As anyone visiting L.A. has discovered, hotel prices can be outrageous
to almost insane. That's especially true on the Westside. Having said that, there is one option that is actually a gem in the rough--Holiday
Inn Express West Los Angeles.

The West Los Angeles location is ideally located on Santa Monica Blvd and the infamous I-405 freeway. It's the perfect jump-off point if you
are planning on driving. There is abundant subtarranean parking below the hotel with the rooms located on floors two through four.

The rooms are spacious, clean and comfortable. It was just me and the size was perfect. Two people would do as well too. The room was standard equipped with a very comfortable queen size bed, a desk for work or surfing the Net, high-speed Internet connection, if you have your laptop with you, TV with cable, a coffee set-up to brew your own and a good size individual refrigerator. I asked for a non-smoking room.

The bathroom was a nicely designed, modern granite bathroom. It was nicer than some of the 'higher end' hotels I have ever been to.

The hotel serves a continental breakfast each morning from 6:30 to 9:30 AM. For a continental breakfast, they serve a surprisingly varied number of items. In addition to the standard juices, they have bagels with cream cheese, hot cinnamon rolls, muffins, fruit, make your own oatmeal, hardboiled eggs and coffee. Those are what I ate. There were other things but I never got around to a second helping!

The one downside....this intersention is notorious for traffic because
of people getting on the 405, getting off and through traffic going to
Century City, Westwood, UCLA or Beverly Hills. The building has clearly been soundproofed but you DO hear the traffic in your room during rush hour. It's not bad but if you were looking for a completely 'silent' room, this wouldn't be it.

There are several benefits to this location: This area has a wide array of restaurants all within walking distance or a short bus ride away. Around the corner and 4 blocks South on Sawtelle Blvd is an area littered with Japanese restaurants, stores and markets. It's sometimes affectionately known as "Little Tokyo West." There is a multitude of restaurants including ramen houses, sushi bars and Japanese fusion houses. Stand outs include: Manpuku (Japanese/Korean BBQ) and Chabuya (ramen). By no means are these the only standout places!

West L.A. is also littered with wonderful Persian restaurants. Westwood Blvd between Santa Monica and Wilshire Blvd is sometimes annointed "Little Persia" for its multitude of Persian restaurants, markets, book stores and other types of related entities. You don't need to speak Farsi to browse these stores. All people are heartily welcomed to walk around. Stand out restaurants include: Shahrzad Restaurant (Westwood Blvd near Ohio), Darya (Santa Monica Blvd near Bundy) and Javan (3 blocks West of hotel). There are many more.

Other locations for a multitude of restaurants include Westwood Village, Century City Shopping Center, Pico Blvd between Overland and Veteran, and Santa Monica Blvd West of the hotel are among the areas with large concentrations of restaurants.

The hotel location is also well suited for those that want to get out of their cars and take the bus. Parking is very expensive in L.A. and the notorious congestion goes without saying. There are several bus lines, however, that'll take you to a lot of the major destinations:

Santa Monica Big Blue Bus Line #1 East goes up Santa Monica Blvd and then takes you to Westwood Blvd, Westwood Village, UCLA-Armand Hammer Museum and UCLA.

Santa Monica Big Blue Bus Line #1 West goes down Santa Monica Blvd tp Downtown Santa Monica, Third Street Promenade, Santa Monica Beach/Pier and Venice Beach/Boardwalk.

MTA Metro Bus #4 East to Wilshire Blvd. Catch a connecting bus MTA Rapid #720 or MTA Metro Bus #20 up Wilshire to Fairfax Blvd. This is the start of Museum Row and the Peterson Automotive Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), George C Page Museum/La Brea Tar Pits, Craft and Folk Art Museum.

So, in addition to being a very nice and comfortable hotel, the Holiday Inn Express West Los Angeles is nicely situated at a crossroads of sorts to many of Los Angeles' most popular destinations. This review only covered a few of many throughout this region. It'll be enough to keep you busy for three or four days!

This hotel was remarkably convenient. It's just off the 405, so getting there was a snap. UCLA is about 10-15 minutes away, depending on where you're going. (Driving, not walking.)

Despite being just off the freeway, noise was no problem. I think it's double-glazed, and the aircon covers the little sound that gets through.

I was pleasantly surprised by the room. It's a comfortable size, furnished with stylish modern built-in furniture, including a nice, functional desk. The beds were firm and comfortable. It was clean and well-maintained. The bathroom looked refurbished, with granite, tile, new shower-curtain, and Kohler fittings.

From a practical standpoint: There is no closet and nowhere to hang a suit. I used the second queen-size bed in my room to lay out all the clothes that I would have hung up. There are big drawers under the TV set, good for clothes that can be folded. Unfortunately, they have been installed such that they tend to open if they're loaded. And I had to unplug a light to use the plug-point near my bed.

Next time, I might bring a couple of hangers and some over-the door hooks. And maybe an ethernet cable, in case I get a room with bad wi-fi. And an extension cord.

They had ample free parking in an underground lot with secure elevator access. The lobby is spartan, but the reception was pleasant. They told me I might need an ethernet cable but they were all out. As it turned out, in my room near the elevator, the wi-fi worked fine. They had coffee in the room and the lobby and a convenient junk-food/ water/ soda machine on each floor.

I'd planned to stay at Hilgard House for this trip to UCLA, but they were sold out. They very kindly referred me to a few other hotels, including this one. I read the reviews, and found they were pretty favorable, so I booked it.

On the whole, I was happy with this hotel. I would definitely stay here again.

We stayed here for a week, and have stayed at dozens of Holiday Inn Expresses around the country. Rooms are pretty clean, though the housekeeping staff can be a bit overzealous in trying to get into your room. The WiFi network is not great in all rooms, but works if you bring your laptop out into the courtyard (which can be noisy during breakfast). The front desk is probably the only complaint: they raised our rate from $129 to $159 when we tried to extend our stay. Only after talking with the Assistant GM where we able to keep our original rate.

It's right off the 405 freeway, so don't expect a fancy getaway retreat type hotel. However, you can expect extreme convienence if you don't mind the view.

From the outside, the hotel is nothing special. But I found the rooms well decorated, with a spacious bathroom and very comfy sheets.

A nice complimentary breakfast is provided (muffins, bagels, hot cinnamon rolls, fruit, cereal) and parking is free.

I was very happy with this hotel.