Trip Suggestions

Hello. Family of 4 (children 17 and 21) plan to arrive LAX for 2 nights. I am overwhelmed and need help pls. Suggestions for hotel (budget US$160 per night 2 double or queen beds) - don%26#39;t need parking. Dont need pool - clean, quiet accomodation are priorities. Also Your suggestions on what sightseeing we can do in 2 full days - not interested in shopping. Intersted in niversald Studio. Suggestions in getting around. How do we get from LAX to hotel? Thanks PS. can we get by without renting a car?

Trip Suggestions

I%26#39;m not sure what you mean by: ';plan to arrive LAX for 2 nights';. Are you saying that you want to stay near the airport (LAX) or that you want to stay somewhere in LA? Staying by the airport is not a great idea especially if you won%26#39;t have a car since LAX (the airport) is far away from most tourist destinations and our public transit system is good in some areas and weak in others.

What are your travel dates? Hotel room rates vary from month to month).

Read our FAQs section (a link at the top of the TOPIC LIST). It includes topics such as ';Itinerary Ideas'; and ';Neighborhoods';. It also includes a topic called ';Arrival / Departure Transportation'; which describes the various transfer options between LAX and popular neighborhoods in L.A. (such as Hollywood).

Only hotels that are adjacent to LAX have free shuttles between LAX and the hotel.

Universal Studios is located north of central L.A. in an unincorporated area known as Universal City. A good neighborhood to stay in, especially without a car and in view of your budget, is Hollywood (which is adjacent to Universal).

The method you select for %26#39;getting around%26#39; depends on:

1. Where you stay

2. What attractions you wish to see

3. How tolerant you are of public transit

4. Your budget

BTW, Trip Advisor has a huge ';hotel rating system'; for hotels throughout the world. You can access hotel lists (ranked in order of preference) by entering the name of the city or neighborhood (followed by the word HOTELS) in the SEARCH box in the upper left corner of this page. Then click on the confirming link near the center of the page that follows. The hotel list will appear on the following page (scroll down to see the list in the center column). The first hotel in the list is the ';most preferred'; based upon reviews from your fellow travelers); the second hotel is the second-highest rated one, and so on.

Examples of keywords that you can enter in the %26#39;SEARCH BOX'; include:

HOLLYWOOD HOTELS

SANTA MONICA HOTELS

LOS ANGELES HOTELS

etc.

Once you%26#39;ve entered a phrase like the above and clicked GO, Trip Advisor will confirm your selection on the page that follows. Near the center of that following page will be the words:

HOTELS IN

%26lt;followed by the city of neighborhood that you selected%26gt;

Click on that link to continue. (Sometimes, there are similar cities or neighborhood names that appear in different parts of the world. In such a case, Trip Advisor will list the similarly-sounding locations including their country name so that you can select the one that you were intending.

L.A. is the second-largest city in the U.S. It is extremely spread out and there are hundreds of attractions (besides shopping and amusement parks). Tell us the KINDS of things that interest you so we can make recommendations or look at the official tourist site for L.A. for ideas:

http://www.discoverlosangeles.com/

(link and select a topic(s) from the orange area at the left)

Lastly, you might want to consider a tour. A popular tour company is starline. Info is here:

www.starlinetours.com/los-angeles-tours.asp

Good luck!

Trip Suggestions

Your advise is helpful. Thanks. I will look at the links. We arrive into LAX but I guess a hotel in Universal City would be a good start. Keep those suggestions coming.

If you dont plan on renting a car,Hollywood would be a good option asat Universal you would be isolated from the rest of the city

Universal is not at all isolated anymore, after all it is just one metro stop further than the Hollywood Highland stop.

With 4 persons and just 2 nights, I would definitely get a car as cabs/hotel shuttles will cost more than a car, and a car will give you freedom to get to see a lot more.

It would take 15/20 minutes to just get you to a surface street(with nothing around it)fom Universal. I would call that isolated

grown dutch rabbit