Anyone either stay or know anything about Long Beach?

[kpgclark]

I'm posting this question here because I figure the Disneyland folks might be able to help me out! We're thinking about staying at Long Beach for a couple of days in August prior to our Disney cruise. We thought about staying on the Queen Mary because I heard they have a shuttle to take you to some shopping area which has another shuttle that will take you to places such at the beach at Long Beach. However after reading some reviews about the accommodations I've changed my mind. Can anyone suggest a hotel that has a good location so we can get to the beach and to the Queen Mary to check it out? We don't want to rent a car while in California.

Thanks in advance!

 

[HaleyB]

I grew up in So Cal, I love the beach.. I can not remember anyone, ever, going to Long Beach to "go to the beach." Long Beach is a great, fun, lots of stuff to do kinda place but for going to the beach try Huntington Beach. There is a nice Holiday Inn across from the pier on PCH (there is another less nice one, you want the one across from the pier).

 

[kpgclark]

Thanks for the info. THe Magic is leaving from San Pedro. How far is Huntington beach from there? We really want to stay somewhere that we can take public transportation around or walk because we don't want the hassle of renting a car. We arrive in LAX on a Thursday at around 2pm. We'll have whatever remains of that day and Friday in CA. The ship leaves on Saturday.

 

[Magix]

In Long Beach, there are some very nice hotels along Shoreline Drive and Ocean Blvd. I think the one on Shoreline, next to the Convention Center is a Hyatt. On Ocean, there's a Westin and a Hilton. The Hyatt is across the street from both the Pike shopping area (with a movie theatre, restaurants and a few shops) and Shoreline Village, which has shops and restaurants. Also, Pine Ave is nearby, which has some very nice dining locations. The Queen Mary is nearby, but I'm not sure if you can walk it. The Aquarium of the Pacific is also across the street from the Hyatt. It's a great location and should have good access to nearby public transportation. There's a Long Beach area shuttle bus (can't remember the name), plus the Metro system has a line that ends nearby, so you could theoretically travel outside Long Beach, if you really wanted to. The Hyatt is the hotel that sits in the center of the Long Beach Grand Prix circuit, if you're familiar with the race. San Pedro would be about a 15 minute trip across Terminal Island and the Vincent Thomas Bridge.

Huntington Beach is going to be much further from San Pedro than you want to be. Although it is a nice place, if you want to actually play in the surf. There's a location on the other side of Long Beach, which you should be able to reach by bus, called Belmont Shore (I think), which offers some actual beaches that look pretty nice.

 

[Tink&SquirtsMom]

I would go to Redondo Beach. Its about 16 miles (half hour easy drive) to the Port. There are hotels along the beach with plenty in walking distance. And its a cute beach town with lots of little surf shops, and very good places to eat (from ultra fancy to Cheesecake Factory to Fat Burger... which is soo good if you are a burger and fires kinda girl). My IL's live in Palos Verdes Estates (just up the hill from Redondo) so we've stayed at The Portofino Hotel before when visiting them. Very nice hotel with gorgeous bay views. I have no idea what it cost though since we didn't pay. If you have kids there is an awesome beach with a playground nearby, that is open all summer. Personally I've lived in CA almost my entire life and I wouldn't go anywhere here without a car (except SF) and least of all anywhere in LA. I do think you'd be better renting one. But if you choose not to I think you'd do alright in Redondo. HTH.

 

[kpgclark]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I'm confused about the beach at Long Beach. You can swim there right? Is the beach dirty or something? I'm confused as to why people have negative impressions of that beach.

 

[HaleyB]

I am a beach snob, which is part of it, but Long Beach is for the most part not a sandy beach, it is more a place to park your boat. I think it is mostly marina and not true beach. I lived in Huntington so I didn't bother to look real hard for other swiming beaches. I forgot about Belmount shores, my sister liked it there, that is sandy beach and an OK place to swim, I think. The Aquarium of the Pacific is excellent, it sounds funny but my fav thing there are the birds, buy the nectar for $1 if they are selling it and hand feed them. It is big, we spend about 4 hours there.

I would check to see if you can rent a car at LAX and drop it off at or near San Pedro. I bet you can. We just got back from Huntington and we rented a car in Huntington and dropped it off at LAX (or whichever airport you will use). It was $22 a day with tax for a 'compact' car (but it was not compact, maybe they ran out?). We had to call around a bit (we used Budget) to find a place that didn't charge extra for that, we couldn't do it online at all. There is so much to do and see and a car is so much easier. Public transit is better than it was when I lived there, but still not very good for a place as big as LA.

By the way, if you will be flying out of LAX they are not kidding when they say you need 2-3 hours. We live in a medium sized city and our airport still takes 25 minutes to get through (check in to boarding), LAX took a full 2 hours (all of which was waiting in lines to check bags and get security check done) this Sunday and people were saying it wasn't bad for LAX!

 

[kpgclark]

The thing is that we are traveling with two children, we don't know our way around LA, and we will have a lot of luggage because we are going on the Panama Canal cruise which is two weeks long. The cruise ends in Florida and we fly home from there. So we fly in on Thursday at 2pm from the East coast (which will be 5pm our time) and the ship leaves Saturday morning. I just didn't want the hassle of renting a car and finding our way around. By the time we check into the hotel I figure we'll have time for an early dinner and maybe a swim at the hotel pool or a walk around the area. Then we have just one full day on Friday before the ship leaves. I just wanted to bypass the whole car issue.

 

[luckey-lasvegas]

To me the nicest beach that is close to Long Beach is Seal Beach. It's small and has a nice Main Street with shops. There are a couple of hotels there ,one used to be a Raddison but has changed names. It would be another 10 minutes further to the port than Long Beach. You could check with the hotel and see if they have a shuttle. Or we have used Super Shuttle to take us to the port for many a cruise. Try checking Seal Beach on expedia to give you an idea of what's in the area.
Also I went to Long Beach State and Belmont Shores is ok but it's more of a channel with sand than a beach. If you want waves you are going to have to go to Seal Beach or Sunset beach to the west, or Redondo or Manhattan beach to the east. If you truly must stay in the Long Beach area then Ocean Blvd will be your best bet. DB has said that they have redeveloped the area near the Aquarium and that it is quite nice.

 

[Magix]

Sounds like, with your luggage problems and desire not to rent a car, you should probably forget about going to an actual beach and just enjoy the Long Beach area in general. The Ocean Blvd/Shoreline Drive area is really very nice these days, with all the new development (The Pike and some new apartment towers) so you really won't need to go anywhere else. You could walk to the Aquarium, plus enjoy the restaurants that are all around there. If you really want to do the Queen Mary tour, I'm certain your hotel could help you find a bus or shuttle to get you there and back easily. You can see it from Shoreline Dr, but it would be a long walk. At Shoreline Village, there's a high-speed boat you could take for a cruise around the Long Beach Harbor area, if you like. There's also a terrific pirate shop called Pirate's Cove amongst the shops in the Village. I think you could easily make a fun day of it in Long Beach.

 

[hookedup]

There is a nice Sheraton in Long Beach.
Also the Aquarium of the Pacific is very good and worth seeing - IF - you like stuff like that.
Seal Beach is a nicer beach in the area if you are going to the beach for a beach.
Long Beach has done a lot in the past recent years to redevelop the area.