Holiday Inn Express Los Angeles-Universal City-Cahuenga, Los Angeles

Advantages: Beach, Scenery, Monday Salou Market, Close to Barcelona, Cheap (there and presents to bring back)
Disadvantages: Some people - don't go if you don't like being pushed out of the way by locals!

...What a wonderful holiday! We searched the Internet for ages for information on our hotel prior to our holiday and found nothing - so here you are for anyone else interested in going! Hotel Los Angeles is 5 minutes from the beach, less than one minute to the bars (across the road!) and less than one minute to the restaurants and shops. It is very commercialised - you don't feel like you're seeing much of Spain, but the cheap prices for everything including our holiday and beautiful scenary and beaches make up for it. The hotel itself is a bit more than basic - it has 2 twins and either a single or bunks in the two rooms we had between the four of us (myself, my boyfriend and two friends, all early 20s). A bath and shower and TV (only CNN English speaking). The walls are paper thin. I would not recommend it as a hotel for light... Read review

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Advantages: A World Class City
Disadvantages: Don't try walking, the bus, or light rail

...Los Angeles: Bigger Than Life Let me state it right off at the start: I love Los Angeles. It is a great city to visit or to live in … IF you know how to get around, and how to put up with the eccentricities of the place. Getting Around L.A. Originally, Los Angeles was a much smaller city. Long Beach, Santa Monica, Hollywood, Burbank, Glendale, Pasadena, Santa Fe Springs….those were all separate towns a long way from L.A. You reached those towns by riding the old red trolley cars. Sometime in the late 1940's the urban planners who are responsible for this awful sprawling mess made a conscious decision: Los Angeles would be a megalopolis connected by a system of freeways…people living in the megalopolis would, of course, be wealthy and every person would own a car. So, during much of the 1950's the streetcar lines were... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Didn't stay long enough to find out...
Disadvantages: Intimidating for first time visitors.

...it along La Cienega up to West Hollywood, where our Ramada Hotel was waiting for us. One peculiar feature was that all the furniture in the reception was made out of glass, so on your way across to the elevators, you keep whacking your shins on virtually invisible coffee tables. The jet-lag wasted us. At three in the morning we were wide awake. The time warp logistics of losing hours and gaining hours during air travel were always beyond me, and I couldn't get my head round it. Back home, they were all sipping their second cup of coffee of the morning. By midday the next day, we were ready for bed. We emerged into a pastel Los Angeles morning. We were the only people out walking on the streets. The only other people who go by foot in LA are other Europeans and the joggers. It's an incredibly vain city - every other shop is a gym... Read review

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