Hotels in LA

Can anyone recommend a hotel in LA? We're staying 2 nights after our NCL Mexican Riviera cruise. What's better - Santa Monica or Hollywood?

What areas do you want to tour? If mainly Hollywood and Universal Studios, there are some nice hotels in Universal City (near Hollywood). If you want to tour the beaches, then stay closer to them. If going to Disneyland, stay right near the park in Anaheim.

We'll be renting a car but not sure yet where we want to go. We were thinking of perhaps staying in Santa Monica and want to be within walking distance of the pier and the 3rd street promenade. We'll use the car to go to "other" places. Are we better to stay in Beverly Hills and drive to Santa Monica or the other way around? What points of interest do you think we should go to? Hotels in Santa Monica seem very pricey and am not sure it's worth spending the $ if we'll be touring around most of the time. Any suggestions would be helpful.

Should we consider staying somewhere other than Santa Monica or Beverly Hills?

You might try asking on the "United States" forum (under ports of call) to see if you get any more feedback. I am strictly a Disneyland, Universal Studios and Knott's Berry Farm tourist, so I can't really help you with the beach areas.

Hopefully, you'll get more information soon. Good luck.