<p>I'm trying to decide where to lay our heads during our tour week to minimize driving and maximize beach time. Do any of you have hotel recs for:</p>
<p>Santa Monica, Eagle Rock, and/or Pasadena
Santa Barbara
Carmel/Monterey</p>
<p>Here's our schedule -</p>
<p>Monday: Harvey Mudd & Huntington Library. I am hoping to stay in Santa Monica Monday night.</p>
<p>Tuesday: CalTech & Occidental. UCLA in the evening. Is it worth it to drive from S.M. back into Pasadena? How horrific is the traffic from Santa Monica to CalTech? Just wondering if we should stay in Pasadena Monday night or if the beach is worth the extra driving. Tuesday night - Santa Monica.</p>
<p>Wednesday: UCSB. Leave early in the morning for Santa Barbara. Leave S.B. by 1 p.m. Stay in Carmel/Monterey.
Thursday: No tours, just site seeing. Stay another night in Carmel/Monterey.
Friday: Head to Palo Alto for afternoon tour at Stanford. Stay in S.F.
Saturday: Drive home.</p>
<p>We are visiting the LA area at the end of March and will be staying in Santa Monica for a few nights. I haven’t been to this hotel yet, but we made reservations here:
[SeaShoreMotel.com</a> - Affordable and Luxurious Stay in Santa Monica](<a href=“http://www.seashoremotel.com/]SeaShoreMotel.com”>http://www.seashoremotel.com/)
We are budget travelers, and this looked like a reasonable place close to the beach, with parking.</p>
<p>I would suggest that you try to do your traveling so that you are AT your destination the night before your college visits. It’s a lot easier to get up…go on a tour/visit or two…and then drive…than it is to get up…check out of a hotel, drive and then go on a visit.</p>
<p>If there is any way to get TO your destination the previous night…try to do it. This will also take the “how long does it take to get there” worry off of your plate…because you will BE there.</p>
<p>No specific hotel recs, but based on advice I got here when D3 was applying, we used hotels.com. They have a buy 10 get one free thing, so between college visits, a family event etc, we were able to use our free night as part of an empty nest vacation celebration.</p>
<p>I would suggest staying in the Pasadena area Monday night. Rush hour traffic will be horrible from Santa Monica through at least Downtown. Do you have tours scheduled for CalTech, Occidental & UCLA? Timing might be a little tight to do all three unless one is just a drive by/self tour. Also driving to Santa Barbara you may hit rush hour traffic as well…maybe others here can answer that better.</p>
<p>Thanks WrldTravlr: I’ll check it out. We’ll be down during spring break. We have a tour scheduled for Caltech and will schedule one tomorrow for Oxy if it’s open. We don’t have a time frame for UCLA as we will be touring with a friend who teaches there.</p>
<p>Cali mom: What’s the average driving time from Santa Monica to Santa Barbara?</p>
<p>Huntington Library - have visited several times, sometime ago, I do recommend and would recall it’s not far at all from Cal Tech. Big Bang Theory - a great tv show! It would be AWESOME to attend this school.</p>
<p>When you ask about possibly horrific traffic, I think you have a point. I am not local to L.A. (though I have driven around numerous times), so I suggest you might look into whether you are doing commutes in the commuter direction (or not) for the place/time of day where you will be driving. That makes a big difference IMO, in CA (where I reside).</p>
<p>I drove S.B. down to downtown L.A. summer before last (with a lunch appointment) and our S.B. friends advised leaving S.B. quite early to get there in time. I don’t know if the reverse would be true. I seem to recall quite heavy traffic mid AM on the 101…likely both directions but perhaps an L.A. person can post more specifically.</p>
<p>Santa Barbara - a resort town, while there are a variety of hotels, they can fill if during popular time periods, certainly in summer. I would have a reservation if you decide to stay there.</p>
<p>Carmel/Monterey are certainly easier on weekdays than on weekends.</p>
<p>PA up to SF on Friday evening - expect some traffic, not nearly what we had in the boom days around here, though.</p>
<p>Stayed several times in Saga Motor inn, in Pasadena, near Caltech. Clean, reasonable. Easy drive to Oxy. Let them know you are touring Caltech in order to get a discount. Its not the fanciest, but it served our needs several times.</p>
<p>We have a flexible budget for hotels but we’re happy with something convenient and clean. And since I’ll be doing the majority (probably all) of the L.A. driving, I’d rather hang out in Pasadena than on the freeway.</p>
<p>lateparty: Big Bang is one of our favorite shows!</p>
<p>Can you move your UCLA evening to Monday? Stay in Pasadena on Monday night? Drive to Santa Barbara Tuesday after rush hour. Then you will wake up at the beach before you tour UCSB.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t stay in Santa Monica Monday night just to be near the beach (and I love the beach.) You’ll have plenty of opportunities to see the beach on your trip to Santa Barbara.</p>
<p>Did a mapquest from Santa Monica to UCSB and it is about 1 hour 45 minutes - but that doesn’t take into consideration any rush hour traffic. I personally haven’t done that commute during rush hour so can’t really advise if that is an issue or not. There are pockets that get backed up outside of Santa Barbara regularly though! </p>
<p>Just to get an idea of rough driving times…Mudd to Cal Tech is about 40 minutes, Cal Tech to UCLA is about 40 minutes, UCLA to UCSB is about 1 hour 40 minutes and UCSB to Monterey is about 4 hours.</p>
<p>SB weighing in here. traffic can be bad particularly during rush hour. In Montecito just south of SB in particular. Would allow 2.5 hours if you are trying to be there by a specific time for a tour.</p>
<p>We just did a California college visit and we stayed at the Carmel Mission Inn. Nice, but the mapping software could not find the right entrance. Just call them and ask them how to get to the correct parking lot.</p>