We are coming one day early for our Mexican Rivera cruise so we can tour the Queen Mary. Would love to stay there, but it is already booked. I am trying to find a hotel that is close, but I don't want to be in a bad area. We would like to be close to somewhere decent to eat dinner at. Right now I am considering Courtyard by Marriott, Long Beach Convention Travelodge, Best Western of Long Beach, Days Inn City Center, Comfort Inn and Holiday Inn Long Beach. We don't want to pay a fortune for the one night, but we don't want to stay in an area that might not be safe. Please help.

Hi lovestotravel,

I will wait for someone else to respond on the hotel question, as I would be of little help in that area. I did, however, want to let you know that if you have enough time and want to wander a little, you can take a cab or the dwtn trolley just a few miles down to the road to the Belmont Shores area of Long Beach. It is a quaint spot with fun little shops and nice to walk up and down the streets if you have a couple hours extra.

Good restaurants in Long Beach, L'Opera is one of my fav's and right dwtn.

Have fun, and enjoy the Queen, she is worth seeing and full of history! I took my folks there and they loved it, and now it is such a happy memory in which to reflect back on.

Have fun! Tiff

They are all pretty bad. Of the ones mentioned, the worst would be Best Western LB, Days Inn CC, and Holiday Inn LB. Try to find something on Ocean Blvd, or perhaps the Airport Holiday Inn or Airport Marriott.

Hi,
While I would agree that none of the hotels listed is great, I would recommend the Comfort Inn as the best of the bunch. It has a very secure facility. We stayed there when I went back for my 50th high school reunion. There is a restaurant on Broadway near Atlantic (forget the name) that we liked and it is only a block from the Comfort Inn. If you could afford it, the Hyatt on Pine at the beach would be your best bet of all.

Could you do Coast Long Beach Hotel? I see it listed on Travelocity and it is not far from the Queen Mary.

Comfort Inn is not the worst, but none of your choices are really great, plus it is quite far from the QM.

Stayed at the Courtyard 3 yrs ago. It was clean the room was pretty fair in size. The Coast is by far the best location if you are going to the QM.
Last year I stayed at the Hilton for $51 thru Priceline. You can get a great hotel in LB via PL.

Try priceline. If you look at www.biddingfortravel.com you can see what hotels are available in Long Beach. I stayed there in December 2003 at a Hilton or a Marriott for about $US75 per night. I caught a taxi to the acquarium for $US5, and then caught a water taxi to the Queen Mary for something like $US2. A shuttle ran from the ship back into the city for maybe $US1.

When visiting the Queen Mary make sure you do the "haunted ship" tour. Good fun. I also enjoyed going through the submarine moored next door. From memory I got a combo ticket for both attractions from the ticket booth outside.

Good recos so far. Your list of hotels is pretty grim, no question. The Coast Long Beach Hotel is good. Of the downtown LB hotels, the Hyatt Regency may have a late-70s style but it's still a fine property. The Renaissance and the Westin are good as well, although it sounds like you'd have to Priceline a room to get the rate you're looking for. Like it or not, this is still southern California and the hotel rates reflect that.

The sad fact is: Long Beach is poorly-served by hotels, especially outside of the downtown area. However, there are outstanding eateries in downtown. L'Opera has been mentioned, and it's great (check out their phone-book-sized wine list with one selection over $2,000!). 555 East is an old-school steakhouse, and it's terrific. King's Pine Avenue Fish House serves splendid seafood (they also run the Water Grill in downtown LA and Ocean Ave. Seafood in Santa Monica).

In the Belmont Heights/Shore area, Sonny Bono's daughter Christy runs two restaurants, Christy's and Bono's; the former is the better (a truly brilliant northern Italian specialist with a vast wine list), but the latter serves good, stylish food in a gorgeous room. Also in Belmont Heights, Lasher's serves up New American cuisine in a restored early-20th-century Craftsman bungalow. And so on.

I have been looking at TripAdvisor and Sidestep among others. Neither one showed any vacancies at Coast Long Beach, but Travelocity does. I might try Priceline. If you have anymore suggestions, let me know.
Thanks