Half a day in LA or Santa Barbara?

July 19, 2010 7:36 PM

Is it worth it to go into LA for a few hours and then head on to SB? Or should I just head into SB and see the sights there?

I'm travelling tomorrow to Santa Barbara CA. I will arrive in LAX at noon, and need to be at my hotel in SB that night. I don't know if it's worth it to try to take in a little bit of LA in between.

Data:

• I've never been to LA or Santa Barbara, I live in Chile. I have lived in northern California.
• I'll be spending 4 days at UCSB, I won't have any chance to see LA on my return trip.
• I know there's a shuttle from LAX to Santa Barbara, and don't know how easy it would be to get there from the actual city instead of the airport.
• I don't plan to rent a car (though I could, I guess).
• I like cities, traffic not so much.

Bonus questions: What would be a good bookshop for computer (web dev) / film and/or children's books? Any other cool shops or other unmissables in SB?

posted by signal to Travel & Transportation around Los Angeles, LA (10 answers total)

Well… What do you want, outside of a bookstore?

I mean, my impulse is just to say no, to skip LA. Without a car, it's pretty vast and nebulous, and you're several hours out. Were I still living on the west side and unemployed, I'd volunteer to give you a nickel tour, but since I'm not… And renting a car just so you can see two hours worth of drive up to SB, a half hour drive from LAX to wherever you want to go, plus another half hour if you're going anywhere else, it's not something I'd do. LA's not New York, you can't just hop on the subway anywhere.

But the art museums (LACMA and Getty) are pretty nice, the tarpits are cool and small and next to LACMA, the Museum of Jurassic Technology is tiny and weird and just down from a pretty tasty Indian lunch counter.
posted by klangklangston at 7:50 PM on July 19, 2010

Don't go to LA. Downtown Hollywood is pretty cool, but moreso during the night, so I would recommend you pass on LA and (if you can procure a car) stop on the way to Santa Barbara at Bart's Books in Ojai. It's a great outdoor used bookstore with a decent children's section. I'm not so sure about computer books, but it's definitely a great place to spend an hour or two.
posted by karminai at 7:54 PM on July 19, 2010 [1 favorite]

The Santa Barbara airbus from LAX only comes a few times a day and takes a few hours. You probably won't have time to go to LA. Book your airbus TONIGHT. They don't like people just getting on it. Figure out which airbus stop is closest to your hotel. You'll probably need to get a cab.

UCSB is pretty far from Santa Barbara. The 24x bus will take you between the 2 though.

There aren't any good computer stores (well, there is an Apple store.) Kids books - Borders would be best for selection there is one downtown and one in Goleta (near campus.) Chicken Little is a good kids store for young kid stuff - it stops being good for kids of school age.

Walk around downtown for shopping, but be ready to be underwhealmed.
posted by k8t at 7:57 PM on July 19, 2010

Skip LA. You need a car to really enjoy the flavor of LA. However, be prepared to have a wonderful time in UCSB. It's very different from norcal (although the fog is the same!).
posted by samthemander at 8:07 PM on July 19, 2010

need to be at my hotel in SB that night

What's the latest you can arrive at your hotel? If you can check in late (say, until midnight) AND you can book a shuttle for the right time, you could swing an afternoon in Santa Monica or something. If you need to check in any earlier than 10:00 pm, though, I doubt there's enough time to make it worth your while. Getting from LA to SB takes a little over 2 hours in good traffic, and getting to/from anything interesting in LA from LAX will take anywhere from 30-60 mins. on each end (and you will have to take taxis or rent a car; public transportation is insufficient), depending on traffic, which is usually somewhere between bad and very bad. So you've basically got to factor in a minimum of 4 hours of your day being occupied by transit both around LA and to SB.

Which is all a kind of long way of saying that it's probably not worth it to try to see anything of LA, given the time and hassle it would require. Sorry. Los Angeles is a great city, but it's semi-impossible to see on the fly!
posted by scody at 8:11 PM on July 19, 2010

PS, I'm leaving town on Thursday, but if you're here Wedsnesday I can grab a coffee o drink with you.
posted by k8t at 8:22 PM on July 19, 2010

UCSB pro tip: the university bookstore has many kids books on sale as remanents. Look for orange tag.
posted by k8t at 8:35 PM on July 19, 2010

Response by poster: Thanks for all the tips. Have already booked the shuttle straight through to SB.
posted by signal at 8:51 PM on July 19, 2010

If you have some time while you're at UCSB, I recommend walking out to Campus Point at least once, and also going into Isla Vista to get a cup of good coffee at Caje and/or some locally-grown snacks at the Isla Vista food co-op. State Street downtown is pretty for walking around a bit and getting a butter-marzipan bomb at Andersen's.
posted by dreamyshade at 10:55 PM on July 19, 2010

Just want to say contrary to scody that public transport from LAX is sufficient for getting to Venice Beach, Santa Monica, Culver City, and Westwood. The Big Blue Bus line 3 takes about 45 minutes from LAX to downtown Santa Monica. The Culver City Green Bus line 6 takes about an hour to get to Westwood/UCLA and half that to get to Culver City. Both of these buses leave from Parking Lot C, a free shuttle ride the same distance from the terminal as the parking lot, and closer than the rental car lots.

Also after a recent bike accident left me unable to bicycle commute for a few weeks, I learned that even getting around on Los Angeles' bus system was much easier than anticipated. A commute that takes me 20-40 minutes by car, 28-40 minutes by bicycle, took 45 minutes to an hour and 15 by bus with 3 transfers.
posted by GregorWill at 2:00 AM on July 21, 2010