The home of Disneyland California. (Anaheim)

Member Name: CokaCola

Product:	Anaheim
Date:	21/09/09 (32 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Clean and Well Managed.

Disadvantages: Not ideal to get to on public transport.

Anaheim is not actually located in Los Angeles County, but rather in the neighbouring district of Orange County, which is perhaps 45 minutes down the freeway from LA, although this depends on traffic, which can build up to a significant level and really slow such a journey down. Despite not actually being in LA, Anaheim is a place where a lot of Los Angeles/Hollywood tourists end up because it is the home of Disney Land California. The area is not really too easy to access by public transport, although the Metro Blue line does go there - but I've no idea how long such a journey would take from central Los Angeles with all the different connections, and Metro trains do not seem to run as regularly there as they do in London! I visited Anaheim at the beginning of this month, not to go to Disney Land, but to attend an expo in the Anahiem convention centre, so this review is based on my experience.

I got to Anaheim from where I was staying in Hollywood by coach, the service was by LuxBus America and it was very pleasant. I paid $52 for a return ticket to Anaheim, and I would definately recommend this mode of transport to someone else, although the people on the phone at Lux Bus are not the brightest or happiest of people in my opinion. The drivers however were very nice. We bombed down the freeway, which luckily was very quiet, and arrived in Anahiem in around 45 minutes I believe.

Anaheim is very touristy. It is full of big hotels, The Marrriot, The Hilton etc etc and these hotels are particularly big, much bigger than my local examples here in the UK, and they dominate the Anaheim skyline. The place is also full of taxi ranks and buses, infrastructure necessary to bus around tourists, and there were a nice amount of benches and shaded areas along Anaheims main boulevards for shade. One thing that I noticed in Anaheim which I particularly liked were the maps of the place set into the concrete of the sidewalk.

Anaheim felt to me like a very safe place, it's very clean and very attractive in terms of it's buildings, roads and scenery - obviously very well managed. Having said that, it is the only place in LA where I was openly approached by a random guy requesting change, which made me slightly nervous as often this is the opening scene for muggings! So be careful.

The weather was very good, as it is throughout Southern California, and cheap bottled water was available from a gift shop on the way to disneyland for only 99 cents a bottle, among the cheapest I saw this water in the whole of LA.

Unless however you are off to Disneyland, or you're attending a convention like I did - I have to say there's not really a whole lot for one to do in Anaheim.

Summary: I liked it, and some of the hotels looked lovely!