You still have 14 stops on your itinerary not including lunch and dinner. Yes, some of them are just drive-bys (or walk-bys as the case may be), but if your shoppers get distracted at any of the seven(!) shopping opportunities it won't matter how early you left Anaheim.

If you want any hope of doing this itinerary in its entirety, I'd leave Anaheim no later than 7 a.m. After parking at Union Station, go first to Grand Central Market, then Disney Hall and the Library before heading to Olvera Street.

The idea of taking the Red Line from Downtown L.A. to Hollywood doesn't make sense in your itinerary. You'll be covering essentially the same ground three times: DLA to Hollywood, Hollywood to DLA, DLA to Melrose.

Thanks...so are you saying the drive from Union Station to Hollywood would be better/quicker than taking the Metro? I have always found the metro in cities to be very quick but am fully ready to trust the locals!! Any suggestions on the best/least costly parking place in Hollywood? Would it be the shopping center on Hollywood and Highland. Then what route is best back to Grove/Farmer's Market area? Thanks.

Problem in taking the subway out of Hollywood is that you need to go back to downtown to pick up your car! And then drive again from downtown heading west. That'd be a huge waste of time.

I'm saying that if you use the Red Line, you'll be travelling the same route 3 times. The metro IS faster than driving the one-way trip from Downtown L.A. to Hollywood, but then you have to go back to DLA to retrieve your car and then drive more or less the same route again to get to Melrose. So, if you're already going to be driving from DLA to Hollywood/Melrose once, why do the round-trip thing on the Red Line?

When I've taken visitors to Hollywood, I've always parked at the Hollywood and Highland Center. I have no idea whether it's the cheapest place, but it's very convenient to Grauman's and the Kodak.

http://www.hollywoodandhighland.com/...directions.php

You can take Highland to Melrose and then Melrose to Fairfax for the Grove. I trust you have a good street map of metro L.A.

Los Angeles is a city MADE for cars and traffic. Public transportation is NOT the same like it is in a place like NYC or Boston.

You have a car... use it (seriously, if you want any chance of getting thru this ambitious itinerary).

And yes that's what I mean about traffic on the freeway -haha

If you want to beat the morning commute I would leave by 6:30 am. Earlier by 15 minutes is better. Quite a few government workers start their shifts early at around 7-7:15 am.

I'm just curious if any of the naysayers have actually taken the Red Line between Downtown and Hollywood during business hours? (I think I know the answer== NO). Bear in mind that when these posters talk about driving to Hollywood with visitors, they are coming from their suburban homes, not from Downtown Los Angeles.
So YES taking the RED Line you can be at Hollywood and Vine in 15 minutes or less (no surface street conflicts, it's a subway) and will not have to pay for parking twice. If you take the RED line back to Union Station, you'll be right at your car. You will have lost NO time at all, because trying to drive on surface streets from Hollywood & Vine to the Farmers Market can also be quite a nightmare.

Taking Wilshire or Olympic from Downtown out to the Farmers Market midday is much easier. Both streets are interesting drives in their own right.

You may want to review yk's recent postings, who very successfully used public transit to visit downtown from Koreatown multiple times.

Re: public transportation in LA

As I've said on my recent trip report, I was pleasantly surprised by how convenient it is to use public transportation (bus & subway) to get around town. As a comparison, I live in a suburb 8 miles outside of Boston, and I have to admit, public transportation in my suburb is inferior to where I stayed in LA (Koreatown).

From Koreatown, I can take No.728 (along Olympic) and get to downtown (5 miles away) in 20 minutes; or to Century City (7 miles away) in 30 minutes.

Or I can take No.720, which runs every 5 minutes during rush hour, to get to UCLA (8 miles away) in 30 minutes.

Whereas where I live now outside of Boston, the bus I can take to get into downtown only runs M-F during rush hour.

The MTA timetable indicates travel time between Union Station and Hollywood/Highland is 20 minutes.

I calculate Union Station to Hollywood/Highland on the Red Line will take nearly 30 minutes (counting time to buy tickets, walk to platform and wait for the train). [I took the metro from Union Station yesterday for the Rose Bowl Game.]

The driving distance between Union Station and Hollywood/Highland is about 8 miles. Hollywood/Highland to the Grove is less than 5 miles. Union Station to the Grove is about 11 miles. Ergo, drive from Union Station to Hollywood/Highland in about 30 minutes and then on to the Grove in about 15 minutes (total 45 minutes) or take the Red Line round-trip and then drive to the Grove (total of almost 1.5 hours).

BTW, the drive from Hollywood/Highland to the Grove (straight down Highland to Beverly or 3rd) is for several blocks in the residential area called Hancock Park. Beautiful, big homes built primarily in the 1920s-1930s.

Alternatively, consider skipping downtown LA and pursue an itinerary that might include the Getty Center, Venice Beach, Santa Monica Pier, Westwood, or even up the coast to Malibu.