Afternoon in LA

[SkipsMom]

American changed our flights and we are now scheduled to arrive in LAX at 11:00 a.m. Looking for suggestions on what to do for the afternoon/evening. We are staying at the LAX Crown Plaza and will not have a car.

 

Thanks!

Denise

[kenish]

There is an In n' Out Burger a few blocks north of the Crowne Plaza. You can walk it in 30 minutes or less, and get buzzed by landing jets.

[Keith1010]

Is your criuse leaving out of San Pedro? Just a thought but how about switching hotels and staying over in Long Beach. If you stayed at a hotel such as the Hyatt or the Renaissance you could easily walk to different attractions and then the following day take a taxi over to the San Pedro Pier.

 

Keith

[Splinter]

Have you considered staying in Long Beach instead? There is not much to do in the LAX area unless you rent a car or spend quite a bit on a cab to go over to Santa Monica or Venice Beach.

 

You would also be traveling to Long Beach at the least amount of traffic time, and would be close the next AM so you don't have to worry about making your flight. If you stay in the Convention Center or Downtown area you can get a shuttle that will take you to the Aquarium or the shopping mall or other places to eat easily.

[Cruisin' Chick]

American changed our flights and we are now scheduled to arrive in LAX at 11:00 a.m. Looking for suggestions on what to do for the afternoon/evening. We are staying at the LAX Crown Plaza and will not have a car.

 

Thanks!

Denise

 

Usually it's better to stay at a hotel in the airport area if you have an early flight the next morning (we did this before our honeymoon flight). But if you talking about pre-cruise, you should consider the suggestions above and stay near the port. The Long Beach hotels will shuttle you over to Shoreline Village (which is next to the Queen Mary and where the Carnival ships berth) and to the Aquarium of the Pacific, which is excellent. Then it's a quick taxi ride to the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro (unless your hotel will shuttle you there).

 

You can also stay in San Pedro at one of the two Cruise Critic members' recommended hotels. There are a few restaurants nearby. Then the hotel will shuttle you to the World Cruise Center.

 

Another nice place to stay is in Santa Monica. The Third Street Promenade is a favorite of many Angelenos -- shops, restaurants. On nice nights, street performers.

[SkipsMom]

Is your criuse leaving out of San Pedro? Just a thought but how about switching hotels and staying over in Long Beach. If you stayed at a hotel such as the Hyatt or the Renaissance you could easily walk to different attractions and then the following day take a taxi over to the San Pedro Pier.

 

Keith

 

 

Thanks for all the suggestions. Our cruise is actually leaving out of Hawaii and our flight to Honolulu is early the next morning. We were originally scheduled to arrive much later in the day so only planned on dinner and relaxing for the evening... Now that we are arriving earlier, thought there might be something to do not too far from LAX. Would we be better renting a car and getting over to Santa Monica? Any idea how much cab fare would be?

 

Denise

[Keith1010]

Denise, now it makes sense why you are staying near the airport.

 

I'm sure those who live in the area can provide more information.

 

We have visited there fairly frequently as we have relatives in the area. I would probably rent a car just so I was not dependent on the cabs. Santa Monica is certainly one area to visit.

[Sailorgirlseattle]

I may be way, waaaaay off base here, but how far is the airport from downtown? My geographical knowledge of LA is teeny-tiny. I ask, because if it's feasible, I was going to suggest Little Tokyo. I spent a full day there passing through LA on my train trip last March ... Little Tokyo is quite close to the Amtrak station, so made sense for me to overnight there. Anyway, if it's feasible and close enough, visiting there felt like visiting the real Japan! Lots and lots of sushi and noodle shops, Japanese import stores, etc. Viable option?

[Bruin Steve]

I may be way, waaaaay off base here, but how far is the airport from downtown? My geographical knowledge of LA is teeny-tiny. I ask, because if it's feasible, I was going to suggest Little Tokyo. I spent a full day there passing through LA on my train trip last March ... Little Tokyo is quite close to the Amtrak station, so made sense for me to overnight there. Anyway, if it's feasible and close enough, visiting there felt like visiting the real Japan! Lots and lots of sushi and noodle shops, Japanese import stores, etc. Viable option?

 

Nope...

Downtown is quite a ways from LAX...and depending on the day, the traffic isn't worth it...and it's not the part of LA I would spend my time in if I had just one afternoon...

 

I would take a cab to Santa Monica (Sorry, I don't know the cost--I live here so I never take cabs)...or, even better, I would rent a car just for the day (Cabs are very hard to find in LA--you usually have to call the cab company and arrange for one, the just don't cruise the streets like in some cities)...

 

So, yeah, I'd rent a car then go drive somewhere on the West Side--since you have all afternoon and evening, you could even go visit the Getty (if you like art museums) or go to Rodeo Drive...then head over to Venice Beach Boardwalk to check it out (Depending on time of year, it could be quite a treat)...then I'd head over to Santa Monica for dinner and a stroll on the Third Street Promenade in the post-dinner evening, then I'd hop back in the car and return to LAX, turn in the car and shuttle back to the hotel...and have them shuttle me back to the terminal in the morning...

 

Have fun...

[slidergirl]

If you don't mind public transportation, you can always take the Santa Monica bus line , aka The Big Blue Bus, down to Santa Monica. From the Green Line Metro station, the one near LAX, you can take bus #3. It'll go down into Santa Monica. Get off near the Promenade, and you can wander around for awhile, go down to the Pier, and have a good dinner at one of several good places in Santa Monica. If you want to see a fine university, you can take the bus all the way to UCLA (go Bruins!!). Wander the grounds, visit the Sculpture Garden, stop for a snack at The Bomb Shelter (if it's still there), throw a penny into the Inverted Fountain (aka The Toilet Bowl), drop by Ackerman Union to pick up a UCLA Tshirt at the Student Store. Go down into Westwood Village, wander around. If you're into art, you can visit the Hammer Museum.

[Sailorgirlseattle]

Thanks Steve ... it was worth a shot. But, um, isn't the Getty in that same neighborhood? Seems to me it was ... a visit to the Getty, and a sushi dinner. :rolleyes:

[Bruin Steve]

Thanks Steve ... it was worth a shot. But, um, isn't the Getty in that same neighborhood? Seems to me it was ... a visit to the Getty, and a sushi dinner. :rolleyes:

 

The Getty has two museums:

 

The Getty Villa is the older of the two, built in the 1970s on the property of J Paul Getty's Los Angeles residence (much to the dismay of his old neighbors--like my parents--Yes, I grew up next door to J Paul Getty!!). It is located at Coastline Drive (between Sunset Blvd. and the Pacific Coast Highway in Pacific Palisades (though it's always wrongly referred to as "Malibu"). This is a remarkable villa modeled after one in Pompeii together with columns and fountains...and now houses Getty's antiquities collection.

 

The art has now been moved to the "Getty Center" near the 405 Freeway just north of Sunset Boulevard...Very close to UCLA...

 

Neither is anywhere near Little Tokyo or Downtown

[cruissett]

We're also staying in the airport area overnight, but at the Courtyard in ElSegundo. Is there anything to do in that area for the day? Or will we have to rent a car. Not looking for anything much, but would like to go out to dinner that night. Any ideas?

[Sailorgirlseattle]

Doh! Just looked it up ... I was thinking Geffen, not Getty. Sorry for the confusion.

[SkipsMom]

Thanks again for all the suggestions. I think we will end up renting a car and driving up to the Santa Monica area. One more question... how bad will the traffic be on a Friday afternoon? :eek: Not too worried about the volume of cars... figured if I can drive in Boston, I can drive in LA! :D

[Cruisin' Chick]

I would echo Steve's suggestions. If you can rent a car and get to Santa Monica (park in the public lot nearby) and hang out at the Third Street Promenade, as I suggested above, where's there's nice restaurants as well as interesting stores, it would make for a nice afternoon/evening.

 

If you're into art, the Getty is the epitome of museums, at least around here. That's over in Brentwood, by the 405 freeway and Sepulveda Blvd. Once chaperoned a group of second graders there.:eek:

 

I wouldn't try to drive too far as afternoon traffic can get brutal and you'll be spending your flight to Hawaii to recover. Friday afternoon is getaway day for many people so some routes can get jammed. For some strange reason, one of them is the 405 going south from the Valley. So I'm guessing driving toward the airport may be part of that reason.

 

And a caveat about using our fun "rapid" transist system here. I know some people will get mad at me, but it's far different than other large city's bus systems. Mostly locals who don't have their own vehicles use the bus system here. Which means that it can be jammed with people who know where they're going and won't be too patient with tourists. It's far better to go with a city tour with a regular company (you can search the various threads...there are recommendations) or grab a taxi here and there, if you don't want to rent a car for the afternoon.

[Splinter]

If you drive to Santa Monica and back from the LAX area, don't even think about taking the freeway. Use Lincoln Blvd. That is what we do all the time.

[slidergirl]

I agree about not taking the freeway. Take Lincoln. You can drop by Marina del Rey and Venice Beach if you turn west on Washington Blvd. Then, turn North on Pacific. On that street, you'll go through Venice, then Ocian Park and into Santa Monica. That way is a little less commercial than all the way on Lincoln.

You should be able to get a pretty cheap car rental for one day at LAX.

[ConnMom]

We also have had our flight from Boston cancelled - and now will be arriving iat LAX n the late morning for a 9 p.m. flight to New Zealand. We don't want to rent a car, and will be tired from arriving at the Boston airport at 5:30 a.m. We might try to find a day room at an airport hotel, but I'm afraid that will become boring. I'm thinking of taking a cab over to Marina del Rey. Is that interesting enough for a few hours, including lunch? Is there anything else of interest in that area?

We will be lugging our carry-on luggage, since I don't think LAX has lockers for storage. Does anyone know if there is any other place where we can stow the bags for a few hours?

Thanks for any advice you might have.

Cheryl

[LETS PARTY]

what we do is take the free trolley that runs every hr about 10-8 daily to Manhattan beach, also stops at Manhattan beach mall,stop by all major hotels on century blvd.....from Manhattan you can take the bus only 50 cent to Hermosa or Redondo beach ...all 3 have many places to eat & drink or shop.....you can get the schedule at your hotel or google Manhattan trolley.....we fly in to lax from Maui Oct 16 staying at the Weston lax, we will be doing the trolly... the money you save on car & gas will buy you a nice dinner....I think trolley stops right in front on the crown

Rob

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g32655-i61-k1600269-Trolley_from_LAX_hotels_to_Manhattan_Beach-Los_Angeles_California.html

 

www.gatewaytola.org/pdf/ocean_express