Overnight between LA and Las Vegas
 

Hi, We are arriving in LA in the middle of the afternoon, picking up a hire car and then straight on the road to Las Vegas.
Does anyone have suggestions for accommodation en route, as I'm sure due to the travel we won't be able to make it that afternoon?
We'd like somewhere clean and reasonably priced (perhaps $100 or below) and we may need to be near some larger shops so we can pick up warm clothes.
None of the town names jump out at me, so any help would be appreciated. Would Barstow be okay? What about Victorville?
Thank you
Lissa

Both of those towns have many places to stay but I have no specific recommendations.
You could try to reach the border of Nevada and stay at one of the casino/hotels. There is an outlet center there where you could purchase clothing.

"<i>Barstow be okay?</i>" Armpit

"<i>What about Victorville?</i>" another slightly less nasty armpit

The drive straight through isn't that bad - but unfortunately leaving LAX in the afternoon means you'll be in the commute mess all the way through the LA basin and beyond. It will be miserable.

Have you considered flying straight on to Vegas from LAX and avoiding the drive altogether?

The idea of just getting on another flight is not a bad one.

Or, if you do need warm clothes, you could just stay at an LAX hotel--there are tons of them!-- and go shopping at Nordstrom Rack which is only about 10 minutes from the airport up Sepulveda Blvd, if you really do not want to drive the same day. Not sure what you mean by "warm clothes"......

I like the flying option . . . But socialworker's idea is a great Plan B. Never one to pass by a Nordstrom Rack :)

It is very unfair to characterize Barstow and Victorville as "armpits".
It is misinformation.

Victorville maybe isn't -- but Barstow -- yep. Or at least an armpit of a place to stay on vacation ;)

And to have to drive 3 1/2 to 4 hours in bumper to bumper traffic to get to <i>Barstow</i>?? On your honeymoon no less. I wouldn't. Just sayin'

If you fly -- you'll be settled into your Vegas hotel about the same time you'd arrive in beautiful downtown Barstow.

Oh - if instead you stay over near LAX, you can shop at the Rack and/or sit on the beach, have a nice dinner, and drive straight through to Vegas the next day.

Don't take Janis' comments personally. She doesn't like my home town area in the San Joaquin Valley, but I still love her anyway!!

Hugs JJ!!

Nothing wrong w/ the Valley -- but the first night of your <i>Honeymoon</i>?? >)

:D

We've stayed several times in Primm Nevada, usually at Buffalo Bill's.
When our son and his family lived in Barstow, we stayed at the only hotel we could find that had interior corridors.
Gasoline is cheaper in LV than in Primm or Jean.
There is a flight on Allegiant Airlines from Long Beach to Las Vegas if you did not want to drive across the Mojave Desert.

Primm doesn't help the OP. By the time they got to Primm they'd only be 35 minutes from Vegas.

And flying from Long Beach would involve transferring from LAX.

Neither option would solve the OPs problem . . .

ROFL - I only opened this thread to say that <b>Barstow is an armpit</b> !!!!


<I>(and now I'm enjoying a good laugh at the mere thought that somebody else already said it)</i>

I think I'd go straight through to Vegas if I were you, afternoon or not...

Besides, Vegas always keeps your mental clock upside down anyway, so it doesn't really matter what time it is when you arrive.

It isn't as if lots of places <I>are gonna close soon</i>...

You could stay in Palm Springs and take a different route to Las Vegas. Maybe see Joshua Tree....what time exactly do you arrive LAX and on what day of the week? Sat or Sun might not be too bad, but leaving LAX at say 4pm Mon-Fri , after a long flight....well, the traffic could drive you crazy and if you encounter one of the frequent traffic nightmares between L.A. and Victorville, then even worse.

In early December it'll be dark after 5pm so the drive....well, you won't see any desert, just oncoming auto headlights all the way. There should be vacancies along the way so if you decide to stop in Victorville or Barstow I don't think you'd need reservations. Maybe if you were planning to arrive late late at night, but 7pm or so, you should be okay. There's a big outlet mall just before Barstow and I think there is a Hampton Inn or Holiday Inn Express right there. Lenwood exit.

Are you arriving from Australia? If not, how long is your flight to LAX, and what time zone will you be on?

If you're arriving from Australia, I wouldn't even think about jumping in a car, driving on the 'wrong' side of the road for any amount of time and looking for a hotel in an unknown town. Having said that, I'd have no problem spending a night in Victorville. As long as you know there are no luxury or upscale accommodations there, you'll find well-known hotel chains represented.

If you're arriving from somewhere in the U.S. and can't drive away from LAX before 3:00 pm, seriously consider spending the night nearby or taking a connecting flight to Las Vegas. By 3:00 pm, the afternoon rush-hour traffic begins in earnest and quite a bit of it will be heading in the same direction you would be. One hint: Mapquest, Google Maps and probably every GPS system will direct you to head east on the 10 from the 605 to connect to the 15. Instead, stay on the 605 until you reach the 210 and take that east to the 15.

Wow, so many replies, thank you.

We are arriving from Australia, and the big thing I guess is we are picking up a car in LA, so the flight option is out.

It's sounding like perhaps what we should do is pick up the car, do any shopping we need to do, stay in an Airport hotel, leave early the next morning to drive to Vegas.

Yes... That's sounding like the perfect solution.

Thank you, it's hard from this far away to know what is achievable and what isn't.

Great to hear about about Nordstrom rack. Being from Sunny Queensland we need to get Jackets and any other cold weather necessities. We have nothing to keep us warm except each other :)

Any suggestions on how to best be prepared for the weather would be great. We are going from LA to LV then Grand Canyon and making our way, whichever way we can get through to San Francisco (we have a week to get from LV to San Francisco - leaving GC on the afternoon of the 9th) and we want to go to Death Valley.

We understand we will have to be flexible due to weather restrictions.

Please keep the suggestions coming, they are wonderful, and so helpful, Thank you

Oops :) forgot to ask, what is a good time to leave LA early in the morning on a Saturday heading to Las Vegas (if there is a good time :) )Thanks so much

The difference between driving Friday afternoon and Sat Morning will be HUGE. The drive will be so much easier you can't imagine . . .

Leave any time you'd like - though earlier will be easier.

I like leaving LA around 7 a.m. on a Saturday -- you reach LV around noon, including a pit stop for food, gas, and bathroom break.

I strongly suggest you make sure to get a GPS in your rental car. Nothing is easy in the LA area, there are so many freeways to navigate, you often have to take what looks like an exit just to stay on the freeway you think you are already on, I'm not kidding.

As for your trip portion between Death Valley and San Francisco, I travel from north to south state several times a year and I have given up looking for anything interesting to stop at between the LA Basin Area and the Bay Area. There are a few California missions in the valley but that's about it. My suggestion is either use 2 days to travel north along Hwy. 1 or just take I-5 which is fast but ugly and save your time for San Francisco. In December I would avoid 395 north completely.