500 West Hotel in San Diego

I knew that there was a total of 3 hotels I’ve stayed at in San Diego, and I wasn’t going to write the review for this one until I remembered the name.

So now that I remembered the name of it, here is my review. I stayed here in the fall of 2008. Its in the heart of downtown San Diego, and its also connected to an old YMCA building. You have the option of staying in a hostel with several other people of the same gender, or having your own private room. I chose to have my own private room. The hallways have a funny odor. The room was very small. I payed about $42 for the night. There were some obnoxious people next door who acted as if they were musicians when clearly they weren’t (they made up lyrics to some “songs” with a guitar as they went along; they were just screwing around. It sounded like they were mocking republicans or something.)

Some people have described this place as “gross”. I think that’s too strong of a description. When I stayed there, there did not seem to be a presence of any kind of bugs or rodents. Some stayers have complained about bed bugs.

If you’re on a budget and you just want to stay in the heart of San Diego, I recommend this place. Its location and price are what make it worthwhile, as well as its decent conditions.

I’m interested in staying at the 500 West Hotel in downtown San Diego.

The greyhound station in Las Vegas

The greyhound station in Las Vegas is a shithole, and so is the one in L.A. but that shouldn’t be surprising. That is a ghetto charter bus which should probably cease to be, sooner or later unless they really clean up its image. I noticed that there were baby rouches crawling on the drinking fountain the last time I was in Vegas. Yuck! I stayed there for hours waiting for a bus one time and I was woken up by some lady who panhandled for a living. She went around the whole station asking for ‘spare change’ and once she figured that the staff noticed her, she ran off. This same lady repeated everthing I just described a few hours later wearing different colored clothes to not be recognized as easily. What an awful life she must have, but people like her should be arrested.

The greyhound stations in Minneapolis, Denver, and Seattle were noticeable more decent for some reason.

Extended Stay America – long term stays.

Extended Stay America is an excellent chain of hotels to do business with if you need to stay at a hotel for at least one month. If they have Long Term Lodging rates available for a given hotel, you can expect to pay the same price that you would for whatever area its in. In other words, if an ESA hotel in Phoenix has long term lodging rate specials going on and the average rent in that neighborhood was $600 / month, you would probably pay a net amount of $600 for the month to stay there. You do have to call to see what their LTL rates are, for some reason they’re not available on their website. They call also be found on Apartments.com.

ESA hotels have a kitchenette, and almost anything you should have at an apartment except for a mailbox. You can’t live there but its a great kind of hotel to rent if you’re relocating to a far away place.

Las Vegas Club Hotel, and the El Cortez. A couple of good deals in downtown Vegas!

The Las Vegas Club hotel is in downtown Vegas right on Freemont Street, and its close to the greyhound station as well. The hallways seemed to smell like overcooked eggs for some reason, but it was a fairly clean hotel. The nice thing about it is there was no resort fee (most Casino hotels have a resort fee, which can actually make it up to twice as expensive as advertised – that is unacceptable.) This casino is about as good as any casino in downtown Vegas.

Click here if you’re interested in staying at the Las Vegas Club Hotel.

The El Cortez is a hotel on the outskirts of downtown Vegas, and its close to the Freemont neighborhood (a rough, poverty stricken part of town.) When I stayed there, you didn’t have to pay a resort fee but there was a pretty hefty deposit (not a big deal since you probably won’t break anything when you stay there.) There were some fairly nice places to eat at the main level near the Casino. Like the Vegas Club Hotel, its one of the best hotels to stay at for a budget traveler since you don’t pay a resort fee to stay there.

Click here if you’re interested in staying at the El Cortez

Little Tokyo Inn, Los Angeles

When I stayed at the Little Tokyo Inn, it had a nightly rate of $40 as well as a weekly rate of $35 per night. It is an extremely basic hotel or motel (whichever you want to call it.) There is no TV, you share bathrooms as well as a shower, the rooms are very small, however it is a clean and safe place to stay. I don’t remember seeing any guests acting like they were sketchy or on drugs.

The Little Tokyo District is on the outskirts of downtown LA and its an ideal place to stay if you don’t have a car because its just a few blocks from union station.

Cabrillo Motor Lodge – A valued budget hotel in Point Loma

Cabrillo Motor Lodge is owned by an Indian couple (as many hotels are these days). The motel is a dive, but it is a clean, safe, and quiet place to stay at night. Its close to The Dolpin motel and I consider this one to be even more pleasant than that one. The rooms are a bit quieter and they have more of a ‘standard motel’ feel to it while the dolphin motel is noticeably more cheap looking inside of the rooms.

The Dolphin Motel in San Diego

The dolphin motel is owned by a father and his son. The dad actually looks like William H. Macy, and from he had a similar voice as well. This motel is in the centrally located borough of Point Loma in San Diego –  its close to the airport, and its a short drive to downtown as well as the ocean.

Based on my experience it is clean and reasonably quiet at night. I remember paying an average of $50 or so on the two seperate occasions that I stayed there. If you are a budget traveler like me, I recommend such a place for the reasons I mentioned.

There is a maid who has worked there for many, many years. It might have been her first job once she got to America, since I noticed a fairly thick accent.

Sin City hostel in Las Vegas, NV

Sin City hostel was a nice one to stay in. Its very close to the strip which makes it handy.

It costs as low as $11 on weekdays and around $15 on weekends. There is free breakfast in the mornings which makes it a pretty sweet deal. There are young men and women who stay in the same rooms which is kind of cool. As would be expected, it is not a quiet place to stay since it is a hostel. You can also hear cars driving by or whatever might be going on outside due to thin walls, so bring earplugs or wear something to block out the noise.

My concern would be that it might attract homeless people due to its low price. Such places reserve the right to refuse service to anyone they want for whatever reason, so hopefully they would turn down the bums.

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