.

Los Angeles is very spread out so you need a car. You might consider more then one hotel since it's a long way from one amusement to another. There is a Hotel right on Universal Studios, a Sheridan. From there I would find a hotel in the area of Disneyland / Knottsberry Farm. That would be Aneheim, Buena Park Area. If you were going to six flags in Valencia that would be Valencia which to way to far to go to say Disney, too spread out.

You need to lay out a map and decide where you want to go and what you want to see before deciding on a place to stay.

We always stay at the Doubletree Marina Hotel in San Pedro.....they have great rates...waterfront location....free cruise parking...and provide complimentary shuttle service to your Princess ship and back if needed.

 

http://doubletree3.hilton.com/en/hotels/california/doubletree-by-hilton-hotel-san-pedro-port-of-los-angeles-LGBSPDT/index.html

Another vote for the Doubletree. It's where we stay as well.

Rent a car, and stay somewhere around actual LA, not San Pedro. We did cruises out of LA and usually stay there one or two days before the cruise. We just go for random hotels around LA. Staying in San Pedro is kind of counter-productive if you want to see things around LA.

As for car, we rent from Enterprise at LAX, and return to Enterprise in San Pedro. Not the cheapest option but a lot better than cabbing or ubering around. And Enterprise location in San Pedro has a shuttle that will take you right to cruise terminal.

I would post this on the West Coast Departures Board:

Popular places for a few days include:

Santa Monica

Beverly Hills

Keith

The port (Los Angeles Harbor) is in San Pedro which is almost a different world away from the LA attractions that you are thinking of. We are flying into LA in January for a PC cruise and will get Uber or something for the drive to San Pedro. There are two main hotels that cruisers stay at- The Doubletree and the Crowne Plaza.

So, do your sightseeing but do not use the port for your Home Base.

I grew up in Southern California, so I am familiar with the "LA Basin".

Spend as least time in LA as possible is my advice. A dump of a city. We stayed at the Andaz in West Hollywood for a couple of days and used that as a base to get to Universal and the Santa Monica and beaches. The Andaz is nice and is walking distance to many paces and eateries.

Anaheim on the other hand is great and I'd get there as soon as you can.

Spend as least time in LA as possible is my advice. A dump of a city. We stayed at the Andaz in West Hollywood for a couple of days and used that as a base to get to Universal and the Santa Monica and beaches. The Andaz is nice and is walking distance to many paces and eateries.

Anaheim on the other hand is great and I'd get there as soon as you can.

Funny.....most Angelenos say most cities in Australia are just like LA.....:eek:

As others have said, staying at the Hilton Doubletree (which I like) would be a bit of a distance from all the places you want to see. Getting to all of the places you want to see, from San Pedro, while dealing with LA freeway traffic would be very rough. My recommendations would be as follows:

Downtown Los Angeles - Luxe or Westin Bonaventure

Universal Studios - Sheraton Universal

Burbank (Studios) - Burbank Holiday Inn

Anaheim (Disneyland) - Anaheim Marriott

Bob

We booked the 49-day South America cruise and our disembarking port is Los Angeles on March 23, 2019. We would like to stay several days to visit LA, go to Warner Brothers, etc. Any suggestions for hotels and in which area to stay?

There are some reasonable hotels located in East Los Angeles.

Enjoy your cruise.

Are you or your spouse possibly military? If so, Fort MacArthur in San Pedro (part of LA AFB) is an inexpensive option.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Spend as least time in LA as possible is my advice. A dump of a city. We stayed at the Andaz in West Hollywood for a couple of days and used that as a base to get to Universal and the Santa Monica and beaches. The Andaz is nice and is walking distance to many paces and eateries.

Anaheim on the other hand is great and I'd get there as soon as you can.

Ouch! That hurt and IMO very wrong! Sure there are places that are not very nice, but having lived here for over 30 years (from NYC), I love this city. I live in Century City, which is a lovely community, as is much of the Westside of Los Angeles.

I would recommend a place closer to the airport. I don't know how much you want to spend per night or if you are in any hotel loyalty programs. When I have out-of-town guests, I recommend the DoubleTree Hilton in Culver City, which is not that far from the airport and freeway accessible. In Century City, there is an Inter-Continental, but that may be a bit pricey, but also very freeway accessible. There are several boutique hotels in or near Beverly Hills that my friends have gotten good rates with through the several hotel websites like Trivago, etc.

Hope that helps. No matter what, have a great time in LA!

Arlene

Spend as least time in LA as possible is my advice. A dump of a city. We stayed at the Andaz in West Hollywood for a couple of days and used that as a base to get to Universal and the Santa Monica and beaches. The Andaz is nice and is walking distance to many paces and eateries.

Anaheim on the other hand is great and I'd get there as soon as you can.

So, why is LA a dump? Be more specific, .:rolleyes:

Ouch! That hurt and IMO very wrong! Sure there are places that are not very nice, but having lived here for over 30 years (from NYC), I love this city. I live in Century City, which is a lovely community, as is much of the Westside of Los Angeles.

 

 

Arlene

Yes it probably hurt and I think it's great you are loyal to where you live. I should have added some balance.

I travelled from West Hollywood to Dodger Stadium (a great experience once there) by bus and was certainly hoping that the bus didn't break down once we cleared the "tourist" areas. Certainly we found plenty of dodgy characters around Venice Beach and I've never seen so many street sleepers which I found unfortunate in a country like this. The smog was pretty bad as well. I'm sure there are plenty of beautiful suburbs in LA but I guess as a tourist we don't see them and as I said the Anaheim area was a great place to hang out. Having been to many other cities in the US I just prefer others. Most of CA we really liked. We also went down to San Diego for a NFL game and other things and liked it there very much.

One thing I must say is the people of the US in general are great hosts and anyone in a service industry here should be made visit the US to see how it's done. Hope that balances things a bit and I don't want to get this thread off track.

Los Angeles is very spread out so you need a car. You might consider more then one hotel since it's a long way from one amusement to another. There is a Hotel right on Universal Studios, a Sheridan. From there I would find a hotel in the area of Disneyland / Knottsberry Farm. That would be Aneheim, Buena Park Area. If you were going to six flags in Valencia that would be Valencia which to way to far to go to say Disney, too spread out.

You need to lay out a map and decide where you want to go and what you want to see before deciding on a place to stay.

You definitely would not miss Disneyland and/or California Adventure! They have the festival of holidays right now. Even at my age, I still enjoy going there!!!

You definitely would not miss Disneyland and/or California Adventure! They have the festival of holidays right now. Even at my age, I still enjoy going there!!!

I agree that these should not be missed. Even though there are the Disney Parks on a grand scale in Florida, there is something about the original Disneyland in Anaheim that I prefer.

Thanks for sharing. Good to know.

Tony

I agree, thanks for the info. Doubletree will work for us.;)

We liked the Doubletree so much on our 3 day pre-cruise stay that we stayed an extra day there post cruise.

Rent a car, and stay somewhere around actual LA, not San Pedro. We did cruises out of LA and usually stay there one or two days before the cruise. We just go for random hotels around LA. Staying in San Pedro is kind of counter-productive if you want to see things around LA.

 

 

As for car, we rent from Enterprise at LAX, and return to Enterprise in San Pedro. Not the cheapest option but a lot better than cabbing or ubering around. And Enterprise location in San Pedro has a shuttle that will take you right to cruise terminal.

Just to clarify: many times when someone says "Los Angeles," some people take that to mean "downtown Los Angeles." As a native Angeleno, I strongly recommend NOT staying in downtown LA as 1) it's not the best of areas and 2) it's far from many sites most people want to see in LA (I'm referring to the whole LA County and surrounding areas).

The best thing to do is to decide what you want to see and do while here. As others have said, LA county is very spread out. Even the city of LA is very spread out (I live in one corner of the city...and it's about 50 miles to the port of LA from where we are).

Then you can decide about staying in a place that's not too far away from your desired sites (if that's possible), or decide to stay near some and use a rental car to visit the others.

BTW, in my first post, I mentioned some places near Warner Brothers (since that was the one thing the OP mentioned), and others here just assumed the OP wants to visit all the amusement parks. That might not be the OP's intentions.

There are some reasonable hotels located in East Los Angeles.

Enjoy your cruise.

Really, East Los Angeles? Just because there's "reasonable" hotels...if you are talking about price, it doesn't mean you can find a decent hotel that's practical, especially if one wants to do the usual touristy things that aren't anywhere near East LA.

Yes it probably hurt and I think it's great you are loyal to where you live. I should have added some balance.

 

I travelled from West Hollywood to Dodger Stadium (a great experience once there) by bus and was certainly hoping that the bus didn't break down once we cleared the "tourist" areas. Certainly we found plenty of dodgy characters around Venice Beach and I've never seen so many street sleepers which I found unfortunate in a country like this. The smog was pretty bad as well. I'm sure there are plenty of beautiful suburbs in LA but I guess as a tourist we don't see them and as I said the Anaheim area was a great place to hang out. Having been to many other cities in the US I just prefer others. Most of CA we really liked. We also went down to San Diego for a NFL game and other things and liked it there very much.

One thing I must say is the people of the US in general are great hosts and anyone in a service industry here should be made visit the US to see how it's done. Hope that balances things a bit and I don't want to get this thread off track.

Another piece of advice from someone who grew up in LA (actually the San Fernando Valley, but also lived as an adult on the other side of the mountains too): don't use the bus system to get around unless you are knowledgeable about the geography here (and don't have a car). Usually those who are using the so-called rapid transit system are the locals. It is a complicated system as the city itself is complicated and wide spread, and some routes do go through dicey areas.

And finally, don't stay by LAX, unless you have an early morning flight the next day.

Thanks everyone for your feedback. It’s really appreciated.