Hi, we will be visiting LA in May (planning to stay downtown*). Will it be better to fly out of LA via LAX or SNA? We are leaving on Memorial Day - the flight out of LAX leaves at 7:45pm, the flight out of SNA leaves at 5:40pm.

Please advise on which airport would be the better choice, considering our downtown location. (and what time to leave our hotel for our flight)

*we are planning to stay downtown because our itinerary includes the Disney Concert Hall, the LA Central Library, and other downtown sites/architectural landmarks - please advise if there is another area that would be better (we are also planning a visit to the Getty Center).

Thank you in advance!

Since you are going to be downtown LA I would opt for LAX. Even tho SNA is a great airport it is just too far for you to go down there just to fly home. Have a good time when you are out here.

A lot of people who have business in downtown Los Angeles use Burbank Airport. I don't know if that's an option. There isn't much traffic downtown on Memorial Day since all of the government workers have the day off. LAX would be a second choice.

You may be wise to check into which downtown restaurants are going to be open on the weekend and on Monday.

LAX is more convenient given your itinerary. From the Getty Center it's around 20-30 min. on the freeway, vs. close to an hour to SNA. If you're flying on a holiday traffic shouldn't be as big a factor as on normal weekdays, but you'd need to be on the road much earlier in the afternoon to get to SNA in time to check in, etc.

Burbank is definitely the best choice from downtown, unless you don't have a car.

I don't understand why you're even considering SNA, doesn't sound like you've got anything on your itinerary that's in Orange County.

Thanks Cali, mlgb, Gardyloo, joesorce!

I will look into Burbank as an option (we're flying AA from Dallas).

Reason I'm considering SNA is that we will actually be in Anaheim to visit Disneyland earlier in the week (I've got to fly into LAX since I will be with my parents who already have tickets arriving into LAX). Then my husband is arriving later on in the week to join us (but he doesn't want to do Disney thus we will transfer hotels to downtown LA to see the architectural sites/museums). I'm thinking of flying him into SNA (since we will still be in Anaheim at that point), but it's the outbound airport that I wasn't sure of. So it looks like either LAX or Burbank !