We (daughters and I) recently stayed at the Clarion. It was fine. The room was big, but the bathroom incredibly tiny. It was perfectly situated to the Toy Story lot which was great. But at night it was still a little bit of a lonely, dark walk if you’re on your own. I’ve never taken the ART buses. I know those stop right on Harbor so if a stop is near Clarion, it would be much less of a walk. You could always take buses in the morning and uber/lyft in the events as Barb suggested.
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Would love to stay there one day! I’m looking into late October/early November and its $215+/night. End of August will drop it to $151+/night or so.
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After Thanksgiving or the following week.
That’s a nice time to go. Plenty of time for prices to drop maybe!
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Yeah I’m trying to at least reserve a room now and then hope for discounts.
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I took the ART bus from the stop by the Clarion on my last trip. I walked behind the Clarion and what is now the Cortana hotel to get to the Courtyard and that was the worst part.
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I have heard really goods things about the Islander Hotel, but I am guessing it is motel style as well and has outdoor corridors. I will keep thinking…
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I agree 100% with this advice and I also feel like the farther you get from Harbor and the DL pedestrian crosswalk and then definitely past Katella, the sketchier it gets. (Also anything beyond the super fancy Courtyard Marriot going towards Ball is NOT a walk I would do, even with the hubby and kids).
If you feel like you need the indoor hallways though, the Springhill and Sheraton are going to be the closest ones. Also the Portofino is right there on that corner and in the past there have been good deals to be had, but their hotel is super shabby (we’ve stayed 2x and first time was ok, seemed on par with some of the shabbier rooms we’ve seen along Harbor, but 2nd time was noticeably worse, the room hotel key didn’t work at all in the two attempts we made with it on our several hours there and we ended up leaving the room at midnight when found a 3rd giant bed bug crawling around the walls and then inspected one of the kids’ beds to find someone else’s baby rag burp cloth tucked in the sheets- we seriously slept in our van that night in the parking garage where we had been parked while waiting for the Marriott Residence to let us into a room at 7am without charging us $250 for just the few hours between 1am-7am). So I can’t say that I recommend the Portofino, but maybe you’ll have better luck with them. But I do recommend both Springhill and Sheraton.
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Is the Sheraton the Four Points by Sheraton or is it a separate hotel?
Not the Four Points. There is one close to the Convention center. If you know where the CVS is on Harbor and Katella it’s just past that going south along Harbor. It was our go-to when we had an awesome Amex SPG rewards card. We racked up points like crazy using the card for our everyday expenses (and paid off at the end of the month) and used it to get some free rooms here and there and to upgrade a lot of of our visits to include free breakfast and/or club level.
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Yeah the Portofino has great rates, but definitely could be sketch from what I’ve seen. I’m leaning toward the Fairfield now, but the Springhill is definitely on my radar.
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I just remembered 
Check Hotel Lulu too! 
It used to be the Red Lion. It is down Harbor Blvd.
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