Sofitel is a well-known luxury brand, with many of its properties attaining 5 star ratings and most at least 4 stars. It has received very positive ratings as a Sofitel property on both TripAdvisor and Yahoo Travel (see links below). Sofitel is most definitely not just a 3 star hotel. I ve stayed at both the New York City and Chicago locations and both (especially Chicago) are excellent.
I would put this under the correct country as this is for US travel.
Passports are only needed for international travel. to fly within the u.S., you just need a photo I.D. like a drivers license or state I.D. card.
You don t need a passport to travel within the U.S. Just a legal photo ID.
Most people who ask this question are unprepared, unrealistic, with no money, no experience, no skills, (no visa), and no plan.If you are outside the United States, you will need a visa. The nice folks in the immigration forum can help you with that.Next, you need a plan: First item on the agenda is rent. A decent 1BR apartment in LA currently goes for $1200, give or take. A studio is about $1000.Nicer areas and areas closer to the beach are much higher. Don t expect to move to Santa Monica and get an apartment on the beach for that much. Or Toluca Lake, or Beverly Hills. Next, you will need a car. Los Angeles is VERY spread out, and train service is extremely limited. If you don t have a car, you will have to take a bus, which takes 3 times longer to get anywhere than a car. All told, it generally takes about $3,000 per month to live here. If you don t have a job that pays that much or skills that can get you that kind of job, stay where you are. If you are unskilled and work for minimum wage (or for tips like bartending or waiting tables), you ll only make about $1200 per month. And speaking of jobs, they are rather hard to come by now. College grads seeking employment are having a very tough time of it right now, since the job market is flooded with experienced people who were laid off. Unemployment is over 12% right now. Not exactly the kind of job market you want to move into.Finally, you will need money. Landlords want first month s rent and a security deposit up front. You ll need money for food, transportation, utilities, etc. The consensus in this forum is that you need about $7500 to start out.So there s your plan. And please don t tell us that you have dreams of being an actor or singer. That sets off another alarm. We already have a million (literally) wannabe actors in this town. Don��t even get me started.
Did you ever consider the fact that LA is not the cheapest place in the world?Coastal California is the MOST COVETED area which means MORE $$$.Affordability does not exist in Los Angeles. Starting prices begin at around $1000+/mo. and that s usually for a studio in a somewhat decent area.Jobs are also nonexistent at the moment. Unemployment rates have jumped to 13% so good luck finding a job. Even if you find a job, that job will barely pay the rent (or not even come close to paying the rent.)Keep in mind you do NEED to buy groceries, hygiene products, clothes, emergency money, gas, electric, water, insurance, car, etc.Speaking of cars, you NEED a car in order to live in Los Angeles. The insurance for the car is not going to be cheap since the rate in Los Angeles are high and the gas prices are going to make you want to move back to your hometown.Bottom Line: You sound unprepared so my best suggestion for you is don t even bother moving to California because we already have a crisis going on and people like you are just contributing to the problem.
you and the rest of the world want to move to Los angeles .... ok here is the poop... the majority of natives want to leave and go elsewhere. ask yourself why, and you will understand the reason for not wanting to move here.if you want to move to Los angeles you better get in the habit of saying Los Angeles ... The only people that say LA are old fuddy duddies with long hair that still think they are hip eventhough they probably have a incontinence problem
yeahhhh no i wanted to move there before and i looked at cheap apartments and the cheapest one was around 800 or more for a studio. and that was in the ghetto. good luck finding one by the beach. i d find some roomates if u want a nice place there
I stayed at the Hyatt Regency SFO once. There wasn t much around the area other than the airport and a few other hotels. But they did provide a free shuttle to the BART station, so you could take the train into downtown SF, where there is a lot to do. The Westin Bonaventure is in LA s financial district, and should have easy access to transportation as well. I m not sure what is in the immediate area.But seriously, why don t you choose based on the quality of the conference? That is why you are going.
Flights fastest.Many airlines are having thanksgiving sales like virgin.Try continental,deltal,northwest,us airways.I searched on this site and got the cheapest,check it out,it also had discount coupon codes for expedia,orbitz,travelocity,priceline,etc��http://freetravel4ever.blogspot.com
Try the Name Your Own Price feature on Priceline. I ve gotten some good deals there. Basically you bid on a plane ticket from airlines that have tickets available for the days you want to go there. You can put in any price and, who knows, maybe you ll find a ticket for close to that price. For instance I bid on a roundtrip ticket to Chicago to Denver for $100 (cheap, I know). They couldn t find anyone willing to meet my bid, but they did find someone willing to sell me a round trip ticket for $150, which is pretty damn cheap (the average RT tickets is about $250). Not that you ll find a deal that good, but it s worth a trip. The only stipulation is you don t get to pick the hours your fly (you do pick the day) so you might be flying off-peak hours, either really early in the day or later in the evening. And you don t get to pick the airline. AND you have to put in a credit/debit card number nad you re charged right away. AND there are generally no refunds (however if you do have to cancel your flight, they will give you a partial refund, provided you book another roundtrip flight later on). But if getting to Chicago quickly and as cheaply as possible is important to you, I d look into it.
I suppose it depends on how cheap you d want to go. Southwest still has flights available on Thanksgiving Day for about $150 and they don t require a round trip ticket. I fly to DC frequently and the fare is always around $100 and that s booking in advance. So considering it s only 4 days away, that s not a bad fare and you ll be here in less than 2 hours flight time.
there are quite a few sites that you can search that will likely give you the best prices available. check out the website BookMe and you will be able to compare prices on all the reputable travel sites in just a couple minutes. it s very convenient and will save you a bunch of time and money. Also, make sure you buy them online... otherwise they charge much higher fees for phone orders. good luck.
Southwest is your best bet, and go straight to www.swa.com but its probably pretty expensive now.... you can take Amtrak - no obnoxious last minute fares, and its not too bad of a ride - but just work some extra time in since it tends to arrive later than advertised.
try southwest airlines, they r da cheapest, and they don charge you for the luggage. They land at midway airport only. It will be cheaper if u reserve 2 weeks in advance. Good luck, have a happy turkey day!
www.kayak.comLikely www.greyhound.com will be the cheapest.