I have never been to Los Angles and due to some great airfares offered right now, my husband and I are booking a 4 night trip there in February.

I want to do all the touristy things - see the Hollywood Homes, walk of stars, go to Roberston Blvd, would love to get a tour of a production set etc.

To do these activities where is a good location to stay? In LA? Outside of LA? We plan to rent a car. We can't stay at a high end hotel so I need a location before I need actual hotel recommendations!

Also, do you know what sites I can go to online to try to get tickets to see something filmed live - like a sitcom or Ellen etc.

I used to live in LA and so am pretty familiar with it, and I just recommended an area kind of Fairfax/Pico or around the Beverly Center to a friend who had never been there before and kind of had the same ideas as you. It is very central and is convenient to Hollywood and the west side, if you have any reason to go there. It is very near Robertson Blvd (which is funny, I used to live right near there and never thought of it as a tourist destination, but I guess times have changed). This is the hotel I recommended to my friend and she liked it a lot.
http://www.elanhotel.com/

Also, she thought she might want to go to a TV taping, and it is a good location for that--near HOllywood and very near CBS studios. It's near some tour circuit bus stop, also, I forget the name of that.

It's nothing super-duper, but she didn't want too expensive and it was very convenient, and she said the staff were very nice. The problem with a car is you will pay to park it in the city, quite a bit. But that is more efficient than being without a car, even if it costs you $25 a day or whatever.

Actually, the Elan might suit you if you don't want a high end hotel.

I think there are quite a few places

What's your budget?
Deals are to be had right now for 4* hotels on expedia and other travel websites...direct too.

I live in L.A. and I'm going to agree with the first poster. Look for hotels in the Beverly Center/ West Hollywood area. Beverly Hills would also be fine (there are some reasonably priced small hotels there, believe it or not) and the Hollywood area around Hollywood and Highland would be fine. If you're doing the touristy stuff you'll mostly be in these areas, and over in the Valley a bit seeing the studios. Downtown will not be convenient for you, neither will Santa Monica (although it's lovely).

Okay, as for what to see. If you want to take a studio tour (which I'm sure you will) the best one is the Warner Bros. tour. http://www2.warnerbros.com/vipstudiotour. Paramount and Sony also have tours, but Warners is definitely the best. If you'd like to see a TV studio, check out the tour at NBC. The info number is 818-840-3537. If you want to watch the taping of a show, my favorite source is www.tvtickets.com. You can also hang out in front of the Chinese Theatre-- there are usually people there giving out passes to tapings. You should know that a sitcom taping can last like 4-5 hours and you do not get to leave. If you'd rather do something that doesn't take so much time, try a talk show or game show.

Let us know what you price range is on hotels and I'm sure we can make some specific suggestions.

I was going to name that ticket source Erin did, I got cut off for some reason or forgot what I was doing. I used to work right across from Grauman's Chinese theater, so was used to getting tickets there, it's real easy. However, you can also get tickets for some CBS shows or shows taped at their studios by going to the CBS studios on Fairfax. Craig Ferguson tapes there, for example, and you can get them there, but may be better to reserve. They have info on here:

http://www.cbs.com/info/user_service..._tickets.shtml