San fransisco and LA trip

ljcoops

I am due for a fly drive holiday to the states in Oct and would like some tips/advice as to getting some good accommodation in these cities in particular "location location location", also any ideas as to where to visit places of interest. Cheers

STSAVER

I'm going to San Diego/Anaheim/Big Sur/San Francisco in august.

Personally, I've used Holiday Inn/InterContinental for the most part as a result of having a lot of Priority Club points to use, but have found Travelzoo to be a very good side to keep your eye on and I did use that to book a stay at the Prescott Hotel in San Francisco for $110 a night which I thought was very good vlaue for the class of hotel and location in the city.

There have been a lot of good offers on the site for places such as Newport, Palm Springs etc.

Use TripAdvisor as well to research the best hotels and locations in the areas you're going to, then just keep an eye on the likes of Travelzoo for getting the best deal.

debs66_2

on our first road trip, we used www.tripadvisor.com, and didn't fail once with good accommodation.

at first, the site overwhelmed, as it has so much to offer, but once you know your way around it, it will be a boon.

as far as traveller reviews go, some will stand out as excellent by everyone who posts, and some will be the direct opposite. occasionally you might find one you like, but the odd negative reviews might show.

don't discount these until you have read the review. i've read glowing reviews marked as negative because the poster got the star system the wrong way round. i've also read reviews from people who want 5* rooms for 3 star price, and it is obvious they are overly picky.

debs66_2

i might note that on our last two trips (we will also be in LA and San Diego end July/early August - hoorah!), we have booked beach houses via www.vrbo.com. these are good to use as a base for a length of time (a week or so), rather than a road trip.

Gone_Skiing

I and Mrs Gone Skiing visit LA every year as we have family there and sometimes choose not to stay in their home. The cheapest hotels in LA are to be found at the airport. Fine if you are on a budget as you can drive everywhere pretty easily but not interesting.

The next cheapest are found in downtown. Interesting - good for history, galleries, cool clubs. It gets a bit ghetto after dark. After that prices rise as you choose Hollywood (nothing there really) or Venice/Santa Monica. I would say Santa Monica is closest to the idea of a holiday destination - some walking is possible, some good cafes, some beach walks, nightlife, food, culture and so on. I would not consider staying in any other area.

I have used Hotwire.com to find very cheap prices and cross-referenced their description with tripadvisor.com to guess which hotel they are putting me in. Hotwire.com is absolutely the cheapest way I have ever found accomodation in the US and I have used travelocity, expedia and travelsupermarket.com

Don't forget parking charges - it can be expensive out there depending on the hotel. Find a non-hotel car park and it should be cheaper.

Have a great trip.

Bob63

Parking at a downtown San Francisco is around $20/day and that allows you to come and go as many times as you wish. I've never objected to this cost on the grounds of convenience. Having said that, if I am exclusively staying in SFO then I don't rent a car, or if I'm staying in the city first then I'll get a limo from the airport and rent the car from the city later once I'm leaving to go elsewhere.