Los Angeles Loves Love

February 6, 2013 5:22 AM

Half a day to be tourists in LA. What can I do with my parents and SO?

In April I'm vacationing to Las Vegas with my parents and my SO, and, because my mother has always wanted to see parts of LA, we were considering doing an excursion bus tour from LV to LA. My dad would not do well on a five hour bus ride, so we've started talking about renting a car instead so he can join us. We can stop the car along the way for him to stretch his legs, etc. Now, we just need to make it worth his while.

My mother wants to see Rodeo Drive and the walk of fame.

My dad would be interested in a local bus tour (a city tour), as that's his way of checking out new cities.

My SO wants to take a dip in the Pacific.

I? I'm easy-peasy. I just want family time.

Please suggest an itinerary for our 5 or 6 hour tour of LA! I have to put a pretty decent plan together to get my dad to spend 8 hours in a car. Our plan should include the items above (walk of fame, Rodeo Drive, a beach) and any of the following, or any awesome ideas you have:

city bus tour
studio tour/any other interesting tour
good restaurants

Also, we're not really interested in any map of the stars, look where so-and-so celebrity lives type-things, although we wouldn't rule out a tour which included this.

Bonus points for interesting places to stop between LV and LA, especially for food, but also shopping, whatever.

Thanks everybody!

posted by little_dog_laughing to travel & transportation around Los Angeles, CA (13 answers total)

Okay, heads up on this one.

First, the drive from Las Vegas to LA is a whole lot of nothing. Sure you can stop and stretch your legs, but there is GORNISHT there. Once you pass that last casino, you've got 200 miles of desert until you get to Carpenteria. Not even a gas station to pee in.

The other thing is that there will be traffic until you get to Carpenteria. So plan for about 11-12 hours in the car. We did it in a Lincoln Bargematic 5000.

Now, Rodeo Drive is nice, but it's about an hour from the beach. Unless your SO has a wet suit and or scales, his dip in the Pacific in April may result in hypothermia as it is typically 60 degrees. (You don't think it's cold? It's freaking cold!)

You just don't have the time to do all of what your different family members want to do and I'm afrail that you'll be disappointed.

Los Angeles is HUGE! It takes 4 hours to get from end-to-end of it.

Do a bit more research and perhaps you'll come up with something that will work. As it stands now though you're really not going to be able to do what your planning.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 6:00 AM on February 6

Yeah, L.A.-in-half-a-day is tough; many of the popular points of interest are pretty far-flung and an attempt to do a tour of all of them is going to consist of sitting in a lot of traffic and not really seeing much of anything.

I would recommend spending half a day in Santa Monica, where you have the 3rd Street Promenade, the beach, and the pier all within walking distance. Plus the King's Head British pub/restaurant, whose fish & chips I dearly miss.
posted by usonian at 6:21 AM on February 6 [1 favorite]

I think you could fit in Rodeo Drive, the Walk of Fame, and the ocean if you're efficient and traffic isn't bad. But probably not more than that.

When driving back and forth between LA and Vegas we used to stop for dinner at The Mad Greek in Baker, CA. You will see why once you're on the highway; it's the only even mildly interesting spot.
posted by something something at 6:54 AM on February 6

Nthing that it would be incredibly difficult to do what you are thinking in 1/2 a day

If you're willing to skip Rodeo Drive, which is really not all that, you could do a dip in the Pacific at the Santa Monica Pier and a walk down the 3rd Street Promenade. Ah, I see usonian already suggested this. I agree. Perhaps if you're looking for something schmancy, you could have lunch at Casa del Mar or the Fairmont.
posted by Sophie1 at 7:05 AM on February 6

Depending on your budget ... You could fly everybody Southwest Airlines "Wanna Get Away" webfare, Las Vegas to Burbank for ~$700 (Depart LV at 7AM: Depart Burbank at 9:30 pm).

You'd need a rental car big enough for your group, so tack on another ~$100.

That'd give you enough time to do a bus tour of some sort, stroll Rodeo, visit Santa Monica, and drive by Universal Studios, twice. This itinerary has you traversing the San Fernando Valley (Burbank), Hollywood, Beverly Hills and the Westside, and Santa Monica, but it completely bypasses Downtown, East LA, the Harbor, Orange County, Pasadena and the San Gabriel Valley, etc.

I'd start my planning with the Bus Tour as the anchor, and fill in around it. Evening at the beach would work out nice (an afternoon dip, then dinner during rush hour, then a not too harried ride back to the airport post traffic).
posted by notyou at 8:18 AM on February 6

A dip in the Pacific -- in April? Brrr... be aware that posted temperatures for the water at the LA beaches tops out at about 64° in August. This dip will be like a few seconds wading, IMO.
posted by Rash at 8:20 AM on February 6

Once you pass that last casino, you've got 200 miles of desert until you get to Carpenteria

Carpinteria is a coastal town just a little south of Santa Barbara; it is not between L.A. and Vegas.
posted by malocchio at 8:27 AM on February 6

Carpinteria is a coastal town just a little south of Santa Barbara; it is not between L.A. and Vegas.

Holy moly! What was the name of that wide spot in the road then? Barstow? It was someplace just west of Satan's Elbow....
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 9:09 AM on February 6

I'm sorry to say that there's absolutely no way to do Rodeo Drive, the Walk of Fame, a bus and/or studio tour, and a dip in the ocean in five hours; that's a weekend's worth of activities. L.A. is sprawlingly huge -- far, far bigger than first-time visitors usually imagine -- and traffic is often both heavy and unpredictable, even on the weekends. You'll have to pick one section of town and center your activities there.

One suggestion would be to concentrate on Hollywood (as toursity as it is), which will score you the Walk of Fame, a bus tour, and the Paramount Studio tour. Otherwise you can go to Santa Monica (as others have suggested) and have a beach day (cold ocean, pier, promenade). Skip Beverly Hills; there's nothing to see except super-fancy shopping and women who have evidently all gone to the same plastic surgeon.
posted by scody at 11:06 AM on February 6

(Ruthless Bunny - you're probably thinking of Baker. Baker is about 90 miles from Vegas and there is precious little there besides the World's Tallest Thermometer. Barstow is halfway between Las Vegas and L.A., and is a decent size town, unlike Baker.)
posted by malocchio at 1:03 PM on February 6

Oh, and if you do decide to center your time in Hollywood, Musso & Frank's is the classic old-school Hollywood restaurant, dating back to 1919. (Closed Sundays and Mondays; dinner's pricey, so go for lunch.) It's one of the few places in town that I can think of where celebrities, locals, and tourists go in equal measure. (Last year's Musso & Frank's Metafilter meetup was held two tables away from Warren Beatty and Annette Bening.)
posted by scody at 2:54 PM on February 6 [1 favorite]

If what appeals about Rodeo Drive is fancy shops, Santa Monica now sports some pretty fancy shops of its own at the newish Santa Monica Place mall. Both venues also feature goofy-rich tourists shopping at fancy shops so the people-watching is pretty good at either one too.
posted by town of cats at 9:40 PM on February 6

Now, Rodeo Drive is nice, but it's about an hour from the beach.

our traffic is bad but not that bad! rodeo drive is less than 30 minutes to santa monica. just hop on the 10W.
posted by wildflower at 2:08 AM on February 8