I have a friend visiting from New Zealand and he has to kill 9 hours in L.A. Airport. Does anyone have any suggestions? Will he have time to go into the city? Thanks for the help.
Lee

This may not be the answer most people will give your friend, but after the long,long flight from New Zealand I'd look into a day room at an airport hotel, have a good shower and sleep for a couple of hours. As an alternative he can grab a cab and go to Marina del Rey or Venice Beach/Santa Monica (a couple of miles north of LAX) but I would be too tired to even enjoy that if it were me! If he's wide awake tho he could also go down to Redondo Beach or Manhattan Beach (couple miles south of LAX, walk the pier, eat, etc. Even with 9 hours I'd not wander off too far, time has a way of slipping by quickly and he would not want to miss his next flight by being caught on the freeway in traffic!

This may not be the answer most people will give your friend, but after the long,long flight from New Zealand I'd look into a day room at an airport hotel, have a good shower and sleep for a couple of hours. As an alternative he can grab a cab and go to Marina del Rey or Venice Beach/Santa Monica (a couple of miles north of LAX) but I would be too tired to even enjoy that if it were me! If he's wide awake tho he could also go down to Redondo Beach or Manhattan Beach (couple miles south of LAX, walk the pier, eat, etc. Even with 9 hours I'd not wander off too far, time has a way of slipping by quickly and he would not want to miss his next flight by being caught on the freeway in traffic!

There are beds and showers at LAX available for hourly rental.

One thing not to overlook -- Los Angeles can have some of the country's worst traffic jams, and they can develop very badly, very quickly. Give yourself a LOT of leeway when returning to the airport. What took thirty minutes to get to could take two hours to get back from!!

Something just dawned on me -- where is your friend's final destination in the U.S.? LAX is a major airport with connections to most everywhere in the U.S. and the world really. It seems odd to me that he would have to endure a 9 hr. layover - LA is not the backwoods so there should be plenty of planes out within a reasonable time (3 hours or so) after his landing. Perhaps he needs to check on that as 9 hours is too long for a LA layover and too short to do much with.

I will tell you how you might kill 3 of the 9 hours at LAX. Getting thru baggage claim, customs and then immigration. On one trip back from Australia, it took precisely 3 hours from de-planing (is that even a word?) to leaving the airport doors. Part of the problem is the idiots they employ to cattle herd us thru the immigration gates. The passport stampers take their own sweet time asking their mundane irrelevant questions. Why the heck do they need to know what the name of my hotel is anyway?
Gatwick London is another slow airport.
Wish your friend from Kiwi-land good luck.
Bill

Thanks for the help folks. Actually, I misled you, my friend is leaving from Lax, not arriving. He is winding up a long trip here with a flight to Lax and then home. But with everyone's comments about the traffic, he just might get a good book and stay put. Thanks again.
Lee

Hi, Leechase,
Boy, I would NOT sit around LAX for 9 hours before a 12+ hour sit across the Pacific, even if the flight stops at Honolulu (which usually happens in the middle of the night, when the already mediocre facilities at HNL are closed anyway.) I think LAX is plum toxic and would spend the minimum time there necessary to ensure I don't miss the Auckland flight.
I would seriously consider getting rid of any remaining bags, then taking a taxi to either Marina del Rey or (my choice) downtown Manhattan Beach (either one around a 10-15 min. taxi ride from the airport.) A walk on the beach, watch the surfers or sunset, go out the pier, get a beer or coffee, another walk... I would try to get some exercise and tire myself out a little before that grueling night across 2 hemispheres. A taxi back to the airport would be no biggie, and the traffic isn't that bad if the cab uses surface streets.
In my opinion.

Thanks for clearing that up! I thought he was arriving in LA with a 9 hr layover to someplace else. Nine hrs. is too long to sit at LAX, not matter how good the book he is reading is! My original suggestions of going up to Marina del Rey or down to Manhattan or Redondo Beach still stand .. they are a short cab ride away (a few miles). He could walk on the pier and along the beach, get plenty of fresh air and tire himself out for that grueling trip home.
As the previous poster said cabs can do local streets from those places as they are very close to the airport. He probably needs to allow 2 hrs. or so for checkin tho. I hope he has fun, the beach area is very nice, certainly better than LAX.

Thanks very much for the help. My Kiwi friend and I really appreciate it! He will most definately go the beach for a few hours.....much better than sitting around the airport!!
Lee

If he was my friend, I'd send him to Venice Beach, rather than any of the others referred to. Venice Beach is the weirdest, with the strangest collection of people, the most cosmopolitan choice of restaurants, the widest selection of tacky and high quality souvenirs, etc. The other beachs have a certain Austalian quality to them, but Venice Beach is an American original. (So is Santa Monica beach, but it's too far away)
BAK

I agree with Venice Beach suggestion and I disagree that Sta. Monica is too far from LAX. Just make sure he knows to arrive back at LAX 2 hours prior to departure!

Yes, go sit on the beach and watch the planes take-off and land -- eat a hot dog or two.

BTW -- I went through Gatwick yesterday, I was there all of 45 minutes; zip, boom bang.