Archive for the 'Los Angeles' Category
Two California luxury hotels added to AAA’s 2010 Five Diamond Award list
November 6, 2009 2:45pm
Open less than a year, the Resort at Pelican Hill in Orange County like all hotels, has struggled against the tides of a beleaguered economy. But that doesn’t mean it can’t take a great compliment. The luxury coastal property is one of two California resorts that have danced into the exclusive ranks of AAA’s just-released Five Diamond Award list for 2010. [Corrected at 5:45 p.m. Nov. 6: An earlier version of this post said the Resort at Pelican Hill is south of Laguna Beach. It is north of Laguna Beach.]
California, with 20 five-diamond hotels, also added the opulent Grand del Mar in San Diego to its coffers.
The new Golden State additions join the company of some real longtimers, like the Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel, which has populated the list for 24 consecutive years, and the Peninsula Beverly Hills, with 17 consecutive years under its belt.
Six Flags Magic Mountain to add family coaster for 2010
November 3, 2009 6:26pm
Six Flags Magic Mountain will add its 17th roller coaster in 2010, bringing the Valencia amusement park into a tie for the most coasters in the world, officials said.
Scheduled to open in early summer 2010, the family coaster will be located in the northwest corner of the park between the looping Déjà Vu coaster and the Johnny Rockets Shakes and Fries food stand.
The steel coaster moves Magic Mountain into a statistical tie with Ohio’s Cedar Point for the coveted title of “roller coaster capital of the world,” according to Roller Coaster Database.
Oyster Hotel Reviews does L.A.: See thousands of photos and insider reports from L.A.’s best hotels
November 3, 2009 3:53pm
The still-new Oyster Hotel Reviews that launched earlier this year has opened up a new category of Los Angeles hotels on their website. It’s a feather in their cap that Oyster reviews hotels without taking comps or incentives, but it’s their bounty of gorgeous hotel photos and insider content that keeps me coming back to their site. As you can imagine, I was happy when they added Los Angeles to their Caribbean-heavy lineup.
Here’s a website where travelers can get an inside peek at some of Los Angeles’ most-talked-about hotels before they slap down their credit card. Users are able to search hotels by category, price, rating and special amenities like “swim up bar at pool ” or “pets allowed.” Oyster roundup lists provide a great way to ogle the insides of a hotel and get a full review, whether you’re shopping for a room right now, or daydreaming for next year.
The luxe Beverly Wilshire Hotel, Terranea Resort and Shutters on the Beach are on the list of Best Luxury Hotels in Los Angeles, and the Chateau Marmont, Hollywood Roosevelt and the Beverly Hilton are three L.A. hotels that made the short list of hotels from Hotels with Hollywood History in Los Angeles. (Apparently, Oyster has a loose definition of Los Angeles since some hotels have addresses in Greater L.A. like Santa Monica and Beverly Hills.)
Don’t worry, not all hotels in the L.A. section have big price tags. There are also Best Value Hotels and Kid-Friendly Hotels.
Halloween treat: Find haunted houses and events with MapQuest
October 28, 2009 8:52am
If you’re not leaving town to stay in a haunted hotel, and the idea of going to a theme park is even scarier than a chainsaw-wielding pig, check out what kind of Halloween events are taking place close to home. MapQuest teamed up with HauntWorld to add Halloween-themed events to its maps. Since L.A. was a little thin, I also checked Las Vegas, San Diego and elsewhere in California to see what was going on within driving distance of L.A.
How to find the ghosts on the map:
1. Go to MapQuest.com
2. Make sure it’s displaying the city you want to look up.
3. Look to the right-hand side of the page. You will see a vertical bar with icons like “H” for Holiday Inns, a coffee cup for coffeehouses, a gas pump for gas stations, etc. On that same scroll bar will be a ghost. Click on the ghost and you will see the map become populated with ghost icons that take you to info about local haunted houses.
4. To see more ghost options, click on the zoom-out feature on the left side of the page noted by the minus sign.
Caveat: Unfortunately there are not as many Halloween events as one would find on our guide to L.A.’s Halloween Events 2009. But it looks as if HauntWorld is open to users adding events.
More info: MapQuest Blog
— Jen Leo, Los Angeles Times Travel & Deal blogger
[Image: A MapQuest screenshot of the Haunted House tool at play on MapQuest. Credit: Courtesy of MapQuest]
My terror-filled night as a chainsaw-wielding killer pig at Universal Studios
October 25, 2009 8:31am
Wearing a pig mask and dressed in a flowing red satin cloak, I crouched behind a pine tree as I watched my prey approach.
I gripped the chainsaw tight in my hand and yanked on the ripcord, the deafening roar splitting the silence of the forest.
Like a sprinter, I sprung from the woods and raced toward the road, revving the motor.
The sightseers on the tour bus retreated in horrified unison. Women screeched, men cursed, girls cowered, boys shuddered.
I swung my weapon wildly, slicing and jabbing at the terrified tourists with maniacal menace.
The acrid smell of muffler fumes drenched the air as I trudged back to my hiding place to prepare for my next attack — my mission accomplished.
Halloween events, from fun to frightful, in Southern California
October 25, 2009 6:00am
What are you doing for Halloween? Don’t be the last one left indecisively standing (or you might turn into a pumpkin). Here, we treat you to a bagful of Southern California options to consider for super-spooky good times. Some are great for the little children; others—like, perhaps, Scareview Farms, from where the above image originates—are not.
Balboa Park, San Diego
Museums at Balboa Park are going all out for Family Day on Oct. 31. Attractions include costume contests and parades, as well as museum-specific activities such as a science-themed pumpkin contest at Reuben H. Fleet Science Center; craft sessions to build paper pumpkins with parachutes at San Diego Air and Space Museum; and a scavenger hunt at the San Diego Automotive Museum
Queen Mary, Long Beach
Ongoing most evenings through Nov. 1, “Shipwreck: 15 Nights of Terror” at the Queen Mary seems set to scare the wits out of you (just have to look at the event website for a taste). The nighttime event —not recommended for mortals younger than 12— features vampires and ghosts, among its ship full of creepy creatures, and mazes on board and onshore. Read the rest of this entry »
Frequent fliers rate LAX the third-worst airport in the world
October 22, 2009 11:22am
Turns out that a $1-billion overhaul of Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) (Bradley Terminal, above) can’t come too soon for 14,526 frequent fliers, who rated it the third-worst airport in the world in a just-released survey. The most hated airport? London’s giant Heathrow (LHR), followed by Paris’ Charles de Gaulle (CDG).
The online survey was conducted in September among members of Priority Pass, a program that charges an annual fee for access to airport lounges.
As for LAX: My colleague Christopher Reynolds has a suggestion or two (actually 10) for improving that place. Interestingly, it did not rank as the worst airport in the U.S. among American members of Priority Pass. That dubious honor fell to Chicago’s O’Hare (ORD), with LAX pulling up second and Atlanta (ATL) third.
Priceline gives weekly updates on Thanksgiving and Christmas air travel
October 21, 2009 9:59am
If you are still waiting for a good deal to book your holiday travel, we suggest you tune into Priceline’s travel blog. Brian Ek is giving a weekly update on flight costs for travel around Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Earlier this month we talked with Ek about holiday airfare prices and concluded that if you had to pick between traveling during one of the holidays, Thanksgiving was going to be cheaper. However, in this week’s analysis, prices are going up for Thanksgiving and coming down slightly during Christmas.
“At the macro level, Thanksgiving airfares increased to an average $372, while December holiday airfares dropped to an average $423. Thanksgiving is still the better deal, but Christmas is looking better,” Ek writes.
These averages are based on flights booked by Priceline customers. So, what does it mean for SoCal travelers?
Ek said that airfares between Los Angeles and Chicago were down 9% for winter travel and up 20% for Thanksgiving. However, fares between Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., were down 8% for Thanksgiving travel and unchanged for winter travel.
For more end-of-the-year travel booking advice, read “Holiday travel planning tips from the experts.”
—Jen Leo, Los Angeles Times Travel & Deal blogger
Image: Priceline logo. Credit: Priceline.com
Get a third night for free at 35 California hotels
October 21, 2009 5:59am
Buy two, get one free. That’s the idea behind the Third Night Free offer at 35 California hotels run by Joie de Vivre, a boutique chain based in San Francisco. Launched to promote the company’s new “Joie of Life” micro-site that focuses on social networking, the deal isn’t being advertised on the chain’s main website. But you can book it there anyway — if you know the code.
The deal is worth hunting up because Joie de Vivre runs a lot of fun and well-located hotels in a range of prices, such as San Francisco’s Hotel Rex and Hotel Vitale, Hotel Angeleno in Los Angeles and Hotel Erwin at Venice Beach. The 411:
Deal: Pretty straightforward. You book a room for three nights in a row, and the third night is free. There are two ways to get the deal: You can book it through the Third Night Free section of the Joie of Life micro-site or go to the regular Joie de Vivre website and enter the code “JOIE” in the “Promo Code” window when making a reservation. The micro-site lists the participating hotels, with nightly rates that start at $79 to $459, depending on the hotel.
Orionid meteor shower peaks tonight: Use Twitter hashtag #meteorshower to boast of spotting shooting stars
October 20, 2009 4:33pm
Do something different tonight: Leave the city and the suburbs for a late-night picnic beneath a meteor shower. The Orionids, the second annual meteor shower of the year, is expected to peak Oct. 21 around 3 a.m. PT. The best places in Southern California to view a meteor shower are, as you’d expect, in rural areas. Here’s a photo gallery of some prime viewing locations, such as Red Rock Canyon State Park and Joshua Tree National Park (pictured above and taken during the more well-known Perseid meteor shower that occurs between July and August).
“The best time to watch will be between 1 a.m. and dawn local time Wednesday morning, regardless of your location. That’s when the patch of Earth you are standing on is barreling headlong into space on Earth’s orbital track, and meteors get scooped up like bugs on a windshield,” said Robert Roy Britt on Space.com.
For those of you who want to Twitter your star-gazing experience tonight, use the hashtag #meteorshower. You can also find other reports of people talking about the Orionid meteor shower by searching for “Orionids” on Twitter Search.
