Stay in the Heart of Hollywood for Half Price!

August 19, 12:47 AMEarly Childhood Parenting ExaminerAngele Sionna

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You CAN stay in the heart of Hollywood on a budget!

Looking for some family fun - Hollywood style? You can enjoy the glamour and lights of Hollywood without the enormous price tag. There’s a secret little street in the heart of all the action where you can stay for half the price (or less) of other big name hotels in the area.

My family discovered this perfect spot to stay for budget travelers last month. It has a great, safe, and energizing atmosphere and you’re literally only a few feet from all the famous sightseeing. The Hollywood and Highland entertainment complex, which houses the Kodak Theatre (of Oscars and American Idol fame), is next door. Around the corner are Hollywood’s most famous theaters: the El Capitan, the Egyptian, and Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, not to mention the Walk of Fame down neighboring Hollywood Avenue.

This hidden gem of a locale is called Orchid Avenue (pictured, left). (Click HERE for a map.) It is only about a block long and has two well-reviewed boutique hotels.

We stayed at the Hollywood Orchid suites (lobby pictured, left), which included an apartment-like set up with full kitchen (even pans to cook with and dish soap), a heated pool (see photo, right), covered indoor gated parking in a private garage, free wireless internet, and even a roof deck for catching some rays or just relaxing.

Across the small street is the Renaissance Hotel, where small rooms go for $330 per night. Down the block, rooms at the Magic Castle go for $250 and up. We paid just $154 per night. The Renaissance and Magic Castle are more luxurious, sure, but if your family is like mine,  it’s all about location, location, location without busting our budget.

Either of these Orchid Avenue hotels would be a perfect place to stay for checking out American Idol, the Academy Awards, movie premieres, or just the all the famous sites. When we were there we saw the premiere of The X-Files: I Want To Believe, which I was so excited about! Jimmy Kimmel Live tapes across the street and I saw Gillian Anderson on that show while I was there too. (You can get FREE tickets to see Jimmy Kimmel tape at 1iota.com. Note: children under 18 are not allowed at his taping though.) Also while we were there, the premiere for Swing Vote was going on too. Needless to say, there were so many celebrity sightings on our trip, which was fun.

For more information on the Hollywood Orchid Suites, visit orchidsuites.com. Yahoo user reviews give Orchid Suites four out of five stars. You can read those HERE.

For information on the neighboring Hollywood Celebrity hotel (see photo, right) hotelcelebrity.com. The Celebrity gets four out of five stars from Yahoo users, click HERE to read those.

Think about booking a room on Orchid Street now for February 22, 2009 and watch all the stars come out on the red carpet next door for the Oscars! You can enter to win FREE tickets to sit in the bleacher seats to see all of there stars on the official Academy Award website: oscar.org. On our trip last month, our whole family got to sit in the bleacher seats to see the stars come out for The X-Files premiere. It was pretty cool. The kiddos got a little tired but were troopers. But children in elementary school and up who really like movies might have a fantastic time star watching there.

The closest (and BEST) beach is the Santa Monica beach (see photo, right), about 13 miles away. You'll need a car to get there and if there's no traffic it'll take about half an hour. For more on the famous Santa Monica Pier and how to get some coupons, read my article HERE.