L.A. and California: doable on the cheap?

[buggerthebotox]

Trying to plan a holiday of about 10 Days in La/ California, in school holidays with teenage dd.

Finding it rather pricey! Any one any ideas? Would need to include car hire.

Cheapest I've found so far is 1300 pounds for 10 days' accommodation plus flights.

Not interested in HW or Disney, btw! Happy to mooch and drive. And eat McD every day .

1300 for 10 days seems like a good deal to me.

Just thought I would add I just booked a holiday to America with BA and the holiday was marginally cheaper when I booked hotel and flights together than the flights where on their own. I normally use Expedia etc but we are doing a two stop holiday and was easier to book with BA, was surprised it was cheaper!

Yes, I agree 1300 is not bad. I'm being a bit of a cheapskate, I think. I haven't been long haul for yonks and my mindset has changed.

I'm going to Google, I think. Anyone tried airbnb for L.A.?

Be careful to check that air bnb is legal there. You will find it expensive in California. If you eat out there is the local tax to pay then double the tax for the tip. The £:$ exchange rate is awful so money goes nowhere. The cost of getting there is just the start! We have found BA to be best. Book flight and hotels together to save money and the car too. It's a great holiday, but it's not cheap!

That sounds like a great price, I live in Northern California and it is very expensive here, so make sure you have a good budget for food, etc. x

Airbnb was invented in San Francisco! Of course it's legal. Get on the internet and check it out. We did 2 weeks in SF 2 years ago, amazing, go for it.

£1,300 for 2? I can't even find flights cheaper than that in August

That's a really good price.
We hired a car for 10 days there last year, that came to around £200 and obviously there was petrol to add onto that. Honestly though, driving around LA is no fun at all. It's just one long rush hour.
It's certainly not cheap. We tried to do it on a budget but even then four McDonalds breakfasts were coming to just under $25 and that wasn't in a touristy area.

£1300 was for one person! Thanks for your redponses-the exchange rate is worrying me more than anything else.

I have found cheaper deals on a room-only basis for a shade under 1000£.

It was soooo cheap last time I went!

That's exactly what we said!
And we usually come back from the US with a suitcase full of bargain shoes and clothes but we didn't find anything that we wanted last time that was cheaper than we could get here.

$25 a night accomodation.

I think you most need to check the location. There are some dodgy areas that I wouldn't want to end up staying in.

We've just booked to go to LA in October, so our flights were pretty cheap, understandable as it's not summer hols.

We are flying out with Thomas Cook airlines and back with Norwegian airlines. These were the cheapest flights by far

We're Air BnBing it, staying on Venice Beach it's working out £125 a night. This is a bit of an unplanned impromtu trip so we're trying to make it as cheap as absolutely possible...don't think that is going to be easy!

With regards to Air BnB being legal, I did see one description of a lovely looking condo that said something along the lines of "if you have any issues ring me not the management company, and if anyone asks say you're an old friend"...yeah think that might be one to avoid!!!

Most hotels in the USA are room only. Your spending money will need to be quite big because even a coffee and a croissant adds up with tax and tips.

But at least that coffee and croissant will also be big, Bubbles