Area
hotels offer many options for visitors
By
Ammie Grauten
Contributing Writer
Daily Forty-Niner
When guests come to visit, it is nice to be able to recommend a good hotel.
And because you never really know what a hotel is like until you visit it,
here are the local hotels around Cal State Long Beach in order to make you
more informed than just looking at expedia.com.
The Ayres Hotel in Seal Beach is located right off the 22 Freeway. The only
good thing about its location is that it is next to restaurants and shopping.
Despite the fact that the view overlooks the freeway, the rooms were silent.
They were elegantly decorated and the overall feel of the hotel was that of
high class and opulence, with a choice of one king or two queen beds. Each
room has satellite television and free high-speed Internet hook ups.
The bathrooms were the standard hotel bathroom size, which is small, but they
were clean. The beds were soft and comfortable and the rooms, as well as the
hotel in general, were spotless.
The staff, in their business suits, was very nice and helpful. The hotel offers
a complementary breakfast for their guests. One can eat it in the quaint breakfast
area or the courtyard, which is open all day and offers a fireplace to sit
by in the evening.
The
charming courtyard led to the pool, which
was very small. The gym was even smaller
than the pool; it looked more like a hotel
room in which the beds were replaced with
three cardio machines. Enterprise Rent-A-Car
is located on site for guest convenience.
The hotel is fairly new. It was opened two and a half years ago, and is privately
owned, along with 15 other hotels in Southern California, by the Ayres family.
CSULB students get a discount of $10 off the usually $134 rooms. This seems
a bit pricy considering the poor location of the hotel, but if you want class,
comfort and no unsupervised kids (the check in age is 21 years old) than the
Ayres Hotel is definitely the place.
Next, the Guesthouse International Hotel on Pacific Coast Highway is just half
a mile from the CSULB campus. It is the host hotel for 49er sports and the
Carpenter Performing Arts Center. When you enter the lobby, the first thing
you notice is the amazing pool outside the glass doors.
Clean and large, with a waterfall at the far end of the pool area, this is
a pool people actually enjoy. The lobby was small and had scattered tables
where guest could eat their complementary breakfast in the morning. The hotel
isn’t quite as nice as the Ayres Hotel, but is more reasonably priced,
though the check in age is still 21.
The rooms range from $89-119, and it offers AAA discounts, as well as CSULB
discounts based on availability.
The rooms are one king or two double beds, and some are available with Jacuzzis
or kitchenettes. In the standard room, however, the bathrooms were smaller
than average and the room I visited and, though clean, had a slightly musty
smell.
To enter the rooms, one must use outside corridors.
The hotel offers a free courtesy van that will take guests anywhere they please
within a five-mile radius of the hotel, including the Long Beach Airport. On
site is a Brazilian steakhouse restaurant, the Green Field Churrascaria, which
offers all you can eat buffets for a reasonable price.
Built in 1970, with yearly renovations, this hotel is fairly priced, and the
closest to campus. It is also a short walk from the off-campus shuttle route.
The Best Western Golden Sails hotel is located on Pacific Coast Highway in
between Lyons Drive and 2nd Street. This hotel was built in the 1960s but will
have completely renovated rooms by the end of this year. This Best Western
is very affordable and comfortable and the Passport, a shuttle bus that passes
through campus, can drop you off across the street from the hotel for less
than $1 each way.
Located off the lobby is a small work out room and a few computers with Internet
access and printers for guest use. There is a basic rectangular pool in the
big grass courtyard area that is also home to a very large gazebo.
The rooms are spacious and have either one king or two queen beds. Six of the
rooms offer Jacuzzis and kitchenettes are also available. The beds were nothing
special, but the rooms and bathrooms were very clean.
All the rooms offer a refrigerator, hair dryer, coffee maker and full sized
ironing board, some have microwaves. The view from the rooms is mediocre. The
half inside, half outside hallways are old fashioned and dull, but clean.
The hotel offers a free Long Beach Airport transfer and an LAX transfer for
$16 per person. The all you can eat breakfast buffet is $6.99 per person, however,
package deals are available when you reserve your room.
A standard room, with no free meals or golf, is $89. CSULB, AAA and AARP discounts
are available depending on availability. On the weekends the hotel hosts the
PCH Club, which offers live entertainment. The check-in age for this quality,
affordable hotel is 18.
The Seaport Marina Hotel is also known as “the big pink hotel on Pacific
Coast Highway and 2nd Street”. The Passport can drop you off nearby this
hotel as well.
Though it may look abandoned from the outside, this hotel gets a lot of business.
It is the host hotel for the Long Beach Jam basketball team and Long Beach
Armada baseball team, as well as television shows like Overhaulin’, Pimp
My Ride and Blind Date.
The hotel was built in 1965 and is used in many films and television shows.
With more than 250 rooms, this hotel offers a variety of room types from one
California King bed to one-room suites. The rooms are generous in size, but
the bathrooms are small, and your bed at home is probably more comfortable
than the ones here.
However, each of the rooms offers a spectacular view of either their two and
a half acre courtyard or the marina located behind the hotel. All the rooms
come with free wireless Internet connections, and offer a large breakfast in
the morning for $4.
The courtyard offers a pool, jacuzzi, barbecue area, gazebo and volleyball
net. The standard room would regularly be priced at $99, but this hotel offers
a discount of $30 to CSULB students. Also, the Seaport Marina Hotel has extended
stay rates for students of $850 a month for a 500 square foot room with two
beds and housecleaning twice a week.
They offer transportation for $5 to go to the Long Beach airport, and $15 to
get to LAX. However, the check in age is 21 in order to assure there will be
no hotel parties by any underage deviants. Overall the Seaport Marina Hotel
offers run of the mill rooms but with a great location, great views and a great
price.
All four hotels offered friendly staff and up kept lobbies and rooms. With
the distinguished Ayres Hotel, the comfortable Guesthouse International hotel,
the Best Western Golden Sails and the amazing views from the Seaport Marina
Hotel, there are a lot of options for CSULB visitors. |
