West Hollywood
 

I've read in several travel guides that this is THE neighborhood for gay LA. Is this true? Is staying in a hotel if you are not of this lifestyle recommended/safe?

Exactly what would you be worried about? Roving gangs of showtune-singing hairdressers committing Drive-by Makeovers?! Sullen, mullet-wearing lesbians setting on you and forcing you to wear Birkenstocks and attend a Womyn's Workshop on Melissa Etheridge?!

Just kidding. West Hollywood has a large and vocal gay/lesbian community, but it's not ALL "gay". If you're truly bothered by those Heathen Homosexuals and their disgusting lifestyle (you know-- getting up, walking around, shopping, going to restaurants), you can stay happily up on the Sunset Strip and avoid seeing them altogether. That's where all the good hotels in WH are, anyway.

Gay life in WH is centered on Santa Monica Boulevard between Melrose and Fairfax. Just stay off that part, and you should be just fine.

Oh, another thing-- WH is safe. The worst violence found there is usually that committed by people not of the "homosexual lifestyle" going and beating the stuffing out of homosexuals and lesbians. I guess YOU have nothing to worry about.

Yes, West Hollywood has a large gay population, but there are plenty of straights,families, seniors, non-vocal gays going about their business. It's a lovely neighborhood, and you'll be fine.

West Hollywood is clean and safe, unlike many other parts of LA and, as has been stated in postings above, is generally centered around Santa Monica Blvd. There is great pedestrian activity along this street, again which is foreign to most other LA neighborhoods. Tons of restaurants and coffee shops line the streets which would be fine even for straight people.

If the Sunset Strip hotels are too expensive, there is a Ramada on Santa Monica Blvd. which is probably cheaper although it is in the middle of all the "activity."

I live in LA and West Hollywood (WeHo as we call it here) is one of my favorite neighborhoods. The hotels in West Hollywood are some of the best in LA. You will be fine staying there. There is no metro lines that go here though as I've seen you asking about in your other posts. There is main bus service on both Sunset & Santa Monica Boulevards though.