Where to Stay at Disneyland

If you’ve been reading our blog at all lately, you know that I’ve developed a passionate, love affair with Disneyland. Disneyland is my ‘Affair To Remember’, and I keep running away from WDW (which I consider my ‘home resort’), to meet it secretly atop the Empire State Building. We’ve been trying to make it out there once a year (go ahead, send us emails and let us know how spoiled we are) and it’s always one of the highlights of my calendar. Unlike Disney World Hotels, on-property hotels at Disneyland are CRAZY-PANTS expensive. Like, tigers on a gold leash kind of cash. Whenever we go to Disneyland, we chose to stay at a Disneyland Good Neighbor Hotel. What is this wizardry, you ask? Today, we’re putting together a guide, to help you navigate where to stay, and why to stay there.

Disneyland Good Neighbor Hotels all have shuttle service to the parks, or ART shuttle, and most of them are within walking distance. They can be booked as a vacation package with park tickets through the Disney company. There’s forty Good Neighbor Hotels, and they’re all independently owned and operated.

The biggest appeal to staying at a Good Neighbor Hotel is the proximity to the parks. On our last trip, we stayed at the Howard Johnson Anaheim Hotel, which is our Good Neighbor Hotel of choice. For starters, it’s an incredibly short walk to the parks, normally only taking about seven minutes to walk. This saved us money in not having to pay for parking at the Disney Parking garage any of the time we were there, and being able to easily go back for a nap when we wanted to. The Howard Johnson has been recently renovated, and the rooms are beautiful, with a mid-century feel, netflix in the rooms, and views of the parks.

At the end of the day, staying close to the park is even more important when you’re at Disneyland, than Disney World. Traffic in the L.A., area is killer, and being able to get to and from your lodging quickly, will help you save your sanity.