Hotel in Santa Barbara or San Luis Obispo ?

[spot1181]

Looking for a place to stay the night before a Los Angeles connection with The Texas Eagle. Coming south on The Coast Starlight and want to avoid staying in Los Angeles. Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo or Door Number Three? A Bed and Breakfast would be even better.

 

[LA Resident]

Looking for a place to stay the night before a Los Angeles connection with The Texas Eagle. Coming south on The Coast Starlight and want to avoid staying in Los Angeles. Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo or Door Number Three? A Bed and Breakfast would be even better.

In reading your post, it sounds as though you want to get off at SLO or SB, spend the night, and then get to LA to board the Eagle the next afternoon.

Well, if you got off in SLO, you'd have to be up before dawn to catch 774 at 6 a.m. or so, just to be able to get into LA a couple of hours before the Eagle leaves. And with the ongoing track work between SLO and LA, I'm not sure I'd be comfortable with the connection.

You could stay in Santa Barbara, closer to LA, but again to give yourself enough time for the connection because of delays, etc. you'd have to leave Santa Barbara early without seeing anything. And given that you'd get off the CS fairly late in the evening the night before, you end up spending $100-plus for the privilege of over-nighting in Santa Barbara for less than 12 hours.

Not sure what it is about over-nighting in LA that's so horrible...

 

[Steve4031]

If you are arriving on a Friday or Saturday night, try the Marriott downtown la or the renaissance Hollywood. The 2nd recommendation is 2 blocks from a red line stop.

 

[PaulM]

FWIW I was recently faced with the same planning problem.

I opted for the reasonable Motel 6 along the beach in Santa Barbara. Some might say the rooms are a bit small; but other than that, it was quite nice. In fact it reminded me of Etap, a chain of European hotels. It was 1.4 miles from the station, which my wife and I walked in 30 minutes.

The next morning we caught the 9:20AM #774 to San Diego, which was on time all the way. We had come in on #11, which was on time up until shortly before SBA where speed restrictions cost about 15 minutes.

 

[Ranke]

Having recently stopped in both places, and under the circumstances you describe, I would recommend Santa Barbara. While SLO is a nice enough town (if not in SB's league, aesthetically), aside from one expensive downtown option, all the hotels/motels require a cab ride from the station. And your Surfliner ride along the coast next morning is likely to be under overcast skies (the sun doesn't usually come through in this part of California until late morning) - and may be fogbound (which was my experience). In any case, I regretted having left the southbound CS at 3:00 pm on a beautiful day in order to overnight in SLO.

In Santa Barbara, there are a number of B&Bs/inns within a short walk of the station (toward the ocean). I chose the medium-range, but very nice Hotel Santa Barbara, a quarter-mile up State St. - walkable, even with a suitcase in tow.

[And while I would not describe the prospect of overnighting in LA (anywhere near Union Station) as "horrible" - and having had the misfortune of growing up there myself - I can certainly understand why you are looking for an alternative.]

 

[guest]

Having recently stopped in both places, and under the circumstances you describe, I would recommend Santa Barbara. While SLO is a nice enough town (if not in SB's league, aesthetically), aside from one expensive downtown option, all the hotels/motels require a cab ride from the station. And your Surfliner ride along the coast next morning is likely to be under overcast skies (the sun doesn't usually come through in this part of California until late morning) - and may be fogbound (which was my experience). In any case, I regretted having left the southbound CS at 3:00 pm on a beautiful day in order to overnight in SLO.

In Santa Barbara, there are a number of B&Bs/inns within a short walk of the station (toward the ocean). I chose the medium-range, but very nice Hotel Santa Barbara, a quarter-mile up State St. - walkable, even with a suitcase in tow.

[And while I would not describe the prospect of overnighting in LA (anywhere near Union Station) as "horrible" - and having had the misfortune of growing up there myself - I can certainly understand why you are looking for an alternative.]

As someone who went to college in SB, UCSB, I guess I don't get why you want to get off the Starlight at 8:30 at nite, assuming it's on time, lug you and your luggage on State Street at nite under the freeway crossing, just to check in, fall asleep, and have to get back to the station no later than 9 to make sure you get to LA on time to get the Texas Eagle. You not only have zilch time to see Santa Barbara, you barely have zilch time to see your hotel (I certainly would not recommend spending a 150 dollars on a B and B for such little amount of time, and the Hotel Santa Barbara usually runs 130 or more during the week, more on weekends.)

 

[PaulM]

As someone who went to college in SB, UCSB, I guess I don't get why you want to get off the Starlight at 8:30 at nite, assuming it's on time, lug you and your luggage on State Street at nite under the freeway crossing, just to check in, fall asleep, and have to get back to the station no later than 9 to make sure you get to LA on time to get the Texas Eagle. You not only have zilch time to see Santa Barbara, you barely have zilch time to see your hotel (I certainly would not recommend spending a 150 dollars on a B and B for such little amount of time, and the Hotel Santa Barbara usually runs 130 or more during the week, more on weekends.)

I can't speak for the original poster; but in my case SBA at 8:30PM seemed a better choice than LA at 11:00PM or later and better than SLO with its the early departure the next morning. In any event, SLO dropped out of the running when I found that #774 would be bustituted as far as SBA.

And as I said earlier, I was quite pleased with the Motel 6 which was only $69.

 

[spot1181]

I would rather avoid staying in Los Angeles after a bad experience walking to the Metro Plaza, felt fortunate to make it without getting attacked and robbed. Just looking for an alternative. I think we'll just return from Portland on the Empire Builder. Thanks

 

[Ryan]

When we overnighted in LA (between the CS and the SWC) we used Priceline to get a room at the Westin in Downtown LA for about $70 for the night and it was a cheap and easy cab ride from the station to the hotel.

If you do a search on Priceline for the "downtown" area of LA and "4 stars" you'll get either the Westin or one other hotel (there was a post here that described this, but I can't seem to find it).

 

[The Davy Crockett]

Without getting into the logistics of LAX vs SBA, I've taken the Coast Starlight south to SBA for a couple of days, before heading north again. While I did not stay at the Motel 6, it looked like a good choice, especially if your just planning on spending the night. The beach area is really pleasant and a leisurely stroll from the architecturally appealing train station.

 

[rrdude]

Last fall, stayed at the Holiday Inn Express, downtown SB. Not super-cheap, but not off the charts either. Walking distance to the train station, (several blocks, but my 14 yr old son and I did it w/ np)

I fell in love w/ SB, and didn't want to leave! the boardwalk, the pier, the food, the food, the food, the beach. Good train-watching too!

Can't recommend SB over SLO, 'cause it's been too many years, but can recommend SB!

 

[Ranke]

I need to amend my previous post - I didn't know that the CS schedule had been pushed back more than two hours since my October trip, when it was scheduled to arrive Santa Barbara at 6:15 pm. Now I guess SLO would be the better option.

 

[EMILY]

There are a lot of B&Bs in the San Luis Obispo area. But for a good price (under $100) and a nice place, I like the Peachtree Inn, located next door to the Apple Farm.

http://www.peachtreeinn.com/index.shtml