Post #262928 by Humuhumu on Thu, Oct 26, 2006 3:03 PM

Have a wonderful time! I wish I could be there to show you around myself.

For crashing Wednesday night, I usually stay at the Travelodge near Tiki-Ti:

http://www.latravelodge.com/homepage/

It's nothing special, but it's cheap (for L.A.), and it's stumbling distance from Tiki-Ti, so it fits the bill rather nicely.

Another place I've stayed is the Best Western Hollywood Hills:

http://book.bestwestern.com/bestwestern/productInfo.do?propertyCode=05204#null

A little bit more expensive, but you get a much better room. It's a short drive/cab ride from Tiki-Ti, and the ground level of the hotel houses the 101 Coffee Shop, which is a great choice for late-nite, post-Tiki-Ti eats.

A visit to the Tonga Hut in North Hollywood might be fun for you -- it's not too far from Tiki-Ti. Naturally, it doesn't stand up well to comparison to Tiki-Ti, but it is being lovingly restored by new owners, and it's nice to see the slow but earnest progress they're making.

If you make it to Trader Vic's, there's a tiki apartment building just a smidge down Santa Monica, on Beverly Glen Blvd. It's on the north side of Santa Monica, on the right side of the street. My old apartment was just a couple blocks south of it -- if only they'd had a vacancy when I was apartment-hunting! It's not nearly as cool as some of the other tiki-themed apartment buildings in So Cal, so you're not really missing anything if you skip it.

If you haven't been to the Warehouse in Marina del Rey, and you find yourself in that neck of the woods, it's worth a look-see. It's nautical and not tiki, but it's got plenty of tiki roots thanks to ol' Beachbum Burt. It's got a great feel to it, and the dozens of photos of Beachbum Burt with celebrities over the years are neat.

I still haven't made it to Saints & Sinners, but I've wanted to -- Jab's suggestion is a good one.