Category: Los Angeles

Information about traveling to and from Los Angeles, California

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Los Angeles Things to Do

Plan Your Weekend Getaway

Short weekend escapes are just perfect to break the routine and create some new memories. Granted, chances are you’ll be more tired on Monday morning than on the day you left, but … it’s so worth it! Whether you are visiting Los Angeles or you live here, sometimes it’s great to escape to another city for some good old fun.

Planning a vacation on the spur of the moment is thrilling and fun! Typically it’s not about where you head to, but the fact that you actually leave. Weekend travel deals come in many forms and you can save quite a lot of money if you know where to find the bargains. Last minute flight deals and accommodation offers are meant exactly for this type of traveling.

Check out the many travel deals from Los Angeles . You can choose flight-only, accommodation-only or a mixed package. For example, if you saved some miles and you can use them to get a discount on your flight then look for accommodation deals only.

Why not plan a romantic getaway in Las Vegas? The round trip flight starts at $135 per person and packages start at $307 per person (flight and two nights accommodation). All that’s left is to book the LAX airport parking before you leave so that you don’t need to worry about your car while you are away.

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Los Angeles

Plan Your Next Weekend Getaway From Los Angeles

cancun-sunsetMany of us grab any opportunity to spend the weekends away from home. Whether you want to plan a different Easter vacation this year or just want to surprise your loved one with a short romantic getaway, the deals from Los Angeles will give you some ideas to choose from and help save some money.

How about a shopping spree in New York? You really don’t need a special reason to shop in New York, do you? While your lady checks out the stores (and empties your credit card) you can check out the bars. Packages – including the round trip flight and 2-nights accommodation – start at $747 per person and you’ll be staying at Hilton New York.

Or maybe you want to visit Walt Disney World and unleash that inner child? Packages in Orlando which include the round trip flight and 2-nights accommodation start at $453 per person. You’ll be staying just 1 mile from Walt Disney World. The inn offers an outdoor pool, a gym and you can even play golf near-by.

How about a romantic weekend in Cancun? Packages including the round trip flight in 3-nights accommodation start at $864 per person. The 4-star resort is the only resort in Cancun surrounded on three sides by the beach. You can relax in the private whirlpools and enjoy a romantic dinner at one of the luxurious restaurants.

Has she hinted that Hawaii would be a lovely place to spend a romantic vacation? Then grab one of the packages and please her. The prices start at $645 per person and include the round trip flight and 2-nights accommodation at the Waikiki Beach Marriott Resort & Spa. It is located just steps from the world-famous Waikiki Beach and offers excellent spa facilities, swimming pools and a fitness center.

Now that you’ve got the weekend getaway planned, all you need to do is book the LAX airport parking so that you can leave your car at the airport until you come back from vacation.

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Accommodation Los Angeles Things to Do

Enjoy a Spring Vacation at Disneyland

mickeyminnieMost of those living in colder regions are already sick and tired of the long and cold winter we had to deal with. And I can probably speak for all of us who don’t like cold, that a vacation – no matter how long or short – to a warmer place is exactly what’s in order.

Disneyland is definitely a good choice for a spring vacation, whether you want to surprise the kids with something nice or enjoy some days away with your sweetheart.

When it comes to planning your vacation at Disneyland, the first question to keep in mind is whether you want to choose one of the Disneyland Packages or plan everything on your own. Packages are a nice choice if you are not much of an independent planner and prefer to just enjoy the vacation. Some (most) packages include daily passes to the theme parks so you’ll be saving some money as well. And you can also find romantic packages which combine the fun of the theme parks with pampering your loved one.

If you don’t mind planning everything and you want to explore the city as well – some shopping would be nice right about now – , then booking the flight and accommodation separately is the best choice.

Cheap flights to LA are really not hard to find and if you are keeping your eyes peeled on the airline’s special offers you’ll be able to save even more money on your flight (although you’ll be forced to arrange your vacation around the offer, of course).

Cheap hotels in Los Angeles aren’t hard to find either, especially if you know where to look for them. Do remember that it’s a good idea to rent a car. You’ll have the freedom to choose a cheaper hotel located further from the sights and you can go to the theme parks whenever you feel like it. Plus, taking day trips and long rides is interesting as well.

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Los Angeles

Make LA Your Gateway to Australia

melbourneAt 14 hours or so, the flight from Los Angeles to Australia isn’t exactly short. But LA is the closest US gateway to the land “down under”, which makes it the most popular jumping-off point for anyone traveling from the States to Australia.

Most cheap flights to Australia depart from Los Angeles as well so if you’re headed to Oz, there’s a good chance your travels will take you through LA, if only for a short layover.

If you’re planning a trip to Australia, check out these hotels in Melbourne, which, along with Sydney, is one of the country’s most popular cities. Though it often plays second fiddle to Sydney, Melbourne is a favorite of many travelers and well worth visiting.

You can see more and extend your stay in Australia by taking on some temporary work. Check out our guide to working holiday visas in Australia to learn all about the program and how you can travel the continent for up to 12 months while working your way around.

Photo by fotograf1v2

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Los Angeles Things to Do

Get Out of LA for Some Horse Racing, Kentucky-Style

derbyLos Angeles has lots going for it when it comes to being a top travel destination or even a place to live (efficient public transportation aside). The weather’s unbeatable, the shopping is superb, the beach is right there, and there’s always plenty to do. Unless, of course, you’re a huge horse racing fan. In that case, nothing can replace a trip to see the Kentucky Derby in person.

Sure, there are horses that race around tracks all over the country, and some fine horse races in California. But the Kentucky Derby’s the Kentucky Derby, and no amount of mint juleps and big hats in LA will make up for the fact that you’re not there. So put the Kentucky Derby on your bucket list – and then consider checking it off this year.

The Kentucky Derby isn’t until May 1 this year, so you’ve still got plenty of time to make your travel plans. Since it’s such a major event, you don’t want to wait too much longer, but you’re certainly not looking at a last-minute trip just yet.

To start with, you can still get a cheap ticket to Louisville that will help you keep the whole trip within budget. And although it’s a city with lots to do and see besides the Kentucky Derby, there are still options for cheap hotels in Louisville, both for the Derby and for an extended stay if you’d like to spend a little more time in Kentucky before heading home.

And before you pack your bags, be sure to read through these Kentucky Derby travel tips – including what you can and can’t bring to the Derby itself and a few things to do in Louisville and the area around the Derby.

photo by Lisa Andres

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Accommodation Los Angeles Things to Do

Valentine’s Day Getaway in Los Angeles

la-beachLos Angeles is one of the most diverse cities in the entire United States. The center of the entertainment industry, the City of Angels is also a major fashion hub and shopping center. It might feel a bit unusual to recommend Los Angeles for a romantic getaway. But, we do need to realize that each couple is unique and there are many ways to show your love.

The flight

As in the case of planning any romantic getaway, the first step is to book the airfare. Start by looking into air tickets to Los Angeles . The area is served by several airports and you should look into all possibility. Cheap tickets to LAX are usually easier to find as you’d be flying into the biggest airport in the area.

Alternatively, you can look for cheap tickets to Oakland , spend a few days there and then take a road trip to Los Angeles.

The accommodation

As in the case of all big cities, there are plenty of choices for accommodation. It only depends on what you want to do and therefore choose an area where you want to stay. Considering that you want to impress your lover, you can look for a budget hotel rather than a hostel or a motel. If there are some romantic restaurants in the area, then it’s just for the better.

Romantic things to do in Los Angeles

As I’ve mentioned earlier, Los Angeles isn’t New York or Paris so it’s hard to find a lot of romantic things to do. However, for certain types of couples, Los Angeles can be very romantic. Some as simple as strolling the beach hand in hand and watching the sunset together is enough to make your lover’s heart jump for joy.

You can walk hand in hand and do some shopping. Of course you can dare to give her your credit card (as a special Valentine’s gift) but you are the only one who will know what will happen with your credit limit. Or take her to a very romantic restaurant with a view – maybe in a place perched high above the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

If your budget allows for splurges, invest in a romantic sunset flight. When the sun sets over the city, take your loved one and watch the colors from above. For added bonus, get the dining option as well. If planes aren’t romantic (or adventurous) enough, then you can always go for a romantic helicopter ride. You can add the champagne upgrade for a more bubbly experience (or if you want to pop the question).

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Los Angeles Things to Do

Visiting Anaheim is worthwhile, but it can be tricky

disneyworldAs someone who grew up only a few miles from Disneyland, it’s not always easy to put myself in the shoes of someone who’s coming to visit the place for the very first time. I probably visited the park about 20 times over about 10 years, so it sometimes feels like my backyard. Coming to Los Angeles to visit Disneyland is a major highlight for hundreds of thousands of people each year, but at the same time there are some pitfalls to be aware of, which I’ll cover just below.

Is Disneyland worthwhile?

Absolutely it is. After traveling around the world I can honestly say that very few things match Disneyland (or Disney World) for sheer excitement and novelty. But the deeper question is whether you should plan your entire trip around that visit, and I think the answer is no.

Getting to Anaheim

If you are coming from another country and you’ve gotten some international air tickets that get you to LAX, then you’ll only be about 40 kilometers from the park once you land.

If are coming domestically then you have several more airports to consider when looking for cheap flights to LA. Still, the best deals tend to be into LAX, so next you are probably wondering how to get from Los Angeles to Anaheim. We’ve covered that subject in the article linked here, but the bottom line is that renting a car is probably your best bet, though there are various buses and other possibilities.

Staying near Disneyland

This is where things can get tricky. There are several large and quite luxurious hotels located on the grounds of the park itself, so if you can afford it you might look into the hotels at Disneyland. But the city of Anaheim is quite large, and there are plenty of cheap places located within a few miles of the park. Generally speaking, hotels in Anaheim are fairly cheap compared to the ones that are on the grounds, but there are some run-down places mixed in so pay attention to the ratings for a place you want to book.

Should you really stay in Anaheim?

If you and your family are flying to Los Angeles and you plan on spending at least two days in the various Disney parks in Anaheim, then staying in the city isn’t a bad idea. But if you only want to spend one day in Disneyland then you really should think about staying elsewhere. There are great hotels near the beaches in Newport or Huntington, and both of those are in Orange County and close by. There are also plenty of great hotels in other parts of Los Angeles. The point is, the rest of Anaheim is a bit cheesy and parts of it are falling apart. If you want to stay near great restaurants and other attractions, choose somewhere other than Anaheim.

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Los Angeles Things to Do

San Diego is a worthwhile alternative to Los Angeles

sandiego350This site focuses on Los Angeles and one day we might start one specifically for San Diego, but for now we’ll discuss a bit about San Diego right here. That city near the Mexico border tends to be forgotten by most Angelenos, so it’s easy to forget that for many people it’s actually a more appealing destination than Los Angeles itself.

Not long ago we covered the various methods for getting between Los Angeles and San Diego, but we haven’t discussed much about people who’d prefer to skip LA completely. I know from living in the Phoenix area for 5 years that San Diego vacations are actually preferred among people from Arizona, so I’m sure the same is true for many people from other places as well.

Getting to San Diego

If you are coming from another part of the US then it should be simple enough to find cheap flights to San Diego. All the major airlines, including most of the discount carriers, fly directly to San Diego so fares are competitive. If you are coming from a city where a direct set of flights seems more expensive than you’d think, it’s not a bad idea to check flights into LAX as well.

You are going to need a car in either city and you can rent them just as cheaply in LA (and often cheaper) than San Diego, so you might save $100 on a flight in exchange for 2.5 hours driving down the coast in a rental car each way. Once you get into Orange County the drive itself is quite nice as well.

Where to stay in San Diego

You have two main choices here, but both of them are pretty broad. The hotels in San Diego are scattered throughout the area, and generally you’ll be looking at either a business-type hotel in the downtown area, or one of the many family-type hotels near a beach. The good news about these beach hotels is that there are literally many hundreds of them so prices are more reasonable than you might imagine.

Where I recommend that people stay

I prefer the area they call North County. The beaches near the city center are nice, but the area around them is so crowded that it doesn’t really feel like a resort community at all. But if you stay just 10 miles or so north of downtown San Diego, you’ll feel like you are in vacationland, in a good way.

I recommend Solana Beach if you can find a place there, or Del Mar or Encinitas are nice too. One word of warning though about Del Mar and Solana Beach. There is a popular horse racing track in Del Mar (called Del Mar) and from late July through mid September they have a popular race meeting and all hotels get more expensive and tend to be more full. If you can come before or after that you’ll find lower prices and smaller crowds.

Photo by Nick Chill on Flickr

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Los Angeles Transportation

Getting from Los Angeles to the Grand Canyon

grandcanyonAs two of the certain must-visit places in the US, Los Angeles and the Grand Canyon are easily combined in one trip, but getting from one to the other isn’t quite as straightforward as you might expect. There is a small airport at the Grand Canyon, but there aren’t scheduled flights from major airlines, so it can be a little tricky unless you know how to pull this off.

For the purposes of this article, we’ll be discussing the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, as this is where the vast majority of the tourist infrastructure and famous views can be found. The North Rim is actually a long drive from the South Rim, and it’s much harder to reach from Los Angeles as well. The South Rim is a far better place to visit for first-timers as well, so forget the North Rim for now.

Los Angeles to Grand Canyon

  • Distance apart: 410 miles / 660 kilometers
  • Driving distance: 502 miles / 808 kilometers

Quick summary

Unless you intend to actually spend some time in either Phoenix or Las Vegas, which isn’t a bad idea now that we mention it, then driving to the Grand Canyon is probably the best bet for most people. You can also fly to one of three airports or take a train or bus, but all of those options won’t get you all the way there.

Flights from Los Angeles to the Grand Canyon

This is where it gets complicated. There is a small airport near the Grand Canyon, but it only does charter flights, mostly out of Las Vegas and for aerial tours of the area. This means if you are intent to fly you have 3 options.

Fly into Flagstaff, Arizona (FLG) – This small airport is about 90 miles south of the South Rim, and has a few regular flights that have surprisingly low fares if you book in advance. There’s a bus company called Open Road Tours and they have regular coaches to the Grand Canyon from Flagstaff.

Fly into Phoenix, Arizona (PHX) – This is a huge city and airport about 240 miles south of the South Rim. From here you can rent a car cheaply and it’s a lovely drive as well.

Fly into Las Vegas, Nevada (LAS) – This growing city is about 280 miles from the South Rim, and a bit less to the North Rim. Rental cars tend to be cheap, but then again the drive itself isn’t much farther than driving all the way from Los Angeles.

Trains from Los Angeles to the Grand Canyon

You can’t take a train all the way to the Grand Canyon, but you can take it directly to Flagstaff, which is only about 90 miles away. From there you can take the Open Road Tours bus to the Grand Canyon. One tricky thing is the trains usually leave in the evening, so you arrive in Flagstaff the next morning.

Journey time: About 10 hours
Typical price: About $59 each way
>>Amtrak site

Buses from Los Angeles to the Grand Canyon

The bus situation is exactly like the train situation, mentioned above. You can take a Greyhound bus to Flagstaff and then the Open Road Tours bus from there. It’s a bit slower, and even a bit more expensive than the train, but at least you have the option of traveling during the day.

Journey time: About 12 hours to Flagstaff
Typical price: $64 one-way if you buy online in advance, and up to $85 if you buy on the day.
>>Greyhound website

Driving from Los Angeles to the Grand Canyon

This might be your best bet, since all the other methods are complicated and indirect anyway. You can get specific directions on any online map site, but the quick version is you find your way to I-40 out of Los Angeles, and then drive about 420 miles to Williams, Arizona, at which point you’ll take AZ-64 north for about 70 miles and you are there.

Journey time: About 8 hours

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Los Angeles Transportation

Getting from Los Angeles to popular tourist cities explained

carjump1As someone who grew up in Los Angeles, it’s easy to forget just how complicated the transportation city can be. When I am planning a trip to another city for the first time I have been known to spend a lot of time researching exactly the best way of getting from one place to another, and it can often be far more complicated than you’d think.

You may have already noticed that we’ve been working on this series for a while now, and we’ll keep it going adding new places regularly. The main things we are trying to help people sort out is when is it best to fly or to take the bus, or drive, or is there even train service available? Some of these things aren’t nearly as straightforward as you would guess.

On each of these articles we not only discuss how long each method takes, but also the typical price of each method. Many places on the internet seem reticent to quote prices, for fear that they’ll quickly be out of date, but most of these things are fairly stable, and even if the prices go up by 5 or 10% next year, having this information should still be enough to help you determine which strategy works best for you.

Getting from Los Angeles to…

Anaheim

When most people are planning their first-ever trip here, they at least want to know how they’d get to Disneyland, even if they don’t actually go through with it. The fact is that getting from LA to Anaheim is somewhat complicated and time consuming unless you’ve got a car, but of course this is Los Angeles and you really should rent a car if you can. There are buses and even trains that will help, though they aren’t fast or cheap, which really sucks considering how close Disneyland is to most of Los Angeles.

San Diego

This is kind of similar to Anaheim in that you’d think there would be a variety of cheap and relatively easy ways of getting from LA to San Diego, but again the best method by far is by car. There are buses and trains, but both of them tend to be slow and complicated, and not all that cheap either. You would never want to fly between these two cities, as they are just close enough that it would actually take way longer dealing with all the airport stuff than any of the other methods available.

San Francisco

This one is far more straightforward. Getting from LA to San Francisco is usually done by air, and cheap flights are usually available if you book a bit in advance. There’s also a train, and even though it’s kind of slow and expensive, it’s actually a great ride with incredible scenery. You can of course drive or take a bus, and at least you don’t waste a lot of time making connections on this route.

Las Vegas

This is similar to San Francisco, except with no train option. Getting from LA to Las Vegas is usually done by air as well, and flights can be crazy cheap if there is a promotion on. Driving takes about 5 hours each way, or a bit less if there is no traffic. There are buses, but you really don’t want to take them unless you have to.

Phoenix

Here’s another nearby city with a similar situation, except we add a complicated train trip in as another choice. Getting from LA to Phoenix is very easy by air, and there are nonstop flights leaving every few minutes from one of LA’s five major airports. But if you want to drive yourself it’s a rather nice journey. There are cheap buses, and even trains that will get you fairly close.

Grand Canyon

This one is tricky since there is no proper airport near the canyon itself. Getting from LA to the Grand Canyon means getting to Flagstaff, Arizona, one way or another, and then driving or taking a shuttle bus from there. The instructions are all here, and driving the whole way may be your best option.

New York

This one is obvious, but still there are quite a few people from abroad who wonder if there are trains or buses running between these huge coastal cities. Well, there are, so getting from LA to NYC has plenty of choices involved. Flying is surprisingly cheap most of the time, but one of the land-based methods can make for an unforgettable trip (but avoid the buses).