Hello!
So I am going to LA to go to the Ellen Show and explore LA for the second time! I spent a couple of days researching the best places to stay at and finding the cheapest plane tickets.
So first, I checked Frontier Airlines to see their prices, I know they usually have good ones. This is what I found:
So as you can see, the prices are fine, but the problem is how long you will be traveling just to get to LA. The first one is taking me to Orlando and will take 14 hours and the second one is taking me to Denver (<3) and is much shorter than the first one, BUT the flight is just way too late. If I am going somewhere, I like to leave super early in the morning and arrive in the morning so I’m not wasting my whole day traveling! The returns were even worse, the first one would take me to Denver again, but this one takes 18 HOURS to get back home!!! So crazy, especially when there is a 6+ layover, I don’t know if I’d be able to sit at an airport for that long.. and the second one takes 9 hours, which is like 3 more than it should so it isn’t terribly bad, but it’s an overnight flight. So Frontier let me down, on to the next!
I figured I might as well try Travelocity and see if I could get a bundle deal that would include hotel + flight because that’s what I ended up doing the first time I took Mirhad to LA about 2 years ago was it??? I’ll have to check on that time. Anyways, the prices went from $600-$1,200+ a person for flight and hotel which I mean isn’t bad if you paid $600 for each person, but I just wasn’t finding a good place to stay at. I’m really picky when it comes to where I have to sleep while traveling just because I need for it to be clean in order to stay there. So these are examples of what was available on Travelocity:
I really wanted to stay in the Beverly Hills – Hollywood area just because I am familiar with that area from my last trip, but it was hard to find a hotel that was a good price, in a good area, and clean looking. Last time I went, I booked with Mama Shelter and I loved it there, it was such a cool scene.. I looked into booking there again, but it was a little too expensive for me so I passed. Plus, it’s always cool to stay at different places if you’re visiting the same place again!
So by this time, I went to check Airbnb’s and they had a lot of nice ones! So I checked for Airbnb’s around Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Burbank, Santa Monica, and Venice Beach.
So I mean they had a lot of choices, the part that was difficult was finding a good price. Yes, it’s LA, yes it’s California, so I didn’t expect anything super cheap. My main concern was making sure I was in a safe part of LA, I know there are some parts you deff need to avoid and after doing some research I knew where to stay away from.
Reddit was very helpful because I got real insight from real people. Obviously, wherever you go, act normal and don’t act obnoxious to the point where you draw bad attention to yourself. Anything can happen anywhere, but if I’m in a good neighborhood, then I’m happy! So, I looked around for a couple of days until I finally found one that was like $80 a night, which is a steal! It’s in a great area, it’s around everything I need to be around, and it’s cozy and clean! A++++++.
But I couldn’t book this without finding a way to get there first, obviously! So I went back on Travelocity and searched for some cheap tickets. I ended up finding a good deal, but I had to move my trip back one day which was fine anyways since we’ve been there before we now know exactly what we want to do.
Overall, this trip ended up being $600 cheaper than it was in the course of those couple of days of searching for good deals. So it ended up being about $550 per person for flight and Airbnb, which is a great deal. I think I paid maybe $200 more the last time I went? Glad we got it to a good price so we can spend our money on doing cool activities. We won’t be renting a car since we won’t stay longer than 4 days, but hopefully one day we can come back and stay a little longer and explore out of LA into more mountain areas!
If you plan on going to LA or anywhere for a trip, make sure to browse around for a couple of days (if possible) because prices really do change and if you search too quickly, you might find something cheaper later but you might not be able to cancel it. And don’t forget to always make sure you are staying in a good area, surrounded by lots of places to go eat!
Meli 