We are visiting for just a few days and starting out in Santa Monica; heading to Santa Ana for business...so for the last night we would like a nice hotel on the beach with good proximity to LAX. I had booked a Long Beach hotel but others are suggesting we stay at Hermosa, Venice,Redondo etc. Any thoughts on a good beach choice and beachfront accomodations for that night? We are on a budget so would prefer to keep prices under $200.

boy, $200, nice hotel, is tough. I agree that Long Beach is not a good beach destination.
Check out the beach house in Hermosa Beach, that really looks great, but I'm afraid will be too much.

I agree with frankie. "Beachfront" + "Nice" + "close to LAX" will be > $200.

You can probably get a non-view room at the Beach House in Hermosa for about $235.

If you want to settle for "waterfront" rather than "beachfront" you could try the Foghorn in Marina del Rey. It is along the Marina, not the beach.

Another Harborfront choice would be the Portofino in Redondo Beach. No beach there, either.

If you are willing to throw "nice" out the window, you could settle for the Sea Sprite Motel in Hermosa.

Try Loews in Santa Monica on beach. Will have to negotiate for rate and talk with Concierge re travel time to LAX but might be your best bet...

Have you thought of going a bit south of Santa Ana and staying in Laguna Beach? I just booked a room at the Best Western Laguna Reef Inn for a visitor from the UK. It is directly across the street from the Montage which is over $500.00 a nite. He went there for cocktails and siad the Best Western was fine, great location and at the time it was only $118.00 a nite. Laguna Beach is far more picturesque than the beaches close to LAX, and it is a fairly quick trip to Santa Ana.

To add on to the pile: Long Beach is not a good choice at all for that last-night stay (not near LAX), and not a great choice for beachfront hotels (thanks to our breakwater, our beaches are not that great). Laguna is lovely but far from LAX. Beachfront is pricey in California in general.

Santa Monica...? If you can have beachfront instead of on the beach, might I suggest the cost-effective and charming Georgian? Or the Oceana, a bit farther up Ocean but quite nice?

Shade is a new boutique hotel approx. 3 blocks from the beach in Manhattan Beach. It is showing around $300/nt on the website but I know they run specials as my friend who lives in MB just mentioned that another friend is staying there for $199/nt in a couple of weeks. Gotta check it out online. The rooms look awesome and MB gets my vote for the best of the beaches near LA and is only a quick 6 mile drive to the car rental returns at LAX.

http://www.shadehotel.com/

Just looked at the website again and when you actually put in dates to reserve a room you can get it for under $200/nt. I don't know when you're going but I typed in April 1-8 as that is my sons' h.s. spring break and found the least expensive rooms are $175-195/nt depending on weekday or weekends. Not right on the beach but only three very cute shopping blocks from the beach.

Try the Sea View Inn in Manhattan Beach which is just two short blocks to the ocean.

www.seaview-inn.com

Rates from $105 to $195, some with ocean view.

We stayed at the Best Western at Redondo Beach a couple of years ago and rates were about $100/night including breakfast. It was about a block's walk to the pier and shops on the beach.