Trip to California

[nisryus]

Since kid wants to visit colleges in CA, wife missed her parents, even I am still unemploye, the trip must go on. Time to ask a few questions from our experts here.

First we will go to LA and check out UCLA, USC, Occidental College and Claremont McKenna College.

Since we try to minimized cost, we will be staying in a placed called Metro Hotel, which is just a block or so North West of the Los Angeles Union Station. this way we can take the metro to go to Hollywood or Santa Monica, or combination or riding mtero and using lyft to get around. I have heard that the area near union Station was not what it used to be, and it is rather dangerous after 8pm. Is that true?

After a week in LA, we will be taking Amtrak to San Diego to visit UCSD, U of SD, and SDSU. We thought about staying near La Playa, but most hotels are too expensive or fully booked, so back to Mission Valley area we go (I hate how they charge daily fee for parking). I planned to use Turo to rent a car and drive around. Last i remember SD is easier to drive around than LA, but that was years and years ago.

Will not be going to the zoo or Gaslamp Quater as they been there before. Anyone been to that old Town Historial Park? Looks interesting.

Are National City and Chula Vista good areas? I saw hotels are cheapr down there, but they are further from where we want to go.

Anyone knows a few good places to eat? My brother told me there are plenty of good Korean and Chinese places at Clairemont Mesa area when he took his kid down there to tour school. Also a friend told me I must visit a place called "100s seafood grill buffet", and it does looks interesting. But we are staying between Friday and Wednesday before flying back, so will miss the all you cna eat lobster Thursday..

 

[Captante]

Sorry to say it but you seriously might want to reconsider your lodging choice.... that place appears to be a complete and total $hithole.

I wouldn't bring my family there at all .... might be a decent place to hook up with an escort though!

Don't waste time looking at the travel site reviews, check out Yelp and Google.... a few obvious fake 5-star and MANY 1 and 2 star reviews especially on Yelp. (most accurate IME)

Metro Plaza Hotel (LA) (Yelp)

Check this one out:

7/21/2022

This is a sad review to write since i had stayed here dozens of times decades ago. I was there Tuesday night of this week and it was horrific. It is filthy from the lobby to the room with everything in between. It actually felt like a homeless shelter, only more hopeless. The dingy lobby has bits of the floor that have come up and looks like part of a barber shop in Taiwan. Everything is dirty, battered, dinged and scattered about. The hallways to the rooms are filthy, stained, light fixtures hanging and a dank smell. This is all a good prelude to the room which was dingy, tattered, worn and in poor repair. It is clear no one at any level cares about the place. I did not expect a Westin or Hilton but something this crappy and vile is not a deal at any price. This hotel was so nice 20 years ago it is now like a beloved friend who is a crack addict, that does not bathe nor attempt to do anything. Unless you love filth, stay somewhere else.


And another:

7/24/2021

We were tricked by some decently nice photos online of this place, and chose it because it is honestly very convenient from union station. We obviously didn't do our due diligence. It was really pretty bad, and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. We had pre-paid for two nights, but left after the first because I didn't feel comfortable in this hotel. I'm okay with budget hotels, but not dirty or unsafe hotels.

A few highlights:

-A huge tv screen showing all of their security camera footage throughout the hotel is in the disorganized lobby. Great that there's security, but a bit of a red flag.

-I was absolutely disgusted by the carpets on our floor. See the photos I posted. These look like they haven't been cleaned since the 70s. Also stains on the carpet in the room.

-There was hair in a corner and bits of stuff on the room's carpet.

-Everything everywhere is run down, old, and unmaintained. For example, our door had scratches and little chunks of wood missing, there was an indent in the wall, walls didn't look very clean.


There's more where that came from too... look at the Yelp link!




How about this little gem from Google 4 days ago:


Thomas DeMott Jr - 4 days ago - Google reviews

Vacation ❘ Couple

Noteworthy details: Would not stay again. Bad neighborhood. Customer service non existent.


Oh and I almost forgot.... apparently the place is also under construction! (renovations but that won't help you any)

Cancel those reservations while you still can!

 

[Dr. Detroit]

Rent a car. Go through Costco.

Don't cheap out on a hotel - find something on Hotwire or other bargain sites.

National City & Chula are cheaper but safe, these are not desirable areas.
The SD U's are all within15-miles of each other and traffic is pretty light so you can stay further out. La Mesa will work.
Korean & Chinese is Clairemont area. Vietnamese is near SDSU. Good Mexican is everywhere.
Friends House, Minh Ky, Handoo. THC in OB for Taco Tuesday. Pizza Port for lunch pizza deals & beer. Kura for revolving sushi, its not the best but its cool to do once.

Balboa Park? Mission Beach Boardwalk? La Jolla childrens cove - sea lions, Silver Strand & Coronado for beach strolls and people watching.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

You don't have colleges near you home town?

 

[snoopy7548]

Make sure you visit Super Nintendo World:

Universal Studios Hollywood - Los Angeles, California - Official Site

Welcome to Universal Studios Hollywood! Learn more about our incredible theme park attractions in California such as The Wizarding World of Harry Potter™ and much more!

www.universalstudioshollywood.com

 

[shortylickens]

Make sure you play Ivan Ives as you cross the border:


California

 

[deadlyapp]

You don't have colleges near you home town?

Needs to cheap travel but wants to send kid to private colleges or extremely expensive out of state tuition.

Going to California for the public schools isn't much of a good deal anymore. They really gouge on the out of state tuition now and it's extremely hard to get in-state tuition.

 

[nisryus]

Ouch on Metro Hotel. Yeh I didn't used Yelp or other review sites, mainly used Priceline... Time to change hotel! Thx Captante

Thx Dr. Detroit and snoopy7548. (I didnt know there is a Super Nintendo World!!!!)

Kid wants to check them out, and wife wants to visit SD one more time. He is not really that interested in California schools, but since we are going to CA, so why not? Especially whne he heard so much about how nice the campus are in the West coast.

But really the chance of the kid being accepted in California schools is not that high. He will be applying to most of in-state schools like UT Austin, U of Houston, Rice (haha will be like winning the lottery), UT Dallas, UNT.. etc.

The last time he was in SD was long logn time ago when we took him to Legoland. He couldn't rememebr anything from that trip.. =[

 

[Captante]

Time to change hotel! Thx Captante

What are friends for?

I've stayed in some REALLY bad hotels and it's unfortunate enough when by yourself on business, nevermind when with the family. (you literally never would have heard the end of it!)

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

Not a fan of colleges at all.

Trade schools or apprenticeships. Work and earn while you learn something that will be useful. New blood in the trades in needed to replace those retiring.

 

[nisryus]

Kid wants to go into poli sci, especially international affair/diplomacy.. so those are few of the schools that have good programs in California (except U of SD, but heard it has the most beautiful campus!)

Anyway.. damn, hotels are not cheap around LA. Since I am looking for places near a metro stations (we won't be driving, but mainly use metro and maybe Lyft to get to Union Station to catch the train to SD), there are not too many options for under $170. Only place I found was in Long Beach named Hotel Royal. It got good review, but someone did mentioned that they don't full refund.

 

[Captante]

Why not rent a car as suggested and get a cheaper decent hotel a bit further away? (but in a safe neighborhood!)

I don't know the LA area that well so I can't make any specific recommendations but I'm sure someone here can.

 

[Ns1]

The hotel you're checking into sucks but the area is actually starting to heavily gentrify.

You'll be near a few hotspots by Union Station (new Chinatown, Arts District, Little Tokyo, DTLA) where you'll see 500k-1M lofts with tons of homeless people all around. Safety depends on where you are - these days I feel safer in Arts District than DTLA proper.

The metro system (ie Red/Blue/Purple/Gold lines) are generally...not clean. If you are worried about staying at the Metro Hotel, I'd suggest you just rent a car and not rely on public transportation. Amtrak/Metrolink are cool though.

If Universal Studios is on the table, there are lots of much better hotels in that area.

 

[Captante]

I just spent 5 minutes on Expedia.... 10-15 miles out of town there are TONS of half-decent looking places of all kinds (some with 4-5 stars, beautiful pools etc!) for UNDER $100 per night leaving substantial savings to cover a car.

Rethinking the entire plan would seem to be in order frankly.

Besides LA without a car sucks donkey balls in hell anyway.... havn't you ever played Grand Theft Auto ?!?

*(except hookers and homeless dudes that is!)

 

[SteveGrabowski]

Make sure you visit Super Nintendo World:

Universal Studios Hollywood - Los Angeles, California - Official Site

Welcome to Universal Studios Hollywood! Learn more about our incredible theme park attractions in California such as The Wizarding World of Harry Potter™ and much more!

www.universalstudioshollywood.com

Looked kind of lame on Girlfriend Reviews

 

[nisryus]

Never played GTA, eventhough I used to work in the gaming industry! (I am ashame of that, I know..)

I actually looking at a few places around Monterey Park and San Gabriel. Maybe down by LAX.. around that area.

 

[Captante]

Never played GTA, eventhough I used to work in the gaming industry! (I am ashame of that, I know..)

I actually looking at a few places around Monterey Park and San Gabriel. Maybe down by LAX.. around that area.

All kidding aside, having a car in LA is ESSENTIAL unless you want to find yourself severely limited. (even though driving there really sucks too)

This is NOT NYC or Chicago.... things can be unexpectedly far away with zero safe public transit available.

Most of the city is NOT really "pedestrian-friendly" either.

 

[SteveGrabowski]

When you go to UCLA highly recommend checking Diddy Riese's cookies which is right off the southside of campus. The chocolate-white chocolate there were like half my diet when I went to UCLA. Santa Monica is one of the worst beaches in the area. Friends and I would always go to Malibu, Huntington, or Redondo. Santa Monica beach was homeless central 15 years ago when I moved out of LA, can't imagine what it's like now.

 

[nisryus]

One of the stop is actually Santa Monica! XD

Will take pics and report back what it is like.

The reason for not driving is because the places we are going (besides UCLA, USC and Occidental) such as Hollywood, Union Station for train, Korea town, Santa Monica.. etc, are all reachable via metro. Hence the initial hotel booking at that Metro center hotel.

Plus LA driving is.. errr... bad. I lived there for a year back in the late 90s when I was helping friend doing photo shoots for commericals (like Fanta - ohhhhh so many beautiful girls came for audition.. and they even changed in front of you! ). The driving around LA left me a scar that I still have nightmare about lol.

 

[Ns1]

I actually looking at a few places around Monterey Park and San Gabriel. Maybe down by LAX.. around that area.

Do not stay in MP/SG unless you are asian and want to spend your entire time here eating. There is nothing to do in MP/SG besides drive and eat asian food.

LAX (El Segundo) is the much better option. Lots of tech money in that area.

 

[nisryus]

Thx Ns1.

I wish I had explored LA more back when i was working there. But then again, thats 27 years ago, probably everything has changed by now.

 

[SteveGrabowski]

One of the stop is actually Santa Monica! XD

Will take pics and report back what it is like.

The reason for not driving is because the places we are going (besides UCLA, USC and Occidental) such as Hollywood, Union Station for train, Korea town, Santa Monica.. etc, are all reachable via metro. Hence the initial hotel booking at that Metro center hotel.

Plus LA driving is.. errr... bad. I lived there for a year back in the late 90s when I was helping friend doing photo shoots for commericals (like Fanta - ohhhhh so many beautiful girls came for audition.. and they even changed in front of you! ). The driving around LA left me a scar that I still have nightmare about lol.

If you lived in LA for a year gotta wonder why you're interested in going to Hollywood of all places. So much amazing stuff to do in the LA area and my only good memory of Hollywood was the In N Out on Sunset that had ridiculously strong shakes that even Isis Taylor would need ten minutes of letting melt to get it through the straw. Do love all the great Korean food in Korea town, though can't remember a single restaurant I ate at since Korea town is what we usually hit up at 2AM on Friday or Saturday night when we were drunk as s**t tbh.

 

[Captante]

Hollywood is a nasty tourist-trap from my recollection.

 

[nisryus]

Have never stop by Hollywood, so this time taking the wife and kid to see the place, and be a tourists.

 

[Captante]

I still think not getting a car for a "family-in-tow" trip to LA is an excruciatingly bad decision (even worse than booking a hotel without checking reviews!) and that you'll regret it both "early & often" but I do hope things work out for you.