Review of my 3 nights in LA

[luv2vacation]

The first thing I want to do is thank everyone who offered me so much advice and help on these boards. I appreciated the time you all took to answer my questions on the area.

 

We arrived at LAX at 6 PM on a Thurs night. I had pre-booked a shared ride with Super Shuttle for the ride to the Hotel Erwin in Venice Beach. We were the last ones on and the first ones off so this worked out great for us. We were tired after a long flight so we just ate at the hotel restaurant this night. The food was delicious but it was a little pricey.

 

I booked us in a premier ocean view room and we were given one on the 5th floor directly facing the ocean. What a fantastic view! I really liked the Hotel Erwin and I would recommend paying more for the view. It was worth it. We enjoyed watching the surfers from our balcony every morning - along with all the other characters that Venice Beach attracts.

 

On Fri we started the day with a stroll along the beach to Santa Monica. We went to the 3rd St Promenade and had breakfast at a outdoor cafe. After that we headed to 4th & Santa Monica Blvd to catch the Rapid Red bus #704. I had asked here about public transit and got mixed signals but I decided to give it a try. I thought it was great. The buses were clean. The people riding them were just fine and very helpful when we had a question. Every stop was announced loud and clear.

 

We rode the #704 ($1.25) to Santa Monica/Fairfax where we got off, crossed the street and jumped on the #217 ($1.25 pp). This bus took us to Hollywood/Highland to see the Hollywood sign, Chinese Theater, Walk of Fame, etc. When we were finished in this area we caught the West Hollywood Dash (25 cents pp) for a ride to the Sunset Strip. We got off on King St and just walked around looking at all the hot spots. We ate lunch at Mel's Drive-In before walking down La Cienga to Santa Monica Blvd to catch the #704 ($1.25) again. This time we got off at Canon and explored Beverly Hills. We walked down Rodeo Drive and ended up at Wilshire Blvd. We walked along Wilshire until we got to Santa Monica Blvd and we got on Rapid bus #720 ($1.25 pp). This bus took us back to Santa Monica. We got off on Wilshire/4th and headed to the 3rd St Promenade. This is a really nice place at night with all the street performers. We had dinner at a Mexican restaurant located here but I forgot the name of it. When we were ready to head back to our hotel we caught the Big Blue Bus #2 (75 cents pp) which dropped us off right across the street from the Hotel Erwin.

 

Total cost for transportation this day was $6 pp but the best part is that we were able to see things on our own time schedule and spend as much or as little time as we wanted at each place.

 

On Sat we first took a walk through the Venice Canals. You are all right - they are lovely. We ended up on Washington and ate breakfast at the C & O Trattoria. We walked out on the Venice Pier and then rented bikes to ride along the boardwalk. We rode to Santa Monica and the ride was fun. We just hung out at the beach all day. For dinner we went back to the C & O Trattoria because it was recommended on these boards. It was delicious and I am glad I paid attention to that advice!

 

Sunday was the day we got on the ship. I didn't want a shared ride so I booked with Execucar for a private ride to the pier. I recommend this company very highly. They were early for our pick-up and very professional. It was a great way to arrive to the ship.

 

That is all I can think of for now. I hope this helps someone.

[Wineaux]

Thanks for the update! Sounds like you had a great time and I'm glad you were adventuous enough to use the bus system. Great way to go if you have the time.

 

C&O is a great place to eat but I didn't know they did breakfast. Had dinner there many times when I lived in West LA.

 

Did you sing "That's Amore?"

[luv2vacation]

Thanks for the update! Sounds like you had a great time and I'm glad you were adventuous enough to use the bus system. Great way to go if you have the time.

 

C&O is a great place to eat but I didn't know they did breakfast. Had dinner there many times when I lived in West LA.

 

Did you sing "That's Amore?"

 

The C & O only offers breakfast on the weekend. They didn't sing "That's Amore" but I bet I would have enjoyed it if they did.

 

The bus system was always on time from my limited experience. The bus routes in the Hollywood area run every 12 minutes or less so we never waited long for a bus while visiting here. The exception would be the DASH bus. It only came every 20 minutes but that was easy to plan around. Also, for the first bus of the day in Santa Monica we had to wait about 20 minutes but after that it was a breeze. It took us about an hour to go from Santa Monica/4th to Hollywood/Highland and that includes switching buses.

[Jeff in Torrance]

Congratulations for having the gumption to use public transportation. It's not always easy in Southern California; but, it does work if you can figure out which bus to take. I've (heck, we've) used the Metro many times, including going to and coming back from LAX on various trips. You can actually go from LAX to the SAn Pedro port in only one transfer. You can go from LAX to downtown Long Beach without even a transfer, on the 232 bus, which leaves from Lot C at LAX.

[Fredr]

Luv,

 

Thank you for writing your review. One question though, while you really did a truly wonderful job with your travel planning is there anything that you would have done differently. And is there anything that you missed and wished you would have seen it?

 

I am very pleased that you and your DH had a great time here.

[luv2vacation]

Luv,

 

Thank you for writing your review. One question though, while you really did a truly wonderful job with your travel planning is there anything that you would have done differently. And is there anything that you missed and wished you would have seen it?

 

I am very pleased that you and your DH had a great time here.

 

I enjoyed everything we did - especially staying at the beach. If I had it to do over again I would probably skip the Sunset Strip area. It wasn't very exciting during the day although I am sure it is a nice place to be at night. I would probably go to The Grove/Farmer's Market instead. If I had another day I would have went to Universal Studios. I have been to the one in Orlando and I have read that it is a bit better than the Hollywood version. I decided to focus on things that were unique to the LA area for this trip.