3 nights no car west hollywood or h/wood

Hi all, we are a m\c in mid forties staying in USA for the first time, we are not into clubs or rap but love to walk to pubs ( bar%26#39;s ) cafes and restaurants.

we are looking at Chamberlain w\h or Renaissance hollywood, any suggestions for people our age.

We will be doing as much touristy stuff as we can universal, Guamans,walk of fame etc.( thats what we came for )

We also want to see Santa Monica, we were going to spent 2 nights S M and 2 night Hollywood but don%26#39;t want to change Hotels too many times. Is it possible to take public trans to SM in morning and get a cab back to hollywood, rough price for cab if they go back late evening. p.s. were going to stay at either Loewes or shutters so if cab is less than $100 I call that saving money.

If your wondering about rental, I am on vacation and will have drink with lunch, afternoon drink and drink with dinner etc. ha ha Anyway your steering wheel is on the wrong side of car.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions

Paul and Deb

3 nights no car west hollywood or h/wood

Stay at the W hotel in Westwood.

The Flyaway coach takes you and your luggage to Westwood, picks up right outside your airline terminal($4). Then, if your luggage is heavy you have a $5 cab ride to the W, or you can walk the 4 blocks with wheeled luggage.

Public transp from here will take you to Santa Monica in 12 minutes, Bev Hills in 7 minutes, along the sunset strip to Graumans in 20 minutes (plus one block walk up La Brea)....Universal can be done at the same time via 5 min metro ride from Graumans.

You also have a 5 min bus ride to Getty Center (a must for Fri or Sat dinner)....and a quick Flyaway Coach back to LAX airport (20 min).

Best of all, the hotel is walking distance to pubs, restaurants, bookstores, souvenir shops. Maybe 50 places to eat within 3-4 blocks. Very safe neighborhood next to the University and Hospital.

Hilgard House is the other hotel in the immediate area, more budget-friendly than the W but no pool.

3 nights no car west hollywood or h/wood

If you want to walk to bars, cafes and restaurants, then you really should stay in Santa Monica. I wouldn%26#39;t look elsewhere.

Visiting Walk of Fame takes about an hour, tops, so it doesn%26#39;t make sense to stay in that neighborhood just to see something that takes no time at all, and you can have a tour pick you up from your hotel (wherever your hotel is), and take you there, combine it with Universal -- all for less than the cost of a taxi.

If you must stay in Hollywood, then Renaissance is a great hotel, but the bus will take forever to get to Santa Monica for the day (over an hour or so). West Hollywood is better, and the Chamberlain gets great reviews, but consider looking at hotels along Sunset Blvd.

A second vote for the W in Westwood. This is a central location between Santa Monica and Hollywood. Westwood Village, the adjacent grid of streets that is next to UCLA (Univ of California, L.A.) has some great bars and resrtaurants. Within an easy walk from the W, consider Palomino for drinks and the Napa Valley Grill for dinner.

Have fun!

For what you are looking for the Sunset Plaza area of West Hollywood or Santa Monica would be perfect.

There are plenty of hotels on the Sunset Strip that are close to great bars and restaurant that all have outside patios to enjoy the scenery

Santa Monica is a walking town, Third Street Promenade, Main Street, Montana Ave are all full of restaurants, bars and shops so Shutters would be near perfect for yor stay

IT is not that hard to get from Shutters for example to Hollywood buy bus. No need for a taxi

The #720 Wilshire Bus leaves two blocks from your hotel every couple of minutes. You take that bus to Fairfax Ave(where you could also check out the Los Angeles County Museum) and transfer to the # 217 Fairfax bus that drops you off on Hollywood/Highland, which is basically downtown Hollywood

Both buses run frequently late way into the night. So you would not even need to take a taxi getting back to your hotel

Forgot to mention that if you take the bus, get a $5 daypass from the driver which let%26#39;s you take any bus/subway in the area all day long. That way you could also stop on 3rd/Fairfax and enjoy the Farmers Market and Grove shopping

You could even take a quick subway ride from Hollywood/Highland after exploring the area to Union Station and visit Olivera Street, which is the birthplace of L.A. All for $5

I%26#39;m an aussie and I%26#39;ve been to the States twice now. I would recommend staying at Santa Monica too. Lots of restaurants, pubs, etc and a beautiful beach with many others near by.

On one trip we relied on public transport and the next visit we rented a car.

LA is a great place to drive a car and you will have no problems at all. The public transport (whilst slow) gives you an opportunity to view the suburbs of LA whilst getting to your destination. As stated by another poster - you get all this for $5 - its a bargain!

enjoy your trip!

Thanks everyone for such great info, I did not even know about Westwood, so will check that out as well.

More homework to do now, can%26#39;t wait till June.

Cheers

Hollywood is perfectly safe to walk around at night. As you stated, tons of tourists do so each and every night

What is safe, and what FEELS safe to a visitor, well, that%26#39;s two different things. If you%26#39;re from a small town and you git skeered in big cities because of all the tattoos and baggy pants and homeless wanderers and nose piercings, then Hollywood is not the most comfortable place to spend your hard-earned vacation days.

Compton is ';perfectly safe'; most of the time, too...that doesn%26#39;t make it a great place to spend your vacation, even if it had a walk of fame and some disney characters prancing around.