Hello,

I am going on business to Long Beach, CA. I need to reserve a hotel room for two nights. Since I have never been there, I am always hesitent in reserving in an area I am not familar with. Can someone local or that knows the area recommend a safe/decent area where I should be looking for hotel rooms? The office I will in is off the I-710 near the water.

Thank you in advance.

Downtown around Pine Ave and Ocean Blvd is nice. There is a Renaissance right at that intersection I think. I've stayed at the Westin a couple of times. It's maybe 2 blocks east of Pine on Ocean. Nice hotel with a good corporate rate (at least it is for our corp.)

Thank you.

The Hyatt is in that same area of downtown.

Yum, have a bite to eat at L'Opera while your there.

If you enter Long Beach in the etxt search box you will come up with several helpful tips on this area. I miss it, I lived in Belmont Shore for a year which is close to where you will be staying.

Have fun in between your business meetings! Tiff

Oh Tiff, I had no idea you ever lived in Long Beach! Elmo, L'Opera is a wonderful restaurant, in a building that was originally a bank. My late husbands family always did business with that bank so it was a special place for him also. I love that restaurant. Enjoy your time in Long Beach.

You've already gotten excellent recommendations (I live in Long Beach), so I'll just add that you should ONLY consider lodging in the immediate downtown area for your purposes, specifically the three properties already mentioned.

L'Opera is a great place for a "splurge" dinner. If you like seafood, a bit up Pine Ave. from L'Opera is a great place called King's Pine Avenue Fish House. Alegria is a Spanish/Latin place a few doors up from L'Opera, and it's got great food too. The hokey seaside strolling/shopping/noshing complex called Shoreline Village has some fun places to get a drink (Tequila Jack's), as well as a beer specialist with 250 beers on tap-- the Yardhouse. The food is fine there as well.

If you can grab the Passport bus to Belmont Shore, Second Street is the strolling street with little shops and good restaurants. Mykonos for Greek, Sunnin for Middle Eastern, Café Gazelle for Italian, Bono's for a stylish scene and Cal-Continental cuisine (run by Sonny's oldest daughter), Panama Joe's for middlin' bar grub and great live bands....

LB is a grubby little town, but there's enough to keep us locals happy (it really IS a nice place to live, just not as exciting to visit), so you should have enough to do for a couple of days. If you felt like staying a few more days, I'd say move down the coast to one of the prettier Orange County beach cities (Newport and Laguna especially).