gores95

Hey guys. Spending four nights in Las Vegas then flying very early into Los Angeles for a full day before heading home to NJ on a red-eye. Flight in LA arrives around 8AM and flight leaves around 10PM. The day of this trip is a Monday in June. Southwest airfares into Orange County or LAX are the same and I will have a rental car for the day. Please let me know if my itinerary is too bold and which airport would work best for me.

OK here is what I would like to see/hit:

1. Hollywood walk of fame and would like to see the Hollywood sign (just to snap a pic or two) then drive up Sunset Strip
2. walk down Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills
3. Take a Universal Tour for a couple of hours (not sure if they have any "quick tours" or I should skip this with my limited time)
4. Santa Monica pier and Venice Beach/Malibu area

Others have suggested the Farmers Market, Olvera Street and the Getty Center/Museum.

what do you guys think? I did one day in SF from LAS at the end of last year and while hectic I had fun. Also did I omit any can't misses?

Thanks,

Marc

janisj

Have you considered flying into Burbank instead of LAX? Much smaller airport, easier to maneuver, quicker to get rental car, etc. Several of your sites are more convenient to Burbank than LAX.

lvk

Your itinerary looks reasonable. If you are looking for a studio tour and not the theme park experience, then I suggest checking out the Warner Brothers Studio VIP tour. It is two hours in length and will fit nicely into your itinerary. Have a great time!

gores95

Thanks guys for the input. I wasn't sure how far apart LAC and OC was! As for Burbank SW does fly there from LAS but the issue is flying home to Newark on CO is direct from LAX and has a stopover leaving from Burbank. I guess I could fly into Burbank and fly out of LAX. I will check rental car rates to see how much more expensive it would be to pick up and drop off in different airports. If this is no issue would you guys recommend flying into Burbank then departing via LAX?

I also like the Warner Studio tour idea. Two hours would be PERFECT!

Thanks again and keep those suggestions coming!

Marc

suze

From your list, these are my favorites (i'm LA native) and would work well for a 1-day itinerary:

Hollywood walk of fame
Hollywood sign
Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills
Farmers Market, Olvera Street
Santa Monica, Venice Beach

(Personally I'd skip any tours or museums, they'll just slow you down -lol!)

janisj

gores95: That's what I meant - fly into Burbank and out of LAX. Most agencies won't have drop off fees for airports in the LA basin.

dmlove

janis' suggestion is perfect. Burbank is so much easier to deal with and so much closer to where you want to go!

mlgb

If you are able to fly into Burbank, then you would want to.

The order ideally would be

Universal (not sure about the opening hours though, check their website)

Hollywood

Rodeo-Farmers Market (they're pretty close)

Malibu-Santa Monica-Venice

I might drive thru Griffith Park between Universal and Hollywood.

If you want to see Olvera, I would do it by taking the 15-minute ride on Red Line subway from Hollywood. There's a Union Station stop that's convenient (and Union Station is beautiful).

gores95

OK it definitely works to fly into Burbank and depart LAX. Airfares both the same and as a matter of fact the rental car is cheaper than if picked up and dropped off in LAX!

One more monkey wrench question for you all. The other possibility is flying LAS-SD and doing that city for one day. Having never seen LA or SD what do you think? One of my buddies mentioned it would be better for me to do that but I wanted to see LA first. If you guys think SD would be a better fit than I would be willing to change my plans.

Thanks as always!

POlson

Based on your interests and time here are my suggestions:
Arrive Burbank, enjoy breakfast at Mo's on Riverside drive, then do Warner Bros tour (if you con't have time for a tour you can drive past Disney, NBC/Tonight Show, Warner Bros which are all in Burbank);
Take Cahuenga/Barham over the hill, past the Hollywood Bowl to the Hollywood and Highland shopping complex and park there (enter on the right side off Highland before you reach Hollywood Blvd., after Franklin); see Walk of Fame, Chinese Theater, El Capitan movie theater all within a block of parking (also there is a good view of Hollywood sign from one of the upper walkways at Hollywood and Highland) (the Kodak Theater, where the Oscars are, might do tours; it is also located at the Hollywood/Highland mall); from there head south on Highland to 3rd, turn right to Farmer's Market (at 3rd & Fairfax), look around the market, shop a little (the Grove is right there). Lots of choices for lunch right there. (You can skip the market and drive Sunset Strip by heading west on Sunset, rather than south to 3rd, then find Santa Monica Blvd. west to BH.) Head west from the market on 3rd to Beverly Hills. Go past La Cienega to Robertson, turn right for shopping and the Ivy. To get to Rodeo Drive, go back south to Burton (one block south of 3rd) then west (right) to Rodeo. Burton becomes "little" Santa Monica Blvd. and you should look for parking anywhere. There is good public parking next to William Sonoma on Beverly Dr. (one block east of Rodeo). You can drive around BH north of Santa Monica Blvd to see some amazing houses (with very large doors, turn right on Rexford and then just meander), and enjoy an afternoon treat at one of the little cafes near or on Rodeo. To Santa Monica, just head down Santa Monica Blvd. It takes a while, but the drive is not totally boring. Public parking is available around the 3rd Street Promenade (another shopping area). The pier is kind of cool, but you'll have to work your way down the bluff. If you want to splurge for dinner you might try Shutters in Santa Monica.
The Getty Center is a cool alternative, and well worth the visit, but it takes a long time. You should plan at least several hours and you'd need to abandon one of the other options and make sure you get your tickets in advance. I would suggest an afternoon visit, as it would allow you more time to do other things, and the center is located roughly between BH and Santa Monica (and a little north; take I-405 to Getty Ctr. Dr.). Tickets are hard to come by, and you're getting a parking ticket, not a center ticket; the center is free. Venice Beach is a little south of Santa Monica and also worth a visit, but I think best during daylight on a weekend when the crowds are out. Malibu would be too far for a visit in your one day.

Make sure you head to LAX around 8:00 for car return and check-in.

mlgb

You no longer need tickets to visit the Getty museum off the 405. It's the Getty Villa in Malibu that requires reservations.

joesorce

fly into Burbank and take a quick drive to Warner Brothers for their morning tour. Then, you're 7 minutes drive to Hollywood Walk of Fame, which you can browse for about an hour to 90 minutes. Head to the Getty Center, combining the visit with quick lunch at their garden cafe. From the Getty it's an easy drive out Sunset Boulevard to Malibu, then down the coast to Santa Monica. I prefer Manhattan Beach to Santa Monica as a place to stroll and say goodbye to California, but SM has more dining and shopping.

Jean

Most of these suggested itineraries assume Monday traffic will somehow be nearly non-existent.

suze

Do you mean o go to San Diego instead of Los Angeles? Skip LA altogether?

San Diego is nice enough but they are hardly comparable cities!!

Shanghainese

Marc -- Just to give you another idea, last week Friday we flew from EWK to LA after flying from SFO to EWK for a short visit of New York City. Since I wasn't up to driving and being an interpreter and tour guide to my non-english speaking guest in LA, we joined the 5.5 hours StarLine deluxe tour, which picked us up at our hotel and had earphones with taped comments in 6 languages. The comments were adequate but about 1/4 of what our tour guide was talking about so I still had some translating to do.

The Deluxe tour started at the Walk of Fame, Kodak Theater and Chinese Theater around the Hollywood & Highland Mall, drove along Sunset Blvd, stopped for 15 minutes on Rodeo Drive, went down Melrose to the Tar Pits, and gave us an hour for lunch at the Farmers' Market with just enough time to race to and peek at the Grove. Off to downtown LA, passed the Convention Center and Staples Stadium, photo stop at the Disney Concert Hall, another 20 minute stop at Olvera. Drove thru Chinatown and on to the freeway back to our hotel in Hollywood. Spent the rest of the time shopping!

gores95

Hey guys awesome responses....thanks a lot!!! Shanghai I think you mean EWR not EWK but I thought of a long tour and would rather be on my own without being strapped in for 6+ hours. As for the other suggestions it sounds great and seems like I can get a good taste of LA in a day. I was thinking of doing SD instead but I am set on LA now. Lots of good ideas should make for a really fun day!

On another note I am from Northern NJ so I have an idea what terrible traffic is like! How bad would it be in the areas we are talking about on a Monday? I would be flying in around 8:30AM so I would be getting on the road after 9:00. I would also be making my way back to LAX around 7-8PM.

I also thought of taking a quick tour of Dodgers Stadium (I am a BIG baseball fan) but unfortunately the stadium doesn't offer tours during the season. I also thought of the Tonight Show but I don't want to take too much time out of my one day.

Thanks again for all the suggestions!

POlson

While LA traffic can be hideous, I frequently go over the hill around lunchtime and it is not bad - half hour to 45 min to BH from Burbank, less to Hollywood. Getting to Getty may be tough late day as westside traffic can get pretty bad, but if you drive city streets you have an idea of what it would be like. From Malibu to LAX at Rush Hour could be bad but should not be offensive by 8:00pm.

Antiquities are at the Getty Villa in Malibu. The Getty Center has a broader collection. I've not been to the Villa since it was reopened but it was fabulous before. The Getty Center is pretty cool too. Either would take some time to adequately visit.

Grandot

I just checked the website and the Getty Center is closed on Monday.
I suggest starting with Universal if you fly into Burbank. After you do the Hollywood walk of fame, drive west on Sunset to Fairfax, go south to the Grove/Farmer's Market. If it's lunchtime, you can eat there. After, get to Beverly Hills by driving on 3rd street. There is a two hour free parking structure which you can enter either on Beverly Drive or Canon Drive (one block east of Beverly). Lunch at a cafe (not on Rodeo) on Canon (a zillion Italian), dessert on Little Santa Monica at Il Cono (between Beverly and Rodeo), really good gelato. Or you can skip lunch there and wait until you get to Santa Monica, many cafes on the 3rd street Promenade. Instead of driving to Santa Monica on Santa Monica Blvd., I would recommend driving on Wilshnire. I think it's more interesting.
Then, of course, you can go to Venice Beach, but that is much more interesting on the weekend. And Venice and Malibu are NOT near each other. I would skip Malibu, unless it's such a gorgeous day and you want to drive up the coast a little way.
I'm not sure where you would be able to fit downtown in this day. Also, I suggest you decide which things are not to be missed and which are expendable so you can make some choices if the traffic gets bad, which it can.
Good luck and have fun. LA is a great city.