Cheap Movies

Looking for a quintessentially L.A. experience? Check out the "Dive In" movies at the Beverly Hilton. At twilight on Tuesdays and Thursdays between now and September 2, you can go out to the pool area sit and buy drinks, popcorn or dinner, and watch a Hollywood classic that's screened on the 60-foot-high pool wall.

Cheap Westwood

Westwood in L.A. is an enigma. It's an exclusive, expensive area, surrounded by Beverly Hills, Brentwood and UCLA, and it has a village with lots of shopping, restaurants and bars, but the area doesn't get the love it used to receive. It's a great area to use as a base for your L.A. trip, but not if you're being asked to spend $300-plus at the swanky Westwood W Hotel. Near the fun, but down some side streets are a couple of options: The Royal Palace Westwood Hotel is a clean, free-internet place with king-bed rooms for $119. Up the street is the Claremont Hotel, which offers perhaps the lowest room rates this close to Rodeo Drive: $111 for two people if you can squeeze into a double bed.

Cheap Hotels - Disneyland

Some great fall deals are going on now as hotels and motels try to stay occupied during the school year. Here are some deals we found on hotels.com, checking out a family of four staying for a weekend (November 13-15) and desiring a place that's within a mile or two of Disneyland:

Anabella Hotel--On Katella Ave., $87/night and kids eat free at the restaurant.
Cortona Inn & Suites--$79/night, easy walk to Disneyland and free Internet.
Super 8 Motel--$53/night, two blocks from Disneyland, gets great reviews.
Best Western Raffles Inn--$72/night, about a 25% discount over summer, free Internet.
Portofino Inn--$58/night, near the Convention Center, free Internet.
Eden Rock Inn--$41/night, near Convention Center, free morning pastries.

Cheap Pasadena

Visitors to L.A. usually look at staying in Hollywood, the Westside, downtown or in OC when they arrive, but they're often missing out. Hollywood is crowded, the Westside is expensive, downtown can be sketchy and the OC is great for Disneyland but you're far from everything in L.A. A good solution: Pasadena. There are some good hotel deals and lots of interesting attractions, especially if you love art and architecture.

Known mainly for the Rose Parade, Pasadena has a great Old Town with lots of restaurants and shops, the incredible Gamble House, a monument to craftsman-style; the Norton Simon Museum; and a little-known personal favorite: a tour of JPL's Space Flight Operations Facility where you can see what's happening in the universe (this one's free, but you have to jump through hoops to get tickets).

The town has lots of expensive hotels, but a cheap place to try is the Pasadena Inn, which is located near Old Town and gave us a price of $86/night for August 21-23, double occupancy.

Staying in Downtown L.A.

It may not be as chic as staying on the Westside, but you can certainly save money and have a great time in Southern California by staying downtown. L.A.'s downtown hotels have traditionally catered to the business traveler during the week, but on weekends these four-star high-rises often have great deals. Here's an example:

Let's say the Visitor family, two adults and two kids, is interested in coming to L.A. Friday, May 1 and checking out on Monday, May 3. They have two objectives: Take their kids to Disneyland on Saturday and Universal Studios on Sunday. Hotels.com shows that they can get the Days Inn on Santa Monica Blvd. in West L.A. for $98 or the Homestead Inn near LAX for $78. Both are clean, but two-star properties.

If they look downtown, they can stay at the historic Mayfair hotel for $84 plus free parking or the well-regarded Kyoto Grand in Little Tokyo for $99. And with an itinerary like theirs, they're just a quick 25 minutes from Disneyland down the 5 (in light Saturday traffic), just 15-20 to Universal Studios on Sunday and getting to LAX or Burbank isn't going to make you insane leaving downtown on Monday.

More Cheap Hotel Rooms

Best Western is running a promo on their Website for various cities this week. You have to check the site during a particular two-hour window to get their best deals. On Thursday, they're doing L.A. I'll do an update on Thursday when I learn what the two-hour window is and what the deals are like. h/t to Sonoma on the Cheap for this one.

Update: They're showing $72 for some of their L.A. properties. You have to book it by 12:00 p.m. today 2/12.

Culver City Spotlight

It's not the kind of place that gets the limelight like Beverly Hills, Santa Monica or Brentwood, but when you're looking for a deal on your next trip to L.A., it pays to check out Culver City. For one thing, it's got the right location: close to LAX, just a few miles from the beach, and you're within 30 minutes of Hollywood, Universal City, Beverly Hills, the Valley, a good place to start from. Culver City has also developed a hip reputation over the past few years. A number of up-and-coming restaurants have opened in its downtown area, and some say the Sony Pictures Studio Tour is the best in L.A. Besides, it's one of the first cities in the U.S. to offer free Wi-fi. Can't hate a town for that.

Here are some hotel deals we found for two adults staying Friday, March 27 and checking out Sunday the 29th. If you'd prefer to stay in a similar hotel a few streets over in Santa Monica or Beverly Hills, add another $200 to $400 to the total:

Culver Hotel--An old classic building from the 1940s, this hotel in the downtown area was once owned by John Wayne. It's been restored and it's received great reviews for its restaurant and bar. $129 double occupancy.

Courtyard by Marriott Westside--A very good deal for a hotel like this, it's received excellent reviews and staying here gets you a $20 Target gift card. Parking is just $10/night. With your AAA card, you'll pay $104 double occupancy.

Four Points Sheraton--The weak economy has created some excellent hotel deals, including this one. With their 50% off Multiple Nights Promotion, you can get a room here on that weekend for $86 a night, which includes free wi-fi and bottled water.

Ramada Limited Culver City--Yes, Ramadas like Sheratons and Courtyards are "generic" hotels, but if you're just going to use them to sleep, what difference does it make? This one gives you a pillow-top king bed, free parking, on-site mini mart and a continental breakfast for $129.

Interesting note: I found the prices on the hotel websites. I double-checked hotels.com to make sure there wasn't a better deal elsewhere and they had these hotels for a few dollars more.