From NY what airport should we fly into?

mm126

Mouseketeer
Joined
Mar 30, 2003
We will be traveling from New York and spending 10 days visiting DLR/Hollywood/San Diego. I plan on starting the vacation in DLR and finishing in San Diego. We will be renting a car and I was wondering should we fly into John Wayne or LAX?
 
I would go with the one that is the cheapest. Have you checked the airfare into both? Everytime we fly I always check all the airports in the area (Burbank & Ontairo) and for us it's always LAX being the cheapest.
 
We found Long Beach to be the cheapest and most convenient, and just as cheap as LAX. LAX is a pit. Icky.
 


Jet Blue also flies into Ontario. Super easy and convenient airport. Go with wherever you get the best rates! You'll be driving all over anyway.
 
We are flying from Providence into Ontario because it was the cheapest and because DH has used Ontario airport for business and said it was easy. It's only about a 1/2 hour drive to Disneyland.
 


I used to commute in and out of LAX every week for business and never found it as bad as people say, unless it was around the holidays (in which case it was terrible). If the cheapest ticket option is LAX, I wouldn't worry about it.

You especially won't be bothered by LAX if you compare it to JFK or LGA. I grew up by JFK so I can usually make some sense of it (even though it changed its roads on practically a daily basis), but I always pity the poor out of towner.

LAX is essentially a horseshoe or u. The arms have most of the terminals. The part at the bottom of the horseshoe is the Tom Bradley (international terminal). There are some shortcuts across the u (to get from one side to the other more quickly) but if too confusing, just ride around the u.
 
I myself have flown into SNA and Long Beach and Have found that Long Beach is very simple and very laid back. One road is from Long Beach and you are at DL.
 
Any of the four airports would work. The closest is Orange County, then Long Beach, and LAX & Ontario are about the same distance, but in opposite directions.
 
While figuring out cost, make sure you price your car rental from each airport.

I don't have experience in doing that, as we use debit cards and therefore don't usually rent cars (they either won't, they run a credit check, or they keep a big hold on the card), but I did once book us into Ontario, thinking the shuttles would all be the same price. Wrong wrong wrong. Over $50 for me and DS to get from ONT to our hotel, while getting from SNA to a hotel was less than half of that.

So check the total price, not just the airfare.


I really liked SNA, it was SO close. The drive from ONT seemed like the longest hottest drive in the universe, and the freeway we took was scary to me.
 
We went with the cheapest, which ended up being in Burbank! Not too many people seem to choose that one. But I've also heard taking off from LAX isn't all that fun (straight up!).
 
We went with the cheapest, which ended up being in Burbank! Not too many people seem to choose that one. But I've also heard taking off from LAX isn't all that fun (straight up!).

LAX is not a straight up take off. I think that would be SNA. LAX launches you out west over Playa Del Rey, over the beach, over the ocean and then the plane turns around and heads east. I used to fly out of there at least once a week and I don't think I ever took off in any other direction.

I haven't used Burbank in years, but it used to be a great small airport. I'm sure its grown by now, but it was a very easy airport. It is probably the furthest of all the airports from DL, but I think they put in a highway years ago that is fairly quiet and cuts down the drive a lot. I used to live in Studio City, not far from Burbank and it used to take us about 45 minutes to DL unless it was rush hour (and that was before the quicker road was in).
 
Burbank airport is fine, but you will probably hit a lot of traffic, especially when you go through Hollywood & past Downtown LA. Just be prepared for taking your time on the road. :)
 
We flew into SNA and it was great, very smooth and getting the car rental was the same price as LAX without all the hassle.
 

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