gracie

OP here. I appreciate the many thoughtful replies. I am somewhat familiar with San Diego and Del Mar, but haven’t been to LA in more than 20 years. Our areas of interest in LA, in no particular order: Santa Monica, Hollywood Walk of Fame, a studio tour (probably Warner Brothers), Beverly Hills, Rose Bowl, Griffith Park.
In San Diego area, our interests are Torrey Pines, Del Mar, La Jolla, Ocean Beach, Balboa Park, Coronado Island and the Del Hotel. Not interested in any zoos, Disney Land, Lego Land or Sea World. We do live near the most beautiful beaches in the world in Northwest Florida, so not interested in sitting on a California beach all day, but we do want to see the very different and very beautiful California landscape. This is sort of an impromptu getaway. Still trying to decide where to spend Friday night. We have reservations Friday night at Carlsbad Hampton Inn, but can cancel. We are not used to LA driving, but we have a second home in the Atlanta area to be near family, so we are experienced in Atlanta driving. I realize LA is a whole different level.😂
Yes, we are flying Southwest. We will leave our home at 10:30 am to drive to the Panama City airport. We can park, check in, go through security and be at our gate in less than 20 minutes. (Security usually takes less than 5 minutes here.) That’s why we would rather pay a little more to fly out of Panama City.

Barbara

gracie, you might check out desert flowers in So Cal right before you leave. We had a lot of rain in December, and that often means lots of desert flowers. It's a bit early, but worth checking. That would be really special.

Jean

I don't remember how many days you have in LA before returning to SD, and I don't know how much time you'd need for your plans in Santa Monica, Beverly Hills and Griffith Park, but adding Warner Bros. in the SF Valley and the Rose Bowl makes for a fair amount of driving. I don't understand the Rose Bowl if you hope to do more than look at the outside, but there is much to see in Pasadena. No Rose Bowl Flea Market that Sunday.

IMO, Marina del Rey wouldn't be the best hotel location for this sightseeing list. I'd look for something in the WLA area. FYI, proof of vax required for Warner Bros. studio tour.

gracie

We have been vaccinated and had boosters. We want to see Rose Bowl because we are big college football fans.

mrwunrfl

Public tours of the Rose Bowl on last Friday every month. Maybe they can do a public tour. (or you could stop by on the way to Santa Anita)

gracie

Just realized we won’t be able to tour Rose Bowl because of the dates of our trip, but DH still wants to drive by.

jamie99

Right now, Warner Bros is the only studio open to the public, Paramount and Sony are both closed still due to COVID, just bring your vax card to WB. Tour takes an hour or two. I was going to suggest a visit to the Coliseum (USC plays college football there) but cannot find anything on their website as to whether they do tours or not.

mlgb

You should be able to drive up N. Arroyo Blvd to park near the "Jackie Robinson Rose Bowl Statue" for a nice view and photos. Maybe even walk a bit around.

I think that Marina del Rey is a HORRIBLE location, given your interests.

If you are on a budget have a look at Burbank. It's probably $100/night less than Westwood or West Los Angeles. You really do not need to stay near the coast this time of year and it just adds to travel time.

gracie

We drove to LA Friday night after we picked up our rental car. Traffic was not bad and we arrived at our hotel, an Embassy Suites in Glendale, by 10:00 pm. We took a day long tour Saturday, seeing various tourist spots, such as Santa Monica Pier, Farmers Market, Hollywood, Griffith Park, etc. Drove to San Diego Monday morning. So far, the traffic we have encountered has not been as bad as what we experience in Atlanta.