Where to Stay for GO Tour LA: Santa Monica vs Downtown vs Pasadena

Our first GO Tour in LA, I loved our hotel. Getting back to it was the problem.

Heads up: some links in this guide are affiliate links. If you book or buy through them, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.

In this guide 7 sections

We stayed a week in Little Tokyo for GO Tour Sinnoh in 2024. Before the event, we explored Little Tokyo and Downtown LA. Then the event started, and we played the city days in Santa Monica, where the good spots are. Every night after 8 p.m., it was a long ride back across LA, and the Uber rides added up.

So for GO Tour Unova the next year, Cream and I stayed in Santa Monica, and that's still my answer for where to stay near the Rose Bowl for GO Tour, even though the park is on the other side of LA.

Where to Stay Near the Rose Bowl for GO Tour: My Quick Answer

• Best for most trainers: Santa Monica. The best city play, walkable food, and it's where most players stay.
• If Santa Monica is over budget: Little Tokyo in Downtown LA. It's on the Metro to Santa Monica and Pasadena.
• Closest to the Rose Bowl: Old Pasadena, about 2 miles from the stadium. Only worth it if the park day is all you're doing.
• Cheapest with a car: Glendale, about 15 minutes' drive from the park.
• Staying a week? Stay through the global event the weekend after.

Ready to book? These are the three we'd pick, one for each type of trip.

Pick one base for the whole weekend. Switching hotels for the park day isn't worth the hassle.

The Best Areas to Stay for GO Tour LA

GO Tour Alola comes to LA on February 19 to 21, 2027, Friday to Sunday. The venue hasn't been named yet. LA's GO Tours in 2024, 2025, and 2026 were all at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, so this guide plans around it. If it moves, the advice for the city days still stands.

Each area ends with a link to compare places to stay, with live prices for your dates. Price levels: $ is budget-friendly, $$ is mid-range, and $$$ is higher-end.

1. Santa Monica // Our Pick for GO Tour LA

Santa Monica is where I'd send a friend, and it's where most trainers stayed both years we went. You don't need a car here. You walk out the door and you're playing, with no long ride home at night. The Santa Monica spots we play every GO Tour start right at the pier.

The food is easier too. You can walk to more places, at more price levels, than anywhere else we stayed in LA. There's a McDonald's in town as well, and it came in handy.

It's the priciest base. Hotels cost the most of the four areas, and so does the hotel tax. Downtown LA isn't cheap either, though. We also felt safer here than in Downtown at night. That's a big reason I like it.

The real downside is the park day. The Rose Bowl is about 26 miles away by road, on the other side of LA. Plan that ride ahead: getting to the Rose Bowl from Santa Monica covers the Metro, Uber, parking, and the traffic home.

Who it's for: most trainers, especially with citywide days, and anyone without a car.

Skip it if: you're only going for the park day, or your budget is tight.

Price: $$$ (higher-end)

Top sights nearby:

• Santa Monica Pier, with the Pacific Park rides and the Ferris wheel
• Palisades Park, the clifftop park above the beach
• Third Street Promenade, a car-free shopping street
• The beach path, which runs south to Venice Beach

An evening here: Sunset from the pier, when the Ferris wheel lights up. Then dinner and a walk on the Promenade.

Good to know: The Downtown Santa Monica Metro station is at 4th Street and Colorado Avenue, a short walk from the pier. From there, the E Line runs to Downtown LA.

Where to Book in Santa Monica

Stay between the Metro station and the pier. A friend of ours stayed at the Hampton Inn & Suites, right by the station. Walk down Colorado Avenue and you're at the pier. You can see it from the sidewalk.

Compare places to stay around Santa Monica Pier, with live prices for your dates.

2. Little Tokyo, Downtown LA // Best Backup, and No Car Needed

If Santa Monica prices don't work, book Little Tokyo. We stayed at the DoubleTree there for our first GO Tour, and I'd stay again. It was a 10/10 for us, and the location was great. It was a little pricey, but good value for LA.

Downtown is good for playing, and it's a fun city to explore. Little Tokyo has a cool vibe at night, too. Pokémon GO in Los Angeles has the Downtown and Little Tokyo spots we played, hills and street crossings included.

It's also the best base without a car. The Little Tokyo/Arts District station is on two Metro lines. The E Line runs to Downtown Santa Monica in about 50 minutes. The A Line reaches Memorial Park, in Old Pasadena, in about 28. A ride costs $1.75, and fares stop at $5 a day.¹⁰

Downtown's rough edges are real, though. Skid Row starts at 3rd Street, just south of Little Tokyo, and parts of Downtown get sketchy at night. Stay on the Little Tokyo side, and take an Uber home late.

Who it's for: trainers without a car, anyone watching the budget, and anyone with a few extra days to explore LA.

Skip it if: you'll play every city day in Santa Monica and don't want the ride back each night.

Price: $$ (mid-range)

Top sights nearby:

• Japanese Village Plaza, Little Tokyo's lantern-lined shopping street
• The Japanese American National Museum
• Grand Central Market, a historic food hall
• The Broad and Walt Disney Concert Hall on Bunker Hill
• The murals and breweries of the Arts District

An evening here: A bowl of udon or ramen in Little Tokyo, then a walk under the lanterns in Japanese Village Plaza.

Good to know: Union Station, LA's main train station, is one stop away on the A Line.

Booking Your Room in Little Tokyo

Book on the Little Tokyo side, north of 3rd Street. Our hotel was a short walk from the Metro, and we'd book it again.

Compare rooms around Little Tokyo, with live prices for your dates.

3. Old Pasadena // Closest to the Rose Bowl

Old Pasadena is the closest hotel area to the Rose Bowl, about 2 miles from the stadium. You can get to the park on foot or by public transit from here. A lot of trainers look here first.

I wouldn't stay here. The park is one day of a three-day weekend. The other two days, you'd be riding across LA for the best city play.

It does make sense in two cases. If your ticket is only for the park day, it's the easiest trip in LA. And with kids, a room nearby means a midday break. In 2026, you could leave and come back in as often as you liked on your ticketed day.¹ If the park day is your big day, read what a GO Tour park day at the Rose Bowl is like.

Staying somewhere else? Don't rush off when the park closes. Play and eat around Pasadena into the evening, and let the traffic clear first. The evening is raid time anyway in our Catch, Hatch, Raid plan.

Who it's for: trainers with a park-day-only ticket, and families who want a short trip back to the room.

Skip it if: you bought citywide days. The best city play is across town.

Price: $$ (mid-range)

Top sights nearby:

• Colorado Boulevard's shops and restaurants, in Old Pasadena's brick buildings
• The Norton Simon Museum
• Pasadena City Hall and its courtyard
• Kidspace Children's Museum, next to the Rose Bowl
• The Arroyo Seco, the leafy canyon the stadium sits in

An evening here: Dinner on Colorado Boulevard, then a walk past the old storefronts.

Good to know: The big hotels are 1 to 2 miles from the stadium. From the Courtyard, that's about a 40-minute walk.

Booking a Room Near the Rose Bowl

Stay close to Colorado Boulevard and Fair Oaks Avenue, the center of Old Pasadena. The Courtyard in our Quick Picks is one of the closest big hotels to the stadium.

Only going for the park day? Compare places to stay near the Rose Bowl, with live prices for your dates.

4. Glendale // Cheapest Base With a Car

Glendale is the budget pick, and it only works with a car. It's about 15 minutes' drive from the Rose Bowl without traffic. Hotel prices here are the lowest of the four areas.

Most hotels are around Brand Boulevard and the Americana at Brand. It's a practical base for a group that drives in, sleeps, and drives out to play.

Who it's for: groups with a car and a tight budget.

Skip it if: you don't have a car.

Price: $ to $$

Top sights nearby:

• The Americana at Brand, an open-air mall with restaurants
• The Glendale Galleria
• Brand Library & Art Center, in a historic mansion at the foot of the hills

An evening here: Dinner at the Americana at Brand.

Good to know: Hollywood Burbank Airport is about 10 miles away, much closer than LAX.

Compare places to stay in Glendale, with live prices for your dates.

All Four Areas Compared

Area	Best for	To the Rose Bowl	Price	Our take
Santa Monica	City days, food, no car	About 26 miles, 40 minutes with no traffic	$$$	Where we'd stay
Little Tokyo, Downtown LA	A lower budget, no car	About 13 miles, or the Metro	$$	Our 2024 base, a 10/10 hotel
Old Pasadena	Park day only, families	About 2 miles	$$	Close to the park, far from the city play
Glendale	A budget trip with a car	About 7 miles	$ to $$	Cheapest, but you need a car

Where Not to Stay for GO Tour LA

Venice. It's next door to Santa Monica, but it's a different vibe. I wouldn't stay there. I love Santa Monica more.

Hollywood. It's about 16 miles from the Rose Bowl and 14 from Santa Monica Pier, so you're far from both.

Near LAX. Fine for a late arrival night. But the Rose Bowl is a little under 30 miles away.

How Much Does a Hotel Cost for GO Tour LA?

Plan for the hotel to be your biggest GO Tour cost. In 2025, GO Tour visitors who paid for a place to stay spent $413 on it, on average.⁷

Prices aren't low anywhere. Santa Monica hotels are high, but so is Downtown LA. This is what one night cost in each area on Kayak in October 2026.

Area	One night on Kayak	Hotel tax
Santa Monica, near the pier	About $300 to $560	15%, plus a small nightly tourism fee
Little Tokyo and Downtown LA	About $180 to $290	14%, plus 2% at bigger hotels
Old Pasadena, near the Rose Bowl	About $205 to $225	12.11%
Glendale	About $70 to $150	12%

GO Tour weekend in February can cost more than this. Use the table to compare areas. Prices for your own dates will be different.

The hotel tax goes on top of the room rate:

• Santa Monica: 15%, plus a tourism fee of $2.30 to $7.25 a night in 2026.²
• Los Angeles, including Little Tokyo and Downtown: 14%.³ Hotels with 50 or more rooms can pass on a 2% tourism assessment too.¹¹
• Pasadena: 12.11%.⁴
• Glendale: 12%.⁵

Since July 2024, California hotels have to include fees like resort fees in the price they show you. Government taxes can still come on top.⁶ Parking is extra too. If friends are driving you, check the hotel's nightly parking rate before you book.

Hotel or Airbnb?

For a three-night GO Tour trip, a hotel is the simple choice. Short Airbnb stays come with local rules:

• Santa Monica: a whole place to yourself is only allowed for stays of 30 days or longer. Shorter stays need the host living on site.⁸
• Los Angeles: hosts can only rent out their own primary residence, and they have to register with the city.⁹

We rented an apartment in Santa Monica for a month in 2025. That's a different trip, with different rules.

Staying a Week? Stay for the Global Event

If you can stay a week, stay for Global. The global GO Tour event runs the weekend after LA, on February 27 and 28, 2027.

After the in-person event, spend the week exploring LA. Then play Global the next weekend. We did that the second year, and it was so much fun.

For a stay that long, Santa Monica and Little Tokyo still win. You'll be out every day, and you'll want food and the Metro close by.

Getting Around From Your Base

You don't need a car in Santa Monica or Little Tokyo. We got around on foot and by Uber, and the Metro covers the rest.

Renting a car: Some trainers do rent a car, and it's the easy way to get around from Glendale or Old Pasadena. In Santa Monica or Little Tokyo, a car mostly sits in the garage. Parking at the Hampton Inn and the DoubleTree was about $50 to $65 a night in October 2026. If a car still suits your trip, compare rental cars for your LA trip and pick one up when you land.

Flying in: LAX is the closer airport for Santa Monica, about 9 miles away. Hollywood Burbank Airport is the closer one for Pasadena and Glendale. Compare flights to Los Angeles into both airports.

So, Where Should You Stay for GO Tour LA?

Santa Monica, if the price works. It's where the city play is, and you'll spend two of your three days there. If it's over budget, Little Tokyo is a great second choice, and I'd only book by the park for a park-day-only trip. The complete GO Tour LA guide has the rest of the weekend, from tickets to which day to take the park.

Next Steps for Your Los Angeles GO Tour Trip

• The whole weekend: Pokémon GO Tour Los Angeles: The Complete Guide
• Getting to the park: Rose Bowl parking, Metro, and Uber for GO Tour
• Your park day: What to expect on GO Tour park day
• Your city days: Pokémon GO in Santa Monica
• More city days: The best places to play Pokémon GO in Los Angeles