I'm thinking of visiting a friend who lives in the Echo Park area of L.A. After doing some basic research, I've discovered that most folks say a car is necessary to explore L.A. Coming from Boston, I'm kind of confused by that. There is public transportation but is it not efficient? Most likely, I would be doing the tourist stuff when she was at work. What do people think? Thanks.

You need a car.

I have a question on this subject. How easy is it to park around La.

If you want to explore LA with public transportation, check with the trip planner. Put in your friend's address and where you want to go.

www.mta.net

Different areas of LA are easier to get around in using the metro and the bus system, but I don't think that Echo Park is user friendly. Ask your friend.

As for the parking question...depends on which part of the city and when, but it is definitely not an NYC or Boston type city where you can never find a place to park. MUCH easier.

Look, you can indeed get anywhere you want via public transportation. The question is: How much of your life do you want to spend in that journey? The LA metro area is huge-- 4,800 square miles for LA and Orange counties. Boston is much, much, much smaller. And for many reasons, broader light rail service isn't an option in the LA area currently.

Let's take a concrete case. I live in Long Beach, and work in Santa Monica. Both are independent cities within the metropolitan area considered to be "LA". My home is about 32 miles from my office. That's an hour commute in a car. To arrive at my office by 8 AM without use of my car, I need to catch a Long Beach Transit bus at 5:50, then run for a Metro Blue Line train, then dash to catch a Green Line transfer, then schlepp to the 6:45 Santa Monica Big Blue Bus, which drops me off three blocks from the office.

Take my word for it-- you CAN rely on public transportation, but you'll have a much better time renting a car. Isn't your time and trouble worth something?

Los Angeles is the only city I can think of that I say YES absolutely rent a car. It is a very very spread-out city much of it based around its freeways.

There is public transportation and you could certainly explore it but "Nobody walks in L.A." isn't just a bad pop song -LOL.

Parking is not a big issue, since everybody drives a car the city is set up for it.

Even directions are most often given assuming car use, "Where is such and such?"... "15 minutes, depending on traffic" a typical answer.

suze, that makes me smile. When I moved here (almost 20 years ago!), I learned how to say "oh, it's 15 minutes from here" for every destination with confidence. Wish it were still that way now....

Let's face it, you'll definitely need a car to make the most of your time there. Especially if you're staying in Echo Park (very cool neighborhood, by the way). Parking's not a problem, keep some singles on you to tip the ever-present valets in the posher parts of town, and to get a good deal on gas, check out www.losangelesgasprices.com. There is public transportation in the form of subways and buses, but the buses are notoriously few and far between, and get stuck in traffic like everyone else, and the subways don't cover the city very thoroughly (guess what a political quagmire that was). That said, there are a few places where you can use public transit and it could even save you some time stuck in traffic, though you'll be leaving your car in a lot and will need to come back to it. The best 2 subways to consider are the Red Line, which connects Union Station and Hollywood, and the Gold Line, which goes from Union Station to Pasadena (www.mta.net). Bonus: many of the stations have cool public artworks, and if you're used to the T, the spaces will feel huge. But most of the time, you'll be driving. You may want to ask your friend if they've got a "Thomas Guide" you can borrow; these are hefty spiral-bound map tomes that cover every freeway and back alley. If you're feeling guilty over the fossil fuels, hit up EV Rental Cars (www.evrental.com) to get your hands on a hybrid. Having lived in both Boston and L.A., I must say that I think Angelenos are far better drivers. Then again, we have nice broad 2-way streets. Have fun, and be sure to find a radio station you like to keep your sanity in traffic!

Dear new fodors editor- it is very helpful to readers on this board if you use paragraph markers in long posts!

What a grouch, i shouldn't post before my morning coffee. Sorry all.

rjw - Another thing about driving in LA. No one ever says how many miles it is, they go by time. Instead of saying it's 5 miles away, people will say "it's about 15 minute drive except at rush hour when it's a 30 min drive". Sometimes I think people don't even know how far something is, just how long it takes to drive!! LOL