sard

I will be flying into LAX Thursday night, and will be driving out to Las Vegas Friday morning.

Where would be the best place to stay?

In Los Angeles (the city)?
At the airport (I can also save on the rental until friday morning)?
Somewhere else?

Someone told me to stay at LAX, even though its not "on the way" to Las Vegas, its near all the highways anyway.
But he said that I need to leave before 9am or else I will be stuck in traffic all day.

Any advice?
Thanks!

Craig6z

I think you are getting good advice. Consider Priceline for an airport hotel.

Only inconvenience will be that you may have to shuttle back to the terminal area to pick up a rental car bus, depending on who you rent from.

SWCPHX

To avoid traffic you either need to leave WELL before 9am or after 9am before 2pm or so.

Why not just fly to LAS on Friday? The cost of a flight is probably close to the cost of a rental and gas.

sard

WELL before 9? that sucks.
What time will the traffic let up? Around 10?
Is there a better location to stay then?

I was told I would have to take the 10 to the 15.
My friend said that 10 is crowded, but 15 is fine...so perhaps I should stay somewhere past 10 and right before 15, so that I will miss the traffic?

oh...and the reason we are flying into LAX...we are flying in Thursday night, that week I am traveling for work.
I figured using the 2nd ticket from work to fly into LAX is more acceptable than flying into Vegas.

Thanks

SWCPHX

If you're not arriving too late into LAX and don't mind driving a bit, yes, I would suggest finding a place to stay the night near the 10/15 interchange, for example, Ontario.

If you wait until Friday morning to leave, to avoid the worst of morning rush hour I wouldn't leave any later than 7am and that's cutting it really close IMHO. If you do stay near LAX, do not go up to the 10, take the 105 East and then the 605 North to the 10 East to the 15 North.

If you want to sleep in and avoid the morning rush, if you leave between 10 and 2 you should be fine. KNX 1070 will be your best friend for navigating LA freeways.

OskiBear

It depends on how late you are arriving and how far you want to drive the night you arrive.

Because you are heading to Vegas, if you stay anywhere east of downtown (essentially the longitude of Interstate 110), you should be OK heading east bound in the am without hitting much rush hour traffic.

If you stay near the airport, I would definitely agree with an earlier poster to take Interstate 105 eastbound from the airport. In the morning, once you are east of the 110 or 710 vicinity, traffic should be fine, even during rush hour. I make this commute every morning

It's also spring break so traffic has been relatively light this week.

If you do make some progress away from the airport on Thursday night, there might some good deals on suburban hotels away from the airport area.

cblaisd

Completely concur.

The Holiday Inn Express Rancho Cucamonga can be had on Points Breaks for 5K points. Nice hotel.

sard

Thanks for the info.

I will be arriving around 11:30pm.

So its not TOO late to drive to Ontario.
I went on mapquest and it seems it is about a 45 minute drive.

I have 2 Marriott certificates (up to cat 4) that I need to use by Sept, so I figure this will be a good chance to use one.

Probably - Residence Inn Ontario Airport, unless you know of a better Marriott that near 15?

Thanks

choijw

If you are 2 or more in the car, carpool lanes are available. Makes this drive from LAX a little bit more bearable during the peak 7am-9am hours. (Should only be busy going into downtown.)

Note: do not leave too late in the afternoon (4pm). A large % of ppl tries to go to vegas for the weekend and Friday afternoon traffic to vegas sucks.

TWA884

From I-105 east, I would take I-605 north to I-210 east to I-15 north. In my experience I-210 is considerably less crowded and has fewer big rigs than I-10 between Pomona (Route 57) and I-15. It is also a few miles shorter.

sard

was just told not to stay in Ontario.
Friend said that since I am arriving at 1130pm, its a long drive.
Plus he said that area isnt the best.

He recommended - San Gabriel, or Arcadia.

FlyinHawaiian

I would just stay at an airport hotel the first night and save a little $$$ for the cost of a rental car and possibly parking. Wake up the next morning, have breakfast, pick up the car, and by then you will miss most of rush hour. With more than one passenger, you can take the carpool lanes and save even more time. If you stay at the Renaissance or Four Points, you can pretty much walk across the street to Budget and Hertz.

I agree that the best route from LAX to LAS is the 105 E to the 605 N to the 210 E to the 15 the rest of the way. This can be done in about four hours without stopping.

sard

Thank you for all the information everyone.

That was my original thought too.
But now I think it doesnt matter.

I land around Thurs. 11:30pm.
I leave next Friday at 4pm.

So in terms of rental days, it makes no difference if I pick up the car Thurs. at 11:30pm or Friday at 10am.

FlyinHawaiian

Most hotels in California charge for parking, especially ones near high-traffic (like LAX) areas. That includes the brands like Courtyard that normally have free parking (although El Segundo doesn't charge). In any case, if I got off of a flight at 11:30 p.m. I wouldn't be very interested in finding my way over to the car rental area and then making my way to a hotel. I'd most likely want to take a shower and get into a bed.

bzcat

Stick with your original plan. You arrive way too late to try to attempt to pick up a rental car and drive for 1.5 hours to Ontario. It will take you about 30 minutes on average to go from the terminal curb side to a rental car lot (10~15 minute wait time, 15~20 drive time) so if your flight arrives on time at 11:30 pm, you won't be able to pick up a car until well past midnight (20 minutes to taxi and park at the gate + 30 minutes for deplane and luggage + 10 minutes wait for shuttle bus + 15 minutes drive time = 75 minutes minimum time from touch down to rental car desk). This assumes you are arriving on a domestic flight... If you are arriving on an international flight, you won't get to the rental car lot until 2 AM.

On Friday morning, I would take it easy and eat a breakfast at the hotel. There is no point in leaving early. Some hotel has rental car counter so you may not even have to go back to the airport to catch the rental car shuttle. Pick up your car around 10 AM and head out towards Vegas. You will avoid most of the monring rush hour traffic. Take the I-105 to I-605 to CA-60 to I-15. This route avoids Downtown LA and the heavy truck traffic on I-10. Plus if you have 2 or more people in the car, you can use the carpool lane, which should be pretty speedy during mid day.