RenShen

Hello all,

Our stopover on the way to our new life in Australia is Los Angeles. We are a family of 4 with LOADS of luggage. As most of my time and effort is put into researching housing/schools etc in Australia I have a very limited amount of time left to arrange the stopover.

So, if there is anyone who can advise on how long the journey is from LAX to Hollywood and how much this is likely to cost via taxi it would be a great help.

Any other suggestions for activities during our 2 night stay gratefully accepted (the boys are 9 & 14). We fly on 22nd January.

Many thanks,
Ren

meauxna

This is totally outside of your question, but I got burned on a moving trip once, when I learned that I did not qualify for the larger luggage allowance because I stayed 'too long' in London instead of continuing on my 'migrant' trip.

You're going to stay in Hollywood? Does your hotel have shuttle service? That is more common and less expensive than a taxi, and you might appreciate the mini bus service. Be sure to tip your driver for all the luggage.

Lord Lionheart

Don't stay in Hollywood if you still have a choice. The only thing worth seeing is Mann's Chinese theater, and that takes about 30 minutes, unless you like panhandlers, tacky souvineer and t-shirt shops.
Stay here instead;

http://www.marinadelreyhotel.com/

10 - 15 minutes from the airport $130 - $150 USD per night depending on the view.
The MDR is a safe area with lots of yachts and obviously a marina. It's between the airport and Venice Beach. Santa Monica is just up the road.

http://www.santamonicapier.org/

http://www.pacpark.com/

http://westland.net/venice/




Your boys will enjoy Venice Beach and Santa Monica more than Hollywood, but if you really do want to see Hollywood it's probably less expensive to rent a car than taxis as LA is quite spread out.
Guesstimate of taxi from LAX to Hollywood - $50???? each way. You can rent a car for that each day and see and do much more.

http://www.enterprise.com/car_rental/home.do


Santa Monica and Venice is about an hour walk mostly along the beach from MDR. There is a bus that goes up Lincoln Blvd too.
I have 2 boys aged 3 & 5. They'll enjoy this hotel and areas more than Hollywood.
Feel free to PM me if you need more info.

Noorah101

My husband goes from West Hollywood to LAX every single month, so I can help you. 1-way taxi ride = $80. 1-way length of taxi ride = about 40 minutes in light traffic, up to 1 to 1.5 hours in rush hour. I don't recall seeing any decent places to stay around the Hollywood area, and I'm sure they wouldn't have shuttle service all the way out to LAX. The Radisson near LAX airport is very nice and seemed reasonable when we stayed there. We had a fun afternoon (for a couple of hours) walking up and down Hollywood Blvd, Mann's Chinese Theater, seeing the stars on the sidewalk, that sort of thing. But I agree with Lionheart that the beach side is much more attractive. Maybe spend the morning on Hollywood Blvd, and the afternoon at the beach?

Rene

Ozzidoc

Hollywood Bestwestern is OK. Not great. But OK.

dvalentine

Seconded - my first vacation having come over to the US end of '99, was in 2001 out to San Fran, LA & Vegas. For LA I stayed in Santa Monica. Great place to experience some California life without the big city. I didn't have a car but used an excursion buses for Universal Studios and also Hollywood - picked up right from the hotel.

RenShen

Thank you all for your helpful replies. I should have been more specific about where we have booked, it is here: http://www.beverlygarland.com/

"The Beverly Garland Hotel is located on Vineland Avenue between Ventura Blvd and Moorpark Street in North Hollywood"

It is apparently well placed for Universal Studios which I think will be our big day out of the trip. We also want to see the stars in the pavement and the big Hollywood sign. As this is a stopover on a long journey I would really appreciate a suggested itinerary around those places as we would like to keep travel to a minimum, we also don't really want to hire a car so would be willing to use taxis.

I was wondering if booking a 2/3 hour tour would be a good way of seeing the sights in a short timescale?

Thanks again,
Ren xx

md95065

While I understand that you don't really want to hire a car I would still strongly advise you to consider getting one.
You are going to be in North Hollywood which is pretty far away from everything except for Universal Studios.
Los Angeles is really spread out and you will be extremely limited in what you can do without a car.

I have never done the Universal Studios tour but it is probably OK if you like that sort of thing.

Be prepared to be disappointed by Hollywood Boulevard.

Don't worry, you can see the Hollywood sign from lots of places.

Folinskyinla

Hi:

My office is in Hollywood and I live in the adjacent Los Feliz area. Taxis are on the expensive side. An alternative to and from the airport are the various shuttle services, the best known of which is "Super Shuttle." However, with 4 people and luggage, the taxi's might be competitive. I'm not sure, but I think that Super Shuttle has service to the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel and I think that they heavily discount the LAX to Hotel routes. www.supershuttle.com I have found Super Shuttle to be quite reliable.

On public transit [which may be a problem with LOTS of luggage], the "Fly-away" bus shuttle will get you to downtown Union Station, that is $6 per head. Then from Union Station you can catch the Metro "Red Line" subway to Hollywood -- the two Hollywood Stations are Hollywood/Vine [no real lodgings around -- that is my station near the office] and Hollywood/La Brea which is right at the Kodak Center and adjacent to Grauman's Chinese, etc. Metro is $1.25 per head per trip [machines now take credit cards, yea!], day pass is $5. Universal City/City Walk is one stop further on the Red Line.

Timing from LAX to Hollywood -- depends upon the time of day and traffic and how you do it. I've never had it take more than two hours and it is usually less than one hour.

As other have suggested, there may be other areas you might want to stay in. But for the brief stay you are talking about and given the jet lag, Hollywood may not be such a bad idea. I happen to like the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel -- that is where they had the first Academy Awards ceremony back in 1929. The hotel has been restored.

All Seeing Pie

Nice hotel spent way too much time there last year.
The Beverly Garland do shuttle buses to (and from!) Universal Studios. A Taxi from LAX is going to expensive why not use supershuttle http://www.supershuttle.com/ which is much cheaper.

Folinskyinla

Hi:

Living here, I don't stay in the local accomodations.

With the shuttle, I can see the Garland Holiday as a possibility for the OP -- also, once they get to Universal City, there is a Red Line Metro station, which allows them to take in Hollywood. Again, he may want to consider the Hollywood Roosevelt or Hollywood Rennesaince for location -- but don't know the prices. But in Hollywood, it is possible to take a walk to interesting things outside the hotel door.

Sites close to subway stations are a good idea.

Also, there is the weather to consider. www.weather.com only goes forward 10 days. The weather is drop-dead beautiful right now and is the reason people like to move to LA. However, I note that on the January 20, the prediction just starts to show the possibility of rain -- and LA is not the place you really want to see without a car.

Having traveled with children, I can see that Universal City/City Walk and Hollywood can be fun for a brief visit.

I agree with other posters that there are more interesting things to see in LA. But for a brief layover with kids and uncertain weather and no car -- the two things are not too bad.

BTW, the food at LA is not that good [but I like The Daily Grill branch in the balcony of Bradley to be good] -- a fun thing to do from LAX is to take the shuttle to "The Parking Spot" and grab a meal at In'N'Out Burger on Sepulveda. Not fast food, but a lot better than Micky D's [no comparison]. I like the #1 Double Double but without salt [Dr. says my blood pressure says "no"]. To give you the idea of their freshness -- they do not have a freezer on premises and their fries ["chips" to Brits] are from fresh potatoes peeled and sliced 10 minutes previous.

meauxna

Yeah, what IS that all about? That is the only decent place to eat in that whole airport and that is not saying much. How long does this little jaunt you mention take to accomplish?
That would be a handy distraction for the next time through..

Pennywell

We went to.. splutter, splutter.. Anaheim at Thanksgiving. You've booked your hotel. so that's a done deal. If you are on the way to Australia and if it was anything like leaving the UK that we experienced, you will perhaps feel emotionally drained, so just enjoy the break.
IMO, leave a full day for Universal, you all have the potential to really enjoy it! Do not drive through Hollywood. We've been living in the US for nearly 5 yrs and thought " Oh good God, it's a dump" get a guided tour. I just wish now we had kept the tourist info. I think the website SoCal gives info, type it into google.
Safe trip

Folinskyinla

Hi:

Actually, I think their travel plans will work out well. I believe that OP thought of "Hollywood" in terms of what us locals call "The Industry" and not in a geographical sense -- the CBS and KFWB radio studious within walking distance of my office are now vacant. But the famous Capitol Records building is still there [we just lost our view of the Hollywood Sign and Capitol Records when the new "W" hotel was topped out, sigh]. The Turner studios down the street are still there. Paramount is a short drive away and Universal is on the other side of the Cahuenga Pass from Hollywood and many studios are now in the "media corridor" in Burbank [aka the old joke of "Beautiful Downtown Burbank"], MGM/Sony is in Culver City, etc etc.

But with the shuttle from the Holiday Inn getting them to the Unviversal City Red Line Station -- they can go not only to Universal City, but to the part of Hollywood near the Chinese Theater, The Music Center/Disney Hall at Civic Center Station and Union Station/Olvera Street at the Union Station terminus of the Red Line. [BTW, for good fast food -- Phillipes near Union Station is great -- over a century old and great "French Dip" roast beef sandwiches which they claim to have invented].

BTW, Hollywood is no longer seedy like it was even a few years back. The revitalization of Hollywood [in the geographical sense] has finally happened.