So. California.
Unlike NY, there's no restriction on out-of-staters' choice of venue for the exam - you basically have your pick of doing it anywhere in California where it's on offer. Even more good news, unlike my experience in NY, you get to determine your venue well beforehand, so you're able to set up your accommodations without guesstimation.
This blog being for the non-Californian: your "obvious" option may be to choose a venue that is a hotel - perhaps one not too far from the airport you're coming in by - and then live in that hotel. There aren't too many of those (unlike for NY), though. You could stay some place close to the venue and walk over - but you're likely gonna find that all you can find are not-quite-fantastic motel-style accommodations (by which I am not saying that I'm too good for motels, but that there are good motels and then there are not so good motels), when it comes to being close to particular exam venues. For some cities, there is the additional joy of being in high-crime areas).
All that is because - this being California - what you're really expected to do is to drive to your venue.
And I'm going to say you're going to feel much better for staying in a nice place than in some cheap dive with lighting so poor you can't even do any last-minute-swotting, getting woken up in the middle of the night when trains pass by, heavy vehicles beeping their way around the street outside, etc.
So - put up in a nice place, and rent a car (I mean, if you're coming in from the airport, you may as well just pick up the car from there - you'll be returning there anyway?).
Where I took the exam: the San Mateo County Event Center
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There's a wide range of chain hotels etc. within 10-15 minutes of driving from here (I stayed at a Holiday Inn - check tripadvisor for noise ratings, though I must say I find the signal-to-noise ratio of tripadvisor not that great), and of course you could stay even further.
Parking at San Mateo is (was?) $10 a day. Key thing to note - arrive early if you can, so that you can park close to, and facing toward the exits - it'll be a mad crush getting out of the car park (it does not bode well for future collegiality in the legal profession, considering the kind of line-cutting and aggressive driving I saw). You don't need the additional hassle. If you need to do any significant reorienting of your car in order to get out of the place, you may as well walk out and get dinner first, because you ain't driving anywhere:
Just behind the place is a street with quite a lot of small restaurants that were pretty good (I particularly liked the Chinese place :-) - you might want to pack your lunch though, because of the crowds (again, you want to avoid hassle during the exam right?).
So - put up in a nice place, and rent a car (I mean, if you're coming in from the airport, you may as well just pick up the car from there - you'll be returning there anyway?).
Where I took the exam: the San Mateo County Event Center
View Larger Map
There's a wide range of chain hotels etc. within 10-15 minutes of driving from here (I stayed at a Holiday Inn - check tripadvisor for noise ratings, though I must say I find the signal-to-noise ratio of tripadvisor not that great), and of course you could stay even further.
Parking at San Mateo is (was?) $10 a day. Key thing to note - arrive early if you can, so that you can park close to, and facing toward the exits - it'll be a mad crush getting out of the car park (it does not bode well for future collegiality in the legal profession, considering the kind of line-cutting and aggressive driving I saw). You don't need the additional hassle. If you need to do any significant reorienting of your car in order to get out of the place, you may as well walk out and get dinner first, because you ain't driving anywhere:
Just behind the place is a street with quite a lot of small restaurants that were pretty good (I particularly liked the Chinese place :-) - you might want to pack your lunch though, because of the crowds (again, you want to avoid hassle during the exam right?).
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