Los Angeles
 

I have booked a trip to Las Vegas and have a 4 hr layover in Los Angeles and I wanted to know if 4 hrs was enough to explore LA a little bit. Or better yet what can I do in LA with 4 hours to kill that's still close enough to LAX so I don't get left in California. Any and all suggestions would be appreciated.

All you can really do with that amount of time is visit the nice beach towns in the area, Hermosa, Manhattan, Redondo. What time of day is your layover? Beware of June Gloom at the beach.

Four hours -- stay in the airport.

Do you have to do through security in LA? If yes, here go your 4 hours :) Seriously, I wouldn't venture off.

I agree. Not enough time.

LAX can be a bear to make a transfer. I would not leave the airport in that short amount of time.

Thanks everyone.. I knew it was kind of a streach but now I KNOW it's a streach...guess i'll have to suck those 4 hours up!

Oh my layover is from 12-3:59pm

I think you could have lunch in Manhattan Beach with the following IFs:

1. Your luggage is checked through to LV.

2. Your arriving flight is on time.

3. You're willing to spend about $30 in cabs. LAX to downtown Manhattan Beach (pier area) would take about 20 minutes.

(I live in M.B.)

If 3:59PM is your departure time then you really would have a bit less than 3 hours. You'd have to be back at the airport an hour before your flight to get thru security and be at the gate a half hour before flight time.

I have two suggestions:

1) You could catch the first two or three races on the card that day at Hollywood Park. It is only 4 miles from the airport. You might see it up close as you land at LAX.

2) You've seen the "space ship" tower at LAX. There is a restaurant in there:
http://www.encounterlax.com/

oops, the website says that Encounters is closed for repairs.

First post at Hol will be 1:20 on May 25.

Hollywood Park is a great idea.

During a 5 hour layover in LAX, my family and I rented a car and drove to Playa Del Rey (just north of LAX); we also went through customs in that time period. Our bags were checked through to our final destination and we landed on time. We ran down to the car rental place and picked the first counter that had available cars onsite and no line. We knew exactly how to get where we were going (we used to live in the LA area) so we had about 1 1/2 hours on the beach with the kids. We were a little sandy and out of breath on the flight back to the Midwest, but it was a fun end to our family vacation. We did not tell the kids it was a possibility until we had the car rented.

Of course this was before the ban on carry-on liquids. I have not been through LAX since that happened so I don't know what the metal detector lines are like now. If you land early, you might have a shot at it. Ask the car rental attendant how long it takes to get the rental car lot. If it is offsite, forget about it. We have done this at several airports around the country

The big name rental car companies are all reasonably close to the airport. In particular, Avis and Budget are quite close and convenient.

None of the rental cars are actually on site. You have to take a shuttle bus.

Best you could do is take a cab to the Westchester In 'n Out for a double-double (they are very good burgers!).