Hotels near Disneyland, which to pick from....?

[CableKC]

I am planning on going to Disneyland over the Thanksgiving weekend with my In-Laws and wanted to book a hotel room within walking distance.

We all have stayed at the Fairfield Inn and the Howard Johson that are real close. However....due to a recent stay at one of the Holiday Inn Express hotels ( where I enjoyed their Free Continental breakfast )....I am considering booking rooms at either the Holiday Express Anaheim Maingate or the Residence Inn Maingate...as I am a sucker for the "Free Breakfast" amenity. I think its a good alternative to the McDonalds or Denny's that we all walk by when we head to the DisneyLand entrance.

For now...I will likely choose one of the 4 hotels:

1 ) Fairfield Inn - Closest hotel ( of the 4 ) and will meet our needs
2 ) Howard Johnson - 2nd closest hotel ( of the 4 ) that will meet our needs
3 ) Holiday Inn Express Anaheim Maingate - 3rd closest hotel ( of the 4 ), has a Continental Breakfast and is comprable in price to Fairfield Inn and Howard Johnson
4 ) Residence Inn Anheim Maingate - About the same distance as the Holiday Inn Express....has a Hot complimentary Breakfast...but is easily the most expensive of the 4 options.

Of the 3 families that are going.....2 of them ( including myself ) care about the surroundings and where we stay ( as in staying a hotels that are clean and slightly above average in appearance ) whereas the 3rd family can go either way. Obviously...I want to stay at a place that is within walking distance and money is a concern...but if we are talkinga about an additional $10 a night....then I maybe able to convince them of going with the 4th option.

Can anyone share their experience of staying at the Holiday Inn Express and Residence Inn near Disneyland?

 

[hlbtimes2]

Not sure about the residence, but the holiday inn is not what I would consider walking distance. So you'll want to be sure to add the cost of a shuttle or parking at the park to your price. I have a friend that stayed at the holiday inn express last year. He said it ws nice, but they had a fair bit of traffic noise.

Personally, I would recomend the candy cane inn. It has your free breakfast, a shuttle to the hotel, and is close enough to walk. OH, and the grounds are very nice.

 

[Master Mason]

I can't remeber the name now because my wife booked it, but there is a suites hotel on harbor that serves a complentery breakfast and Dinner..... It was fairly resonably priced as well. We just used the shuttle busses to go back and forth... Hopefully someone else knows the name. It was about a mile and a half from the park.

 

[LOVEDISNEYLAND]

I'm not sure about any of these hotels but, My husband and I have always stayed at the Best Western Anahiem Inn and were staying there this Dec (right next to Denny's) on Harbor Blvd. It's about a 5 minute walk if that to Disneyland. we could even see the matterhorn from our room that's how close we were. The staff there are super friendly and they also serve complentery breakfast and also have laundry service and a hot tub, not sure if any of these are important to you but just thought I would let you know. hope this helps and good luck.

 

[Amy&Dan]

Of your four I have only stayed at the HoJo. Its not a four star hotel, but it has very spacious rooms, two nice pool areas, one that has some cute spray jets for little kids, plus a kiddie pool and hot tub. It also has some very extensive lovely grounds and a nice gift shop with lots of affordable food and convenience items. Just make sure you request a non freeway side room, its right on the I-5 and some of those rooms are noisy. The Fairfield Inn is closer, but not by much, maybe one to two minutes closer. I would suggest you go to: www.tripadvisor.com This is a great site and will have tons of reviews of all your choices. Just bear in mind that people are more likely to post a bad review than a good one, so look at several reviews to get an idea. I will also tell you that my family loves the Tropicana, its one of the closest motels on Harbor (second from the crosswalk), has been recently redone and gives you a free (but very basic) continental breakfast. I'll also second the Candy Cane Inn. I have not stayed there yet, but honestly I have never seen one bad review of that property. And they have a free shuttle just for their guests to the parks.

 

[Captjackson]

I can't remeber the name now because my wife booked it, but there is a suites hotel on harbor that serves a complentery breakfast and Dinner..... It was fairly resonably priced as well. We just used the shuttle busses to go back and forth... Hopefully someone else knows the name. It was about a mile and a half from the park.

You might be talking about the Residence Inn Resort Area on the corner of Harbor and Chapman. Their "dinner" is mostly soup or chili with rice or noodles or something, but it is free and it is filling. I could be wrong since there are a couple of suite hotels at that intersection.

We've stayed at that hotel several times, but never at the Residence Inn Maingate. I can say that every RI I've ever stayed at has been nice and clean. We stayed in a 2BR suite back in Feb (4 adults and 2 kids). Very roomy, lots of privacy, relatively speaking. The RI Resort Area is a regular hotel, not the usual townhouse setup of most RI. A penthouse suite at the RI would be very nice for an extended familiy trip.

The breakfast there is also a step above the average complimentary Continental breakfast.

Vic

 

[ScooterL]

I have a friend who often stays at the Fairfield Inn and likes it - and it's right across the street from Disneyland, so very close.

I've stayed at the Carousel Inn and Suites, which is a little bit shorter walk than the Fairfield - it was ok, but a pretty basic set-up and nothing fancy, so I think from your description of what you'd like you would be happier at the Fairfield.

Laura

 

[mareed]

Neither Holiday Inn or Residence Inn would be what most would consider walking distance, so I'd choose between either the HoJo or Fairfield.

 

[DCL Repeaters]

I'm not sure about any of these hotels but, My husband and I have always stayed at the Best Western Anahiem Inn and were staying there this Dec (right next to Denny's) on Harbor Blvd. It's about a 5 minute walk if that to Disneyland. we could even see the matterhorn from our room that's how close we were. The staff there are super friendly and they also serve complentery breakfast and also have laundry service and a hot tub, not sure if any of these are important to you but just thought I would let you know. hope this helps and good luck.

We stayed at the BW Aneheim Inn last Aug for our very 1st trip to Disneyland and found it to be very clean and the staff very helpful. We loved the 5 minute walk to the park!

 

[Itinkso]

Tropicana Inn and Camelot Inn also have free continental breakfast. They are owned by the same corporation but Camelot is much nicer. They are a little closer to DL than Fairfield; Camelot is on the other side of McD's from the Fairfield and Tropicana is closer than that to the crosswalk on Harbor.

 

[ZeusNike]

Of the four you listed I would pick either the HoJo or the Fairfield because of the easy walking distance (and they are both nice hotels). I would also suggest a look at the Candy Cane Inn. We have never had a bad experience there, the beds are very comfortable and the rooms are clean and attractive, you can walk easily and there is a regular, dedicated shuttle if you don't want to. The free breakfast was perfectly fine too...fruit, cereal, bagles, muffins and breads (with a couple of large, commercial toasters), juice, tea, coffee, hot chocolate etc.