My husband and I have a 9 hour layover in LAX as we return from Indonesia. Any suggestions on what we can do while we're there for all that time? We arrive there at 10 pm.

Do you have to go through customs? That will take up a couple hours. After midnight I really don't know what to suggest besides sleeping.

Not sure why this is tagged Illinois.

If you arrive on an international flight at LAX at 10 pm, by the time you clear customs, etc. you won't come out of the airport until around 11pm. Since most restaurants, stores, etc. will be closed at that time, your choices are to hang out at the airport, or to get a hotel room nearby to take a nap and a shower before continuing on your journey. You could probably find a room on Priceline for a good price.

as posted by RBCal

Do you have to go through customs?,

coming from Indonesia, what do you think?

I agree with the above poster, do a priceline for an airport hotel. Get some sleep and then continue with the rest of the trip.

Will your luggage be checked through to your connecting airline, or are you dealing with two separate airlines/ separate tickets?

Will your luggage be checked through to your connecting airline, or are you dealing with two separate airlines/ separate tickets?

what's the difference?

US requires passport and customs at the first port of entry. The OP will have to go through passport control, collect any checked luggage they may have, go through customs.

Only then the OP will have to decide what to do. If it's the same ticket and the luggage is checked through the OP has an option of dropping it off outside of the customs door and proceeding with the whatever plans the OP made, OR keeping the luggage and taking it with. In the morning the OP can recheck the luggage.

The difference is that they will have a lot easier time getting out and doing something from 10pm to 3am if they don't have luggage to carry around, sherlock.

What were you hoping to do? Hit the bars/clubs or relax/sleep in a hotel room? If the former, what night of the week is your arrival?

Wow. I would fire your travel agent!

10 pm arrival and you're leaving around 7 am?

Well, if you want a hotel room for a few hours sleep, I can recommend the Marriot Courtyard Century Blvd. hotel. We stayed there overnight and the free shuttle was prompt and convenient. May want to check if it's running that late though.

You could go to Pink's Hot Dogs!! (Only if you are truly looking for suggestions of something to do at that hour. That's what I did the last time I was in Hollywood and up late after a concert!

Wow, thank you all for your comments. I like the hotel idea. We arrive on a Wednesday and clubs are not really our thing, but thank you for that suggestion too. We've never traveled internationally, so we don't know if we're going to be "stuck" with our luggage or not. Oh BTW, we didn't have a travel agent, but we also didn't have any choice in the matter. These were the ONLY flights back on the day we were leaving Indonesia!!

And to Ivk: this was my first time on this site, so I'm still not sure what "tagged" refers to yet. I thought it meant where I am currently. Enlighten me. Thank you.

Friends7597, if you look at your original post, you'll see "Tagged: Illinois." When you created your post, you gave it a title, chose the United States forum, and selected the tag of Illinois. You should have selected California because your question related to California and not Illinois. No biggie. We all know where LAX is, but, if someone was choosing only to view the posts related to California, yours wouldn't be listed.

Thanks Jean for the lesson; now I got it. I appreciate your input. Thanks to all.

Just this past weekend I had a 12 hour layover in Hong Kong on our way back to NY from Bali. We arrived at 10:00pm and left the next morning 7:00am. We reserved a great hotel online (at a reduced rate), ordered room service and relaxed!

P.S. We had our bags checked through to NY and simply took a small duffle style bag on the plane with change of clothes and toiletries (keeping in mind they need to be under 3 oz).