Hi,

I'm going to LA for 3 days. Can anyone please give me some idea on where to stay? Budget is around USD70-80 per night. Downtown LA, Hollywood, or West Hollywood? Would appreciate if you could advise on the places to visit. I'm not planning to drive, is the public transportation in LA efficient?

Thanks.

$80 is a pretty low budget for Los Angeles, but it can be done. Do you have any plans/itinerary? Public trans and even car travel can be VERY slow, especially on weekdays, so you'll want to situate yourself according to the things that you want to see and do in your short time in LA. Also, what time of year is your trip? In summer you'll want to stay more towards the westSide as Hollywood or downtown might be unbearably hot and smoggy.

That is a low budget. Can you use Hotwire? If so you may find a good 3.5 to 4 star hotel for that price range in downtown LA. Hotwire is nice because you will often see the tripadvisor approval rating and can figure out what hotel you will get before you bid. Virtually any hotel Downtown will be convenient to public transport (you won't want a car if you stay there).

I don't think you will be able to find anything in SM for that budget.

I have not been to LA, but have done some research on the area in terms of public transportation. Given what I've looked at, if you're planning on going car-less, it looks like you can most easily maximize your public transport options if you stay downtown. Whether you want to stay there or in another part of the city (for aesthetic reasons or because you plan to concentrate on a different part of the city) is another question.

It does appear that the attractions in LA are fairly spread out and travel time can be slow with or without a car, so you might want to plan on an extra amount of travel time regardless.

With no car I'd stick primarily to the metro rail line. You can get to Hollywood, Universal, Pasadena old town and a few other places but not the west side. I don't think you will enjoy LA much using public transit only.

Metro Web site
http://www.metro.net/

Map
http://www.metro.net/riding_metro/ma...s/rail_map.pdf

This is tough to answer. Agree that $80/night, unless you have 2 people and are thinking $80/night each, will leave you with really poor choices, but possible. Around Farmer's Market/Grove area are the Bevenshire on Beverly and the Orbit (both hotel and hostell) on Melrose.

Now, your question "is the public transportation in LA efficient" -- don't know if I'd use the word "efficient". Comical, yes, laughable, yes, but efficient?!? Actually, efficient is a better word than plentiful. If the reason why you don't want to hire a car is due to cost, think again. Getting around LA on public transportation -- aside from the time loss factor, there is the expense factor to consider. Seriously, it often ends up cheaper renting a cheap car. If it is because you don't drive or don't like to drive, then make sure you are on a transit oriented street with regular bus service, or as others said, find a place close to the metro rail line which, at the present time, runs only as far west as Western & Wilshire in the mid Wilshire Area, and Highland & Hollywood in the Hollywood area. However, both lines will get you downtown and out to Pasadena. But it's bus city points west, which would include West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Westwood, West L.A., Santa Monica, Culver City, and, of course, the beaches.

There do appear to be limited-stop, express, and metro rapid service buses that run between downtown and the west side of LA. For example, the 720 metro rapid service bus connects downtown and Santa Monica; it also runs past Museum Row.

No idea if they run often, on time, or with any degree of speed, as I haven't been to LA and can't vouch for them either way. Also don't know if they're any faster than taking a car or not, either. But it's certainly not impossible to do this, from what my research suggests.

There certainly is that kind of bus service, primarily for commuters without alternative transportation, that runs sporadically throughout the week day; not so much, if at all on weekends. For example, there are commuter express buses (some service of which is being cut due to lack of resources to continue to support it) that run twice in the morning and twice in the evening -- specific routes -- that takes a commuter from the westside downtown and back again. The buses are older, and being run by the Dept. of Transportation, are not well kept up and have breakdown issues, leaving commuters standing at bus stops for lenthy time periods without knowing there is a problem. There is also the Big Blue Bus out of Santa Monica that is cheaper and IMO a much better ride. There's one that goes down Santa Monica Blvd. in SM to Bundy, then goes on the Freeway, ending downtown that runs throughout the week day at approximately 30 minute intervals. My husband, who uses mass transit -- one of the commuter express buses -- from the Westside to his office downtown (to promote the environment -- he does have a car) likes using it, but because of the breakdown issues has often had to resort to a change up to the Big Blue Bus described above to get home. The downside to that is it takes 2 buses to get back, and about an hour and a half vs. 1/2 hour in the car.

But, yes, it is a viable option.

Another alternative would be to take the bus from Santa Monica or the Westside along Wilshire, then pick up the Metro rail at Western.

Going north/south, however, is a bit of a struggle, since our council members seem to think that people only need to go east/west and completely forget about north/south.