Day trip from Disney question

[Mushu mama]

Just a quick question about catching the LA Hop on/Hop off tour bus route from our base at Disneyland.

We're wanting to spend a day doing Hollywood area touristy stuff but try as I might, I haven't been able to find out an easy way to connect to this bus route system from Anaheim.

Has anyone else done this day trip around LA from Disneyland and how/where did you connect up to the closest stop? We won't have a car and will be either relying on Taxi's or public transport.

Any advice gratefully received

 

[aussie shaz]

Sorry, can't help. We had a car both trips.

 

[zanzibar138]

You can take a train from Anaheim to LA, not sure if that would help. From what I hear, you'll need to take a taxi to the train station, but it would only be a short trip.

 

[Mushu mama]

Thanks Zanzibar, I didn't even know there was a train

Another suggestion I've received is to perhaps catch a shuttle back to the airport and then taxi to the nearest stop.,or to Santa Monica ( as there is a stop there) ... its sounding harder and harder but DD wants to visit the Tar Pits and see the stars on the pavement in Hollywood, so that's the only thing I can think of that will accomplish both in a day.

 

[zanzibar138]

You could always join a tour for the day. The bus will pick you up from your hotel and drop you off again right at the door, so very easy. The only downfalls with the organised tours are that the itineraries aren't flexible (most include the walk of fame, Hollywood sign etc, but you'd need to find one that included the tar pits), and they're more expensive than doing it yourself.

Other than that, maybe you could take the train and just get taxis at either end - that way you could go exactly where you want to

 

[gogo65]

Could you stay at LAX the first night? We booked a limo tour that picked us up from the hotel the next morning, then we did a full day LA tour, then they dropped us off in Anaheim at the end of the tour, it worked well, a little more expensive but certainly convenient.

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Tripadvisor forum has a very detailed explanation about catching the train (bus or taxi or ART bus to the train station and train to downtown then switch to the HoHo or any of the metro networks) which we contemplated but in the end stayed in Hollywood 2 nights before we flew out and used a shuttle (not cheap) to get there. I think the public transport system is doable especially if not lugging luggage with you but messy and time consuming. We would probably try it if there was something we wanted to see in a future trip but an organised tour would be easier and for what you want probably a private arrangement like Gogo suggests would fit the bill best. Depends how much of independent travellers you generally are and experienced with swopping from buses and trains in unknown locations etc. We did use buses in Hollywood to get to the Tar Pits which my DD wanted to see (and the museum was good) and walked from there to Garden Grove Shopping Centre.

 

[Sugarglider]

We did a tour / day bus trip thing to Hollywood - it took FOREVER. I was wanting to poke out my eyes - after the bus driving around for an hour visiting every Anaheim hotel collecting people, we were then dropped at a bus depot where we had to check in and get on another bus to get to Hollywood - which took over another hour - and obviously the same thing in reverse. All I could think of was how slow it was and how much time was being wasted. So a minimum of 4 hours travel time that day.

I really don't recommend trying to visit LA from Anaheim. Stay a night or two in LA and do your hollywood stuff from there - and go to anaheim and just do Anaheim stuff down there.

my recommendation from the woman who won't do that again.

 

[cola]

The train is totally doable - I think it's about the best option because traffic doesn't come into it, it's 45min to Downtown LA then change train an d it's only a few minutes to the major touristy train stations. They have commuter trains for about $9 each way and Amtrak inter-city trains for $15 each way (which has a dining car and free wifi).
The train is MUCH faster, easier and cheaper than a shuttle to LAX and transport from there.

The station at Anaheim is about $7 + tip ride from DL, IF they don't take you the long way.

Even so, if you did just want to do a tour of LA and not have free time exploring, I'd probably opt for an organised tour from DL, BUT I may go to the depot rather than the hotel pick up to avoid Sugarglider's issue of forever on a bus to the depot. LuxBus is located in the carpark level of Gardenwalk (Cheesecake Factory is at the far end of Gardenwalk if that is a landmark) it's not too far out of the way, and would give you a bit of a walk before getting stuck on a bus www.luxbusamerica.com/tour-bus-destinations.php?tourtype=4

www.discountticketsandtours.com/tours are also located in Gardenwalk (and a branch at Ramada Maingate at the Park), and I think they use LuxBus for some (or all ????) of their tours to LA.

But if you want a bit of an adventure, independant travels, try the train, it is very easy and you avoid the horrible horrible crawling traffic on the freeways, it makes the travel time unpredictible, but it will be at LEAST 1hr to and from LA, probably more if you're close to peak hour.