Everywhere We Stayed On Our California Road Trip

Our road trip around California in September took months of planning. One of the things that took most of the time was planning where we were staying. I needed to have a draft of the itinerary to make sure some of the locations were spot on for where we would be. I also did a lot of shopping around to get the best prices but in the end, the majority were booked through Expedia as I can get cashback, collect points and I’m a gold rewards member.

I thought I would do a round-up of where we stayed on this road trip which was a total of 7 hotels across just over two weeks. It may be helpful if you are planning a similar road trip or just visiting places like San Francisco or Los Angeles and looking for accommodation. It’s also worth mentioning we also did stay at the Moxy at London Heathrow Airport before we flew out, you can read the full review here.

Hotel Zeppelin, San Francisco

545 Post St
San Francisco
CA 94102

I’ve actually stayed at Hotel Zeppelin before in 2017 and knew it was central to Union Square and pretty much what we needed during our short stay in San Francisco. In an ideal world, I’d have maybe booked somewhere near Fisherman’s Wharf but it was a little out of our price range and would’ve been £300+ more! There are plenty of hotels in the Union Square area and you can take the Cable Cars down to the pier.

Hotel Zeppelin was everything we needed. The rooms were decent, the beds were comfortable and a lovely bathroom! There was also an on-site fitness centre and a restaurant to grab burgers and breakfast, although we didn’t visit. The staff were pretty helpful and I enjoyed the funky decor of the whole place. If you’re looking for somewhere nice, clean, affordable and central then the Hotel Zeppelin isn’t a bad option.

We booked this as a flight + hotel package so I’m not too sure how much it is per night. Discover more about Hotel Zeppelin here.

Inn by the Bay, Monterey

936 Munras Ave
Monterey
CA 93940

Inn by the Bay in Monterey was actually the only hotel/motel we hadn’t pre-booked prior to the stay. We actually ended up booking via Expedia en route to the property. Inn by the Bay was about a 15 minute walk to the Old Fisherman’s Wharf. This 2* Motel was actually a pretty decent place to stay. The room was huge, clean and I felt safe. We had no issues and felt it was a decent place to stay if you don’t want to splash the cash on the bigger hotels near the front.

We paid £75 for the one night, booked via Expedia. Discover more about Inn by the Bay, Monterey here.

Harbour House Inn, Morro Bay

We actually didn’t spend too much time at the Harbour House Inn in Morro Bay as we got there pretty late. This motel was pretty similar to the Monterey one with a spacious room, clean and tidy. I felt it was slightly more modern and had some cute little touches like Morro Bay mugs in the room. Morro Bay isn’t the biggest of places so it was pretty centrally located however we did just drive to the rock on check-out which was round the corner. I’d certainly recommend staying here if you’re in the area as the stay was pretty pleasant.

We paid £67 for the one night, booked via Expedia. Discover more about the Harbour House Inn here.

La Quinta Inn by Wyndham, Ventura

After spending the day in Santa Barbara, we chose to stay in Ventura that evening so we were making our way closer to Los Angeles. I had also previously La Quinta Inn by Wyndham Ventura 2017 and I couldn’t remember much of it. However, arriving there I did have slight flashbacks that it wasn’t the best. The rooms were more dates compared to the motels previously stated and it just seemed like a sketchy area. We didn’t really have any problems (aside from me having food poisoning but unrealted) but I just got an off vibe from the whole place. Personally, I would chose somewhere else next time.

We paid £80 for the one night, booked via Expedia. Discover more about La Quinta Inn by Wyndham, Ventura here.

Beverly Laurel, Los Angeles

The Beverly Laurel hotel is a retro style motel located in West Hollywood, just around the corner from The Grove. I weighed up plenty of hotels in LA specifically looking at prices, car parking and location. West Hollywood isn’t too bad of a location as we could walk to The Grove and Beverly Hills and Hollywood wasn’t too far.

So we paid a little bit extra to have a Premium Suite which meant our room was pretty spacious with a little living room and a separate bedroom. After travelling around in different motels for one night, it was quite nice to set up shop for 3 nights and have more space. The hotel was decent, clean and just what we needed. It even had a swimming pool however we didn’t have time to visit. There’s a few things i could pick at such as no plugs/usbs in the bedroom, external noise and no full length mirror in such a big room. However it wasn’t the end of the world and I’d still stay there as I thought it was good value for the price.

Car Parking costs can be horrifically expensive, the Beverly Laurel was $27 per night which was a lot cheaper than other hotels believe it or not.

We paid £460 for three nights, booked via Expedia. Resort Fees and Parking cost us an additional $130 on departure. Discover more about The Beverly Laurel here.

Americas Best Value Inn & Suites Anaheim Convention Center

After Los Angeles, we then went on to Anaheim for a couple of days at Disneyland. The great thing about Disneyland is that there is so many off-site hotels in the nearby walking area. Previously I had stayed at Grand Legacy at the Park which was literally about a 5 minute walk to the entrance. This time we chose Americas Best Value Inn & Suites which was about 15 minutes walk.

We chose this place mainly to cut costs however on reflection, I wish I’d have paid a little bit more as we were staying for three nights. Whilst it was clean and pretty much everything we needed, it was mega basic. I’m not sure I felt entirely safe there as it was very open and our room backed onto the main road. Whilst I’m all for trying to stick to a budget, I think this was an instance where we needed to pay a little more for something with a bit more substance. On the plus side, the hotel offered free parking!

We paid £263 for three nights, booked via Expedia. Discover more about Americas Best Value Inn at Anaheim Convention Centre here.

The Linq Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas

Our final stop of our road trip was Las Vegas where we stopped at the Linq Hotel & Casino. Whilst this isn’t one of the luxe hotels on the strip, its an excellent hotel. It’s centrally located with the Linq promenade offering loads of food & drink options including In-N-Out. It was directly opposite Caesars Palace and had everything we needed. I accidentally booked two doubles in our room but that was my fault, so we could’ve done with a bigger bed!

I’m really pleased with our stay at The Linq. We’ve decided to try The Flamingo next year which was next door so again, in a great location. One thing I’ll mention is that if you look hard enough and avoid a Saturday night, you can get some cracking deals on hotel rooms in Vegas.

We paid £180 for two nights, booked via Expedia. We did have to pay £70 for resort fees on arrival (something to be aware of though). Discover more about The Linq Hotel & Casino here.

Aloft San Francisco Airport Hotel

Our final hotel of the holiday was our stay at the Aloft at San Francisco Airport Hotel. I’ve not stayed at an Aloft before and was really impressed. I used the Marriott App to check-in and also used it as a room key. The hotel also provided an airport shuttle from all the terminals which you could check it’s whereabouts on the app too. We used the shuttle twice and it was mega convenient and saves us pennies on taxis!

The rooms were lovely and big, the shower was one of the best we’ve had anywhere. Everything was really modern and I believe there was even a swimming pool. We had a quick trip in to San Francisco before our flight home and it wasn’t too far from this hotel by Uber although I believe you can take the BART train from nearby Millbrae station. The hotel also had a left luggage which was handy. I’d definitely stay at an Aloft property after this experience.

We paid $162 for one night, booked directly. Discover more about the Aloft San Francisco Airport Hotel here.

Apologies for the lack of images, I took more video content which you can see over on my TikTok. However, hopefully if you’ve done a similar trip this is helpful for you. If you have any questions, do get in touch as I know it’s such a huge task booking a road trip like this.