TWA884

The rush hour in the greater Los Angeles area does not follow the traditional pattern of heavy inbound traffic during the morning commute and heavy outbound traffic during the afternoon/evening commute. With business districts spread throughout the metropolitan area, most freeways are congested in both directions.

What's within walking distance of the Hotel Angeleno? It's located in Brentwood, close to Bel Air and Westwood. These are three of the wealthiest communities anywhere. However, the hotel is not within easy walking distance of any particular shopping, dining or recreation site. In addition, there is major construction going on the 405 during the night hours. There have been complaints on various review sites that the hotel has insufficient sound insulation to block the traffic and construction noise.

choijw

I can speak from personal experience that the Claremont-Pasadena reverse commute on 210 is better inbound in afternoon/evening than in outbound (40-50mph vs sub-20mph). And Pasadena-Westwood outbound sucks (reverse is not much better on this one though). Done both of those commutes almost everyday for a summer, separately.

TWA884

I-405, between the Sepulveda Pass and the South Bay is bad in both directions mornings and evenings (and in between), so is the 10 between downtown and Santa Monica, the 101/134 between Calabasas and Glendale, 101 between Studio City and downtown, and the 5 between Glendale and Orange County.

choijw

Agree with most points. 134 in Burbank and Glendale has never slowed down as badly as 405, 10, 101, or 5 (at the bottlenecks mentioned) for me. I normally did Laurel Canyon-134@Vineland for Westwood-Pasadena.

maortega15

So pretty much I have finally reserved a room for 3 nights at the Langham Pasadena. It's pretty much halfway between LAX and Fontana. As far as traffic goes, I went to the LAX website and looked at the traffic alerts, and it was not looking that bad for the route I will be taking from the rental car to Fontana. I checked it out the supposed time of my arrival around 1030-1130 PST. There were some parts in orange but not red. And from the traffic cameras, it was not bad at all. Im still expecting the worst but at the same time hoping for the best that traffic will not be that bad as I think. Thanks for the Langham suggestion and traffic information. I'll give more information when I arrive to let you all know my first west coast expreience

P.S. I have been to Vancouver before, but I wouldn't really cosnider that as west coast.

maortega15

delete

SoCal

I've looked a Tripadvisor reviews. We have stayed at the Hilton, but it's been 5-6 years. These four hotels are all about the same price through AA.com. Normally we'd go through Priceline, bidding on 4-star, but the prices are pretty low for a Friday night in July, so considering booking so we can choose our hotel. I was leaning towards the Marriott. Thanks!

noniron

I stayed at the Marroitt Manhattan Beach over Easter and thought it was great. Close enough to LAX to be classed as an airport hotel but it has the feel of a resort propery. Great views over the golf course and nice pool area, with plenty of dinning choices outside of the hotel in the shopping areas.

maortega15

Just arrived this morning on a CX flight from HKG. We were bussed to the terminal from the remote stand. Took me exactly 15:07:0 from the bus dropping us off at the main terminal to actually exiting the terminal. (Yes, I used my iPhone's timer to find out the exact amount of minutes it woud take from immigration and customs to exiting the terminal ) It took me quite a while from the rental car desk to actuallly entering the car due to some error with he reseravations, etc. I got what I requested, a Mustang Convertible. I actually wanted a hardtop, but they gave me a a convertible instead.

There was actually a change of plan. Instead of picking the girl up at Fontana, I ended up picking her up at West Covina. Traffic wasn't that bad at all. It was stop and go but still moving on some portions of thee freeway.

The Langham Pasadena is actually nice! Nice view of the garden, and in a posh area. Not that far from where I picked up the girl, not that far from LAX.

At the end of the day of driving, I ended up using about a almost a half tank of gas.

I'll give more updates once I'm done with my holiday. Cheers

obscure2k

Always enjoys reading updates. Thanks. Looking forward to more.

maortega15

So my holiday has come to an end. I really had a great time. Thanks for the langham suggestion. It was a nice hotel.

The drive wasn't bad at all. I pretty much went drving around the LA area. Back and forth from West Covina to Pasadena. Traffic was stop and go but only on a small portion of th freeway. I had much worse on the Cross Bronx. Went to downtown LA, Beverly Hills and it was nice. The rental car I rented was a white 2013 Mustang convertible. The miles on the car when I took it out was only 154. When I renturned the car it already had 500 miles on it. So I drove 346 miles during my 4 day stay. I didn't realize I was doing alot of driving.

We ate at Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles, Shakey's Pizza and a few Filipino restaurants. I also had The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. Much better imo to starbucks. I had Rutt's Hawaiian Cafe before heading back to LAX for my flight back to HKG.

The langham was really nice. From the minute I dropped my car off to check-in. The staff were great and made my stay more enjoyable. I would love to stay here again. The area was nice too. The girl loved it especially the view of the garden.

It's a good thing I stayed at the langham rather than something close to the airport. I left the hotel at 645, then headed to rutts. When I finished eating, it was still early! So I parked the car at the Westfield close LAX and pretty much walked around the parking lot taking pictures of the car. I had the heat on in the morning since I was cold. Around 69 degrees F.

I had a great time By far, it was the best vaction of my life. I would love to come back again.

Cheers

SWCPHX

Really?

maortega15

Yeah.

TWA884

You couldn't wait for the trip report.

maortega15

So it has been almost 2 months since my trip to LA. It was the best vacation of my life.

The depressing part - The girl stops talking to me ever since I left. The reason she gives me is she is busy. Just busy in general. I'm actually more depressed than angry. I've spent alot of money on this 4-day trip. 3 grand for the flights RT from HKG to LAX, 800+ for the hotel, 400+ for the car rental and a little bit for food, extras. I figured I share my thoughts here.