We need a hotel the night of Friday Jul 27, arriving in Brisbane from POM at 6pm and leaving the next day Saturday 11am for LAX. Is the city traffic OK on these days, or are we better off staying out near the airport? Any recommendations would be appreciated.

The traffic can be very congested around airport drive but by the time your on it, should be fine.

For the life of me I can't work out where POM is??? Please excuse my ignorance.

but if i were arriving in at 6 and leaving at 11, I would absolutely stay by the airport. You would need to be back at the airport by at least 9am for your LAX flight. So a good night sleep and a short cab ride to the airport makes more sense.

Please let me know if you need any hotel recommendations.

As Aussie Dreamer says traffic shouldn't be a problem on arrival but would be for your departure, so stay by the airport.
POM = Port Moresby

If all you are going to do is sleep then stay at the airport, but if you want to go to dinner or have a look around, why not get the train to the city and stay overnight in the city?
http://www.airtrain.com.au/ShowConte...tCode=Brisbane

20 mins - should be no drama to get back there with plenty of time for the following morning.

Thanks, all. I figured traffic might be a problem. But we arrive on Friday night and leave Saturday, so maybe traffic won't be too much of an issue? I'd like to visit Brisbane again, but no time on this trip.

vervid is right -- POM is Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea.

Any hotel recommendations near the airport? Thanks.

I'd suggest a quick look at yellowpages online - you want 'motels' and 'brisbane airport' for suburb. There are many airport hotels and a number that I quickly checked offered airport transfers.

hop yu gat a gutpela walkabaut - lukim yu bihain.

The aussie concept of 'bad traffic' doesn't come close to that of most places in the world. ie. it isn't going to take you 2 hours to do a journey that would take 30 mins without traffic.