5 nights in Vegas? Are you planning to do an overnight trip to the Grand Canyon from there? If not, I would advise you to cut it to 3 days. Vegas hotels are cheapest Sun-Thurs.

It's possible to do LA by public transportation, but it's a lot more convenient by car because of how spread out it is and because some places are not easily reachable by public transportation.

I would recommend renting a car in LA.

Less than $100 per night is a pretty low budget for LA. Are you aware of Hotwire.com and Priceline.com? If you're willing to read up on them at www.betterbidding.com, you can get a deal for around that price in a decent area (Hollywood/West Hollywood). Basically, you get a hotel without knowing which one until after you pay, but you choose the star-level and neighborhood. There aren't really awful 3-star hotels. You can also get a private room at a hostel like HI in Santa Monica.

In Vegas, you can get hotels for cheap Sun-Thurs, so you can save some money there and add that to your hotel budget in LA. Check out http://www.Travelzoo.com for hotel deals as well.

You can drive from LA to Vegas or you can fly for about $50 (Kayak.com, Southwest.com). You can also take a Greyhound bus (this would involve some time getting to and from bus stations in both cities).

I would also recommend for you to add either Grand Canyon or San Diego to your trip, or both. San Diego is only 2 hours from LA, either by bus, car, or train.

Is the $450pp only for hotel ($180 per night then?), or is that for your entire stay including food, shopping, etc?

The feasibility of public transit in LA really depends a lot on your itinerary and where you end up staying. Having a car is generally a better option, though it can be expensive as hotels will generally charge $20-30 parking per day.

Are you willing to book a hotel through Hotwire or Priceline? There are good deals to be had. You can always check http://www.betterbidding.com forums to get an idea of the hotel you might end up getting. Hollywood Roosevelt and W Hotel in Hollywood have been on for $149/night, as has Sofitel in Beverly Grove (between W. Hollywood and Beverly Hills, lots of shopping nearby). Hollywood has good public transit access if you decide not to have a car.

Hotels in Las Vegas are much less expensive than in L.A. and other places because they know that you're going to spend money gambling, shopping, etc.

For L.A., keep in mind that there is a 14% hotel tax applied to all rooms (in addition to the hotel's 'room rate') and that the room may (or may not) include parking, breakfast and/or wi-fi. These will be an extra charge for some or all of these items, in some cases. Most hotels charge for parking ($20-$30 per night) but some of the 2-star hotels in Hollywood (and some 3-star ones on the outer edges of our giant metro area) don't.

Read our FAQs section -- a link at the top of the TOPIC LIST -- to learn about the geography of our city and its environs. Also there, are descriptions of our various neighborhoods, itinerary ideas and an in-depth description of our public transit system.

Look into the W Hollywood as might fit your bill in regards of being centrally located to a lot of sights and also in a vibrant neighbourhood with plenty of great restaurants, bars and clubs(in addition to some of the best movie theaters and actually sights)

We have plenty of topics here on the Los Angeles Board(just search for W Hollywood) on how to get this brand new 4 star hotel for $119 -$139, which is a bargain you hardly get these days

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