does anybody know if Daly City in San Francisco or Van Nuys in Los Angeles are safe to stay with children?

Of course. What would cause you to believe otherwise?

Do you mean hotel? Where in Van Nuys are you thinking? V.N., as in much of L.A., is mostly fine for daytime travel. But it is the big city, and there are areas where it's not smart to wander around on foot at night.

Both places are perfectly safe to stay with children.

I was in Van Nuys for a funeral last month. City sure seemed runned down to me. Any reason why you picked there?

same question.....why did you pick Daly City? I guess its safe, but its sure not near anything.

Are you staying in Daly City because you can get less expensive accommodations for your trip to San Francisco?

Daly City is not really a "destination", it is mostly a suburb of the city and any accommodations are apt to be somewhere by a freeway.

If you are thinking of staying there and taking BART into the city you may find yourself paying more in transportation and having more hassle than it is worth.

Go to tripadvisor.com and ask the San Franciscans where to stay reasonably.

I really would not advise staying in Daly City.

I was wondering about choosing DC too. I would think that any savings on lodging by staying out there would be eaten up by transportation costs.

Daly City is a safe place for children to live or visit with relatives. If you have access to a car, Highway 1 is close by and it's scenic to drive that route. There are lots of good restaurants around Daly City -- Thai, Chinese, etc. We used to live in Daly City and then we moved to Pleasant Hill, another nice residential area in the Bay Area. If where you will stay is near BART, you can be in San Francisco by BART in 17 minutes (station to station). I used to walk to BART and it was a nice way morning and after work.

are you considering one for visiting LA and another for visiting SF as a tourist? then both options are not very convenient, though they're not unsafe. it would help if you can provide more info.

I will be in california for 7 days. landingin Sf driving down to LA. thought of daly city, using points at hotel there. trying to figure out the best location to stay in or near LA

Staying in DC to save hotel $$$ is one of the worst lodging ideas I've ever heard of.

Find some other way to save money on your visit - just make sure you stay IN San Francisco. Even some of the less expensive hotels on Geary would be better.

Stu Dudley

Couldn't agree more with Stu. If you MUST stay outside the city, stay near the airport. But I would never recommend a tourist stay outside the city (really in any city) -- you just lose too much time commuting when you could be doing something fun or interesting, and believe me, there isn't anything fun or interesting for tourists in Daly City!

With the traffic these days, Van Nuys is not at all convenient to most of what you probably want to see in Los Angeles. And there is a difference between a "safe" area, and an area that "feels safe and secure to a tourist". I don't think either of your choices is very good, though I must admit I haven't been to Daly City in about 10 years.

You'll end up saing much more money if you stay in SF proper and skip the rental car for that leg of the trip. Pick up the car in the city and then drive down to LA, and if you can drop it off at somewhere other than an airport.

All the advice you are getting about skipping Daly City as your base in SF is well-founded. It's just the same as staying in Connecticut when visiting NYC. Penny wise but pound foolish, especially with kids.

Look for places in SF proper to use your hotel points. All the chains are represented there. And because LA is so big, decide where you'll be spending most of your time before booking a hotel. If you visit Disneyland, you don't want to stay in North Hollywood; you want to stay in Anaheim.

I live in the San Fernando Valley, and you don't want to stay in Van Nuys, unless you're south of the 101 freeway (which would make it Sherman Oaks). If you're looking at a hotel on Sepulveda or Van Nuys Blvd., between Plummer and the 101 fwy, IMO it's not a safe area.

As another poster said, decide on the places you want to see, and stay closer to that area. I.e. if Disneyland is on the agenda, chose somewhere near Orange County. If you're thinking Santa Monica, stay near the beach. If you're thinking LA/Hollywood... maybe Pasadena? I can't reply to that as well as someone else, maybe.

Take a look at the freeway maps. The worst journey from the SF Valley to LA is via the 405 - it will take (in traffic, by which I mean 6:30am-10am in the morning) 1 1/4 hours to go from Van Nuys to Santa Monica. It's absolutely awful. The 101 and the 5 are not quite as bad, oddly enough.

I like the Pasadena area the best. You can get to downtown LA and Universal Studios fairly quickly, you can scoot over to the 605 south/5 south to Anaheim, if you need to go to Disneyland (tho it's better to stay closer, but what the heck if you only want one place), and Pasadena is a safe, walkable city.

There's a Marriott Courtyard in Old Town Pasadena which is a very good location, within walking distance of lots of restaurants and shops. We had a wedding party stay there and they liked it a lot. There's also an Embassy Suites in Arcadia, about 7 miles east, which was very nice (althoug there's nowhere near as much to do nearby).

Hope that helps!

If you tell us which points you are using, we might have a specific hotel suggestion.

I've been re-thinking - the drive from Van Nuys via the 405 to West LA is more like 45 minutes. In my opinion, and I hope that I'm not offending anyone, the "safest", or perhaps most interesting, tourist areas of the SF Valley are along Ventura Blvd and the 101 fwy, as well as Burbank and Glendale.

Do you have any concerns reriving in LA? I ask because we're used to it, but we recently had guests from Florida who had a difficult time switching from one fwy to the next, and that could also factor into your plans.

If you would give a better idea of timing (time of year and length of stay), your budget, and the specific places you are interested in visiting in the LA area, we might be able to suggest some helpful alternatives for you.