Worried mom needs California travel advice for daughter (and friends)
 

Hello,
My daughter and two of her friends will be traveling to Los Angeles for the BCS bowl. All three are students at the University of Alabama. They will be flying into LAX and staying at the Hilton Airport Hotel (came with a travel package). We had to book this quickly because flights to LA were going fast after the SEC game.
My concern is driving. My daughter has driven in Atlanta a couple of times and Birmingham, Alabama (don't laugh). She has never driven on a freeway. I've been reading about the area where they will be staying and sources on the net say there are several unsafe areas east of where they will be staying.
Should the girls try to drive or should they rent a taxi? Is there another safe method of travel from LAX to the Rose Bowl (BCS) game?
Thanks for your advice,
L.A. (lower Alabama) Mom :-)

LA is not a taxi city. The freeway system is complex and busy, but not unreasonably dangerous. Have your daughter well prepared with mapquest directions to all destinations. Get a rental car with a navigation system. Have a navigator so the driver is driving and not map reading. SoCal freeways are busy much of the day, so account for traffic on every trip. Take highway safety seriously when you are a visitor.

The LAX hotels are safe, but in a less than ideal area. The hotel and hotel parking should be secure. Don't walk around the neighborhood. Don't stop in the area gas stations or convenience stores after dark. Millions pass through the airport and the hotels without problems. Be smart.

How old are your daughter and her friends? I ask, since you mention that they are college students, which means they might not be old enough to rent a car!

PS; With your daughter's limited driving experience, I'd be a concerned about her driving out there, too.

There may be a huge surcharge for an rental to a person under 25. Make sure you factor that into the cost of car rental.

Sorry for the second post -- she will need a credit card in her name to rent a car, even if it is prepaid. I trust she has one with enough available credit?

I really think a young, inexperienced driver with little or no interstate, big city, huge amounts of traffic driving is a concern.

Perhaps they can arrange for a limo or other car service. Maybe there is a shuttle that hotel might have specially for the big game?

And make sure she gets insurance on the rental car.

Again, when you add in all the costs, a car is going to be $$$.

Have you contacted the company you got the travel package through for Rose Bowl transportation? If they are no help then I would contact the hotel and then the Rose Bowl for transportation suggestions. They will need to take freeeways the whole way and her driving experience in no way prepares her for the experience of drivng in LA and especially the gridlock around the Rose Bowl game day. Especially if she is timid at all in traffic.

As for getting around from the hotel the advise to not venture east is a good one. They could have a lot of fun taking a cab to the Manhattan Beach Pier (about $25 each way) and spending some time in the shops, eating and walking or renting bikes to ride the bike path. An alternative would be to go north and get a cab to Venice Beach and do the same.

They are goiing to have a great time!

Renting a car, assuming she is old enough to do so, might be a good thing for some local trips...to Santa Monica and Malibu, which I'm sure they will want to check out. But NOT to drive into downtown LA. Even experienced drivers avoid that traffic jungle. I think some sort of rose bowl public transportation is your best bet. There used to be public bus service to the Hollywood Bowl from point in the LA area, and maybe there is a similar transportation arrangements for the Rose Bowl. Check with the LA Chamber of Commerce if the hotel can't help. A limo is going to be very expensive and will also get caught in traffic. Good luck. They will have a ball if they keep their wits about them and don't do stupid things....like drink too much!

If your daughter has never driven on a freeway LA is no place to start.
It may be smarter to find another hotel closer to the Rose Bowl that has transportation from the airport to the hotel and transportation to the Rose Bowl.

It may cost more but you wouldn't have car rental fees or gas to buy and parking. There is some info at this website.

http://www.tournamentofroses.com/ros...sportation.asp

Both Birmingham and Atlanta require travel on interstates. (Especially if she ever drove from one to the other.) Driving on a freeway isn't really any different from driving on an interstate. Has she ever driven on an interstate?

I learned to drive in Alabama and then moved to Washington DC at the age of 21. I did not have any issues driving in downtown Washington DC traffic (which can be a little nutty) or on the interstates in the NE.

I personally think the bigger challenge will be renting a car if she and her friends are under 25.

I also think that it would be good for you to try to keep your worry to yourself regarding their driving in LA. If you worry, they will worry...and if they worry, they will be less than confident and that's when they'll have a greater chance of something happening.

...so I just reread my last paragraph which seems kind of harsh, and I didn't mean it to be. :) It's totally normal to worry about your kids (I'm 36 and my parents still worry about me), but if there's any way that you can temper that emotion and instead provide them with helpful tips and words of encouragement, that will only serve to boost their confidence.

Hope your daughter enjoys her trip to the West Coast and that Bama does well in the game, even though I did graduate from Auburn. ;-)

I'm an L.A. native, and I find some of the descriptions of driving here a bit overblown. But, having said that, because of the late hour of the return trip, your daughter's group should look into organized, group transport options to the Rose Bowl. I've seen fan buses leaving from the Beverly Hills Hilton Hotel and the Palomar in Westwood, and I suspect one or more of the airport hotels (either alone or working together) will offer transportation.

Have your daughter inquire with the company that offered her travel package, the LAX Hilton and/or the University.

I forgot to add... There is a free shuttle service between the LAX Hilton and downtown Manhattan Beach. No need for a cab.

From the LAX Hilton website, here's an email address for the concierge:

[email protected]
[note the underscore between laxah and hospitable]

Thank you so much for the tips. I plan to call the Hilton directly on Monday morning. When I found out how far the hotel is from the Rose Bowl, I didn't consider that they might provide transportation. Several websites for tourists post that the Hilton is near a place called Inglewood and how dangerous it is and how the local area is gang infested. Although that frightens me, I have to remind myself that folks from other parts of the country think we have racial wars in the south (laughing here). Again, thanks for your help and thank God for the internet.
Alabama Mom

OK - 1) LAX is about the worst place to stay if Pasadena is where they will be spending their time. Whether she had 20 years diving experience, or none. Can they change the booking?

They would have been much better off flying into Burbank and staying near there - but probably too late to fix things now.

2) Inglewood isn't great, but they will only be driving through it to get to the airport and hotel.

3) Driving to the Rose Bowl, parking, and especially getting out again will be an ordeal.

The LAX Hilton is about a mile from LAX, in a straight line down a very busy street. Inglewood is not located between LAX and the Hilton, and your daughter won't be driving through or to Inglewood even if they drive to the Rose Bowl.

The main hotel areas around LAX is totally safe.

It'd take 2 hours to drive from LAX to Rose Bowl if one doesn't use the freeway.

If you can't find a shuttle, they can always take the FlyAway airport bus from LAX to Union Station and then switch to the Gold Line lightrail to Pasadena.

rkkwan, I was thinking the same thing. FlyAway to Union, Gold Line to Pasadena. Get off at Holly Street station, and there will be shuttle service three blocks away at the Parsons Building (Holly St. and Fair Oaks Ave.).

http://www.tournamentofroses.com/ros...sportation.asp

Oops. The Gold Line station is called Memorial Park, but the pedestrian exit is to Holly Street.

If the final decision is to rent a car, and if your daughter is covered on your car insurance, then you should insist that she use the freeways whenever feasible. The freeway accident rate per mile is a small fraction of that on surface streets. It will take her only a few miles and minutes on a freeway to appreciate the virtues of no stoplights, no pedestrian crossings, no left turns against oncoming traffic, signs that tell a exit immediately coming up, and one or two after that, as much as a mile in advance, and car pool lanes that she will be eligible to use when one or more of her friends are traveling with her.

I emphasize. Much safer than city streets!

When my daughter drove to LA by herself recently, we bought a Garmin Nuvi and input the places she was going before she left (hotel, event, etc.). It was very useful. We've since used it in Canada and elsewhere so it was a good investment.

I definitely think driving to the Rose Bowl game itself would be nuts. 100,000 people, most of whom will drive (this is LA after all :-) ). I like the option of the Flyaway/lightrail combination.

BUT, you said they're staying 3 days, so even if they take public transportation to the Rose Bowl, what are they going to do the rest of the time?

BTW, everyone asked if they're 25 for car rental purposes. They also have to be 21/25 for the hotel.

Again, thanks to all who replied to my query. I checked with the Hilton, and they are providing a shuttle to and from the game for $60.00. I promptly booked the three girls, and it has greatly eased my mind. I know they will have a great time in LA and at the game.
Alabama Mom (who is not as worried)

I couldn't imagine someone driving from LAX to near Pasadena who had never driven on a freeway before. I used to live in LA and didn't find downtown that difficult, actually, but it's hard for me to imagine what that would be like if you hadn't driving on a freeway before as I was doing so from a very young age.

If I understand, they are staying near the airport, and a taxi ride to Santa Monica or Venice won't be that expensive from there, actually.

Even though I have driven in LA for over 20 years, I still wouldn't have driven a car to a game at the Rose Bowl.
Good that they found the shuttle, it will be the best option.

For other time that they are there, they can take advantage of taxis or the free transportation from the hotel to Manhattan Beach, which has nicer malls and beach areas than Santa Monica anyways. Also, if they want to visit downtown LA or Westwood Village, both of which would be interesting, they can go back to the airport and use the airport Flyaway busses.

No need to worry about Inglewood. There isn't any reason for them go walking around the hotel.

AlabamaMom, good news about the transport. They're going to have a great time.

One more time. The LAX Hilton is not in Inglewood.

Not that the Hilton is in Inglewood, but I ride buses through Inglewood all the time, and there are a lot of places in the US that are scarier than Inglewood. :p

They will love the beach areas south of the airport -- if the weather is good, they could easily spend an entire day in the Manhattan/Hermosa/Redondo beach area. Walk on the Strand, eat, shop, sit on the beach, etc.