The last trip I took to Disneyland was a blast. I’m currently a college student so my four friends and I took the cheapest trip we possibly could to the Happiest Place On Earth. That also meant staying at the cheapest hotel we could find.

For us that turned out to be the Motel 6 Anaheim Maingate. This hotel is located only 0.8 miles away from the entrance to Disneyland Park, and is one of the Good Neighbor Hotels.

We stayed at this hotel for four nights in mid-December while we used our four-day Park Hoppers. This hotel may not work for everyone for reasons I will talk about below, but it worked for us.

We stayed in a room with two queen beds and then asked for a cot so there were spots for all of us to sleep. The cot fit comfortably in the room and did not make it feel cramped or small. The best thing about the cot was that it was free! (Also I didn’t have to sleep on it. Bonus!)

A quick note: all of the hotel photos in this article are from the hotel’s website. I did not think photos of our cheap hotel were needed to retain the magical memories of our trip (and I did not know at the time that I was going to review it).

Since this is most often the cheapest Good Neighbor Hotel available near Disneyland, you would assume that it would also be the most lackluster.

You would be correct.

The rooms are painted white with a very harsh orange colored statement wall. Other than light fixtures and some shelving, the walls are bare. I would not have called the beds luxurious or anything, but they did what they needed to do. Honestly, after 10 hour park days the mattresses could have been filled with bricks and I probably would still have slept fine.

The bathrooms were also very bare, and the towels provided were some of the worst I have ever used. Having been someone who has stayed in multiple Motel 6’s before, I was not surprised. They are not only gritty, but are about the size needed for a small child to dry themselves. If you have the room in your luggage I would pack a couple beach towels for your stay here.

There is a pool at this hotel, there are pictures of it on the website, but during our stay it was closed. I also don’t actually recall seeing it while we were there. And, considering that we went in December, the weather never really warranted a swim.

One thing that definitely lacked at the Motel 6 was food options. There are not many restaurants or fast food locations near the hotel, and the only options they had in-house came from a vending machine.

I feel like I’m completely nailing this hotel to the wall, so let me share with you the positives of our experience. First, it was CHEAP.

Currently on the hotel website you can get a room with two queen beds for $75 dollars a night. Since our group had five, that came out to $15 a night for each of us. You can’t ask for anything cheaper.

Also, in the lobby (a very sketchy lobby) there was a small gift shop with cheap souvenirs and some essential items like toothpaste or pain medication. This shop came in handy because at one point we needed band-aids, which were stocked in the gift shop.

I think it’s also worth noting that there was a Disney desk located in the lobby, so there was someone there who could help with any vacation questions you had.

Overall, the hotel was definitely the most un-magical part of our trip. It was shabby and only had the bare essentials. But, if you are trying to get to Disney on a budget, I would recommend the Motel 6 Anaheim Maingate if only for its price.

Since it’s a Good Neighbor Hotel there are buses that regularly drive from Disneyland to the hotel, and the 20 minute walk isn’t that much of a hassle. But, if I had more than a dirt cheap budget? I would pick anywhere, literally anywhere else.

Overall Rating: 3/10

Have you stayed at the Motel 6 Anaheim Maingate? Let us know your thoughts, or any questions you might have, in the comments below. Planning a trip to Disneyland Resort? Check out our Disneyland Trip Planning Guide to help you out. If you enjoy what you are reading here on Wandering in Disney please share this post with your friends and like our social media pages. You can also subscribe to the blog via WordPress or email. All of those links are on the right side of this page. Thank you for reading, we really appreciate it!