4 day trip to LA
 

Hello All
I have always relied on this forum for planning trips, the advice and the reviews are just awesome.so posting a thread for the first time!
me and my Husband are planning to visit LA in november. we have a total of 4 days.we reach LA on 23rd night and fly out from LAX airport on the 28th afternoon.
we would like to spend a day in disneyland, do warner bros tour, getty center, sunset strip.
Also visit hollywood(rodeo drive)
check out the bars/cafes in west hollywood.
Also visit Pasadena
Is my itenary too much for 4 days, am i missing anything out?

As we both dont want to rent cars and are fine with taking cabs metros and also walking, where should we stay? we want to be centraly located if its possible.
hollywood roosevelt would that be a good hotel to stay?
Should we stay in the west hollywood area or the ucla area or sanata monica?
Help would be very much appreciated....
Thanks

Please refer to the Los Angeles guide here on Fodor's for a bit of background. It sounds like you haven't done any real research into the greater LA area (Rodeo Drive, for one thing, is in Beverly Hills).

First reality check: "Los Angeles" as a geographic construct is spread out over 100 cities, two counties and 4,800 square miles (some 12,000 square kilometers). That's larger than many countries. Your points of interest are spread out over a vast area. For example, Disneyland is roughly 60 km from Warner Brothers Studios. Getting there without a car will involve at least two hours and several transit agencies, since several cities lie between those points (in two different counties). I urge you to reconsider renting a car.

Your proposed itinerary is too ambitous. Some things have to go, frankly. Disneyland is an easy site to lop out, unless you are traveling with preteen kids. Find a scale map of the LA basin and really think about what you want to see. I would seriously think about adding the Disney Concert Hall to your tour, as it's architecturally pretty splendid (kin to the Guggenheim in Bilbao).

Central location? Hollywood is a little gritty as a place to center your trip, but the Hollywood Roosevelt is a pretty nice hotel. Still, I'd look in Beverly Hills/West Hollywood (neighboring cities), maybe Westwood/UCLA (if you cut your itinerary to Westside LA sites, this would be a great place to stay and use mass transit).

Santa Monica is great, but it's pricey, and if you stay there you absolutely will have to rent a car, since it's right on the coast (well, the hotels you should be looking at are on the coast).

There are other posters who can help on doable mass transit options, but given your short time here and the vastness of this area, I'm firmly in the "rent a car" camp. But I really think you need to look closely at an LA city guide (and map). Good luck!

rjw hit it ALL the details perfectly. Please listen to all the advice!

Are you flying into LAX or arriving another way?.

It is easy to transfer directly from LAX to Disneyland area hotels without a car. There is a dedicate bus if you are arriving during normal hours, or Supershuttle if you are not. If Disney is a must-see, do it with one night in Anaheim. Disney will take a full day to see and add another 1/2 day for transfers.

You could book a limo or other shuttle service to get you to Hollywood, which would be more central to the rest of your trip.

There is a limited "light rail" system that can get you from Hollywood to Pasadena or Universal Studios (www.mta.net has a travel planner for the rail and bus system).

We also have cabs.
So it is not essential to have a car.

Getty Center, Rodeo Drive, checking the hollywood area, sunset strip can be done in a day. Maybe you can book a private tour or limo for the day if you really don't want to drive.

I'm sure you will be able to book the Warner Bros Studio tour with transfers out of your hotel if you stay in Hollywood.

Santa Monica is not very central, west of everything, not on the fast rail line, and takes longer to get anywhere from there because of heavy traffic. I would not try to use public transit if staying there.

You have to realize that most people posting to Fodors who also live in LA travel from suburb to suburb, own cars and probaby haven't been on public bus or the light rail system in years.

I suppose staying in the Roosevelt is a good option since you want to visit hollywood, rodeo drive (which is not part of hollywood), sunset strip, west hollywood, etc. But be warned that with traffic, getting to Santa Monica, Westwood (UCLA), Pasadena, and the other areas could be frustrating.

Oh and I also agree on checking out the Disney Concert Hall. For a nice view of the downtown skyline while enjoying some cocktails you guys can go to The Standard (the downtown one, not the one on Sunset).

With all that you want to do, you really should get a car, since Thanksgiving weekend won't be bad at all traffic-wise.
WB Tour will only be open for you on Friday and Monday so plan the other days accordingly. On Friday, you could take a morning tour at WB...then do Sunset/Hollywood and end up at the Getty which is normally open late on Fri and Sat. However, Fri tour at WB will be pretty dull since the studio itself is pretty much shut down for the holiday.

I agree, you have way too much on your list for 4 days *especially* without a car! Definitely skip Santa Monica and Pasadena, they are too far away.

Maybe add more in the central downtown areas? (Melrose Ave, Olvera Street, Chinatown, like those?)

We spent 6 days in LA with the EXACT SAME itenerary - and spent most of the time in the car. Or so it seemed. You have to remember that 20 miles = 1 hour in a car in LA - sometimes more.
You will like Getty, the WB Tour is great, Sunset Strip/Rodeo Drive is a complete waste of time.
Oh - and you are absolutely NUTS if you try any of your stuff without a rental car.
Where you stay depends on what you can afford, but if you don't want to afford a rental car, I read that as you can't afford much.

gypsietraveller-Maybe you could let us know why you don't want to rent a car in LA. Is it the cost or the fact that you are worrying about driving in the LA area? As everyone has already said, having a car in LA is imperative. You CAN get around with public transportation but only in a limited area and you will find yourself spending most of the day just getting from one point to the other. The LA area is really pretty easy to navigate if you are worried about that. Let us know.

Thanks everyone for the replies.This would be our last trip in usa before we head back to india for good. So i just wanted to do all that we could, and we both dont have enough leave as this year we were doing all the must sees here,hence my itenary was a little over ambitious. we didnt want to rent a car because we thought with all the trafic, driving would be a hassle and we would be just driving the whole time. we were just worried about driving in LA . But looking at all the replies we are really thinking of renting a car.
we are flying into and out of LAX. So if we rent a car, where should we stay so that we could get to places without spending like 4-5 hours in car. i would add the disney concert hall to my itenary and skip sunset strip and rodeo drive.
Hollywood roosevelt, we were a little apprehensive as this is a 4star and was just 120 bucks where as all the other 4 stars were 200 plus. so we were not sure whether we should stay there. Please respond

Thankd

Sorry I can't help with a hotel choice, but just wanted to add that having a rental car for Los Angeles is an EXCELLENT idea (I grew up in the area).

You could possibly get around only on public transportation, but would not be able to see very much in a short period of time... so great idea with a car rental right from the airport!!

Hollywood Roosevelt is fine, the rooms are small but the location is perfect for you. Check on the parking charge there, $120 sounds rather low but it is a solid 3 stars not a 4 star hotel. If you lower your ambitions you can actually do quite a bit from here by bus, subway and taxi...however the total cost will be similar to the car once you add in the shuttles from the airport.