Where to stay for Tranny Awards

[golffool]

I will be going to the Tranny Awards and after party on Monday. I'll be visiting from Seattle and would like to know of places to stay??

Thanks for you help and looking forward to the events!!

[KristelPenn]

We have some hotel suggestions posted here, depending on which area you'd like to stay in: http://trannyawards.com/tickets/

Hope this helps!

PS - Go Seahawks!

[Dino Velvet]

[GroobySteven]

Holiday Inn Burbank is where a LOT of people will be,

[Ben in LA]

Hotel Cecil...that's funny.

[Dino Velvet]

Hotel Cecil...that's funny.

Stavros stayed there. Imagine that. Now that's funny. Lucky he's still above ground and above message board too.

Gonna PM him and see if he's willing to tell the story. Sound like something Vincent Price read from Edgar Allen Poe.

[Stavros]

Not that much to tell. In the days before the internet, travellers often relied on books like Frommer's Los Angeles on $1 a Day. Frommer's was about as reliable as a 1950s railway timetable so I used to stay in Youth Hostels which were cheap, a bit scruffy, usually in the rough part of town (particularly in Washington DC which is one of the roughest places I went to in the US), but where you could meet people and get useful tips. So, in July 1983 I arrived in LA from San Diego by Greyhound Bus which left me somewhere in the downtown area around Main St or Flowers (?) and it was not just hot, but fearsome hot. I recall wandering around the streets before deciding I needed to get inside and saw this hotel and walked in. It was the Cecil Hotel and although more expensive than a hostel I was only going to stay one night. I had never heard of it at the time and only became aware of its reputation last year.

The first thing that struck me was how dumb the reception staff were. I gave them my British passport and paid the bill but when I looked at the receipt they gave me they had, as often happens in my case, spelled my name wrong, but recorded my address as being in West Germany although I was living in London at the time. I don't think English was their first language. I have no recollection of their origin -there were two women that is all I recall. My room was on the 35th floor and what I remember most about it was that when I closed the door there was a big sign on the back which read LOCK THIS DOOR NOW! The tv didn't work; the furnishings were worn and tatty, the toilet didn't flush properly and left a horrible odour for the rest of my stay, and the air conditioning, if there was any, didn't work either so my attempt to get relief from the heat failed. Most memorable of all was opening the door and seeing those dimly lit corridors and realising in the silence I was completely alone. It had a spooky atmosphere not unlike the hotel in the Coen Brothers film Barton Fink, though luckily I did not encounter heavy drinkers determined to show me the life of the mind. Guess I got lucky. I headed out from the hotel to Hollywood, Santa Monica and obvious places for a first time visitor, and recall buying a Grace Jones cassette in the Tower Records which I think was on Hollywood Blvd, where I had an amazing strawberry ice-cream which I think was in Swenson's Ice-Cream Parlour (?) also on that street. Later that night I hailed a cab on Sunset and when I told the driver where I was going he made me pay $15 before getting in -'that's skid row, pal' was his comment when I told him the address. He was not impressed when I replied to his question that No, I did not go to Disneyland. We parked on the road outside the hotel and I was hassled for a quarter between the cab and the hotel lobby. I slept badly and left the following morning, never to return. I have since been back to LA, but for work when I was stuck in a Ramada Inn in East LA off Slauson where the staff were Hispanic and the only places nearby to eat were Denny's or Burger King. I know there are some nice places in LA, I was told to go to Pasadena and the Getty Museum, but I don't drive and LA is huge; LA is a visit that needs careful planning; and please, avoid the Cecil Hotel, it really isn't worth it. But I get the impression the downtown area has since been smartened up, there is a concert hall there, and it may be safer than it was in the old days but I don't know for sure.

[Ben in LA]

Downtown HAS changed for the better. Gentrification will do that to a city.

[golffool]

Has anyone ever stayed at Tangerine Hotel in Burbank. Pictures look great and seems convienant to Awards, party and Cobra??

[GroobySteven]

Has anyone ever stayed at Tangerine Hotel in Burbank. Pictures look great and seems convienant to Awards, party and Cobra??

It's one of my hotels of choice. It looks like a motel but it has really well done rooms at the price (well bathrooms are small) - great beds, great wifi and you can walk to bars, restaurants and coffees. You'll probably find some others in for the awards staying there.