Where to stay near LA on California holiday?

[Itchyandscratchy]

We're doing a 3 week road trip holiday to CA this summer. Start Las Vegas, 2/3 days San Diego then want to stay Santa Monica-ish area as a base to see a bit of LA, Disney, etc. on way up the coast.

I've noticed that tripadvisor have quite a few holiday rental properties that look good value but are mostly based near Venice Beach which I read on another thread can be a bit much maybe - not nicest in the evenings etc.
We've got the dds 11 & 7 with us.

Any tips on where to stay and what type of accommodation?
Thank you in advance

Bump
Thank you!

Venice Beach is near to Santa Monica, long drive to Disney, though. And LA traffic is its own level of horrible, so the less you get caught in Rush Hour the better.

See if it were me I'd probably stay in Motel 6 near to each attraction, eat breakfast in rooms, picnic for lunch & a meal out for evening. Be willing to move motels a bit. I think that would work out better than a holiday rental, Lord Knows how much a Venice Beach rental would cost for the week in summer (shudder).

Thanks. The places we've been looking at are about £150 per night which I thought was ok. But take in board your comments about traffic & Disney. I'm a bit worried about the timing - it looks like we'd be at Disney at a weekend which isn't brilliant I expect with crowds etc.

Yes might need to do motel for Disney then and go to Santa Monica / Santa Barb later. Hmmm

Disneyland will be crowded every day from 1 June to early september, weekends no worse, but at least traffic will be much reduced on a weekend.

£150/night = $225 for 4 people... not bad, and maybe you'd be happier with a single base. Trick for Disneyland is to get to the entrance gates (driving in) around 7:30am which means leaving Venice a bit around 6:40am I should think.

Take that back, June weekdays might not be so crowded for Disney but July-August will be quite busy. They probably have advice on their website about busy vs. slow days.

Their fasttrack pass thingies are probably well worth it.

Brilliant . Cheers.
Think will stay near Disney for this 2 days then head up to Santa Monica/ Santa Barb for a couple of days r&r before heading north.

I would actually recommend staying in Anaheim itself (plenty of hotels situated in Anaheim) if you wanted to visit Disneyland for a couple of days. Also Knotts Berry Farm is a nice place to visit and that is situated near Anaheim in Buena Park.

Santa Monica is about 40 miles away from Anaheim and LA traffic is indeed bloody awful. Probably on a good day you'd be looking at around an hour's drive each way.

I stayed at the Hyatt Regency in Anaheim in a family suite which was perfect for visiting Disney. They provide a free hourly shuttle bus and the ride takes just a few minutes.

I'd stay in San Marino (but that's because I have family there) and it's only 30 miles from Anaheim.

We have stayed at Su Casa right on Venice Beach. Walking distance to Santa Monica. Lovely spot and views. Would agree bit dodgy in the evening.

Hi Fluffy we are going to California in July and have booked 5 nights at the Hyatt Regency in a kids suite. Any tips!

Ask at the hotel reception for some kids eat free vouchers. Although the buffet breakfast was fairly expensive we did enjoy it and found we only needed a very small lunch the days we had it. The other day we used the starbucks type coffee shop and had a latte and croissant type snack. There is an open air pool and jacuzzi on one of the higher floors which was nice to use after a day at the park. It's a nice, modern hotel with lots of glass and so close to the parks we didn't need to hire a car as was there for just 3 nights before a cruise. Hope you have a fab holiday.

Thanks for those tips. We have a car as we are driving on to San Diego afterwards but nice to know we can walk if we want and save on Disney parking.

The hotel offers a free hourly shuttle as another option.

I would airbnb it for the non Disney nights near Malibu..or Santa Monica so you can walk to the beach.you can get a lovely place for 150 butprob min of two nights.or vrbo is brilliant.....also. Only if you have a car to get into see the sights of course.

Just saw an amazing guest house on airbnb.com
Put a search on topanga, la.....
125 bucks a night, amazing views and then you can drive to the beach, enjoy the mountains and still be in Hollywood in 40 mins .....own cooking facilities means you save on eating out too.
As long as a place has reviews you can count on them, we use it a lot for holiday homes here.

We are staying at the doubletree suites in Santa Monica. Benefit is you get separate bedroom and sleeps 5 for us. Location looks good too. We have split our nights 2 nights SM and 3 nights Anaheim rather than travelling to Disney/LA

Oh also we are going in aug and I was trying to avoid Disney at weekends but was informed that it makes no difference in aug really. Busy weekdays and weekends.

i would stay in Anaheim, close to Disney. there is a lot of competition for customers there so the hotels tend to be of a higher standard and better value for money - we did a west coast road trip a couple of years ago and the hotel where we stayed in anaheim was definitely the most comfortable and one of the cheaper ones too.
We visited end-August and very few queues - it was after many US schools had gone back (and also slightly rainy weather probably helped).

Some of the LA district schools go back mid-August, so crowds might lift a tiny bit. Check it out.

Agreeing with the staying in Anaheim for Disney. Well worth it.

Santa Monica is nowhere near Santa Barbara btw.

Alternatively just blow off the LA portion, 'do' Disney and then spend the rest of your time down here (San Diego) :)

When are you going?