LA area this summer! Help! Q's added in first post

[TwinFoxes]

Well, to be fair, it is Friday afternoon at the start of a holiday week. Traffic was bad at 1:00 this afternoon, too, but that's not typical. I did say to avoid traveling on a Friday. Traffic always will be bad on Friday.

I have driven from not much farther north than SNA to LAX in about an hour, with flowing traffic.
Depending on where the hotel is, they might not be on the 405 much; they might cross over to the 5 at the 55. That could be the worst part, actually. The 55 almost always is bad. But there are ways to avoid it, too.

I'm sure there are times you can make it from north of SNA to LAX in an hour. I said you can't do SNA to LAX in 35 minutes. I thought OP had mentioned staying in Santa Monica, but I could be wrong. I hate the 55, I think it's worse than the 405.

[Mermanaid]

This thread is awesome! We are going to LA for a mini vacation this summer so these recs will come in handy.

I just bought Universal VIP tickets and choked on the price. But the park is a 9/10 the day we are going so figured it would be worth it to get to do everything we want.

[kristenk]

We will most likely be flying in/out on a Tuesday or Wednesday. It looks like the arriving flight will get in anywhere between 11am and 1pm. Our departing flight will be between 9am and 11am. It looks like those times/days work no matter which airport we use. I'll try to go with LAX but will go with one of the others if we save a ton of money.

As far as other plans and hotels go, I'm really not sure. My general thought right now is that we stay in Burbank for the first 3ish nights of our trip, somewhere else (who knows where) for the next 3-4 nights. The final night will be spent closer to the airport if we need to.

The reason for Burbank for the first part of the trip is that we'll do Warner Brothers, Universal and Griffith Observatory while we're staying in Burbank and I'm guessing that it would be better to do those things on Wednesday/Thursday than over the weekend. I haven't even thought to look at the crowd levels for Universal during that time. I'm guessing that they'll be horrendous no matter when we're there since it'll be summer. Oh, we will go with a preferred hotel so we get early admission. I'm hoping that switching time zones will work in our favor for that!

TwinFoxes, we had mentioned staying in Santa Monica. I'm guessing that might be where we stay for the next part of our trip.

Here are the other possible items on our list:
Santa Monica Pier/muscle beach
CA Science Center
Natural History Museum
The Grove
Paradise Cove/Zuma Beach - Malibu
Huntington Library & gardens (closer to our Burbank location?)
Gamble house - craftsman
Urth Cafe

So many things to do! Definitely not enough time.

[Tenasparkl]

Yes, Huntington is closer to Burbank.

The Grove and Science Center (plus anything in Hollywood) wouldn’t be bad from Burbank either

[jbbhb]

Just wanted to pipe in and say that Long Beach is a great airport to fly in/out of too. Much easier than LAX and a little easier than SNA.

On a midweek early afternoon I don’t think the drive to LA would be that bad for SNA. I live in Orange County and I despise driving to LA but at that time I would do it if it made sense financially.


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[bigsis]

I think Burbank is a great place for you to stay! Even if you stayed there the entire trip, you'd only travel farther a couple of days--your beach days and The Grove.

[AnnieW625]

I'm sure there are times you can make it from north of SNA to LAX in an hour. I said you can't do SNA to LAX in 35 minutes. I thought OP had mentioned staying in Santa Monica, but I could be wrong. I hate the 55, I think it's worse than the 405.

Pretty much anytime between 10 and 2 you can make it from Santa Ana to LAX in an hour. It will take you about 25-30 minutes to get to Long Beach from Santa Ana and then another 25 minutes or so to LAX. Traffic starts in Santa Ana about 2:30, 3:00 on a good day. Traffic on the 55 north starts around 1 pm for a 2 to 3 mile stretch between the 405 and I-5, but it could be an alternative if the 405 is really backed up (you would take the 55 to I-5N to 22 West and then connect with the 405 again in West OC.

The Long Beach airport is great (it is my local airport) like StantonHyde said. It has a similar feeling to Burbank. With no traffic it is 30-45 minutes to the Burbank area using a few different freeways. I would invest in a Fast Track transponder for your trip if you think you are going to be on the freeway a lot during rush hour traffic as some carpool lanes require it but don’t charge you if you have 3 or more people in the car, but you have to have the transponder.


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