Big City Training

December 29, 2024 10:10 AM

I'm looking at taking a three-day equipment training session, but it's in an American megacity, which is really out of my element and looking for advice.

The training is for some specialized technical equipment where I think I need hand-on training with an expert (I think the trainer is even from the manufacturer) rather than the YouTube how-tos, plus the in-person training comes with a certification that is valuable to have. They do training a couple times a year, in either LA (Burbank) or NY (Brooklyn), for three days (so five days including travel from where I am).

I've never done anything like this before in such a large place that I've never been before, so I'm somewhat overwhelmed by thinking of the logistics, like just coming up with a place to sleep and get to and from the training without it being a horrible ordeal.

Since it's not a tourist or sightseeing thing im not really finding helpful info online. So, I'm looking for advice on how to do this without it being a huge problem or like the lodging and travel costing way more than the class itself. I'm sure the training organization may have some info too, but I would like to have a idea of what things would look like before I start with them, and also whether Burbank or Brooklyn is easier to get around when choosing which one to go to. Thanks!

posted by AzraelBrown to Travel & Transportation (20 answers total)

I have a friend who always uses a travel agent for their travel. My friend likes that the agent does all the planning, reservations and logistical stuff. You might check with one to see if their services are within your budget.
posted by SageTrail at 11:05 AM on December 29 [3 favorites]

Without knowing a single detail, I can guarantee you brooklyn is going to be easier to get around than burbank.
posted by AlbertCalavicci at 11:26 AM on December 29 [17 favorites]

I'd say if you want to rent a car and drive yourself around, Burbank would be easier, but if you'd rather use public transportation, Brooklyn would be easier. Whether driving yourself is more or less difficult/unpleasant than using public transportation is an individual preference thing. Driving in NYC is kind of a nightmare and I would not plan to rent a car there. Driving in Burbank is probably fine (but hopefully someone who actually lives in that area will show up to give you a better sense of how true that is.)

If I were planning this trip, I would start by finding out the location of the training in both places. I'd see where it is in relation to the airport you would fly into and whether there are hotels, restaurants and stores near the training location, and I'd see if it's possible to take a subway or bus from the airport to the training location. If it is, I'd look for a hotel close to that same transportation route, hopefully within walking distance of the training.

One option that would be easy if it's possible would be to stay at a hotel near the training location that has an airport shuttle that could pick you up and drop you off at the airport. Then ideally you could just walk or take a short subway ride to get from your hotel to the training or to a restaurant or grocery store. That may or may not actually be possible, depending on the training location.
posted by Redstart at 11:39 AM on December 29 [3 favorites]

Work backwards from the training location. Ideally your hotel is in walking distance or within a short trip on public transport involving minimal changes. You can use google maps to see transit options.

Any hotel you consider will have information on their homepage about how to get there. That will tell you if the hotel is served by an airport shuttle or how they recommend you get there from the airport.

Hotel and the training venue will have recommendations about food/restaurants and about things to do should you have a couple of hrs to kill.

Use a booking site to search for flight options and hotels but book directly with the airline or hotel. If your plans change or there is a problem you do not want to have to deal with the booking site.
posted by koahiatamadl at 12:22 PM on December 29 [6 favorites]

Burbank is a small/midsize, relatively suburban city that is very comfortable to drive in. If you are nervous about the idea of a "megacity", Burbank definitely does not have that vibe-- it's a pretty ordinary place. If you're able to fly into the excellent Burbank airport (which doesn't fly everywhere, and might be a bit pricier than LAX, depending), you can even avoid all LA traffic. But even if you flew into LAX, you could stay at a Burbank airport hotel and just hang out in Burbank the entire time. Obviously the public transportation is not close to Brooklyn's-- within the city it's basically just buses-- but I assume you would rent a car or take Uber the entire time.
posted by acidic at 12:23 PM on December 29 [2 favorites]

Angeleno here. I live Burbank adjacent. The Burbank airport (aka "Hollywood Burbank Airport") absolutely cannot be beat - it's tiny, with an incredibly easy in/out. Burbank is in the San Fernando Valley and has wide streets that are mostly on a grid. Easier if you're gonna be driving for sure, and Uber/Lyft/etc. are available 24/7.

It will not be easier to get around via bus or train in Burbank (thought that might be mitigated depending on the exact location of your hotel + training) though they certainly do exist.

There's no question that for simplicity, I'd choose Burbank. If you want to message me the exact location, I can dive into this further.
posted by BlahLaLa at 12:24 PM on December 29 [4 favorites]

I live in Brooklyn. I’d choose Burbank.

- Brooklyn is huge and the training could be somewhere very out of the way. Brooklyn has amazing public transit … unless the training is in the many parts of Brooklyn that aren’t served by train.
- Logistically everything in NY is harder than LA/Burbank. It’s why we love it ;)
- if you’re down to rent a car, Burbank. If you’re down to take Ubers everywhere, Burbank.
- Brooklyn imo only if you want the opportunity to see the city! Which it sounds like isn’t on your list. New York is amazing when you really want to be here; otherwise not so much.
posted by wemayfreeze at 12:42 PM on December 29 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Since there's been interest in more specifics, the training would be at either of AbelCine's locations.
posted by AzraelBrown at 12:54 PM on December 29 [1 favorite]

Hi, the Brooklyn location is conveniently one block away from a train stop (36 St off the R train). You can stay at several hotels in Brooklyn and get to your training location in less than thirty minutes.

You can search for hotels in following neighborhoods and be reasonably close: Sunset Park; Park Slope; Downtown Brooklyn; Brooklyn Heights; Boerum Hill. Good luck.
posted by cowlick at 1:24 PM on December 29 [1 favorite]

I live in Brooklyn (and used to live in Los Angeles). Echoing everyone else, it boils down to whether you want to drive or not -- if you want to drive, go to Burbank, if you don't, go to Brooklyn. (I disagree with the comments that driving in NYC is a nightmare, but it is its own thing and having to move the car for alternate side street cleaning can be confusing to someone not used to it -- and a car is completely unnecessary here). Your Brooklyn location is in Industry City which is a cool historical industrial waterfront area turned into a mix of a corporate park for creative companies, restaurants, breweries, shops, etc. You would also be two blocks away from Green-Wood cemetery which is a beautiful historical cemetery where it's lovely to walk around (it was built at a time when cemeteries doubled as public parks), and a 10 min walk from Sunset Park which is a small lovely park on the hilltop overlooking the water.

By this I mean, if you imagine New York as a big scary skyscraper megacity, that is not the vibe of where you would be at all. Sunset Park is a lively residential neighborhood with leafy streets and low-rise rowhouses. There is excellent Mexican and Chinese food (Brooklyn's Chinatown is nearby), and you would be just 2 subway stops from Manhattan on the express train if you wanted to get some sightseeing in.

Not sure what your budget is, but you could easily find a decent hotel for around $150/night in the Industry City area. Flights may or may not be cheaper depending on where you are coming from, but if you are coming to NYC you have more airports to work with than in Los Angeles (compare prices between JFK and LaGuardia, and, in a pinch, even Newark).
posted by virve at 1:52 PM on December 29 [4 favorites]

The Brooklyn location is in Industry City, a place I have, in just the last year or so, attended a wedding at a rooftop farm, danced all night with 10,000 other people at a once-a-year rave, spent an afternoon eating my bodyweight in sushi, and shopped for a new couch. It's a weird and fun city-within-a-city, and, unlike Burbank, a relatively unique urban experience. If you were my friend in from rural Minnesota, I would book you at the Ace in downtown Brooklyn (because it's fun and has good services for folks from out of town), show you how to take the R train back and forth from the training, and recommend a walk around Greenwood Cemetery and some fantastic mexican food on 5th Ave in Sunset Park.

(On preview, what vivre said.)
posted by minervous at 2:03 PM on December 29 [1 favorite]

I just took a look at each of the locations using Street View on my iPhone. The Burbank one looks much friendlier and less intimidating. Whichever option you choose, I suggest you spend some time in street view familiarizing yourself with the location and the surrounding area. If you can come to it with a sense of familiarity, it will help you be comfortable there.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 2:51 PM on December 29 [1 favorite]

No one is going to be able to pitch you on the delights of Burbank, but yeah, that location looks very accessible, and if you're willing to drive or be in a Lyft/Uber/etc., you'll be able to get anywhere you need to go, including hotel, delicious restaurants, markets, and that training location.
posted by BlahLaLa at 3:32 PM on December 29

I used to arrange travel for all employees at a large agency.

Personally, I would choose Burbank. I would stay at the Coast Burbank Hotel, which is one-mile walking distance to your training. And, again, personally, I would walk to the training each day (looking at Google maps, the walk would be through a nice residential neighborhood). Coast Burbank Hotel provides free shuttle to and from the airport (looks like you'd need to make a shuttle reservation with Coast Burbank Hotel to ensure an available seat).

For meals, Olives Bistro is in the hotel. Tallyrand restaurant is 4 blocks from the hotel; their website states, "Tallyrand began in 1959 ... and prides itself on serving freshly made American classics, from buttermilk pancakes to our famous roast turkey dinner. We bake our muffins each morning and make homemade mashed potatoes and gravy each day. Sauces and salad dressings are made from scratch and prepared in our kitchen. We have made the commitment to serve the best food in town!"

When I was working for the above-mentioned agency, I would always try to book with Alaska Airlines (I love them) but it appears that they make too many stops on the way to Burbank (assuming you would be flying from Hector International Airport). I would also sometimes use the booking website, Expedia.com, (but NEVER Travelocity because they have terrible customer service). I checked, and it looks like you can get cheaper flight deals (multiple airlines to choose from) if you book through Expedia rather than directly with an airline.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents worth. :)
posted by SageTrail at 3:38 PM on December 29 [6 favorites]

Burbank is not a hard charging megalopolis. Easy to drive around and park, and a small and non-overwhelming airport.

Honestly you could just go to a travel agent or plug in Burbank into Priceline / Kayak / etc and book a room and flight and car in one go.
posted by zippy at 4:03 PM on December 29

Check the Southwest website separately for flights to Burbank; theirs aren't listed at outside sides like Expedia.
posted by BlahLaLa at 5:29 PM on December 29

I didn't see this recommended in a quick reading upthread, so apologies if it is a repeat.

Once you select where you are going to go, I'd recommend reaching to the people you are doing the booking for the training with. They may be able to:
- recommend the best airport
- recommend a nice nearby hotel (and may provide a discount code as they probably do a lot of business with them)
- recommend an airline
- recommend area restaurants
- perhaps arrange an airport shuttle
- probably tell you a few other things that you don't know you need to know

If they do these training all the time, they likely have some guidance for visitors that could give you some solid starting points.
posted by chiefthe at 6:09 PM on December 29 [3 favorites]

When I arranged travel for all employees at the agency where I used to work, I never used Kayak.com because it is too hard to get a refund from them when needed.
"Getting a refund from Kayak is generally difficult because they don't directly handle bookings, meaning you need to contact the airline, hotel, or rental car company you booked through to request a refund, and the refund policy will be based on their rules, not Kayak's; essentially, Kayak acts as a search engine, not a booking platform, so they cannot guarantee refunds unless there's a significant issue with the travel provider or a mistake on their end."

I found Expedia.com to be better because:
"Expedia offers a 24-hour cancellation policy that allows you to receive a full refund for most bookings if you cancel within 24 hours of booking. This policy applies to flights, hotels, cruises, cars, and vacation packages. The check-in date must be at least seven days away for the policy to apply."
posted by SageTrail at 8:09 PM on December 29 [3 favorites]

I know you didn't really specify budget, but when I did these things for work, I always got a pre-approved maximum hotel budget that was always slightly less than what was needed to be really close to training, which always kind of sucked. So I always had to get a rental car, which generally had a much easier budget, and you have to carry all your receipts for corporate reimbursement. I generally had to drive some distance every morning to get to training.

I haven't done one in a couple of years- maybe they are more lenient on that now, or maybe your corporation is nicer than mine was.
posted by The_Vegetables at 10:26 AM on December 30

I used to visit Burbank every couple of weeks on business; I second the recommendation of the Burbank Airport and of the Coast Burbank Hotel, which is where I always stayed. Casual, friendly, clean. The food is fine. The walk from there to AbleCine is reasonably nice.

Burbank itself is also nice but dull. If I were doing this, I'd rent a car at the airport even if I didn't think I was going to use it much, assuming work was covering it. Magnolia Blvd. is a decent stroll, with quirky businesses, and accessible from the Coast Burbank. Burbank Town Center has a variety of food and such but I don't know that I'd wanna walk there after a long day of training. But that's me and you'd be fine without a car as well.

I'll also agree that Burbank does not feel like a megacity. It's on the edge of a megacity for sure, but it doesn't feel overwhelming, I don't think.
posted by Bryant at 3:01 PM on December 30 [1 favorite]