Hotel and transport recommendations for LA?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Hi all,

I am flying to LA for two interviews in late November. One is at Cedars-Sinai, the other is at UCLA Harbor, which is in Torrance. Can anyone recommend hotels to stay at near either of these which are reasonably priced? Also, is there any (reasonable) public transport option? Or am I stuck renting a car?

Thanks!

2

Just wanted to bump this one time. Thanks!

3

Can’t help you with hotels, but as for public transit: I got around Los Angeles last fall using mostly public transit, and I survived. However, I’m a public transit veteran and it helped that for the most part the places I wanted to go to were concentrated in a couple of areas. The farthest place I wanted to visit was the Huntington Library; it took me almost three hours to get to the Huntington Library from West LA by bus and foot. That’s a distance of some 20-odd miles, and according to Google Maps, that’s supposedly a half-hour drive. So I guess you should rent a car. The two hospitals you’re interviewing at are separated by a similar distance, and you’d have to take buses to reach them by public transit.

4

Although I’m as big a fan of public transit in L.A. as they come (I’ve often recommended that people try the Metrorail, for example), in this case I really don’t think you have any choice but to rent a car. Cedars-Sinai and Torrance are just too far apart, and there’s no rail at all near either of those hospitals. Taking a bus between those two locations is not something I’d recommend for a business trip.

ETA: Google says it can be done via public transit on three buses, taking about two hours. Versus about a half hour by car. Again, I think you really have to rent a car this time.

5

Yes, get a car. You can get around by public transit in LA if you know your route well, but its not friendly to visitors.

I’d recommend looking for a hotel near where the 405 crosses either Wilshire or Santa Monica. It won’t be as pricy as trying to stay in Beverly Hills near Cedars Sinai, and will make it easy to get on the freeway for your trip down south to UCLA Harbor.

6

Stay at a hotel near LAX, it’s central to your two locations. As for reasonably priced? Eh, try Priceline.com or Hotels.com.

Rent a car - public transportation in LA works if it goes where you are going, but it’s not like other urban metropolises where it is the first choice for travel.

7

Thanks guys! I ended up going with a hotel on manhatten beach just because I got a good deal on the rental car. It looks reasonably close to my destinations. Is parking awful?