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Deciding where to stay when you head to Disneyland is probably one of the biggest decisions you will have to make. There are so many different factors when it comes to deciding which hotel to choose. Some of those factors are:
- Do you want a hotel that is walking distance?
- Do you need a bigger room, because you have a larger family?
- Do you want to stay at a Disney Hotel?
- Does the hotel serve FREE breakfast?
- Is there a nice pool area?
- Does the hotel have transportation to the Park?
- Do you want a nicer upscale hotel as compared to a motel?
- How much do you have to spend?
- Do you want a hotel with a good rating?
Before you research each of the hotels, it’s important to note that some places offer an additional discount on hotels, so you may want to check these out first:
One more important thing to mention, is that some places offer package deals.
Once I decide on a hotel, I figure out the cost of the hotel and the cost of the tickets for admission and then I see if the following places can beat the combined price.
Get Away Today: They have had specials before where their price does in fact beat the individual prices. They offer extras like, a Disney sling back packwith each child ticket (ages 3-9).
Costco Travel: Costco packages also include extras like one character meal and a $20 Disney gift card, so you will need to factor those into the costs. If you don’t have a character meal planned, then you may be paying a little extra for the package. We have compared Costco package deals to the hotel we had planned to stay at on a previous visit and the price was the same, so it’s as if we were getting the character meal and the $20 Disney gift card for FREE. Costco also sends along, luggage tags and coupons for a free lanyard and Disney pin, which came in handy to get us started on our pin trading.
Here are some options based on what is important to you:
STAYING AT A DISNEY HOTEL
Some people feel that in order to be totally immersed in the Disney Parks, it necessary to stay at a Disney Hotel. While the Disney Hotels are neat and have great pools and themeing, you will pay much more to stay at the Disney Hotels. Sometimes even double or triple what it would cost you to stay at a different hotel. Here are your options when it comes to the Disney Hotels.
Grand Californian Hotel & Spa: This hotel has a private entrance into the California Adventure theme park. It is the closest hotel out of all three Disney hotels. Having said this, the hotel is HUGE, if you are in a room that is at the far end of the hotel, you may still have to do some major walking to get to the parks.
We have actually stayed at this hotel on our last trip (don’t pass out from surprise!!) We got an amazing rate and thought we would give it a try. We LOVED being so close to the parks, it was amazing. Honestly, though the rooms seemed a little on the smaller side. You are paying for the location.
Disneyland Hotel: This hotel has gone through a major renovation. The Disneyland hotel is the one that best carries the Disney theme throughout the entire property. They also have a brand new pool area. The walk from the Disneyland hotel is not super close, you will find other hotels that are closer.
Disney Paradise Pier Hotel: This is the cheapest of all three Disneyland hotels. The walking distance from here isn’t too bad if you cut through the Grand Californian Hotel.
HOTELS WITH THE SHORTEST WALKING DISTANCE
If you are looking for a hotel with a short walking distance, these are some of the closest to choose from. You will probably have to pay for parking at these hotels, and they are considered more of a motel than a hotel. Some of these also offer FREE breakfast. You will find these are between 5-7 minutes walking distance to the parks.
THE TOP 5 HOTELS ACCORDING TO TRIPADVISOR
I am all about checking ratings before I make any big purchases and a hotel room is no exception. These are the top 5 hotels rated on TripAdvisor.com
- Ayres Hotel
- Candy Cane Inn
- Park Vue Inn
- Doubletree Suites (Convention Center)
- Holiday Inn Express
NON-DISNEY HOTELS WITH THE BEST POOLS
Sometimes you know you are going to want to head back to your room to take a break, and this includes taking a dip in the pool on a daily basis. Some of the hotels around the park really have dinky pools. If you are looking for a non-Disney hotel with a great pool for kids, you should be happy with either of these choices.
GREAT CHOICES FOR LARGER FAMILIES
We have a family of 7, so we don’t fit into your average hotel. There are lots of options for “Suite” type hotels that fit larger families and often have a kitchen area too. Here are a few different “Suite” options you can choose from. Please note, several of the closer hotels also have family suites, but they have fewer of them than these hotels and they usually fill up fast. These hotels are not really considered within walking distance, you will need a car or to take public transportaion.
To give you an example of what each of these rooms would cost, I checked on the prices for a family of 4 to stay May 21-26, 2013, here are the results:
- Grand California Hotel & Spa = $2227
- Disneyland Hotel = $1841
- Disney Paradise Pier = $1401
- Best Western Park Place Inn = $755
- Howard Johnson = $715
As you can see, you can save some serious money by staying off-site. Think of all the fun stuff you could do with the extra money, like buy Chocolate Covered Mickey Ice Cream bars!
FEW OTHER OPTIONS
Rent a Home: You can also rent a home or condo in the area, which gives you more space and a kitchen to use as well. We always use www.vrbo.com, which is Vacation Rental by Owner, which means there is no middle man, so you are renting the home directly from the owner.
Rent Disney Vacation Club (DVC) Points: You can rent DVC points, which will allow you to stay in one of the Villas at the Grand California Hotel and Spa at a reduce rate over what it would cost if you booked directly through Disney. You can use David Vacation Club Rentals. If you want to go this route, you will probably have to buy and book your room at least 8 months in advance. Just use the points calculator to find out how many points you will need to purchase.
So lets hear it, where is your favorite place to stay when you go to Disneyland?
Tina says
We (1 Senior, 2 adults and 1 five year old child) stayed at the Super 8 which was within walking distance to the tram (less than about 10 minutes – maybe 1/2 mile approx.) , had a pool, FREE parking and had free breakfast. It was very reasonable. We had traveled in the month of June.
Mamahula says
I have older kids (well, adults now) we live outside CA but we have had annual passes to DL for a while. We like to stay at a hipper place called Hotel Menage. It is located on the back side of Toon Town so watching the fireworks from the pool is (loud) very doable. Plus the pool is AMAZING with wonderful chairs, secluded sitting areas and a thatch roofed bar. We always take advantage of the ART transportation, they deliver bus tickets to our hotel for pick up upon arrival. We head over to the park in the AM, spend the early PM poolside back at the hotel, eat dinner and then go back to the park for late night fun. The food at Menage is WONDERFUL and cheaper than the park especially if you eat during happy hour like we do. We’ve even gone there to eat when we weren’t staying there. (About $100 a night, plus parking.)
Our second favorite when we want free breakfast / parking is to stay at the Cortona Inn and Suites. They have a mid-week special from time to time that can’t be beat.
We’ve also stayed at Disney’s Paradise Pier Hotel when we can get a good package deal through AAA.
Tina says
We are partial to staying on property, but since Disney has been a huge part of my husband and my life since we were small children we decided that WE were the type of family that they created the Vacation Club for and became members 4 years ago. Since then, we have had some awesome trips to Disneyland using points to stay in preferred rooms at the Disneyland Hotel and Disney Paradise Pier. Because we are from So Cal, we were excited to make the Grand Californian our “home” resort and will be staying there for the first time this October when we go :)Very excited about this!!
Being that we have been so many times, we have stayed in a lot of “good neighbor” and local area hotels too. On the lower end of the price scale, we have had some great vacations with clean comfortable beds at the Ramada Maingate. We’ve had some unfortunately bad customer service at the Best Western Park Place, and I caution anyone to be weary of the allure of the inexpensive-ness of the Jolly Roger. It has been our experience, and that of others who have called me to hear “I told you so” that they should be avoided. And I am trying to be diplomatic and nice.
Lila says
We just stayed at Red Lion for $89 per night – it is a Cars Land Special including parking and breakfast. Room had 2 queen size beds. It is walking distance to DL.
Mbf says
I am a local and stay on-property more often than not. Even though Disneyland Hotel is further than the Grand and some of the off-property hotels, you can take the monorail directly into Tomorrowland, the rooms are spacious, and the new remodel features amazing musical headboards with twinkling lights. If you have an annual pass, look into passholder rates. The Grand is elegant and you can’t beat the location, but definitely smaller rooms and not as much “Disney” for the kids. I’ve never stayed at Paradise Pier, so I don’t know what the regular rooms are like, but I have been up to a couple of the suites and they are very nicely turned out. If you can book using a convention group rate, the prices are more reasonable, about $200-250/night for DLH or the Grand.
Christy says
@Mbf It’s my understanding that the monorail no longer travels directly to the Disneyland hotel. I believe you have to walk to downtown Disney and catch it there.
We were kind of hoping to stay at the Disneyland hotel this time around, but all of the 2 bedroom suites were booked (we are a family of 7). We hope to be able to stay there sometime in the future. I know my family would love all the Mickey theming in the room and I love those new headboards.
Tina says
Christy, you do catch it at downtown Disney, right past Rainforest Cafe. But, especially from the middle tower, it’s like a 3 min walk so still pretty much right there. It’s really the same distance it’s always been from the hotel.
Also, I forgot to mention, staying on property now gives you extra magic hour in California Adventure. And there is a handy entrance straight in C.A. from GRAND Californian for property guests. Lets you in by Grizzly Rapids. We”ve taken advantage of that a few times, especially for Fp for World of Color or Soarin’.
And Shell tells me we”ll be there the same week this year.
Hollie says
We have gone at least once a year for the past 4 years. Our biggest group was 6 adults and 2 kids. We travel off season, usually February.
At the Carousel Inn, we tried their View Suite. Did not like the layout for so many adults (just 1 bathroom??) but the location was perfect and the view was incredible and the price was great off season. I believe it sleeps 8-10.
We have tried a few others, but now our go to is Desert Inn & Suites. We get an adjoining room that sleeps all of us for around $170 per night. Last October, we stayed on longer than our group and got a regular room at $59 per night. Right across the street–can’t beat that. Beds are good, rooms are clean–it doesn’t offer much more than that though! The rooms have mini-fridges, so we have our groceries delivered from Vons.
One thing I have noticed with Desert Inn—not sure about the others– is the earlier you book, the better your rate. We booked about 8 months ahead for the $59 rate. Others in our group booked about 2 months ahead and were quoted a significantly higher rate.
It’s definitely one of our dreams to stay on property one of these days, but for now we trade cheap, non-magical accommodations for more frequent visits. We’re going twice next year–woo hoo!
We found that with small kids–the ART or a shuttle was more than we wanted to deal with. Our first trip we had 1 child, age 2.5 and we found it too much of a hassle to wait for a shuttle when we could just walk to the room in the same amount of time. It was worth it to us for a more basic room within walking distance. Adding another kid has only made us more certain we aren’t shuttle people–not with a double stroller in tow anyway!
Christy says
@Hollie We think a lot alike! We to have been once a year for the last 4 years (as a family, my husband and i went twice alone too). We too would rather pay less for the hotel, because it means more trips for us.
We also didn’t like the taking the ART, when we stayed further away we finally just decided to drive in and pay for parking it was just easier.
I agree that you will get a better rate if you book early, we are booking much later this time and I am not finding a deal anywhere.
Thanks for the tip on the Desert Inn and Suites. I always like when you can get first hand reviews.
Enjoy your trips next year! We hope to head back to Disney World next year.
Megan says
Grand Californian!!!! It’s expensive but totally worth it!
Jill says
Just an FYI on the Costco package with Character Dining. You don’t have to use it for character dining but can use it as credit throughout the park at most eateries. It is actually a better value since the character breakfasts we enjoy are not the “premium” ones.
Bonnie says
We had nine people on our trip and our daughter booked us all at HOMEWOOD SUITES. Free breakfast AND a light dinner (one night hot dogs, one night taco salad, etc.). Saved us a fortune in meals. Not within walking distance, but had an affordable shuttle service. If you fill out their grocery list form, they will go get and deliver grocery’s to your room (we had a kitchenette). Comfy, clean and friendly staff too!
Islander says
Anaheim islander Inn & Suites was hotel close to Disneyland , you can visit disneyland within 5 -10 minutes from Anaheim islander one of most affordable hotels near Disneyland.