Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Trip Report Long Beach, Califnornia

Recently I took my Mum on a trip to the USA fo 3 weeks for her 50th birthday. Did some amazing things which we would happily do again and others which we would miss!

We arrived at 7.00am Sunday morning from Australia. We flew over with V Australia from Sydney which was a 12 hour flight. Got to love a good tail wind! After finally landing we had to line up for what felt like forever in the immigration lines - roughly 4 other aircrafts landed in that time and we didnt get out of the airport till 9.00am. It seemed that for such a busy time that there was only about 4 staff checking passports. Kind of strange if you ask me?

We used the website Viator to book a transfer to our hotel. We left the airport and down to the left we saw the shuttle company taking us to our hotel. We decided to head down to Long Beach for the first 2 nights of our stay to recover from any jetlag and also because we were going to be there for 4th July and we heard this was the best place to be! We stayed at the Hilton Maya Bay, a modern and clean hotel located about 500m from the Queen Mary which was pretty cool. We booked this hotel through booking.com and got a reasonably good deal through them. The only problem we had with the hotel is that our room smelt a tad musty as we had a room with windows but only one opened up and we had no balcony so there wasnt much fresh air - we kept the air con on most of the night however this was the nosiest thing I have ever heard!

On our first day we decided to fight the urge to sleep as long as we could in order to adjust, we headed straight up to the Queen Mary to one of it's cafes and have a bite to eat. Reasonable food but not much of a selection unless your there for the buffett breakfast. We then went back to our hotel around 1pm and our hotel room was ready, after having a shower we gave in and decided on quick 2 hour nap. After that and feeling much more refreshed we took the free red shuttle bus over to the main part of town - this bus stops at various places including the Hilton, Queen Mary, Belmont Shores & the Aquarium which is where we got off. We went for a walk along the beautiful promenade and found a place called Gladstones to eat dinner which had quite a lot of food but mainly seafood. Great service and quick to deliver which is always good! On the way back to the hotel we came across a company offering 45minute harbour tours for $12 so decided on the spur of the moment that we would do one of this. The cruise turned out to be fantastic, the sun was setting back over the mainland and we got to see Sea Lion's lying on the buoy catching the last of the sun. A great way to end our first day in the country!

The next morning we woke up and headed back to the main part of Long Beach and decided to visit the aquarium. It was roughly $25 entry in to the place but was great fun. I always turn into such a child once around any kind of animal. We then left there and took a walk up and around the lighthouse and saw everyone setting up for their 4th July celebrations. We got a stamp for re-entry into the aquarium and decided to head back in there to have lunch in the cool. Lunch was pizza and salad combo which was huge, enough to have 1 per person but very tasty! That afternoon we headed back to the hotel and had a few drinks around the pool, celebrations were well and truly under way. The pool area was crowded but everyone in good spirits, they also had a band playing very beachy music which was fantastic. For dinner we decided to do a all you can eat buffet for dinner in the hotel since there was only 2 of us. We paid $65 for it and another $12 which got us endless alcohol - I chose champagne, every time my glass was even slightly missing a bit it would be filled up again The food was amazing, everything from salads to seafood, meat and amazing treats. Well worth the money and we had a great view of the fire works over the Queen Mary. We slept very well that night!

Our stay at the Hilton Maya Hotel in Long Beach came to an end and we checked out around 10.30am and headed in a taxi to Beverley Hills which cost us $90. The hotel called us a taxi and we ended up making friends with him and we took is card and called him to take us on other occasions also, very reliable and helpful man!

All in all, we had a great time in Long Beach. It was the perfect place to recover from jetlag before starting the journey of our holiday. We felt refreshed and ready to explore the USA!