Priceline Hotel: Advice on area to stay in

[jotuk]

Hi

We will be in LA for 3 nights during May. I realise from what I have read Hollywood would be a good place to stay for us as we are interested in going to Universal Studios and will not be hiring a car. Would downtown also be easy to circumnavigate using the metro. Can you use the metro from downtown to Hollywood and Universal, Prices appear to be quite good for Downtown. I am clueless about LA and where everthing is in location to each other.

Thank you

Jo

[Blueskies]

Hi Jo,

We (also from UK) had out first visit to LA last year. It is definitely a car city. Perhaps you could try to look for a hotel near Universal, which is at the north of LA. There is a metro line that links to Universal and you may be lucky and be able to get a tour round the city from there.

We went to Valencia as the kids wanted to do the Six Flags Magic Mountain park. We liked that area and the hotel was a real steal through Priceline (Hyatt valencia - highly recommend it). We also had a Priceline stay in Glendale at the Hilton and we liked there too. With regard to our stay in the city we booked conventionally and although paid much more than a Priceline rate were happy with our hotel, area, etc.

Santa Barbara was a really nice place and would definitely prefer to stay to the north of the city than in it or to the South. Were not overally impressed with the coastal towns although liked Newport Beach, once again you need a car though. We originally planned for a 5 day stay but ended up with 3, which we still thought was a bit too long in the city but we did not want to do Universal as we had done it to death in Florida.

You may want to consider hiring a car for a day or two. The vineyards and coast line are beautiful.

[jotuk]

Blue Skies thank you for the information. Unfortunately we are not willing to drive around LA, it will come at the end of a very long month away. We mainly want to visit hollywood and Universal, it would be good to stay in Hollywood but we notice that for Downtown the Westin and Omni come up regularly at a good rate. We just want to know if these hotels are close to the Metro Line that we can use for Hollywood etc.

[Blueskies]

Jotuk

Here is the MTA website

http://www.mta.net/default.asp

The advice I received was against using public transport. The Universal area is definitely nearer Hollywood and near the metro and of course an area more used by tourists. So if you are against hiring a car I would suggest that as a good option.

Good luck.

[keizers]

Hi, I am from LA and hope you enjoy it.

Universal is good, only problem with Universal is via Priceline you have to choose the general vicinity and you cannot guarantee you will be within walking distance of the metro and you might be very much stuck. Without a car Universal is definitely NOT walkable and worse it's on a mountaintop.

Hollywood and Downtown are more walkable, and (where the hotels are) are safe by day, by night not really UNsafe, but quite seedy!!! I think you would get a very bad impression of the city which would be a shame...

The metro is clean and safe, but riding the buses is - again - not UNsafe, but can be seedy. There's no nice way to put it but the bus it pretty much for the poor and recent immigrants in LA, everyone else has a car. And the areas you go through on the bus are pretty rough which might give you a scare...

So there is a tradeoff...

If you can find a good rate at a place that is AT Universal City itself, that would be your best bet.