Why the 31st floor is the best floor for the elevator if you stay at the Intercontinental Los Angeles hotel

In the year 2022 after everything shut down in 2020, conferences are finally back on again and Mom2.0 ( a conference I went to in 2018 and had a ticket for the 2020 conference that was postponed) this year took place at the Intercontinental Los Angeles Hotel right in the heart of downtown. This hotel features the highest outdoor bar in the country on its 73 floor. The Intercontintental also has a skylobby on the 70th floor with incredible views of downtown Los Angeles from its floor to ceiling windows.

But what if you book at the Intercontinental Los Angeles Hotel and you don’t like elevators

This might not be the hotel for you. All the glory of a hotel with spectacular views comes with a price and if you don’t appreciate a 40 second or more trip to the 70th floor lobby every time you want to get to your room or out of your room, there is only one floor that I know of that only needs only one trip up and one trip down from you room to the bottom of the hotel. You need to ask for a room on the 31st floor. If you do not have a room on this floor knowing about this floor will still save you time in the elevator. For example if you are on the 52nd floor, to exit your room you still need to go up to the 70th and then down to the bottom floor from the elevators on the 70th floor. If you want to bypass this on the way up, key in the 31st floor from the bottom lobby then use the elevators on this floor to go up to floor so you don’t need to go all the way up to the 70th and then back down again.

(The elevator also randomly stops every so often on other floors and waits without opening its doors and that’s a little disconcerting at first but you get used to it after a few rides up and down.)

Why on earth would a hotel make an elevator system like this?

I am not an engineer. But what I do know is that when I stayed at the hotel, it was easy to get assistance from the front desk using their texting system and the views from the 70th floor was absolutely spectacular. The location was attached to the giant conference center where all the activities took place for MOM 2.0 so this was really convenient-there were lots of shops and restaurants nearby too. And the hotel was really beautiful. So maybe the benefits of the hotel outweighed the negatives of the elevator. Ultimately I had a really comfortable stay. And it was so nice to have a clean, comfortable, hotel with a view all to myself for a few days.

Here are some of the places I found nearby to eat from the Los Angeles Intercontinental Hotel

Nice Coffee and Two Guns espresso were within a short walking distance and had delicious coffee and pastries. Philz coffee was a short walk away as well. Hatch had fantastic Japanese grilled food (I had vegetarian meal that was delicious) and Jinya Ramen is quick and easy and nearby too. I was especially delighted to find out that this hotel was very close to Bottega Louie. We took our kids to that restaurant/macaron shop when they were quite small and had the kindest visit there-and if I am ever in the area I have vowed to stop there and buy their macarons.

If you are curious about Mom 2.0 and if it’s a conference you should attend?

This was my 2nd time going to MOM 2.0 and I met many people who had been multiple times before. This time I wasn’t there as much to meet people or get actual learning done and both of these things happened and were such bonuses. I was mostly wanting to see if I could do my old life in this new world of post 2020 whatever this is called that we live now. And I did.

I did the flight. The hotel. And the conference. I survived the elevator. And I made it back home.

The world hasn’t really changed and yet everything has changed including us (but that is a story for another post.)

(PS. Los Angeles is only a direct flight away from Seattle and in April it was a glorious 70 degrees, with two days of bonus 80 degree weather too while I was there.)

Terumi

Terumi Pong is a Seattle-based family travel writer and mom of twin teenage boys.  She loves coffee and pastries, shopping local and looking for greener ways to live.  She is also known as Scout’s mom (Scout is a 5ish pound little black yorkie-poo)