What's the best place to stay near Disneyland, LA?

So... 10 days in LA. On the cards is Disneyland, Legoland and Universal Studios. Ideally I'd like a 2br apartment with kitchenette. Close (or with transport) to Disneyland.

Anyone have any suggestions? I've googled and done some other searches, but not much seems to be able to be booked from Australia. I don't want to spend a bomb either. Under $200AUD a night... preferably less if possible.

And does anyone know how to book Disneyland tickets from Australia? The website doesn't seem to want to let me...

Ideas please!

I haven't been to the one in LA, but am assuming the layout is roughly the same for all? Stay as close as you can to Disneyland. The lights at night are just magical - we left the main gates and I didn't want to go any further, it was so pretty. We booked our tickets through our travel agent.

Have fun! It really is the happiest place on earth.

Try a site called VRBO (vacation rental by owner).
No idea where to stay but if you figure out the location you should be able to book an apartment through them.

Trip advisor is great for advice from people who have already been.

You have to book Disney tickets through the site for the country that the Disney is in. So you will need to go to the US site not the .au one.

Hi love,

I've just had some clients of mine come back from there, I cant remember the name of the place they stayed off the top of my head but if you give me your dates I can log into the work system and have a look at pricing and accommodation for you? Also as for the tickets, I have only ever had clients book them through me so im not sure where you would go online to get them.

Aim x

Some friends went earlier this year and they stayed at the Howard Johnson Plaza Hotel. Said it was fantastic with lots of really good play stuff for kids which was good for those days when you want to maybe have a slightly quieter day before/after a huge full on day. Not sure about the kitchenette side of things. Not an apartment, but they have three kids so a bigger size hotel room

As for tickets, we went to Hong Kong Disneyland last December and booked the tickets through our travel agent.

Have fun. I love Disneyland.

We're going over to LA for 7 days and the travel agent told us that because we're planning to go to Disneyland, Anaheim is definitely the best place to stay as accommodation is so cheap.

Anaheim is where Disney is Lisa :) No one stays in LA and goes to Disney everyone stays in Anaheim.

Lol, yep, I know where it is but because we were looking to see a few different things, it was suggested to us that Anaheim is best all round because it is so cheap.

The main sights of LA are ridiculously spread out so as convenient as Anaheim is for Disneyland, it's not for other tourist attractions so you don't 'have' to stay there. If you're only going to go to Disneyland, then yes, it would make sense but if you plan on seeing the other major sights, you can broaden your search.

We stayed in a backpackers in West Hollywood on our first trip to LA (when we also went to Disneyland) and location wise it seemed pretty good. We got transfers from our hostel to Disneyland and back and we spent a whole day there, about 12 hours straight at the park. It was perfectly fine for us (we were in our mid 20's then) but not so great for little kids. If you were planning on doing multiple days there, you'd probably want to stay very close by as the transport to and from could get expensive and time consuming due to the horrendous traffic (I'd recommend transfers or taxis as the public transport is pretty ordinary).

West Hollywood seemed to be quite handy to visit all the major Hollywood attractions, Beverly Hills and Venice Beach. It wasn't too far to Universal Studios either (well worth a visit!)

The second time we went to LA, a few years ago, we stayed at a nice, small hotel in Beverly Hills. We were walking distance to Rodeo Drive which was nice and a short taxi ride to the Sunset Strip. It wasn't too bad price wise and once again, we weren't too far from several major attractions. We even caught public transport to Santa Monica which was time consuming but easy from Beverly Hills. We did a day trip to the Queen Mary at Long Beach and got private transfers to and from it as recommended by the hotel concierge. It would have taken us a good couple of hours or more on public transport and several bus/train changes too apparently. As it was, it took us a good 45-60 minutes by car and that was direct!

Hope some of that helps.

You can get a bus from the Chinese theatre in Hollywood and spend the day there and the bus also brings you back.


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I second VRBO. We have to self cater as we're on a special diet too so we book ALL our accommodation through vrbo.

Had a quick look and there are 3 bedroom houses for that price! :D

We are going to disneyworld in Florida in a couple of weeks. Also going to legoland, space centre etc. I googled 'villa accommodation' and it came up with so much! I got over a weeks worth of accommodation for the price of 2 or 3 nights in a hotel near the park. We chose this because we wanted a homely base to return to, and because DD is still just turning two, so really still pretty young for the Disney experience of a lifetime! We aren't really theme park people so at least we can chill out in the pool if we want a break. We decided to stay close but away from the parks, and have hired a car.

With tickets I searched Disney day passes and came across a uk based co that does it all for you. a minimum amount of tickets needed to be purchased though. Its called attraction tickets direct. Maybe there is an Aussie version of something similar.

I would book tickets when you arrive in USA! Or would book online through they Disneyland site. Don't book them through here as agents have a nice mark up!

Accommodation vrbo is fab we have used it heaps but if you stay in a hotel they have free shuttle buses to most places you will want to go close nearby in Anaheim. So factor in the cost if taxi etc to your vrbo rental! Have fun and enjoy being their in their off peak season!

Not all travel agents are rip off merchants didispunk ( I know I'm certainly not!). Because we buy in bulk we are actually normally cheaper as we get them at a wholesale rate.

Have checked out VbRO and found a place that seems really good.

But how can I be sure they're not dodgy? I've emailed them and they emailed back, and there's photos online etc. it's just it's an awful lot of money.

Fortunately they only ask for a refundable deposit to hold the dates though and then pay 2 weeks out. Is that normal?

Hmmmm. I think I have trust issues.

That all sounds perfectly normal for vrbo. Do they have any reviews? I must admit, the places with reviews are a bit more peace of mind as you know someone has actually physically stayed there before at least! But we've had great success with places without reviews too.

i have been thinking about a long term goal of going to dinsey land. but it is something we would have to majorly save up for. so i went onto their website to see ticket prices and i couldnt even find that! LOL what do you reckon the total cost would be for 2 adults and 2 chn for a disney land trip of about 7-10 days? i just need a figure to reach for here! inlcuding travel, accom etc.?

It very much depends on the season you go in, how old the kids are, what standard of accommodation you want and how many days you want to spend at Disney - the tickets are bloody expensive!!!

An average package like that normally sets my clings back about $15k but keeping in mind I'm in Perth so the flights are much more expensive from over here.

Sorry that was meant to say clients not clings, stupid auto correct on my phone!

thanks for the info. i thought it would be around that much. i think it will be a 10 year plan for us LOL!!

We can't wait. THe VBRO places are cheaper than hotels and I know that it will be much easier to have our own kitchen (DS1 is gluten free) than to be dependent on restaurants etc. I think it will also be cheaper to make our own food etc.

Anyone know whether there are supermarkets/butchers/grocers within walking distance? And whether or not we can bring our own food into Disneyland?

We have stayed with properties booked through VRBO in Europe and never had a problem. You can ask the owner about walking to shops etc. Often they know where the best local shopping and restaurants are.

Depends exactly where you're staying as to whether there are supermarkets in walking distance. Once you know the address check out the major chain supermarket websites for store locations:
Whole Foods
Trader Joes
Safeway

I'm not sure about bringing food into Disneyland, I think you can't. But I do know that they are AMAZING when it comes to special diets apparently. You can contact them ahead of time and let them know your needs and they'll help you out.

We brought food and saw lots of others doing it.


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We took our own food too. No issues there.

When I travel o/s and I'm trying to work out distance etc, I use Google Earth. Helped us heaps when trying to figure out where public transport and supermarkets are in relation to potential accommodation.

We were backpacking so on a 'back packing budget', lol, and took our own food. We bought one thing there though, a cheeseburger which we shared :rofl: We were there 8 years ago and the prices were pretty horrendous but the dollar wasn't very strong then either.

Just wanted to add, I found out if you search for "extended stay hotels" you can find hotel rooms that have kitchens. I wasn't having much luck getting a place near where we need for an upcoming trip and a found out about this. We've found a hotel room that will suit us more than the vrbo places I found and has the hotel perk of a shuttle bus. There may be some around disneyland that would suit you.