Recommendations for a prospective angelenos
 

Hi LA people,

Like Vince, Eric, Turtle and Drama, I'm getting tired of the NY entertainment business and thinking about the big move to LA (I'm more of a E guy :cool:). But before making a decision, I have to... visit LA! I've never been. I love NY, walking and the subway, so I'm a little scared, but I have a driver's license, so you gotta find out, don't ya?

I'm taking a few days in July to visit, get a sense for the city, figure out whether it's possible or not. I welcome all suggestions, but here's mainly what I'm looking for:

- How long? right now I'm thinking 4 days (tuesday to sunday, 7/22-27). I just want to get a sense of whether I like it or not, I'm not planning on seeing everything.

- Where to stay? Obviously I want to know more about how and where entertainment guys live and work (I'm a producer). My goal is not to be near the beach. I'll get a car (obviously) but I'd rather avoid long rides in traffic. And I'd love to be around sunset blvd and the man's chinese if it makes sense.

- I'm looking for a cheap hotel (below or around $100). I got *wood (spg50 tips and others welcome) but I don't really care. Hotwire tips very appreciated (what's that website again where users share their hotwire experience?).

Ok that's it. Oh and if you have a suite at the Chateau Marmont you just don't know what to do with, please do tell :D

Thanks!

PS: This is not really an air-related question. I'll try to fly to LAX or BUR, maybe long beach, I don't really want to drive from SNT and such.

Entertainment folk live & work in all parts of LA from the valley to the west side to West Hollywood to Silver Lake to the beaches.

I'm not a Priceline or Hotwire person but if you can find a decent rate, then West Hollywood area meets your criteria for where to stay.

Congested traffic is a way of life in LA.

You might want to pull up threads in the LA forum for the past year & peruse them. I think some others have had questions re: living here etc.

Also since it's the start of a 3-day holiday & everyone will be heading to the beaches ;) you might not get too many replies to your question until next week.

LAX, BUR or Long Beach (JetBlue) would work. Go w/ what fits your schedule/price the best.

Cheers.

I'd think seriously about trying Priceline (PL) for a room if you want more than a cheap motel but are on a budget. Check out Bidding For Travel (BFT) to see what kind of bids are being accepted in what areas.

As for wanting to avoid traffic in LA, it's like saying you want to move to Seattle but avoid rain, or move to Miami but avoid sun.

LA is spread out; there's pretty much no way to get anywhere without driving and that means traffic.

Thanks to both of you!

Nah, I don't want to avoid traffic, I just want to be at a hotel centrally located to minimize the driving.

Any other tips, particular cheap hotel, I'd love to hear about it!

thanks, and happy holidays to everyone.

/joke/

Given your chosen field of endeavor (wink-nudge), I would book an east-facing room at the Hyatt Century Plaza in Century City - your room would command a stunning view of the CAA Death-Star, just the thing to get you into the mood to take meetings and harass your assistants :D

http://i.l.cnn.net/money/2007/09/28/...th_star.03.jpg

/joke/


More seriously, I second the recommendation of SkiAdcock for a West Hollywood locale - and using Hotwire (or Priceline) will help ameliorate the parking chagges at the hotel.

For Hotwire bidding histories and tips, BetterBidding is the best site, as the other bidding site mentioned above confines itself to Priceline:

http://betterbidding.com

if you like the subway and walking, aim for the area around the chinese theater, downtown, or universal city. you may never need a car, but it's probably a good idea to have one anyway (think of the greater la metro area as the entire state of ny; only certain parts are accessible by pub transp, there are lots of separate cities and distinct urban areas all within the "LA" area).

go to metro.net for more subway and public transp info. if you have the time, get a day pass and explore the cities: long beach, pasadena, the valley, west hollywood, koreatown, north hollywood (although most of these are actually LA city).

Four days will give you a chance to get some idea of the neighborhoods where the business goes down...and where the decent places to live are... I'd add a couple more if you want to do the tourist thing too.


Most of the work is in Century City, West Hollywood, Hollywood, Studio City, North Hollywood, and Burbank. On the other hand, those who are not *already* fabulously wealthy are not near the beach, unless they are renting an overpriced hall-closet apts. blocks away from the water in Venice or Marina Del Ray.

No. It really *DOESN'T* make sense. Sunset Blvd. is mostly nightclubs, cafes, and boutiques... Mann's Chinese is a tourist heavy movie theater, and NOT part of where Hollywood's business gets done (...with the exception of the occasional premier...) or where people in the industry live. Or as my Grandfather the studio accountant/2nd Unit Manager/Asst. Producer used to say: "You know what Hollywood & Vine is? That's where tourists from Iowa stare at tourists from Nebraska across the street, and say: 'Look Ethel, the movie stars look just like us!'"


Avoiding traffic is a process of learning alternitive routes...that is a lifetime study for Angelenos. A key point is learning when to avoid freeways like the plague...and when to hop them to beat traffic. The nice thing that the native knows is that there are generally 3 or 4 possible routes on any major trip...and how to chose the fastest one. Get a good AAA map (...a Thomas Bro. Guide is probably too expensive before making the commitment to move here...)

While the previous suggestions of West Hollywood are O.K., I might look for something over the hills in the San Fernando Valley in Studio City, Universal City, or North Hollywood...which are apt to be a bit cheaper ($100 is not much in tourist areas in summer).


And you are correct, BUR or LAX are the real choices for Los Angeles area airports for this trip... BUR will be less crowded and slightly closer to your destinations. LAX has a better chance of cheap priceline car rentals.

thanks for all the help. This is really appreciated!

I'm actually not looking for a place to live yet. I just want to get a feel. Do you think staying at a hotel in those areas (burbank, universal city, etc.) will be necessary. The truth is, when I'm not just looking around, I don't mind doing the tourist thing.

I guess West Hollywood is what I meant. Sorry I really don't know LA :-)
Just trying to figure it out looking at google maps!

How's downtown LA? Especially at night and for the week-ends?


Do I sound like I have an assistant??? ;)

Downtown LA at night & on the weekends is pretty much dead, although more people are starting to live down there/they're regentrifying etc. It is NOT like a NYC, Chicago, Boston downtown.

OVMV. Cheers.

Another challenge with staying DT is that parking will be very expensive - parking rates at some of the downtown 4* hotels that are commonly won on Priceline and Hotwire are upwards of $50 per night :eek:


Also, although SkiAdcock is spot-on with her assessment of the lack of DT LA nightlife, since you are an Entoruage fan, you might enjoy knowing that in the Season Three episode in which Turtle and Drama go looking for the mising rapper Saigon, the hotel where they eventually find him (and where Drama almost gets thrown into the pool) is the Hotel Standard, a bit of a party-place located in the very center of Downtown.

OK, I'm set on a 7/22 to 7/27 trip. Staying either in Hollywood or Burbank. I'm guessing most of my meetings (if any) will be in the burbank area, right?

How long does it take to drive from hollywood to burbank?

Any good hotels in burbank? How's the Holiday Inn (selling for around $70 on priceline recently). And is there any activity there on the week-ends?

Thanks!

Hello! My 2 cents from a former film industry person who lived and worked in LA for 12+ years after having grown up in NY (I'm now happily living in Vancouver BC):

If you are freelance, as many film industry people are, you have to be prepared to commute anywhere between Playa Vista, Burbank and anywhere in between. A broad geographic boundary would be the circle between the 10 Fwy to downtown on the south, up to Burbank, the 134/101 Fwy to the north, and roughly the 405 on the west (with Santa Monica thrown in there). This means that you likely won't/can't live as far south as the South Bay beach communities (Manhattan, Hermosa, etc) and as far northeast as Pasadena (which would really only work if you were working downtown or in Burbank - but a commute from Pasadena to Santa Monica, for example, would literally drive you insane in 2 weeks time, if that).

A off-the-top-of-my-head recommendation for a hotel would be the Beverly Garland Holiday Inn in Studio City. Though I don't know the rates, it's a clean and nice hotel with free parking and should be reasonably priced. Many film industry people live in the Studio City area and there are tons of great restaurants and such along Ventura Blvd which is close to this hotel (you could even walk to Ventura Blvd from the Beverly Garland). You'll also get a sense of Valley heat in mid-July when you go. There will be a 30 degree difference between the temps in Studio City and Santa Monica.

But this hotel is in a good location (right off the 101 at Vineland) for searching out Burbank, Los Feliz (my favorite LA neighborhood), Studio City/Sherman Oaks, and a relatively easy (non-rush hour) drive over Laurel Canyon Blvd to West Hollywood. Oh, and the hotel is close to the Universal City subway station which would take you easily and cheaply into Hollywood and downtown. The rush hour drive to/from Santa Monica and the westside would be nasty, though at least that would give you a sense of what life in LA is like.

I have worked in Burbank and in West Hollywood and commuted to Fox Studios in my time living in LA and lived everywhere from North Hollywood to Los Feliz to West LA to the Hollywood Hills so have a pretty good perspective of what you're considering. Let me know if you have any more questions, and good luck with the trip!

pgolier summed it up rather nicely.

Re: your specific question re: Burbank activity on the weekend, no not really.

Studios in LA are in different locations: Warner & Disney in Burbank, Fox in Century City, Sony in Culver City, Paramount in Hollywood, Raleigh in Hollywood & Manhattan Beach, and post houses & supporting sound/editing, etc, facilities are all over the place as well, which is why pgolier is correct in stating that you could be doing a lot of commuting.

Cheers.

WOW pgolier, thanks so much for this! This is incredibly helpful. I'm pretty set on staying in the Burbank area now, and the beverly garland H.I. seems very nice.
On priceline all the recent bidders seem to have won the other holiday inn, though, by Burbank Airport. How's that area? I'm not a big fan of airport hotels in general, so I'm not sure what to do yet.

A little more on my job, since you're in the business. I'm not freelance, and cannot be for visa reasons (I'm french) - which is painful in our industry, as you know. I've been looking for a while to get in the TV news business here in NY, but nobody sponsors visas (coz they're all broke!). So I'm moving on to movies, my real passion, which is why I'm checking LA out. I just want to get a sense of the city, but the job I'd be looking for is probably "assistant to the producer" to become a producer myself someday (I've 3 years of experience in production, but non-movie related, so I'm ok with starting over). So I hope to be hired by a studio and have only one main place to commute to.

that's it, sorry for the parenthesis. If you or anyone has connections to help me out (set up some interview when I'm there), I'd love it too!

Thanks everybody.

I don't have much to add, but I did want to add a couple of things.

If you're staying up in Burbank, California, you should be prepared to head down to West Hollywood, California, and other places to check out the nightlife. You won't be seeing too much in Burbank, particularly not by the airport. If you were to judge life around here by Burbank, I don't think you'd be giving it a fair chance and would likely run screaming back to New York.

My wife and I live here in Pasadena, California. Generally, she has no problem living here and commuting to work (she's in the industry). Of course, that's because she's usually going to Burbank or Hollywood. The occasional occasion which has found her on shoots down in Long Beach, California, were pretty brutal. But, that commute would be pretty bad unless you were very far from the studios anyway.

I'd suggest that when you're here you look at West Hollywood and neighborhoods like Los Feliz with an eye to potentially relocating there. They've got a lot of good nightlife. And, they're close to the major studios in Hollywood and Burbank; Los Feliz is particularly conveniently located relative to both.

Oh, and, there have been a number of wildfires in the area lately, making it particularly hazy. It's not normally this bad (and hopefully won't be when you visit). I hope you enjoy it! I, for one, would love to have another francophone in the area! :)