Ellen, you may be having problems with availability because the hotels may have 7 night minimum stay requirements.

With the season only being Memorial Day to Labor Day, the hotels only have a short time in which to make maximum $$$.

Have you tried priceline? You could book a cancelable backup and then go in and bid.

Also, the closer to the date, the hotels will drop minimum night restrictions if they aren't sold out.

Just my two cents.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU EVERYONE!

LN (btw, love the name!) how did i miss castle in the sand?! I thought i scoured every motel, no-tel, condo etc in OC. I got in on a cancellation, an oceanfront suite for $239 (reg. $184) which is good for that weekend. And they have an olympic sized pool WITH diving board, wooohooo!

Anyway, this just made my week, which gives you an idea the kind of #%&$*#@ week i've had! :(

Anyway, i truly appreciate everyone's help. And pls keep the restaurant suggestions coming!

xoxo
ellen :)

PS: Did i say thank you?! ;)

Castle in the Sand is a real popular place to stay and we stayed there our last trip two weeks ago. You will have to walk a few blocks to get to the boardwalk. We walked to the 28th St. Plaza to "Coins Restaurant" which is very good. They happened to have live music the Sat. night we were there. Enjoy!

Hi Actntime! Thx for the restaurant tip.

So what did you think of castle in the sand? Were you pleased with it....size of suites/efficiencies/rooms, cleanliness(musty?), ease of access to trolley or bus to boardwalk, crowds etc? Did you have to go to the pool at the crack of dawn to get a chair? (common in so many resorts) Thanks for any info you can give me!

Castle in the Sand is an "okay" place to stay, but I'm like you and would rather stay on the boardwalk. It's an older place and I prefer newer places. The disadvantage to going there off season is the pool was still closed. They do have a restaurant on the premises, but that time of year it's not functioning as it does during season. They also had a nice outdoor area to eat, but it was a rainy weekend, so didn't luck out there either.
The rooms were clean and we had an oceanfront room with a little kitchenette, which was nice. The one feature I really liked was a key was needed to be admitted onto the elevator to get upstairs, which increased security.

We didn't take the bus anywhere and because it wasn't overly crowded were still able to drive to the boardwalk, although surprisingly, we dished out a lot of quarters for parking meters, which were on 15 min. intervals. (another reason I like staying on the boardwalk.) I understand the buses run so frequently it's never a problem and they stop every block. It's $2.00 for a pass for the entire day. The first time to get on the bus you just pay the driver for a pass and you're set.

Linda

Another thing about the boardwalk is that for a $ or 2 you can ride the little tram from one end to the other and then walk back. In the mornings you can ride bikes on the boardwalk which is also alot of fun.