LA logistics questions
 

I'm back to planning a 7-8 day SF and LA trip. We'll probably spend 4 full days in SF and then meander down to LA. Is there somewhere we should stay en route to LA? Where should we stay to have easiest access to the major Hollywood sights? Is there public transportation worth using from a said outside of Hollywood locations?

Regarding meandering down to L.A. - my choice would be to take the coast highway because it is an awesome way to travel California. Morro Bay is a lovely little spot that would be fun to stop off in - great oceanfront restaurants and quaint little shops and motor inns. Also Santa Barbara is a wonderful place to stop off - either for dining or overnight.

Frankly, a "meander" down the coast to LA will leave maybe a full day in that huge hot mess of a metropolitan area (of over 100 cities).

I'm not sure it's worth it.

Drive down the coast to Santa Barbara, spend the last day or so of your vacation there, leave from SB Airport.

Oh, I'm almost sure it won't be worth it. It's a concession to the spawn like the umpteen trips to Disney World. If we made SB our final destination, is it easy enough to do a one day trip to Hollywood?

To clarify: I'm not saying it's not worth the trip to LA because it's awful.

I'm saying it's not worth it because the LA metro area (LA & Orange Counties) are worth several days. Or weeks. Good, bad, glitzy, ugly, spectacular, real-- it's the whole world in 4,800 square miles.

And Hollywood will be a bit of a disappointment to your star-struck companions; it's simply an urban neighborhood of Los Angeles that is slowly coming back from years of being Down and Out. The Walk of Fame is fun for about twenty minutes; Grauman's Chinese is worth ten minutes, tops. And I say this having lived in the greater LA area for most of my life, and being a huge "Hollywood" nut.

Save LA and environs for another trip. San Francisco and the coast through Santa Barbara will be wonderful enough. Besides, the drive into and out of LA will drive you batty.

Trust me on this one.

If you do get browbeaten into coming to Hollywood, yes, you can do it in a day. The drive from SB to Hollywood is about an hour and a half with no traffic--but there's the problem. Best times for no traffic is either leaving SB around 5:30 a.m., 11 a.m. or after 8 p.m., though you still might hit traffic.

If the spawn wants to see Hollywood, take a quick trip to Mann's Chinese and walk around a little, and then go on a studio tour. Warner Bros is the best for actual studio, Universal for more glam. There's virtually no public trans in LA, but you can take the subway from Hollywood to Universal if you want to leave the car somewhere, I suppose. My star-struck relatives always like a drive down the Sunset Strip so they can ogle Chateau Marmont (where stars of yore OD'ed and stars of now stay) and Sunset Plaza--just a strip of fancy shops and restaurants, but lots of outdoor tables where they can look for celebrities they rarely see.