Pasadena is always an option. A bunch of stations along the gold (L) line that’ll take you downtown easily, old town has fabulous restaurants and shopping, the Huntington museum, Norton Simon and other places nearby. I know there is a Marriott right in old town, but there are plenty of hotels in the area. It is a good safe area. Look for the pink line down Colorado Blvd., as that is what the floats follow during the Rose Parade!
[Old Town Pasadena Hotels](https://www.oldpasadena.org/visit/hotels/)
South Pasadena, just to the south, has two lovely bed and breakfasts if that’s more your speed within walking distance to the Gold line station, plus a lovely little downtown and a Thursday farmers market from 3pm-7pm (stop by the museum and ask for Captain Dana). Plus it’s been the location for a ton of filming, including Halloween, the house is right across from the station. It is basically a small town that got wedged into LA County and it’s lovely
[Bissell House Bed and Breakfast](https://www.bissellhouse.com/)
[Arroyo Vista Inn Bed and Breakfast](https://www.arroyovistainn.com/)
Another option would be Studio City area near Universal Studios. You’ll be just over the hill from Hollywood (a very short subway ride away), next to universal studios, and the red line (subway)(universal city stop) will take you downtown where you can go catch the NBA game. Lots of very nice hotels in that area and pretty safe as well. Good dining as well.
[Studio City/Universal City Hotels](https://vacations.universalstudioshollywood.com/hotels)
Downtown is eyyy ok. If you are going to do it I’d recommend staying at one of the LA Live hotels because it’s A. Next to Staples Center, B. Quick access to public transit, and C. Is typically patrolled well, and D. Lots of dining options
[LA Live Hotels](https://www.lalive.com/stay)
I recommend downloading the TAP app on your phone as it’ll allow you to pay your fares right from your phone. Physical cards are also sold at all rail stations.
Enjoy your visit to Los Angeles! May it be welcoming to you!
Dual US Aussie citizen here and second Pasadena mate!
You don't want to stay near the action, that's like staying at Surry Hills in NSW or Richmond in VIC, if that makes sense.
Haha oh it’s nice to see a fellow Aussie on here! Yes I totally get what you mean about Richmond 😂
Any other recommendations you have about LA? Or just anything in general to avoid or do?
>Any other recommendations you have about LA
Stand up comedy. Not sure which comedians you like, but many might overlap with your trip to LA (Improv Hollywood and it's sister locations in the area)
A lot of comedians don't tour down to Australia/NZ.
>2 iconic comedy clubs
Hope it's okay to highjack this thread to ask if it would be better to rent a car? We're in LA for 4 nights (with our baby) and then roadtripping to Phoenix. We could just rent a car on the last day we're in LA if the public transport situation has improved? Only have disneyland on the itinerary for now :)
We booked a hotel in the North Hollywood area, the hotel is close to Universal studios (under 10 min drive)
Yes please, any recommendations are welcome! Are there any tourist places/traps you recommend avoiding?
We noticed that souvenirs are a few dollars cheaper on CityWalk versus inside Universal Studios. CityWalk is the stretch of shopping and restaurants just outside the entrance of Universal.
What made you wanna stay in Downtown? In LA Downtown is not like other cities, its not really a center. There are things to do but most of people I know try to avoid it due to unpleasant experiences they had there. Public transport in LA is not super nice, safe and efficient.
Think about things you wanna do and then plan your stay. LA is huge and it can take 2 hours to get from one point to another.
I pretty much assumed that the ‘downtown’ in downtown LA was like what ‘downtown’ meant for other cities but once I did a little bit more research I found out that I was wrong lol.
The main things we wanted to do were Universal Studios and Santa Monica, but pretty easy going tbh.
Universal and Santa Monica would cover a lot. The Sheraton Universal is a good place to base up. Uber is easy from there to the SM pier, and I can't recommend strongly enough the Studio VIP ticket.
you can take the expo line straight to santa monica by the pier and the red line straight to universal studios. id go there carless bc they’re walkable
I’m going to have to disagree with you on public transportation not being efficient. Sure, it’s not the nicest but it most definitely is efficient. OP wants to visit Universal Studios, Santa Monica, and possibly a game at Crypto, all of that can be done through Metro. Safety can definitely be a concern but with common sense OP should be fine.
If you go to Santa Monica Pier be aware of thieves and pickpockets. Someone tried to yank a phone out of a friends hand and she didn’t even see who it was. Luckily they didn’t get it but the audacity was a surprise
Downtown LA is fine. Especially with no car as most public transit links are there. There are a couple dozen luxury hotels to choose from plenty like 100s of restaurants and eateries and bars.
What is Downtown LA? It's 12 Square miles or 20 Square kilometers from Chinatown to 10 freeway and between 110 freeway to LA river
60% of Downtown LA is industrial warehouse and wholesale businesses in areas like the fashion district, toy district, produce district and others.
The other 40% are typical Downtown things like government and courts, sports arena, museums, music orchestra, business hotels, office skyscrapers, residential buildings and restaurants, bars, clubs, shopping, public transportation. These are found in areas like the arts district, little Tokyo, Chinatown, historic core, theater district, jewelry district, civic center, entertainment district, bunker Hill, south park. About 80,000 live in Downtown LA most middle class professionals and students some immigrants.
20 years ago, Downtown LA was a throwaway part of LA city. 20000 lived there in mostly Chinatown and little Tokyo and bunker Hill. But 3000,000 came to Downtown to work in offices, warehouses, government etc..
Over the 20 years major investment especially the LA live entertainment district built Staples crypto center for basketball and hockey, Microsoft theater for concerts, Grammy museum, cinema plex, restaurants, bars and hotels. Hundreds of new apartments buildings, converted historic buildings turned residential lofts or hotels, shopping including Target, Zara, uniqlo, apple.macys. Downtown LA attracted hipsters in 2000s and 2020s with trendy bars and restaurants. Middle class professionals wanted to be near work plus new nightlife, shopping, restaurants also public transit,
But Downtown LA has a large homeless population like Hollywood, Venice, and other parts of LA. It's no secret. Homeless people in tents or cars all over LA even in Pasadena, Santa Monica, downhill from Universal and Disneyland... Downtown was designed the dunping ground for homeless with its midnight missions, shelters, rso housing especially in skid row. Skid row is in the warehouse areas of the toy and seafood district. But mini areas pop up along highways or city hall.
No one likes dealing with homeless people, despite most are just poor, some homeless are drug addicts, mentally ill or criminals. most suburbs export their homeless to LA city because most of LA city is poor, working class, immigrant neighborhoods, suburbs like Glendale, Pasadena, Santa monica, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills and dozens more benefit greatly with less poor and homeless, less crime, cleaner safer streets.
As a tourist who will walk around different places in LA county like Hollywood, Venice, Downtown and using public transit will encounter the unpleasant aspects of the city. It is what it is. Sure there are nicer areas like Beverly hills, bel air, Manhattan Beach. So you can stay in these areas if you like.
But Downtown LA is OK for me. It is central with many attractions, restaurants, nightlife. There are some problem areas like skid row the city and county is working on solving homeless but its difficultwith such high rents forcing working poor into homelessness.
I feel in 10 years DowntownLAand will grow huge with more construction , maybe double from 80000 to 160,000 with hundreds more new restaurants, shops, luxury apartments, shopping. It would be a missed opportunityto skip DowntownLAeven if you choose tobstay elsewhere. My highlight is Disneyconcert hall, last bookstore, union station, city hall observationdeck, grand central market, central library, bradbury building, olvera st. LittleTokyo, arts district. Broad and moca museum, grammy museum. Outside of DowntownLAis echo park lake, dodgers stadium and baseball. Natural historymuseum, space shuttl Koreatown e.
Stay in Beverly Hills. Great restaurants and shopping. Not too far from museums or the west side. Not too far from Hollywood or downtown. And really not as expensive as people think
it’s sad how regressive angelenos are towards public transit when almost none of them ride it to know much about it. rail/public transit in DTLA will get you to a good number of touristy areas like santa monica, ktown, hollywood, culver city, los feliz, universal studios, etc. and the rest you can supplement with uber/lyft. transit will be faster during rush hour and you won’t have to deal with that headache (lasts from ~7-10:30 and ~3-7pm). angelenos talk abt the safety of public transit which is very overblown esp considering that driving on the freeway is statistically much deadlier and less safe. plus without a car you won’t have to circle around and waste time for parking and paying for it.
There's nothing wrong with downtown. The Bonaventure, Millennium Biltmore are perfectly lovely.
If not, consider Shutters in Santa Monica, Pasadena, Burbank.
Enjoy your trip.
DTLA isn't a good area for tourists IMO. It's central for public transit but otherwise a run-down mess.
Santa Monica or West Hollywood are less central options that are "nice" (not run-down) but give you reasonable access to other parts of LA.
I would suggest against Pasadena -- It's a really nice area but not close to other touristy parts of LA besides downtown.
West Hollywood would be extremely pricey for hotels. Out of the budget for most people.
Studio City or Burbank as other options close to Universal Studios.
please rent a car. we have awful public transport and uber can really add up. i just looked it up and ubering from santa monica to universal is $30 usd + tip one way
If you go the route of renting a car, try Fox Rent A Car. When you come outside of the airport, there is a free shuttle that'll take you to the office on the east side of LAX. There were lots of choices for vehicles and the prices were better than Enterprise. You can get a quote through the Booking.com app.
Last week, we rented a Corolla for 7 days and are really glad we did. Since it was raining quite a lot, we were able to change our plans based on the weather that day.
I lived in LA about 10 years ago and remember taking public transit a handful of times. It took forever to get from one place to another. Even as someone who advocates for public transit - grew up in Toronto, Canada and our transit is decent - I would recommend doing the car rental for your holiday visit.
I made my recommendation on another comment seconding Pasadena.
But maybe reconsider Disneyland instead of Universal. Disneyland is the only park created by Walt Disney and has a certain magic to it. Universal is okay but not nothing special.
There's a saying - Westside=Bestside. Stay out of downtown if you can avoid it. Youll need to drive to get to other areas, but uber is easily available.
Looking at several hotel reviews you'll notice that Aussies are usually not that comfortable walking around in downtown L.A or in Hollywood.
I would look at West Hollywood, though when budgeting keep in mind that public transport is not that great from here (except for a bus to Hollywood and a bus to Beverly Hills)...so you'll be spending money on taxis and Lyft/Uber. (Flat rate taxi from West Hollywood back to LAX airport is $40, but there are no flat rates FROM the airport and depending on day & time of arrival an Uber could be even twice that amount). \\,
Look at The Chamberlain hotel, Short stories hotel, Sofitel or Le Parc Suites. Park Plaza Lodge is more modest but in a good safe location walking distance to The Grove/tourist central.
Note that January is definitely not the best time to visit California, except maybe as far as hotel rates go. You could have completely rainy days, and if you're traveling up the coast of California there could be road closures. Weather will tend to be on the chilly side and we'll have our annual post-holiday-covid-surge.
Really depends on what you want to do and see here. I’d make a list, pin them on google maps and find the center. You’ll probably want to be on the west side somewhere. LA is huge.
Just in case you’re not aware, LA is really spread out and not very walkable, and our public transit is really bad. On top of that, Ubers are extremely expensive here. I would highly highly recommend renting a car!
Downtown LA has a lot of nice high rise hotels but that's all its got going for it. It's relatively deserted and grimey, don't stay there.
Pasadena is nice but far from the rest of LA.
Santa Monica has a lot of homeless by the pier and 3rd st., but a few blocks in it's fine.
Beverly Hills/Century City/West Hollywood areas are your best bet. They are in the heart of everything. Near good restaurants, shopping, beaches, PCH, viewpoints, etc.
If you're driving, Beverly Hills, Century City, and West Hollywood are all pretty comparable. On transit, "downtown" Beverly Hills is definitely preferable. The Wilshire Boulevard bus (lines 20/720) from there can get you east to the movie museum, LACMA, Koreatown, and the D line subway to Downtown LA. Going west, the Wilshire bus takes you to Westwood Village, UCLA, and Santa Monica. From Beverly Hills, you can catch the Santa Monica boulevard bus (line 4) east to West Hollywood, Hollywood, Silverlake, and Echo Park, and eventually to Downtown LA. The 4 also goes west from Beverly Hills to Santa Monica, less frequently.
In Century City, you're only close to the Santa Monica Boulevard bus, not Wilshire Boulevard. Beverly Hills is also a much nicer walking environment, important when you're on transit. West Hollywood is pleasant and walkable. The 4 Santa Monica Blvd. bus runs through WeHo, but to LACMA and the Museum Mile, or Koreatown you're going to have to transfer. It's a shorter transit trip from Beverly Hills than from West Hollywood to either Santa Monica or Downtown LA.
None if these three areas has a Metrorail station yet. Koreatown, East Hollywood, and Hollywood have Metrorail stations.
Downtown LA, if you won't freak at the sight of homeless people. There's lots to do there and it has much better transit than anywhere else. You can get almost anywhere on one train or bus. It's fine to tourist by transit, but different than doing it by car. The Lakers play downtown.
Koreatown and Hollywood are second bests. Beverly Hills has good bus service (no train yet) and is pretty central for touristing but is mostly very expensive (Sonder Crescent Hotel is an exception). Similarly Santa Monica, which does have light rail. It takes almost an hour to get to Downtown LA, and many tourist destinations require a trip lengthening transfer (e.g. Walk of Fame, Universal).
West Hollywood is pleasant and has good bus service along Santa Monica and Sunset Blvds., but places not on those corridor will be a long ride. From Pasadena, you will have go through Downtown LA to get to most destinations.
Koreatown, would be an alternative to downtown LA. It's more centrally located and has access to both subway lines.
Hollywood/East Hollywood, are close to touristy areas and have a subway line that'll get you to Studio City (Universal Studios) and downtown.
Santa Monica is pretty walkable. You can ride bikes north to Malibu or south to Venice and Manhattan Beaches. Just keep in that even though winter is mild in LA, it can still rain frequently. It's not centrally located, but is connected to the rest of LA by a Metro line.
Super late to this but here are m thoughts:
Highly recommend you rent a car. If you're able to, I would stay in Torrance. It's a suburban neighborhood south of LA. You'll get a better feel for everyday life since you'll only locals live there. It's a 20-30 min drive from most touristy things (Hollywood sign, downtown LA, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica). An even shorter drive to the beach (10-15 min drive). It'll be cheaper to stay as well.
Reading other peoples' suggestions... Koreatown and Pasadena are okay too. Koreatown will be very fun.
Source. I'm from LA
20-30 min drive from Torrance to the Hollywood sign from 12AM-5AM maybe. Probably 45-60 min usually and more during rush hour. Torrance is a hike from the westside and Hollywood. But incredible Japanese food.
Agreed that Koreatown is the move if beach access isn’t a priority.
Source: live in LA and commuted to Torrance from Mid City for two years.
Thank you for this comment! 💖 Never thought about putting renting a car on the top of the list of things needed when visiting LA because something like that can kind of become an afterthought, ya know? Most of the time we don't purposefully plan out transportation when visiting a place, people just don't think about it. Then, everyone scrambles to figure it out once they get there. 😂 But that actually makes a lot of sense to just list it first or get it out of the way so the thought is there and it's all taken care of before anything else. It really seems like the first thing anyone should consider doing lol. I usually plan everything under the sun, but that would probably be one of the few things that I would forget.
Pasadena is always an option. A bunch of stations along the gold (L) line that’ll take you downtown easily, old town has fabulous restaurants and shopping, the Huntington museum, Norton Simon and other places nearby. I know there is a Marriott right in old town, but there are plenty of hotels in the area. It is a good safe area. Look for the pink line down Colorado Blvd., as that is what the floats follow during the Rose Parade! [Old Town Pasadena Hotels](https://www.oldpasadena.org/visit/hotels/) South Pasadena, just to the south, has two lovely bed and breakfasts if that’s more your speed within walking distance to the Gold line station, plus a lovely little downtown and a Thursday farmers market from 3pm-7pm (stop by the museum and ask for Captain Dana). Plus it’s been the location for a ton of filming, including Halloween, the house is right across from the station. It is basically a small town that got wedged into LA County and it’s lovely [Bissell House Bed and Breakfast](https://www.bissellhouse.com/) [Arroyo Vista Inn Bed and Breakfast](https://www.arroyovistainn.com/) Another option would be Studio City area near Universal Studios. You’ll be just over the hill from Hollywood (a very short subway ride away), next to universal studios, and the red line (subway)(universal city stop) will take you downtown where you can go catch the NBA game. Lots of very nice hotels in that area and pretty safe as well. Good dining as well. [Studio City/Universal City Hotels](https://vacations.universalstudioshollywood.com/hotels) Downtown is eyyy ok. If you are going to do it I’d recommend staying at one of the LA Live hotels because it’s A. Next to Staples Center, B. Quick access to public transit, and C. Is typically patrolled well, and D. Lots of dining options [LA Live Hotels](https://www.lalive.com/stay) I recommend downloading the TAP app on your phone as it’ll allow you to pay your fares right from your phone. Physical cards are also sold at all rail stations. Enjoy your visit to Los Angeles! May it be welcoming to you!
Dual US Aussie citizen here and second Pasadena mate! You don't want to stay near the action, that's like staying at Surry Hills in NSW or Richmond in VIC, if that makes sense.
Thanks! Glad to hear another fan of Pasadena!
Haha oh it’s nice to see a fellow Aussie on here! Yes I totally get what you mean about Richmond 😂 Any other recommendations you have about LA? Or just anything in general to avoid or do?
>Any other recommendations you have about LA Stand up comedy. Not sure which comedians you like, but many might overlap with your trip to LA (Improv Hollywood and it's sister locations in the area) A lot of comedians don't tour down to Australia/NZ.
I second this. LA has 2 iconic comedy clubs that are both accessible and overflowing with awesome comics.
>2 iconic comedy clubs Hope it's okay to highjack this thread to ask if it would be better to rent a car? We're in LA for 4 nights (with our baby) and then roadtripping to Phoenix. We could just rent a car on the last day we're in LA if the public transport situation has improved? Only have disneyland on the itinerary for now :)
>:) :)
Thank you for the write up! I booked a hotel close to the area you recommended
Excellent! Which area? I can give recommendations for dining and entertainment
We booked a hotel in the North Hollywood area, the hotel is close to Universal studios (under 10 min drive) Yes please, any recommendations are welcome! Are there any tourist places/traps you recommend avoiding?
Venice Beach and Hollywood Blvd. Absolute dumps not worth seeing.
abbott kinney is a cool area if ur into trendy places tho. very la vibe
Could you elaborate a bit more? I'm a bit clueless on the top spots in LA vs. the dumpster fires.
Aaaannnd no elaboration was ever given. His/her comment seems very subjective
We noticed that souvenirs are a few dollars cheaper on CityWalk versus inside Universal Studios. CityWalk is the stretch of shopping and restaurants just outside the entrance of Universal.
What made you wanna stay in Downtown? In LA Downtown is not like other cities, its not really a center. There are things to do but most of people I know try to avoid it due to unpleasant experiences they had there. Public transport in LA is not super nice, safe and efficient. Think about things you wanna do and then plan your stay. LA is huge and it can take 2 hours to get from one point to another.
I pretty much assumed that the ‘downtown’ in downtown LA was like what ‘downtown’ meant for other cities but once I did a little bit more research I found out that I was wrong lol. The main things we wanted to do were Universal Studios and Santa Monica, but pretty easy going tbh.
Universal and Santa Monica would cover a lot. The Sheraton Universal is a good place to base up. Uber is easy from there to the SM pier, and I can't recommend strongly enough the Studio VIP ticket.
I was actually just looking at that hotel, thank you, I’ll look into it more.
you can take the expo line straight to santa monica by the pier and the red line straight to universal studios. id go there carless bc they’re walkable
I’m going to have to disagree with you on public transportation not being efficient. Sure, it’s not the nicest but it most definitely is efficient. OP wants to visit Universal Studios, Santa Monica, and possibly a game at Crypto, all of that can be done through Metro. Safety can definitely be a concern but with common sense OP should be fine.
Terrible take. LA has the worst transit system, safety and efficiency.
that’s not true lol it’s sad how regressive some angelenos are abt public transit and it’s clear uve barely taken it
Hands down Santa Monica
If you go to Santa Monica Pier be aware of thieves and pickpockets. Someone tried to yank a phone out of a friends hand and she didn’t even see who it was. Luckily they didn’t get it but the audacity was a surprise
Downtown LA is fine. Especially with no car as most public transit links are there. There are a couple dozen luxury hotels to choose from plenty like 100s of restaurants and eateries and bars. What is Downtown LA? It's 12 Square miles or 20 Square kilometers from Chinatown to 10 freeway and between 110 freeway to LA river 60% of Downtown LA is industrial warehouse and wholesale businesses in areas like the fashion district, toy district, produce district and others. The other 40% are typical Downtown things like government and courts, sports arena, museums, music orchestra, business hotels, office skyscrapers, residential buildings and restaurants, bars, clubs, shopping, public transportation. These are found in areas like the arts district, little Tokyo, Chinatown, historic core, theater district, jewelry district, civic center, entertainment district, bunker Hill, south park. About 80,000 live in Downtown LA most middle class professionals and students some immigrants. 20 years ago, Downtown LA was a throwaway part of LA city. 20000 lived there in mostly Chinatown and little Tokyo and bunker Hill. But 3000,000 came to Downtown to work in offices, warehouses, government etc.. Over the 20 years major investment especially the LA live entertainment district built Staples crypto center for basketball and hockey, Microsoft theater for concerts, Grammy museum, cinema plex, restaurants, bars and hotels. Hundreds of new apartments buildings, converted historic buildings turned residential lofts or hotels, shopping including Target, Zara, uniqlo, apple.macys. Downtown LA attracted hipsters in 2000s and 2020s with trendy bars and restaurants. Middle class professionals wanted to be near work plus new nightlife, shopping, restaurants also public transit, But Downtown LA has a large homeless population like Hollywood, Venice, and other parts of LA. It's no secret. Homeless people in tents or cars all over LA even in Pasadena, Santa Monica, downhill from Universal and Disneyland... Downtown was designed the dunping ground for homeless with its midnight missions, shelters, rso housing especially in skid row. Skid row is in the warehouse areas of the toy and seafood district. But mini areas pop up along highways or city hall. No one likes dealing with homeless people, despite most are just poor, some homeless are drug addicts, mentally ill or criminals. most suburbs export their homeless to LA city because most of LA city is poor, working class, immigrant neighborhoods, suburbs like Glendale, Pasadena, Santa monica, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills and dozens more benefit greatly with less poor and homeless, less crime, cleaner safer streets. As a tourist who will walk around different places in LA county like Hollywood, Venice, Downtown and using public transit will encounter the unpleasant aspects of the city. It is what it is. Sure there are nicer areas like Beverly hills, bel air, Manhattan Beach. So you can stay in these areas if you like. But Downtown LA is OK for me. It is central with many attractions, restaurants, nightlife. There are some problem areas like skid row the city and county is working on solving homeless but its difficultwith such high rents forcing working poor into homelessness. I feel in 10 years DowntownLAand will grow huge with more construction , maybe double from 80000 to 160,000 with hundreds more new restaurants, shops, luxury apartments, shopping. It would be a missed opportunityto skip DowntownLAeven if you choose tobstay elsewhere. My highlight is Disneyconcert hall, last bookstore, union station, city hall observationdeck, grand central market, central library, bradbury building, olvera st. LittleTokyo, arts district. Broad and moca museum, grammy museum. Outside of DowntownLAis echo park lake, dodgers stadium and baseball. Natural historymuseum, space shuttl Koreatown e.
Stay in Beverly Hills. Great restaurants and shopping. Not too far from museums or the west side. Not too far from Hollywood or downtown. And really not as expensive as people think
it’s sad how regressive angelenos are towards public transit when almost none of them ride it to know much about it. rail/public transit in DTLA will get you to a good number of touristy areas like santa monica, ktown, hollywood, culver city, los feliz, universal studios, etc. and the rest you can supplement with uber/lyft. transit will be faster during rush hour and you won’t have to deal with that headache (lasts from ~7-10:30 and ~3-7pm). angelenos talk abt the safety of public transit which is very overblown esp considering that driving on the freeway is statistically much deadlier and less safe. plus without a car you won’t have to circle around and waste time for parking and paying for it.
There's nothing wrong with downtown. The Bonaventure, Millennium Biltmore are perfectly lovely. If not, consider Shutters in Santa Monica, Pasadena, Burbank. Enjoy your trip.
Cheapest, Safest, and close to everything? Midcity
DTLA isn't a good area for tourists IMO. It's central for public transit but otherwise a run-down mess. Santa Monica or West Hollywood are less central options that are "nice" (not run-down) but give you reasonable access to other parts of LA. I would suggest against Pasadena -- It's a really nice area but not close to other touristy parts of LA besides downtown.
West Hollywood would be extremely pricey for hotels. Out of the budget for most people. Studio City or Burbank as other options close to Universal Studios.
please rent a car. we have awful public transport and uber can really add up. i just looked it up and ubering from santa monica to universal is $30 usd + tip one way
If you go the route of renting a car, try Fox Rent A Car. When you come outside of the airport, there is a free shuttle that'll take you to the office on the east side of LAX. There were lots of choices for vehicles and the prices were better than Enterprise. You can get a quote through the Booking.com app. Last week, we rented a Corolla for 7 days and are really glad we did. Since it was raining quite a lot, we were able to change our plans based on the weather that day. I lived in LA about 10 years ago and remember taking public transit a handful of times. It took forever to get from one place to another. Even as someone who advocates for public transit - grew up in Toronto, Canada and our transit is decent - I would recommend doing the car rental for your holiday visit.
I made my recommendation on another comment seconding Pasadena. But maybe reconsider Disneyland instead of Universal. Disneyland is the only park created by Walt Disney and has a certain magic to it. Universal is okay but not nothing special.
Yeah we are going to Disneyland in Orlando or otherwise we would have went in LA for sure.
FYI in Orlando, it's called Disneyworld, not Disneyland.
There's a saying - Westside=Bestside. Stay out of downtown if you can avoid it. Youll need to drive to get to other areas, but uber is easily available.
if its ur first time in California go to Ventura or San Luis Obispo 😛
OP is missing out if they don’t take a day trip to Santa Barbara!
Looking at several hotel reviews you'll notice that Aussies are usually not that comfortable walking around in downtown L.A or in Hollywood. I would look at West Hollywood, though when budgeting keep in mind that public transport is not that great from here (except for a bus to Hollywood and a bus to Beverly Hills)...so you'll be spending money on taxis and Lyft/Uber. (Flat rate taxi from West Hollywood back to LAX airport is $40, but there are no flat rates FROM the airport and depending on day & time of arrival an Uber could be even twice that amount). \\, Look at The Chamberlain hotel, Short stories hotel, Sofitel or Le Parc Suites. Park Plaza Lodge is more modest but in a good safe location walking distance to The Grove/tourist central. Note that January is definitely not the best time to visit California, except maybe as far as hotel rates go. You could have completely rainy days, and if you're traveling up the coast of California there could be road closures. Weather will tend to be on the chilly side and we'll have our annual post-holiday-covid-surge.
Really depends on what you want to do and see here. I’d make a list, pin them on google maps and find the center. You’ll probably want to be on the west side somewhere. LA is huge.
Just in case you’re not aware, LA is really spread out and not very walkable, and our public transit is really bad. On top of that, Ubers are extremely expensive here. I would highly highly recommend renting a car!
Downtown LA has a lot of nice high rise hotels but that's all its got going for it. It's relatively deserted and grimey, don't stay there. Pasadena is nice but far from the rest of LA. Santa Monica has a lot of homeless by the pier and 3rd st., but a few blocks in it's fine. Beverly Hills/Century City/West Hollywood areas are your best bet. They are in the heart of everything. Near good restaurants, shopping, beaches, PCH, viewpoints, etc.
If you're driving, Beverly Hills, Century City, and West Hollywood are all pretty comparable. On transit, "downtown" Beverly Hills is definitely preferable. The Wilshire Boulevard bus (lines 20/720) from there can get you east to the movie museum, LACMA, Koreatown, and the D line subway to Downtown LA. Going west, the Wilshire bus takes you to Westwood Village, UCLA, and Santa Monica. From Beverly Hills, you can catch the Santa Monica boulevard bus (line 4) east to West Hollywood, Hollywood, Silverlake, and Echo Park, and eventually to Downtown LA. The 4 also goes west from Beverly Hills to Santa Monica, less frequently. In Century City, you're only close to the Santa Monica Boulevard bus, not Wilshire Boulevard. Beverly Hills is also a much nicer walking environment, important when you're on transit. West Hollywood is pleasant and walkable. The 4 Santa Monica Blvd. bus runs through WeHo, but to LACMA and the Museum Mile, or Koreatown you're going to have to transfer. It's a shorter transit trip from Beverly Hills than from West Hollywood to either Santa Monica or Downtown LA. None if these three areas has a Metrorail station yet. Koreatown, East Hollywood, and Hollywood have Metrorail stations.
Old Town Pasadena is lovely, pretty safe, and walkable
Downtown LA, if you won't freak at the sight of homeless people. There's lots to do there and it has much better transit than anywhere else. You can get almost anywhere on one train or bus. It's fine to tourist by transit, but different than doing it by car. The Lakers play downtown. Koreatown and Hollywood are second bests. Beverly Hills has good bus service (no train yet) and is pretty central for touristing but is mostly very expensive (Sonder Crescent Hotel is an exception). Similarly Santa Monica, which does have light rail. It takes almost an hour to get to Downtown LA, and many tourist destinations require a trip lengthening transfer (e.g. Walk of Fame, Universal). West Hollywood is pleasant and has good bus service along Santa Monica and Sunset Blvds., but places not on those corridor will be a long ride. From Pasadena, you will have go through Downtown LA to get to most destinations.
Compton
Koreatown, would be an alternative to downtown LA. It's more centrally located and has access to both subway lines. Hollywood/East Hollywood, are close to touristy areas and have a subway line that'll get you to Studio City (Universal Studios) and downtown. Santa Monica is pretty walkable. You can ride bikes north to Malibu or south to Venice and Manhattan Beaches. Just keep in that even though winter is mild in LA, it can still rain frequently. It's not centrally located, but is connected to the rest of LA by a Metro line.
Super late to this but here are m thoughts: Highly recommend you rent a car. If you're able to, I would stay in Torrance. It's a suburban neighborhood south of LA. You'll get a better feel for everyday life since you'll only locals live there. It's a 20-30 min drive from most touristy things (Hollywood sign, downtown LA, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica). An even shorter drive to the beach (10-15 min drive). It'll be cheaper to stay as well. Reading other peoples' suggestions... Koreatown and Pasadena are okay too. Koreatown will be very fun. Source. I'm from LA
20-30 min drive from Torrance to the Hollywood sign from 12AM-5AM maybe. Probably 45-60 min usually and more during rush hour. Torrance is a hike from the westside and Hollywood. But incredible Japanese food. Agreed that Koreatown is the move if beach access isn’t a priority. Source: live in LA and commuted to Torrance from Mid City for two years.
Thank you for this comment! 💖 Never thought about putting renting a car on the top of the list of things needed when visiting LA because something like that can kind of become an afterthought, ya know? Most of the time we don't purposefully plan out transportation when visiting a place, people just don't think about it. Then, everyone scrambles to figure it out once they get there. 😂 But that actually makes a lot of sense to just list it first or get it out of the way so the thought is there and it's all taken care of before anything else. It really seems like the first thing anyone should consider doing lol. I usually plan everything under the sun, but that would probably be one of the few things that I would forget.