14 hour layover at LAX need help!
 

Hi all,
I have a 14 hour layover at LAX this summer and could use your help as I've never been to LA. I arrive just after 7AM on a Wednesday in August and my departing flight does not leave until 9pm (same day). Since I have 14 hours I figure I'll explore.

My current options as I see them are:
1) Beach! But what beach is best to go too?
2) Drive to Long Beach and go to the Aquarium of the Pacific
3) Getty Museum

But I know nothing about LA traffic, so please feel free to give me recommendations and/or comments.

My other question is about rental cars. I am #1 Gold with hertz which is nice because I get to skip the lines, but even with my CDP Hertz is more expensive than Enterprise (by $20), and Thrifty/Dollar (by $30). Is there any reason not to rent from one of those three companies at LAX? Will I have to wait in line for hours for getting my car?

Thanks for any help!

The discounts from southwest (available on this board hint hint) are often ludicrous. Even if you don't fly WN, the savings may be worth it. Just get yourself a free account, book through WNs site, earn the 0.5 or 1 credit, and take your money!

Traffic is ugly, in my 2 experiences. Getty was amazing.

Go animal style. Fries were so so, shakes good.

Of the three options I would have to recommend:

1. Getty - It's a short drive North of the airport & has a fantastic collection. $7 to park and free admission. Wonderful collection of European paintings and the architecture is amazing.

2. Venice beach - A non-stop circus sideshow! Couple of miles up is the Santa Monica pier area which sometimes is good for restaurant celebrity sightings.

3. Aquarium of the Pacific is nice, but not world class.

Good luck!

[QUOTE=ludocdoc;7633263]The discounts from southwest (available on this board hint hint) are often ludicrous. Even if you don't fly WN, the savings may be worth it. Just get yourself a free account, book through WNs site, earn the 0.5 or 1 credit, and take your money!
QUOTE]

I went looking for the amazing discounts through WN's site, but they were not to be found, at least for my dates for a week near the end of May.

I would go to venice beach & then head over to hollywood walk around have an early dinner and make it back to lax
try price line for a good deal on a rental car

Don't bother w/ Hollywood. Given the amount of time you've got you can do both the beach & the Getty. Have fun! Cheers.

Good choices all, dcstudent!

It's useful to note that you'll be here on a weekday. Traffic on I-405 (excuse me, the 405 -- I don't yet speak southern Californian ;)) is horrendous; it's the main artery over on the West Side. But, you've got a whole 14 hours; the traffic shouldn't ruin your visit.

You might try by starting out at the Getty, depending upon how early it opens and how soon you can get there. You can spend a while there. I think it's worth the visit even if you never see any art; the setting of the museum and the architecture of its buildings is fantastic.

Once you're done there I'd suggest that you either hit Venice or Santa Monica, California, for the beach. Use a parking lot or structure; it's probably not worth the headache to find street parking, particularly in Venice. You can find decent restaurants for dinner (I'm thinking of the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica) in either place and they're right on the beach. So, after the Getty, hit the beach and hang out, then head for dinner and back down to LAX. Or, something like that.

Then there was this hilarious account of this guy who spent a good while at the Whaler in Venice eating and drinking and, eventually, doing body shots with the natives!

I have to second, or thrd, not bothering with Hollywood. Your original choices are completely doable and are some nice things to do within a reasonable drive from LAX.

Traffic on the 405 is bad between roughly 7-10 am and 3:30-7:30 (or later) pm. These are rough approximations and it is sometimes bad earlier and later than that. And amazingly wasn't too bad this Monday at 7:30 am when I was headed to the airport. But I digress...

There is a brief window in the middle of the day when it isn't too bad. But don't for a minute think that it will be light. One thing I have noticed is that L.A. residents refer to how bad the traffic is by how fast you can go, whereas residents of many other areas refer to how bad the traffic is by how many cars are on the road. In L.A. there is almost always traffic, but you can also often go 65 mph in it.

A safe rule of thumb for a visit of less than 24 hours is to stick to the Westside (Hollywood and downtown are not on the Westside) and surrounding areas. Unless there is something specific that you are aching to do outside that area basically anything west of the 405 (or close to that), as far south as the South Bay and as far north as Sunset Blvd and Malibu (ok, maybe thats a bit far) could be reasonably achieved and will give you a good taste of L.A. You can of course do more and go farther afield, depending on how tired/stressed you want to be and how energetic/ambitious you are.

Hope you have a great time!

From a timeline point you will get in the car at about 8:00am and need to drop the car at 7:30pm (especially if international).

At 8:00am the traffic will suck! At 4:00pm on, the traffic will suck. Therefore, Long Beach is out.

If it was me - and I live here - I would go to Venice beach. Once there rent a bike. Go up to the Santa Monica Pier. Putt back to Venice then south to Marina Del Rey. You can go all the way to the Redondo Pier (10 miles approx) if you want. The LA South Bay beaches are fantastic in August - excellent people watching. Also, you are close to the airport and will not waste time in traffic.

I would do only this.

I was going to go to Pasadena the other day, but then I saw a billboard of the Marina with "MIKEM would do only this," written on it. I turned around and went to the Marina. :D

On a serious note, MIKEM has proposed a good itinerary (though I am partial to the Getty, too). I think he is being generous on the time in and out of LAX, though. If you land at 7 am you will be lucky to have your luggage by 8 yet alone getting to the car rental shuttle and in your car. I would figure more like 9. Traffic will stuck.

Going south from the airport to long beach in the morning is not that bad of a route. Yes there is traffic ... and yes heavy, but it flows OK and it's not that far. You could also do a coastal route through Palos Verdes and drop in at Trump National for a Bloody on the way to San Pedro or Long Beach. Similarly -- it's not the worst of drives north at 6pm (again not good, but there are much worse).

For good beaches close to LAX (within 20 minutes)... Manhattan, Hermosa, Santa Monica, Venice, Redondo in that order for me.

If you are there on a day that the Getty Villa is open -- you could look for tickets (free) on the Getty website. They only make tix available a couple month out, so you will need to check. They are closed several days during the week. The grounds are great -- and if you like roman/greek artifacts vs. paintings... the villa is it vs. the Getty Center (paintings mostly).

I would go with the Getty and the beaches north of the airport.

L.A. isn't the best to place get around and it seems like there is always traffic on 405. I would recommend that you lump your itinerary to one area like Santa Monica/Venice/Getty.

I would drive north to Rose Cafe in Venice for people watching and nice breakfast. You can walk around for a couple of hours before heading off north to Santa Monica. Another great place for people watching. Yes, it probably feels very touristy but it's quite nice in the weekday afternoon. There is the beach, homeless people sleeping next to private trainers working out with clients along Ocean and Casa del Mar or Shutters. If you like Asian food and want great cheap noodle for lunch, try Asahi Ramen on Sawtelle Blvd. Then, hop back on 405 and drive yourself to the Getty Center. The art collection isn't the best, but you'll enjoy the Getty. Cool architecture and great view.

You can go back to Santa Monica or Venice for dinner and drive down on Lincoln Blvd to get to LAX. Try to avoid 405 in the afternoon since it gets busy around 2 PM. You can even do Venice-Getty-Santa Monica to avoid traffic on 405.

As someone who drives the 405 every day from LAX-land...

If you want to see Getty, do it immediately. The 405 is light northbound in the morning. It will be a bit heavy until I-10, but after that pretty smooth.

If you do see the Getty early (not sure when they open though), the best time to head back would be 12-2 pm.

I would do your airport-local activities (such as the beach) in the afternoon when you don't want to have long distances to travel.

Good luck!

I have a layover in LAX tomorrow from 11:30am till 12:15am, so just over 12 hours.

I plan to hop a cab to the Getty Museum as soon as I land.

Can someone then give a suggestion of where I should eat for dinner that is in the same area that a taxi driver would know about before I head back to the airport?

As a NW Worldclub memeber is there a lounge I can access later in the day, since the WC closes early?

I had an awesome time at the Getty^ ^

I got into LAX around 11:30am, spent some time in the Worldclub, and caught a cab around 12:30, the trip to the Getty was $52.00 before tip. The Getty is open till 6pm most days and I had no problem spending 4 hours there. For the trip back, I had the taxi take me to one of the hotels near the airport, so I could take the hotel shuttle back to the airport later in the evening - cab ride was $32.00

If I had to do it over again on my noon till midnight layover, I would have rented a car. It would have been much cheaper than a cab, and I could have made it to both the museum until closing time, and then to the beach to watch the sunset and find a little place to eat, or even just to cruise the coast before heading back to the airport.

The Getty is still free ($8 to park) and was awesome!

Glad you had a good time! I would second the getting the rental car to go, as it's less expensive than cabs to almost anywhere in the LA area. Cheers.

My plan..good or bad?
 

I arrive into LAX at 0640 from SYD on QF 107 on a Tuesday and depart on AA30 to JFK at 2345 en route to YHZ all in J. Thats 16 hrs layover. Not sure how long it will take to clear customs and get out of airport at LAX but I'm hoping I'll be done by 0930 so I can take the LA City tour for tansit pax. That will take about 6 hours..ill then hang around downtown have some dinner then get the LAX flyaway bus (I think thats what its called) and head back to LAX for my flight. For a first timer into LAX who doesnt want to drive(on the wrong side of the road:p) Its a good option and inexpensive. The city tour is 65USD and the trip back on the LAX flyaway is 3USD and depart every 30 mins from Union Station. So all up my day shouldnt cost more than about 100USD(130AUD)

Hope that sounds doable to u LAX bods....If anyone sees a flaw feel free to speak now:D

Cheers CJ

It all sounds like a good plan for your situation and goals... the only part I could "improve" upon is spending so much time in downtown LA, as it's mainly a financial center that doesn't have much else (but is experiencing a resurgence). But if that's where the tour ends, that's where it ends.

You have a good number of places to eat downtown. I'd recommend Philippes (home of the original french dip sandwich; community tables and sawdust), the Pantry (for greasy diner food... yum), or Engine Co. No. 28 (for a proper sit-down place that's reasonable). Of course there's Chinatown and Little Tokyo to explore as well, and you're a subway ride from Koreatown. For a bit of Hispanic culture there's Pueblo de LA. Perhaps you can catch the first part of whatever is going on at the Staples Center or Dodger Stadium.

I personally would try to find a way towards West LA. There's a Westwood FlyAway bus to LAX now (near ucla). Lots more interesting things out that direction.... Westwood, Brentwood, Santa Monica, Wilshire area, Beverly Hills, etc.

I hope that gives you a good start.

One small correction: Flyaway just changed their fare to $4 each way:

http://www.lawa.org/lax/LAXflyAway.cfm

You might also take the Metro Line from 7th and Figueroa to Sunset and Vermont, walk north along Vermont to the Los Feliz neighborhood for a nice dinner. Metro day pass is $5 now.

HELP!! what to do at LAX???
 

Hi ok, i know I've written before but does anyone know of anything close or a reasonably priced hotel for 7 hrs near LAX??? I was supposed to meet a friend whose had to cancel due to illness, so with a 3.5 yr old I will be at LAX from 3-9!! any ideas?? I'll have my carry on luggage so can't go too far. HELP!! Lisa

I'll give a suggestion: it may be less expensive to buy a day pass to one of the many airline lounges at LAX. Into which terminal do you arrive? Terminal Four has an Admiral's Club with showers etc.; Delta has a pretty nice lounge in Terminal 5--I don't know if it has showers, etc.

I second this, also from my experience day-room rates at airport hotels are usually only good till 6PM, after that it's just the regular overnight rate.

12 hours in LAX any ideas
 

This is my first United flight and I was so upset with notifications the flight I picked went up $75 after I selected my flight (outbound had a tight connection) so now find I'm coming in from SYD to LAX on 8/22 at 10:14 am and leaving at 10:27 pm. I will have a carry on in addition to my checked bag and I know I have to clear customs and the lines to get through security at LAX seem formatible. I've been to LAX several times but it seems a big hassle to leave the airport. I'm kicking myself for not taking the SFO flight because I know my way around the BART very well and love the city. So anyone have any suggestions of how to entertain myself (I've been to the American terminal previously but didn't like it at all). I'm also adoptable if anyone will be there for a little while with lounge access. I have the red eye (which looks full) back to the east coast + a 4 hour drive home. No stress in my life ;)

In N' Out Burger... three times. :D ^

Poker anyone?
 

Commerce Casino is close by (great poker room), but so is Vegas! If you like to play, book a RT to LAS and you'll have no problem passing the time!

I had looked at this thread but I will be dealing with more late afternoon hours so the beach isn't as appealing. I don't need botox. I'm not into strip clubs and I'm not sure that I want to get 3 burgers. I was interested in the Getty museum until I saw the cab fares (this is after vaction $'s for me) I posted in UA basically to find out what I could do without leaving. Can you go between terminals there? Is it horribly uncomfortable? Glad to see my inbound flight will probably be delayed!!

Thanks all.

Although the thread Paubri cited above gives you a plethora of choices, I always suggest to transiting colleagues of mine -

1. Take a taxi to Santa Monica - go for a nice walk along the pier and/or beach. Then....

2. Walk to 3rd St Promenade and have lunch "alfresco". Then...

3. Walk and catch a movie at AMC Loews Broadway Cinemas (1441 3rd Street Promenade) or at Mann Criterion 1313 3rd Street Promenade or at AMC Theatres Santa Monica 7 1310 3rd Street Promenade.

While you can pass freely between the United terminals (6,7, and 8) at LAX, there is really nothing of interest there, nor is it a very pleasant place to spend any length of time.

I'd either Priceline a car and drive around to some places or be prepared to take a cab or the limited public transportation in the area.

Well what I was afraid you would all say I have to leave to keep my sanity. I've been to all the suggested places before - who ever suggested LAS would definately not get me to my plane in time - but thanks for the thought. I will not drive though. My last trip out I got the hard sell for extra insurance which I always decline. I saw two horrible accidents in my first 5 min on the road would have returned to get it except it was to scary to go back! Very strange vehicles + stuff they tow in CA. Guess I'll have to just wait for the weather forecast to see which direction the wind blows me.

12 Hours in LA Leaves You Plenty of Time To....
 

Hire an agent
Test for your first leading role
Make your first movie (to critical acclaim)
Make your second movie (which bombs)
Fall back into obscurity

msv, it sounds like you're just looking for a comfortable way to kill some number of hours in the afternoon/evening without incurring significant costs and having to worry about getting back to the airport. So, there are a number of cost-sensitive, closeby alternatives.

You can head down to Manhattan Beach- $25 cab fare. Lots of boutique shops, fine restaurants, MB Pier, and a small mall. So, you could head down there and grab a bite, wander around the town, see a movie, window shop (if that's your thing) then grab a nice dinner before heading back to LAX.

Just north of LAX is the Howard Hughes complex. Shops, restaurants, IMAX theater, etc. So, you could do the In-n-Out run straight off, and head down to the HH center and take in an IMAX movie or two. Then, heading back toward the airport, have a nice relaxing dinner at The Buggy Whip restaurant on La Tijera Blvd at the 405. Classic, old style steak and seafood place. If you've never had a Green Goddess salad, this is the place to try one. It's the house salad.

In any event, you'll find something to do. But I'd definitely budget to get out of the airport. Nothing quite takes the glow off of a nice vacation than schlepping around an airport for 10-12 hours.

When you arrive at LAX you can ask if there are any flights you can get confirmed standby on. $25 for 12 hours quicker home would be worth it, especially after such a long trip!

Otherwise, plenty of good suggestions in this thread already.

I was fully prepared to try some of the suggestions offered until I found out that UA would not check my suitcase more than 4 hours before my scheduled flight. Some how a suitcase and a carryon wouldn't even allow access to a bathroom and forget the beach. So I booked an earlier flight with a stop over (heck I wanted to see Denver anyway) and the $50 change fee at least got me to an exit row for the final leg. If other airline policies are the same for checking in luggage it sure makes a long layover a nasty situation.

Which is why you get a cheap car rental....rather than trying to get somewhere off-airport by cab/bus. That rental will have a trunk to lock your luggage in...

I just love to drive - except in Los Angeles, & Boston. I've been there several times too and still can't remember what the name equivalents for the rte numbers are either. My first trip out in 70's had 2 major crashes 5 min from the airport and I don't think I'll ever get over those sites. Usually I fly into Long Beach so I can start in "friendlier" territory and build up my confidence when I have to pass LA going north.

Am I correct to assume that we can just walk there? Will be arriving in on AA and out on Air Tahiti Nui. Got quite a long layover (arrive at 11am leave at 6:40pm) so thought this would be nice place to wet my whistle.

Just checked their website again and found the restaurant will be reopening on Nov 12th.

Best hotels at LAX?
 

We will be staying overnight at LAX next April between landing from Hawaii and taking off for LHR the next afternoon. Any recommendations on the best hotel? :confused:

We're not necessarily after the cheapest (or the most expensive), but something that delivers pleasant surroundings at a reasonable price would be good.

Do you have any points preference/affiliation like Marriott, Hilton, or Starwood?

No, o not concerned about which chain we go with