California - 6 hours @ LAX - what options exist?

Coming in from Asia, we'll have a 6 hour layover in LAX on a Friday evening (5:30PM-11:30PM) prior to ou onward journey to ORD. Any suggestions as to how to entertain ourselves? I figure that allowing time for customs on arrival and security on departure, that's still 4 hours to kill. Is there lots to do in the airport? Any easy transport options to downtown? Another option, of course, is to hang out in the SQ or UA lounge - what are those like? Sorry for all the questions but I usually take the direct ORD-NRT flight, so I'm a little rusty on the West Coast airports.

I dont know what kinds of things there are to do in the airport, but I wouldnt waste time thinking about getting to downtown. There arent too many ways to get there that are quick and/or cheap. And you wouldnt catch my ... on the green line, but maybe thats just me.

Downtown LA is lame. I'd rent the cheapest economy car and head to Westwood, Pacific Palisades, Santa Monica, Malibu, etc for some yummies and shopping. If it's not rush hour, everything is ~15-25 minutes.


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Premier Exec 1k
ORD, SFO, NRT

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by InfrequentSarcasticFlyer:
Downtown LA is lame. I'd rent the cheapest economy car and head to Westwood, Pacific Palisades, Santa Monica, Malibu, etc for some yummies and shopping. If it's not rush hour, everything is ~15-25 minutes.


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renting a car is going to cut that time way down though, because all LAX car rental places are off-site...so now you have to factor in waiting for the shuttle, waiting at the desk, getting the car, and then the same on the way back.

Sadly, LAX is a very boring airport. If you're willing to spend the $$$ for a taxi, you could always head over to Venice or Santa Monica. I wouldn't bother going to the trouble of renting a car or using public transportation for the short amount of time you have.

As far as using the SQ lounge, that won't be an option. It's in the international terminal, and there won't be any way for you to access it. It's the UA lounge or nothing...

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by in31122:
Coming in from Asia, we'll have a 6 hour layover in LAX on a Friday evening (5:30PM-11:30PM) prior to ou onward journey to ORD. Any suggestions as to how to entertain ourselves?</font>

Marina del Rey. It's about a 10 minute cab ride. Have dinner at Cafe del Rey, then go to one of the nearby clubs. Or head over to Fisherman's Village, a tourist location, but pleasant, right on the water.

See http://www.visitthemarina.com

Hey, 6 hours is 6 hours. Might as well kill one of the hours doing car rental BS if multiple cabs would cost the same or more.

You can walk over to the In-n-Out Burger and have a 20 patty cheese burger, This should consume a large part of the 6 hours http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

http://www.versiontwo.org/archives/burger3.jpg
http://www.versiontwo.org/archives/000472.shtml

Actually I do walk to this In-n-Out Burger when I have a couple hours between flights
http://www.in-n-out.com/cgi-bin/inosearch.pl?category=store&data_in=117

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gfowler-ord-1k
Visit my web page (http://www.genefowler.com/MPW004) on how UA is honoring their terms of the Early Bird promo. You must register at both http://www.united.com/offer/mpw004 and http://www.united.com/offer/mpd714 by Mar 15 to get the full bonus.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by in31122:
Coming in from Asia, we'll have a 6 hour layover in LAX on a Friday evening (5:30PM-11:30PM) prior to ou onward journey to ORD. Any suggestions as to how to entertain ourselves? I figure that allowing time for customs on arrival and security on departure, that's still 4 hours to kill. Is there lots to do in the airport? Any easy transport options to downtown? Another option, of course, is to hang out in the SQ or UA lounge - what are those like? Sorry for all the questions but I usually take the direct ORD-NRT flight, so I'm a little rusty on the West Coast airports.</font>

Take a cab down to Hermosa Beach pier - a bit of a "party" atmosphere, but you may enjoy it. Traffic southbound to there from LAX shouldn't be a problem, even at that time of day.

Alternatively, take a cab up to the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica. You can kill time shopping, wandering, or eating....

LACMA is open until 9pm on Fridays:

Los Angeles County Museum of Art
5905 Wilshire Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90036
323-857-6000 (general information)
323-857-0098 (TDD)
http://www.lacma.org

Good suggestions. But this seems more apt for the FT Airport/LAX forum, which is where I am transferring this for perhaps wider input. Iirc, there are also some old threads there on the topic that can be searched.

Please continue to follow it there.


Chuck
aka cblaisd
Moderator, United

Traffic on a Friday night in LA can be rough, so I wouldn't plan on venturing too far away from LAX. But, you are left with many, many good places to have a nice dinner. The FT Dining - Los Angeles forum has a lot of good recommendations. I would say any place from Santa Monica to the north to Redondo Beach to the south is fair game. I think Beverly Hills/Century City might be pushing it. It could easily take you 90 minutes to get to downtown. Plus, a lot of the popular eating places might have a wait to get in.

Taxis would be easy to get from LAX, but you would probably need to ask the restaurant to call a cab for your return.

If you are discrete about it, you could use a shuttle from an airport hotel for transportation. For example, taking the Furama Hotel shuttle will deposit you in a nice neighborhood near LAX and across the street is the Thai restaurant that is frequented by many FTers. There's a great Italian place in the area as well.

[This message has been edited by FlyinHawaiian (edited Mar 16, 2004).]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by SFO_Runner:
Take a cab down to Hermosa Beach pier - a bit of a "party" atmosphere, but you may enjoy it. Traffic southbound to there from LAX shouldn't be a problem, even at that time of day.
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I second this.

It's only about 15 minutes & a $20 cab ride away, and traffic really isn't a concern, unless there's a U.S Dept. of Homeland Security Red with Chartreuse polka dot alert and LAPD needs to screen every car on Sepulveda that passes by LAX...

I love Club Sushi (across the street from the strand), and you get dining miles there! http://www.flyertalk.com/airports/ftairports_forum/biggrin.gif Hennessy's is a good Irish place, and I also give a plug to Sangria's.

Even closer is downtown El Segundo--not as much variety as Hermosa, but probably about 10 minutes closer.

If you're a plane geek, the Encounter restaurant (in the white Jetson structure at LAX) has great views of the runways, although it may be dark outside when you're there so it could be a waste of time. However, I like the calamari, and Manuel the bartender is excellent. Decoration is really cool--use of the soda gun turns on some "futuristic" sounding music.

[This message has been edited by UNITED959 (edited Mar 16, 2004).]

All have been great suggestions.

I too wouldn't venture too too far from the airport. I'd say the furthest I'd go might be Santa Monica (3rd Steet/Santa Monica Pier). Nice restaurants, quirky shops and some wacky people watching too. And if you rent a car or take a cab you can get there without taking the 405 (a VERY bad idea on a Friday night).

If you want to hang at the airport, Encounter in the Theme Building is cool, but pricey.

You could walk over to the In-N-Out north of LAX (it's a decent walk but not TOO bad) for an awesome burger, fries and chocolate shake, then go back to Encounter and go to the bar for a cocktail (or 3) and enjoy the atmosphere without paying $20+ on a meal.

For 3 dolla you can take a *FREE* bus to the local light rail (ie train) system and ride anywhere in the system (it extends about 25 mi) and get on and off anywhere. No traffic problems too. It may also get you on a bus too (?) http://www.mta.net/riding_metro/riders_guide/rail_overview.htm

MisterNice

Thanks very much for all the suggestions - looks like I'll be staying off the bus and in a cab! I'm looking forward to my short exploration of LA, or rather, its outlying areas! Thanks again.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by in31122:
Thanks very much for all the suggestions - looks like I'll be staying off the bus and in a cab! I'm looking forward to my short exploration of LA, or rather, its outlying areas! Thanks again.</font>

Just keep in mind... LA isn't a very "hail a cab" type of city. Best of luck. Enjoy! =)

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">LA, or rather, its outlying areas</font>There aren't any areas of LA that aren't outlying http://www.flyertalk.com/airports/ftairports_forum/smile.gif. We used to say growing up that "downtown" LA was a polite fiction for the benefit of visitors from the East Coast whose heads would explode if informed there weren't such a thing.

Here are two suggestions from Joe B. (http://www.zyworld.com/brancatelli/bf2003/branc080703.htm)

get a dirt cheap rental car from FOX rent a cars and see close in sights that you might fancy

I followed my own advice in the preceeding e-mail during a 10 hour stay on a Mileage run (why not spend a day in L.A.?)

I will do the same this Sunday when I stay for one night (last run to get the 2 trips for 1 worldwide ticket on UA).

Slightly beat up car, not the every 2 seconds shuttle but for under $14 buck for a day for a nissan sentra Fox works.