We are staying at the W in Westwood Village - have all day Friday with no car. Mom, 21 yr old son and his g/f.
Any suggestions? Would like to do some shopping - not on Rodeo Drive, hahah. Can we get to the Getty easily? We've done LACMA and Universal - kids are going to the Late, Late Show. What else?

They have taxis in Los Angeles. The Getty is not far. The Westside Pavillion is straight down Westwood Blvd at Pico. Pico at that end has a lot of Persian restaurants and it's an interesting stroll.

The obvious answer is to spend some time at the UCLA campus if you haven't done that. There's the Fowler (archaeology) museum and the Armand Hammer, and the Wight Art Gallery. Check out the UCLA portal site for activities. Some of the old buildings have been nicely restored, especially Royce Hall, the undergrad library, which has open reading rooms.

You can definitely take a taxi to The Getty. Looks like the taping of the Late, Late Show is in the afternoon. I would assume without a car, your son and his g/f are going to take a cab. You could go with them to Farmer's Market and the Fairfax area and then when they go the the show you could head back to the hotel on your own.

They would probably would also like shopping on Melrose Ave which would be convenient to CBS. Here is a link to shopping on Melrose.

www.seeing-stars.com/Shop/Melrose.shtml

Just curious, is there a reason you won't have a car? Taking a taxi around LA-from Westwood to CBS, etc could get pretty expensive. You'd end up spending more than a one day car rental.

if you are staying in the westwood area, you can easily take the bus. The Santa Monica Big Blue bus covers the whole westside for .75 ride.

You can research routes here:
http://www.bigbluebus.com/home/index.asp

You can take the number 8 or 12 from westwood to the Westside Pavillion, which is a good local mall. Or the Number 1 down Santa Monica to the 3rd street Promenade.

lavisitor-I looked at one of your other posts about LA. So I am a little confused. It sounds like you will have a car in LA it's just that your son and g/f won't have one. Is that correct? Is the Friday you are asking about the day they are going to the show taping?

If so, your son and g/f could use the bus to go to Santa Monica in the morning before they head to CBS. I would assume you are dropping them off there? Or as I already suggested, go to Farmers Market, shopping on Melrose and then drop them off at CBS.

If you could be more specific about the days and car situation, we could help you more.

Paula, even more confusing is that that other post was from 2007!

Maybe this is a second trip.

mlgb-Well I feel stupid. I didn't even look at the date. Duh!

So I guess this is a second trip and they won't have a car. Maybe lavisitor can elaborate.

Husband is working on Friday so no car for us. And yes this is our second visit with the kids. They have checked out UCLA (and loved it). Past visits have always included the car so I don't have much (i.e. ANY) experience with the public transit system. We can certainly do cabs but sometimes the bus is more interesting. We will check out Melrose - it looks like fun.

You can catch bus #305 next to Burger King on Westwood/LeConte. It goes down Sunset Blvd to San Vicente (West Hollywood) and you can get off at Beverly/San Vicente. Leaves you right by the Beverly Center mall. go to mta.net for bus schedules. Price is 1.25 each way and $5 for an all day bus pass. Once at the Beverly center it's an easy 20 minute walk down third street (lots of shops here,http://www.westthirdstreet.com)to the Farmers Marker/the Grove on 3rd and Fairfax (thegrovela.com). Or you can take the #218 or 316/16 on 3rd street/LaCienga, right across from the mall to the Farmers market if you prefer not to walk.

Metro Rapid Bus picks up right around the corner from the W (in front of Ralphs market) and gets you to the front entrance of the Getty in about 7 minutes. Couldn't be easier. Runs about every 25 minutes, I think it's bus number 761 (your hotel will know). Same bus on the way back moving in the other direction.

Probably the most fun for the kids would be taking the Blue bus down to Santa Monica beach and shopping.

If the Late show is at CBS on Beverly, THE GROVE shopping mall is right there, too. Your biggest problem/expense without a car is getting from the airport to your hotel and back.