The whole idea of "central location" gets a workout in a metro as big as Los Angeles. L.A. covers 467 square miles and has 3.7 million people who speak more than 100 languages. Just listing the best-known destinations will drain the ink from your pen: Hollywood. Downtown. Endless, beautiful beaches. The Getty Museum. Disney Concert Hall. The Queen Mary. Catalina Island. The La Brea Tar Pits.
A central place to start seeing it all is the South Bay and Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) area, which contain some of L.A.'s best-known sights and scenes.
Airport AreaLAX is giant; there's just no other word for it. About 55 million people arrived here in 2003, and more travelers from overseas land here than at any other U.S. airport. LAX is sixth in the world in tonnage of air cargo handled and contributes tens of billions of dollars to the local economy. It is L.A.'s doorway to the world and the world's doorway to Southern California.
Since Hollywood is just up the street, the airport even plays itself in LAX, a TV series in which Heather Locklear and Blair Underwood try to keep the massive operation running through weekly crises.
In addition to the space-age Encounter Restaurant in the middle of the terminal complex, the airport has spent big to install artistic pillars, landscaping and lighting that can make visitors think they're entering a particularly nice theme park.
Just outside the airport are 45 hotels, many of which have both meeting space and amenities that soothe the airport-addled mind. Century Boulevard alone has properties by Best Western, Comfort Inn, Crowne Plaza, Hilton, Marriott, Radisson, Sheraton, Travelodge, and Westin. There are a total of 10,000 hotel rooms around LAX, according to Erik Dahlerbruch, vice president-hotel sales at LA Inc., The Convention and Visitors Bureau.
"Many times we'll take the opportunity to sell them collectively," he says, adding that despite the location, properties seem a world away from an airport-area hotel. "It looks like a resort. You'd never know you were so close to an airport."
Marina del ReyBeverly Moore, executive director at the Marina del Rey CVB, feels good about Marina del Rey's prospects within Los Angeles. This planned city was carved out of a formerly swampy area in 1965, and today it has 5,300 boat slips.
"Because we're close to LAX we're looking forward to a resurgence of international visitor traffic," she says, adding that while Marina del Rey benefits from its location near the airport, it also enjoys business from Westside cities such as Venice and Santa Monica.
The city offers groups large properties such as the Marina del Rey Marriott and The Ritz-Carlton, Marina del Rey, as well as smaller independent hotels that also have meeting space, including the Marina del Rey Hotel, the Marina International Hotel and the Best Western Jamaica Bay Inn.
With its yacht harbor, boating is a favorite pastime in Marina del Rey, and groups can take advantage of options such as sunset sails, dinner cruises, executive yacht retreats, and seminars at sea.
Aside from waterborne diversions, groups can enjoy a wealth of restaurants and shops, as well as a long stretch of beach.
The city of El Segundo sits next to Marina del Rey and LAX, and its economy is heavily driven by the airporta big change from its origins as an oil refinery town.
Today El Segundo offers waterfront access via Dockweiler State Beach, several parks and the 630-room Hacienda Hotel, with a free airport shuttle and several restaurants on-site.
Beach CitiesSeveral small cities dot the coast between LAX and Long Beach, each with its own long stretch of fluffy, white-sand beach.
Manhattan Beach has all of the amenities visitors need along Rosecrans Avenue and Sepulveda Boulevard, including restaurants, stores, hotels, and, of course, surf shops. Off the main streets the atmosphere is quiet, residential and architecturally beautiful, perfect for taking in the salty air on long strolls.
The 385-room Manhattan Beach Marriott sits snugly on 27 acres just two miles inland, providing what may be the most elbow room of any Los Angeles property as well as 25,000 square feet of meeting space.
Tiny Hermosa Beach is the quintessential beach town, with its own fishing pier and enough city-maintained volleyball nets to keep players busy for hours. The city's biannual Fiesta Hermosa brings more than 100,000 visitors to play alongside the ocean, and dedicated webcams let surfers monitor the waves moment by moment.
A popular property for group retreats and intimate meetings is the 96-suite Beach House. The property offers 96 suites, and its Pacific Room seats up to 80 people banquet-style.
Another group-friendly option is the Hampton Inn & SuitesHermosa Beach.
Redondo Beach has a classic Southern California pier that offers fishing, shops and restaurants with great ocean views.
There's more shopping to be done at the South Bay Galleria or, closer to the beach, at the boutique shops in Riviera Village.
The city-run Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center has a full calendar of music, distinguished speakers and even light opera.
Good restaurants abound on or near the pier, such as Kincaids Bay House and Polly's on the Pier, an ideal breakfast spot.
Redondo Beach currently has 1,062 guest rooms in its hotel inventory, and the largest meetings-ready properties include the 339-room Crowne Plaza Redondo Beach & Marina Hotel and the 163-room Portofino Hotel and Yacht Club.
Redondo Beach, immortalized in the Beach Boys song
Surfin' U.S.A., is emphasizing its closeness to LAX, Disneyland and those fabulous white-sand beaches, according to Paul Goldman, marketing director of the Redondo Beach COC and Visitors Bureau.
"We've found that the business traveler was a little slower coming back than the vacationer after 9/11," he says. "The vacationer got in his car, and we concentrated on the drive market within 2-3 hours. But now the businessperson is back, and we're looking at a good '05 and '06."
South BayJust south of Redondo Beach, Torrance has its own sliver of sand but focuses most of its energy on businessa fact that doesn't stop it from enjoying an annual surf festival and an Oktoberfest at the Alpine Village.
The 342-room Hilton Torrance/South Bay is just eight miles from LAX, andfor visitors who arrive in a spending moodit sits across the street from the Del Amo Fashion Center.
The California coast rises up where it turns east toward Long Beach, and Rancho Palos Verdes occupies the ensuing landscapea beautiful hilly peninsula. It's a wealthy community (bordering on exclusive, with the recent jump in local land prices), but the area's stunning scenery and amazing sunsets keep visitors of all kinds coming.
Port CitiesLong Beach is California's fifth-largest city and has always been a world apart from the rest of L.A. With neighboring San Pedro it encompasses the Port of Los Angeles, the West Coast's busiest. Nearby manufacturing gives the city an industrial tax base and a no-nonsense reputation, but in recent years Long Beach has also focused on creating a beautiful downtown filled with family-friendly attractions.
The city has more than five miles of beach, but it's better-known for the
Queen Mary, the grand old ocean liner that has become a hotel and unique off-site venue for events (see sidebar).
Another highlight of the city is the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific, showcasing roughly 12,000 marine animals. The aquarium is the anchor attraction of the Pike at Rainbow Harbor development, which also has 17 restaurants, dozens of shops, a 12-screen movie theater, and the 40,000-square-foot Gameworks attraction.
Long Beach is also home to the increasingly prominent Museum of Latin American Art, which just received a grant to build a new entryway and several new galleries, and is available for meetings and banquets.
Meanwhile, the Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center boasts more than 224,000 square feet of exhibition space, 34 meeting rooms and a grand ballroom, in addition to an arena and a performing arts center.
Nearly 3,000 hotel rooms are within walking distance of the Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center, with Westin, Marriott, Hyatt, Hilton, and Holiday Inn among the prominent meetings-oriented hotels.
The city also hosts groups at California State University, Long Beach. The university features an executive conference facility for up to 100 attendees.
Long Beach is pushing for both leisure travelers and midsize associations, according to Bob Maguglin, public relations manager at the Long Beach Area CVB.
"Most of our effort is put into selling conventions," he says. "The sales strategy is basically that people buy from people they know, so we have satellite offices in all the major areas where associations have their headquarters: an East Coast office in New York; two reps in the Washington, D.C., market; a Chicago rep; and a Sacramento/San Francisco rep."
To accommodate increased traffic by airlines such as JetBlue, Alaska and American, Long Beach Municipal Airport is slowly expanding, while the Los Angeles subwayyes, car-crazy L.A. has a clean, efficient subway systemstops in downtown Long Beach for easy connections to downtown L.A., Hollywood and even Pasadena.
Seven miles from Long Beach, San Pedro's attraction is its Old Town, a waterfront neighborhood filled with art galleries, antique shops, restaurants, and pubs.
San Pedro also features the Cabrillo Beach Aquarium, a free-admission facility that displays Southern California sea life in 38 saltwater aquariums and has an auditorium accommodating 287 people.
The city's Fisherman's Wharf is a working commercial fishing dock, and other attractions include the Fort MacArthur Museum, the World War II-era
Lane Victory and Point Fermin Lighthouse, the last wooden lighthouse in California.
Dining is an integral part of a visit to San Pedro, which offers more than 120 restaurants specializing in cuisines from around the world.
Properties with meeting facilities include the Sheraton Los Angeles Harbor Hotel and the Marina Hotel.
Catalina IslandMost visitors will travel to Catalina Island by sea from Long Beach or San Pedro on regularly scheduled ferries, although it's also possible to take hourly helicopter flights. On arrival they'll find the small town of Avalonthe only one on the island, since 88 percent of Catalina is parkland.
Avalon offers a variety of restaurants, and the Best Western Catalina Canyon Resort & Spa, Hotel Metropole, Hotel St. Lauren, Catherine Hotel, and several other free-standing facilities have meeting venues.
For More InfoCatalina Island COC and Visitors Bureau 310.510.1520 www.visitcalina.org
El Segundo COC 310.322.1220 www.elsegundochamber.org
Hermosa Beach COC and Visitors Bureau 310.376.0951 www.hbchamber.net
LA Inc., The Convention and Visitors Bureau 213.624.7300 www.lacvb.com
Long Beach Area CVB 562.436.3645 www.visitlongbeach.com
Manhattan Beach COC 310.545.5313 www.mb-chamber.com
Marina del Rey CVB 310.306.9900 www.visitthemarina.com
Palos Verdes Peninsula COC and Visitors Bureau 310.377.8111 www.palosverdeschamber.com
Redondo Beach COC and Visitors Bureau 310.376.6911 www.redondochamber.org
San Pedro Peninsula COC 310.832.7272 www.sanpedrochamber.com
Torrance COC 310.540.5858 www.visittorrance.com