DLR to The Grove

[nonzerosum]

My DD really wants to visit the American Girl Store at The Grove. We have available time to go on our day of check out before we head to Carlsbad so I think we'll go for it. Any suggestions as to when to leave the hotel to avoid really bad traffic (this will occur on a Friday). We're prepared to have a long trek and lots of traffic, but thought I'd ask about time frames to avoid the really nasty traffic. Also, is there a park nearby The Grove? I don't know if my DS4 can stomach American Girl for longer than about 20 minutes, so I may send him and DH off to a park to play. Is this possible within a short drive?

 

[victorandbellasmom]

We went there for the 1st time in May. We left DL on a Saturday morning (10ish) and it took over an hour. I'm not sure of the exact route as we used our garmin gps, but we did take I-5, got off somewhere and took the La Brea exit. We must have hit every red light between the freeway off-ramp and the parking garage. We went there twice on our last trip; as soon as we arrived and got our rental car before checking into our hotel and the day we left, after checking out before returning the rental car.

There really isn't any place to play for little guys. There's the farmer's market adjacent to the grove and the la brea tarpits a short drive away. We spent over 3 hours, including lunch, on our first trip. We booked a personal shopper and she was able to have the items we knew we wanted waiting for us and she gave us a tour of the the store and a history of the dolls. Did I say, dd just got into AG dolls this past Christmas and she already has 3. Dh thought he'd be bored to death, but he actually really enjoyed the tour and our personal shopper and kinda understands the whole AG mania now. Ds on the otherhand was bored to death. He ended up buying a book at barnes and nobles and ended up reading it in a corner.

 

[Tommy_B]

Just my two cents, but I think this is a very, very bad idea and you could not pick a worse day than Friday and you are traveling the exact opposite direction from Carlsbad.

If you look at Google maps, it will tell you it is 46 minutes away.... or 2 hours with traffic and 2 hours is being generous. How long do you plan to spend at the store or mall? A four to five hour drive for an hour seems a poor trade off.

And then at the end of two hours back to Anaheim, you still have an hour, maybe two to Carlsbad. That could be as much as 6 or 7 hours in ugly traffic.

But, if you do choose to go for it..... I'd leave as early as you can and that is tricky.... if you leave before 7AM, you'll get there in less than an hour and it opens at 10AM. If you leave at 10AM, it will take 90 minutes probably and then you will hit traffic back to Anaheim and traffic getting out of Orange County. There is Farmer's Market next to the Grove and some great places for breakfast if you get there way before the store opens.

There is a large park next to the Grove, Pan Pacific Park and a branch of the L.A. Library.

 

[Sherry E]

The Grove/Farmers Market shouldn't take an hour or over an hour from DLR...unless you hit every red light!! It really is about a 45-minute (or 46 minutes!) drive if you run into no traffic and lots of green lights. I live, literally, right down the street from FM/The Grove (like one minute down the street), and I have timed how long it takes to get to DLR from my house, and how long it takes to get back to my house from DLR, without traffic. The key, though, is without traffic. If there is traffic on the 5 freeway, that can change the whole game plan.

I would not get off at the LaBrea exit of the 10 freeway. I would get off at the Fairfax exit - the Farmers Market is right at the corner of Third Street and Fairfax. Pan Pacific Park would be a great place to send someone to play or hang out while you hit the American Girls, but there's lots of stuff at The Grove that could probably keep your family entertained.

 

[my*gracie*girl]

The Grove/Farmers Market shouldn't take an hour or over an hour from DLR...unless you hit every red light!! It really is about a 45-minute (or 46 minutes!) drive if you run into no traffic and lots of green lights. I live, literally, right down the street from FM/The Grove (like one minute down the street), and I have timed how long it takes to get to DLR from my house, and how long it takes to get back to my house from DLR, without traffic. The key, though, is without traffic. If there is traffic on the 5 freeway, that can change the whole game plan.

I would not get off at the LaBrea exit of the 10 freeway. I would get off at the Fairfax exit - the Farmers Market is right at the corner of Third Street and Fairfax. Pan Pacific Park would be a great place to send someone to play or hang out while you hit the American Girls, but there's lots of stuff at The Grove that could probably keep your family entertained.

Barging in with a related question:

Sherry...we are hitting the AG store on our way north back home. We'll have my step-dd (17) with us and she really really wants to go see the stars that I think are at Hollywood/Vine? When I mapquest that from the AG store, it appears doable for my dh and step-dd to do this while we are at the store. We are planning to get to the store at 10, have cafe ressies at 11 and then will shop for quite some time. I'm imagining 4-ish hours at the store, so it seems like plenty of time for them to figure out Hollywood...or am I overly optimistic?

Thanks for any advice!

 

[Sherry E]

Barging in with a related question:

Sherry...we are hitting the AG store on our way north back home. We'll have my step-dd (17) with us and she really really wants to go see the stars that I think are at Hollywood/Vine? When I mapquest that from the AG store, it appears doable for my dh and step-dd to do this while we are at the store. We are planning to get to the store at 10, have cafe ressies at 11 and then will shop for quite some time. I'm imagining 4-ish hours at the store, so it seems like plenty of time for them to figure out Hollywood...or am I overly optimistic?

Thanks for any advice!

That's very reasonable! All the major streets of interest here - like, lets say, Wilshire Blvd., Third St., Beverly, Melrose, Santa Monica, Sunset Blvd. and Hollywood - run East and West, and you can hit them one after another if you drive up one of the main North-South streets like Fairfax or LaBrea. So while you are at The Grove/Farmers Market, if your daughter wants to go up to Hollywood Blvd., she could just go up Fairfax or LaBrea, then turn onto Hollywood. It's totally manageable.

 

[my*gracie*girl]

That's very reasonable! All the major streets of interest here - like, lets say, Wilshire Blvd., Third St., Beverly, Melrose, Santa Monica, Sunset Blvd. and Hollywood - run East and West, and you can hit them one after another if you drive up one of the main North-South streets like Fairfax or LaBrea. So while you are at The Grove/Farmers Market, if your daughter wants to go up to Hollywood Blvd., she could just go up Fairfax or LaBrea, then turn onto Hollywood. It's totally manageable.

Thank you!!!!

 

[allen2oo3]

dont get caught doing any of your driving during rush hour or you'll be sitting in traffic for hours

 

[Sherry E]

dont get caught doing any of your driving during rush hour or you'll be sitting in traffic for hours

No truer words have been spoken. What is normally a 45-minute drive with no traffic at all suddenly turns into a 1-1/2 to 2-hour odyssey (or more) with traffic!!

 

[nonzerosum]

What hours are considered rush hour in LA? If we left the GCH at 9 am would we miss the majority of rush hour? Thanks for all the helpful insights so far!! I can't imagine living 1 minute from the Grove. Super envious!

 

[Sherry E]

What hours are considered rush hour in LA? If we left the GCH at 9 am would we miss the majority of rush hour? Thanks for all the helpful insights so far!! I can't imagine living 1 minute from the Grove. Super envious!

That might possibly be a better time to leave (unless anyone else has another suggestion that's better??). Something in between when people are heading to work in the morning and before they head out to lunch!! Fridays are tricky, though - it always seems like people are buzzing around on the streets and freeways more than they would on a Tuesday or something.

I like The Grove and the Farmers Market a lot - FM is really a historical staple of Los Angeles, and The Grove can be fun because celebrities shop there frequently (it's fun to try to spot them). It also is a fun little place to see small concerts here and there (the Jonas Brothers did a free concert there recently, and several years ago, I saw a free Alanis Morissette show) - but it can get crowded. You'll have a good time! There's a lot of good shops. They used to have a big FAO Schwartz store at The Grove but it closed a long time ago.

 

[shanni]

Another one barging in with a related question... What would be the best day of the week to do this? We are planning a trip to AG Place as well (my 9 yo dd is waaay more excited about that than Disney! lol!) I was planning on doing it on a Friday as well. Would a Saturday be better or worse? I don't want to get stuck on the road for hours on end, but I also don't want to do it on, say a Thursday, when Disney would be a bit less crowded. We will arrive in Anaheim on a Wednesday afternoon, and leave Tuesday. What day would you all suggest to make the trip up to LA?