LA by Public Transportation -- What's Possible?
 

Hi, I'll be in LA for one Saturday (long story) and am trying to figure out what's possible by public transportation. I won't have a car, so please don't suggest driving.

(1) The flight gets in around 10 am. I'll try to make it Disney Music Center downtown for an 11 am concert. I'm planning on the FlyAway bus. I know that I'll need to make the 10 am bus, which means that I'll need to be very lucky (the flight needs to get in early). But since the concert ticket cost about $30, it's ok if I miss this or a large part of it. I'm just looking to see Gehry's building, and there are no guided tours that day.

(2) I can take the Red Line to Hollywood + Highland for the Chinese Theatre.

(3) I need to be in Beverly Hills in the afternoon. I can take bus 217 followed by bus 4 (which runs along Santa Monica Boulevard). Alternatively, it looks like there is bus 2 that runs along Sunset Boulevard. Is one preferable to the other (Santa Monica or Sunset)? I expect to be using a combo of bus and walking, so I'd prefer something interesting to see along the way.

(4) To make it back to LAX, I plan to take the Westwood FlyAway bus, and I think bus 20 runs along Wilshire Boulevard and has a stop nearby and this can get me there from Beverly Hills. My flight leaves around 9 pm, so I'll need to get on the bus around 7 pm. I assume this area is ok at this time of the day -- I'll be walking a few blocks only.

Any thoughts on what to see? I have some flexibility -- just need to be downtown in the late morning (for Disney Center) and Beverly Hills in the afternoon, but it seems like the best way is to go via Hollywood.

I'm also fine with using car service for part of this, but would like to avoid relying on it entirely as I'd like to keep costs down.

Thanks!

I can't remember all the bus routes, but I know #20 along Wiltshire has the express bus too, #720. It will save you a bit of time btw Beverly Hills & Westwood.

Check the other bus lines to see if there are express bus. The regular bus stops at every 2 blocks (you're from NYC, you know what I mean).

While in DT, you can go to MOCA. It's a few blocks from WDCH. Unless you really want to go to Hollywood, you can consider just heading out on Wiltshire and spend a few hours at LACMA? It's along #20/720 bus route anyway before you get to Rodeo Drive.

Thanks, I didn't realize the local bus stops every 2 blocks....

LACMA has an Ellsworth Kelly exhibition on right now. I'll think about it. MOCA did not seem particularly interesting.

On the other hand, Hollywood is still appealing, but I suppose that's always there.

Well, I was exaggerating a bit; but in the DT area, the #20 does stop every 2-3 blocks. Once you're out of DT, the stops are farther apart. But the 720 express goes A LOT faster. Not a huge deal for the "short" distance (relatively speaking) btw Rodeo Dr & Westwood, but if you're riding all the way from DT, the express will save a lot of time.

The Flyaway bus is not waiting curbside to pick you up and whisk you off to downtown. You wait for it to circle around. Might be a five minute wait, might be 25. Then it stops at the other terminals picking up more passengers and loading their luggage. I would assume you'd be downtown closer to noon, and that's if everything is on schedule.

7pm return bus to the airport might be tight too...a traffic snarl or two has been known to occur on the L.A. Freeways. Saturday is usually pretty flowing, but you never know.

W/ a 10 AM landing you won't make an 11AM concert. tracy's noon guestimate is a best case scenario.

and getting on the Flyaway at 7PM for a 9PM flight is cutting things REALLY short. Security lines at LAX can be very long.

Well I called them and I was told that it'd take approximately 12 minutes to circle all the terminals, after which they head downtown.

I guess I'm optimistic! I actually want the bus to arrive just a little past 10 and my flight to get in slightly early. If the flight gets in at 9:45, I can be on the bus at 10:05, say. Since I don't have any bags, it seems doable.

We'll see!

The Flyaway bus runs twice an hour. Hard to say how close it sticks to the posted schedule, but the posted times are for Terminal 1.

A taxi would run about $50 with tip (there is a flat rate between LAX and downtown). Not sure if it is worthwhile to you, but if you can get a fix on when the last bus left, you can decide.

You can get to (almost) any place in la, as long as you have some patience.remember la is vast.
aiming for a 11 am concert looks too tight though not impossible.also factor in any possible delays so that you don't get stressed !
For a 10 am landing and 7 pm departure, I would pick an area/place and stick to it.it all depends on what you want to see / do - beaches / museums
lacma and moca could take an entire day on their own if you have to do justice.
Santa Monica, Venice beach are few miles apart and are possible options.

Thanks, yes, I'll think about a taxi. I bought a ticket knowing that I may miss the concert, so I'll just see how I feel that day.

I've been to Santa Monica so thinking about something different.

As long as you're going to be downtown, I'd just stick with that, there are the downtown museums, JANM open til 5pm, Little Tokyo, MOCA and Geffen are open til 6 pm ,grab something to eat in Little Tokyo before heading to Union Station to catch the Flyaway bus.

And if you haven't seen the interior of the Cathedral (Taj Mahoney), it's worth sticking your head in there, too!

Except that I need to run an errand in Beverly Hills (unfortunately!).... I'll try to check out the cathedral, thanks!

My flight arrived about 40 minutes early, so I could have taken the 9:30 bus, except it never showed up! I'd monitored the flight on FlightStats, so I was fairly confident that it'd arrive early.

I called the dispatcher. So I'd say that the FlyAway bus is not as reliable as it should be.

The walk to the concert hall was also longer than I expected, and part of it was uphill. I walked really briskly, but to my surprise, I managed to sit down at 11:04. I was expecting to be at least 10 minutes late.

I definitely recommend a concert at the concert hall. I went to a children's event with excerpts of Mahler 5. The evening concert would have been Mahler 6.

Otherwise everything else went well. I took yk's advice and took bus 720 for LACMA and then Beverly Hills. I ended up having so much time so I decided to head to Hollywood afterwards and back downtown for dinner before going back to the airport.

Another thing -- I think there's a $5 one-day Metro pass I didn't know about.

Thank you so much for reporting back. Did you get the 10 am bus then? If so you made great time.

Quite a lot accomplished, and all without a car, too.

Yes, I took the 10 am bus, which arrived at my stop after 10 am.

Just in case someone else is reading this -- the booth at Union Station for the FlyAway will take cards only, no cash.

Thanks again for the tips!