Days Inn Santa Monica Hotel, Santa Monica
Hotel Information
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Hotel Description:
We offer our guests a beautiful newly constructed property near 3rd Street Promenade and the closest Days Inn to Beverly Hills. We offer a complimentary breakfast and free covered parking. We are surrounded by all the attractions so many tourists think of when they think "California" or "Beverly Hills" or "Hollywood". We are 1 mile from Santa Monica Beach, with Venice Beach 2 miles away and Malibu Beach just 3 miles away. North, South, East or West the attractions you can't miss on your California trip. loading...
Days Inn Santa Monica Hotel Reviews
Just one of the many sprawling cities of the greater Los Angeles area, catering for all tastes, be they food, arts, music, movies, shows, adult entertainment etc
Now Santa Monica itself is a pretty big city, but getting around, is probably best done by car. The City Metro buses are quite reliable, if a little uncomfortable, especially for long distance journeys, but the Santa Monica "Big Blue Buses" are slightly better. 75 Cents for the Big Blues, but they don’t give change and a $1.25 for the Metro buses.
Sadly the metro rail system is somewhat underdeveloped and there were no stations near Me.
Be warned, accommodation is not cheap, not in Santa Monica anyhow. I stayed at Days Inn on Santa Monica Boulevard for $79 a night, but looking on the web, most of the hotels average out at about $100-$250 a night.
If you want the really cheap sleazy motels, yes they can be found too (there was one, about five mins walk from my hotel).
People are generally quite friendly, especially if they see you are from the UK. Us Brits are very well received in the US.
If you are going to use buses and Taxis as you main means of transportation, once you find a good taxi driver, it’s worth getting friendly with him, to negotiate deals for long distance trips. The Santa Monica Cab Co aka Express Taxis has good drivers and one I managed to get friendly with, did me a good deal to LAX (The main airport for LA), when it was time to return home.
Be warned if you are using your credit card to pay for goods and services there. Many places will now ask for secondary ID (driving Licence, Passport), as an additional fraud prevention measure. Restrict use of your credit card for high-end purchases. For low value items, such as restaurant bills, eating out, movies, souvenirs and suchlike, stick to cash or travellers cheques.
A word on traveller’s cheques. The LA Zoo does not accept them, for some strange reason. Get Visa or MasterCard US dollar T/Cheques. On previous visits to the US, I found that many banks would not cash AMEX travellers cheques.
If you have a debit card, with a Maestro/Cirrus symbol, this could be your lifeline, if you run out of money. There are cash dispensers all over the place and I had no problems obtaining US currency with my card. Just be warned that for every withdrawal, your bank charges you a small fee (I ended up with like seven £1.75 charges on my bank statement for use of cash machines in LA).
Santa Monica is pretty lively by day or night and reasonably safe to walk around. You will see a few homeless people and well as the crazy people who talk to themselves or scream obscenities at passers-by, but on the whole, they are harmless.
Most of the crazy people seem to ride the bus for some reason and some are mildly entertaining.
The attractions most worth seeing are Universal Studios in Burbank, Disneyland in Anaheim, Hollywood and Venice Beach
(incidentally if you like Reggae music and West Indian culture, go to Venice Beach, where you will find many Jamaican stallholders selling T-shirts, books, jewellery,CD's and suchlike)
Shopping wise, the two best places I found, which also happen to be close to my hotel were Third Street Promenade and Santa Monica Place.
Third Street is a tree lined pedestrianised street of cafes, bars, restaurants, shops, a few cinemas and some nightclubs too.
Usually you will also find a selection of street performers/entertainers and the odd impromptu preacher, preaching whatever and condemning you for your sins.
Santa Monica place is a huge shopping mall, filled to the brim with clothes, food, sports, books, home furnishings and sunglasses shops.
Can’t comment on the prices, but do recommend the food court there, which has everything from Chinese to Middle Eastern.
Santa Monica is a great place to visit, but just be sure your wallet can take the pace.