Martin: 5 hours 24 mins.? What are the hours involved? Your incoming flight is obviously international. Remember, you'll need to go through Immigration, get your bags, go through Customs (usually just a matter of handing over your form, but you could be stopped), and then (assuming your bags are checked through to PDX) hand your bags over to an airline rep at a transit desk just outside Customs. And you should be back to the terminal for your next flight an hour ahead of time, in case of long security lines. Your free time, thus, will be very small. Depending on the actual hours involved, you could conceivably take a taxi to Manhattan Beach, Santa Monica Pier, Maina del Rey, or someplace else close to the airport, take a quick look and then head back to the airport, but you do not have time to see Hollywood, downtown L.A., etc. L.A. is a huge, spread out area. You won't have time to see much at all this time. Plan for a long stay on your way out?

8hr layover
 

Hello all,

I will be laying over at LAX for about 8 hours in a couple of weeks. I actually planned it like that because I want to visit the In & Out near the airport. I will be arriving around 2pm from Arizona and taking a redeye to PHL that night. I figure I'll have about 4hrs or so of usable time after accounting for the In & Out trip and security screening, etc for the flight home. I'm considering taking the bus or taxi to the Santa Monica Pier, but I'm undecided. Any other suggestions? Not really a beach or art museum person. I did check into the Flight Path Museum, but the operating hours don't workout too well for this trip. Thanks, JOE

Martin,

There is no "go into town" in LA... :) LA is a collection of many "towns" scattered throughout the region. If you want to see enough of LA to be able to say you've been here, I suggest you stay close to the beach area, otherwise, you will not have enough time to make it back to LAX for your connecting flight. After you clean immigration and customs, you have realistically about 2.5 to 3 hours to look around.

I suggest you take a taxi from the airport to Manhattan Beach pier. It's a small seaside town/suburb of LA. You can grab some food and walk on the beach... take a nap perhaps... There is a taxi stand in Manhattan Beach, which makes it easy to get back to LAX (taxi cabs don't typically run empty on the streets in LA like other big cities... you can't just hail on on the streets; you need to go to a taxi stand or hotel to catch one waiting there). This option will probably cost you $25~$30.

The other option is take a taxi to Santa Monica. This is a bigger city with more things to see and do. It also has a pier and nice beach but it also has a pretty nice Downtown pedestrian area that is good for spending a couple of hours. This option will cost you about $45 one-way for taxi. It will be very easy to find a taxi back to LAX from Downtown Santa Monica. Just stop by any hotel in the area and there should be cabs waiting.

I would not suggest taking the bus (which is cheap and easy) because you are short on time.

How about Culver City or Westwood? Not near the beach but still kind of interesting and close by area for short day trip.

Westwood is easy to access from LAX... take the Green Culver City bus #6 (or Rapid 6, which is faster) from LAX bus center and ride it all the way towards the end and get off at Westwood Village (UCLA is the final stop). It's a good area to look around, eat, and people watch that is decidedly not touristy. Also, if you get here before summer holiday, there will be lots of young college girls walking around ;)

Downtown Culver City is also pretty interesting place. Again, plenty of shops and eats and you'll see lots of Sony studio employees walking around. Take the #6 bus as before but you need to get off at Washington Blvd and transfer to Culver City #1 bus. Get off at Culver/Main and you are right in Downtown.

PDF file for bus info: http://www.culvercity.org/Government...ystem_Map.ashx

layover in LAX
 

Arriving in LA around 5:00 pm on a Tuesday and leaving on international flight to SYD on Wed. at 10:00pm. Any suggestions @ where to stay and what possibly to do in short time? thanks

Wrong choice for anything but low cost...

Take the Westwood FlyAway Bus if you are going to Westwood/UCLA, which will be less than 1/2 the time. And has the added advantage of departing right from the terminal loop (under the green sign) rather than having to take a shuttle to the transit center to catch a bus.

He wanted to go to In-N-Out (by the airport I assume) so it's easier to catch the city bus after that rather than go back to the airport for FlyAway. But of course Westwood has its own In-N-Out so your suggestion works too.

But at around the evening rush hour (when PHLJJS will be visiting), FlyAway won't necessarily be faster. Rapid 6 will run from UCLA to LAX in about 50 minutes, vs. FlyAway,which will take the 405 even during rush hour and take up to 45 minutes (published time... could take longer). Plus FlyAway's frequency to/from Westwood is a problem. It runs once per hour most days so if you missed one, you will miss your flight. At least you know the green Culver City Bus will run like clockwork from Westwood every 10 minutes when you are trying to get back to LAX.

They're still there? I thought they'd disappeared long ago! By coincidence, my wife and I are staying at a hotel on Century for 3 nights later thismonth. I'll research this topic, in order to help this site. It's the least I can do.

Quick question:

I'll be connecting T3 -> TBIT in January, and might have some time to spare (approx. 2 hours from arrival of my incoming flight) till I'm able to check in for my next flight.

First, how long would you assume it would take from the arrival of my inbound till I'm at TBIT ready to check in? From getting of the flight, collecting my suitcase, and walk over to TBIT?

Second: When I'm at TBIT: Are there any place to sit down, have a meal/snack, a drink, a beer, or anything before security? Or places to sit down at all, except the floor itself?

Thanks :)

T3 and TBIT are right next to each other. The walk between the two takes about three minutes. Just exit T3, turn right, and walk along the sidewalk ("pavement," for you :p). It will bend to the left...and then it's kind of hard to miss the doors into TBIT. ;)

From gate arrival to the doors will depend on the airline. The walk itself from the gate to baggage claim takes about 5 minutes, so you'll likely make it there before your bags appear on the carousel. (If you're arriving on Alaska Airlines, they have a commitment to get your bags to the carousel by 20 minutes after arrival; if they fail to deliver on that commitment, they'll give you a voucher good for $20 off your next flight or 2,000 miles.) I'd say you'll easily be to TBIT within 30 minutes of gate arrival of your inbound flight.

There is a food court in the back of TBIT's central atrium (behind the check-in counters) with some standard airport fare. I don't recall much beyond security--it's pretty dead back there.

Thank you. I read about the food court on the airports website, but couldn't figure out if it was before or after security. Then I can kill some time having lunch there, if I'm not able to check in when I arrive. Thanks ;)

If you have the time to spare, the Southern California iconic burger chain IN-N-Out is not far from the airport and WELL worth a stop. Three ways to get there:

1) Cab (probably less than $5) [EDIT: Someone reported the minimum fare from LAX is $25]
2) Walk (about 20 minutes from T3)
3) Ride the Parking Spot Sepulveda shuttle, which drops you off next door to In-N-Out. Don't tell the driver you don't have a car parked at the Parking Spot garage--they tend to frown on people using their shuttles to visit In-N-Out... ;)

One of the airport shuttles goes to the city bus center, which I understand is not far from In-N-Out, but I'm not personally familiar with this option. Perhaps someone can give a fourth option to get there that works well... :)

Take LAX shuttle C to Bus Center - time varies depending on how long you had to wait and traffic condition inside airport... say about 10 minutes.

Walk from LAX Bus Center to In-N-Out burger... takes about 10 minutes

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&sour...=UTF8&t=h&z=17

Or you could walk to In-N-Out burger from the terminal 1, 2, or 3 in about the same amount of time.

There is a thread on how to do In-N-Out runs from the airport:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/los-a...d-threads.html

One can use the one of The Parking Spot shuttles (use the one that is going to the "Sepulveda" lot, not the "Century" lot).

Of course, you are welcome to PM me and let me know when you want to do a run. Depending on the time you're asking, I just may be able to join you.

I like the perpetual In-N-Out DOs :-)

I recently walked from T! to In-N-Out and back and, let me tell you, it's not that far. Took about 20 min each way. Maybe an extra 10 each way would get you to T3 or TBIT.