Need hotel in Seaside from approx. 9 P.M. until 7 A.M.,(1 night), just clean, comfortable, very reasonable, for good night sleep. Out of the following which one would you recommend?
Econo Lodge Bay Breeze
Howard Johnson Express
Best Western Magic Carpet
Comfort Inn Suites
If non of these, do you have a suggestion?

ttt - Good Morning!

Are you familiar with Seaside at all?
It may not be what you think it is. The HJ Express and the nearby Embassy Suites are a bit more isolated than the others and may there fore be a better choice.

Does it have to be Seaside? I have war stories...
Can you get the hotel on the water side of Hwy 1 that is away from the city? There's two or three maximum that are on the water side of the freeway that provide some insulation from Seaside, itself.

Pis

I suggest you go to www.biddingfortravel.com and bid on a Monterey hotel. The Hyatt is on their list and in a much, much better area. If you don't want to do that, drive south on Hwy 1 a little bit and stay at one of the motels on Munras. Much safer and good rates. There are BWs and Comfort Inns.

No, we are not familiar with Seaside. Is it just that these hotels are too close to the highway, or are they in a run down or unsafe areas? If we were going to spend a few days in the area, we would book something alot better, however just to stop to sleep and leave early we hate to put out a lot of money, rather spend it elsewhere in CA. Thanks for the help.

Well - obviously you will have driven to Seaside from the north or from the south. If so, stop before you get to Seaside.

To give you an idea - Seaside used to be the town outside of Fort Ord - just like the economically depressed military towns outside so many bases. The base is now closed but the town is still pretty much the low end "base town" it used to be. Having part of Ft Ord converted to a state college really hasn't improved Seaside much.

If you can get one of the places on the beach side of hwy 1 (i.e. away from Seaside) fine. otherwise I'd definitely stop elsewhere.

janisj said it.

Seaside is on the wrong side of the tracks.
The motels on the West side of the highway are alone and are "safe".

I used to paint commercially in the Santa Cruz area and we won some contracts to paint some KFCs in the 1980s. The KFC franchise locations wouldn't be closed during the day to paint (and lose revenues), so we painted after 10pm when they were closed. The things I saw in Seaside after 10pm were astonishing. Yes, this was 20+ years ago. Yes, I've driven through w/o stopping since then. I just don't see it being a great place to feel safe.

Pis

Hope this isn't to much to ask, but does anyone have a few names of hotels on the west side of 1. I suppose I can pull up some individual hotels and map them so I know which ones are on the west side. Is the Comfort Inn S ites at 1252 Munras Ave. Monterey in a decent area? Thanks for all your help so far.

Munras would be better. You might want to check moonstonehotels.com, they have a hotel in Monterey. The only downside is no parking.

I'll check out moonstonehotels.com mlgb, thanks for the suggestion. Now one more question, there is a Best Western Inn with address of Hwy.1 Monterey, and also one located on Muras Ave, Monterey (looks like it is near Don Dahuee Park) what are these areas like? And what about the town of Gilroy, CA, an o.k. town to stay in?

I'm finding this thread to be more than a little bit disturbing. Seaside is a town with a high population of Black families...

Munras is the street I mentioned where you can find good motels and inns. The entire street is very safe.

Hate to inform you, OJudy, but seedy is seedy whether it be a black area or white. Seediness knows no race. You seem to have an antenna up searching for something that isn't there.

Thank you all for your help. We have made a choice. OJudy - you did not have a recommendation for a motel, so I find it interesting you took the time to make the remark you made. We have black friends, and if they visit a city/or town that I know has some undiserable areas I inform them. I want my friends/family to be safe and to have nice comfortable accomadations - nothing to do with the color of their skin. However don't want this thread to get off on a different topic than I intended. I hate it when people start in on subjects that are not addressed to the question, I just Hate it!! So here I am making a comment on the post, I did consider just letting it go without a responds. So forgive me for adding to the remarks.

I'm sorry if I offended anyone because that was not my intention. I live not far from Seaside, and like most cities, it has both good and bad areas. It sounded to me that you were looking for a decent place to sleep one night, not for a vacation destination. I'm sure you could find many satisfactory places in Seaside, and I was surprised to hear some of the posters steering you away from the town. As you pass through along Hwy 1, take a peek and I bet you'll be pleasantly surprised by what you see. I just wanted to defend Seaside! The entire Monterey Bay area is lovely! Enjoy your trip.

Gilroy is fine. It's the Garlic Capital of the World. You might not notice during this time of year. During the summer, garlic is in the air. There's a Garlic Festival in August.

Gilroy has a huge population of farmers and farming-related personnel. There's also a huge population of people who work a bit north in Silicon Valley, who saved $100,000 or so by purchasing a home there and then commuting to work. Even further, there are 1,000s of people who did the same thing in Los Banos.

My point is to keep an open mind about driving north on 101 during morning commute times / south on 101 during evening commute times.

Pis

OJudy - the BS factor is running pretty high for you. Nobody mentioned blacks. Shall we shave that chip off your shoulder a bit?

You can't see much of Seaside from Hwy 1 at all. Hmm....Home Depot, Staples, Embassy Suites.

I have to agree with Tess......We tried the Whaling Company last month and we were not impressed.

We have enjoyed Montrio and Stokes too!