HELP Please! To Rent or not to rent?!

[Vallie]

Hi All,

My DBF and I are in the middle of planning our very short california vacation on our way home from Australia later in the year.

I'll give you some background info;

We are going to be in LA for a total of 4 days. We arrive on the first day early in the morning and plan on staying in the hollywood area that night. We then plan on doing a quick tour of Hollywood (ie - the sign, rodeo drive, sunset blv etc).

That night, we plan on going to Anahiem and staying at a Disney Good Nieghbour Hotel and do one day in each disney park.

We then need to get back to LAX to fly home.

Another important note is we will probably have about 4 big bags + carry-ons because we have been living in Australia for a year and we need to bring our stuff home with us!

My question is, should we rent a car?

I'm debating a car or using public transport, but I'm leaning more towards a car just to make things easier.

How much can we expect to pay for a car? Does anyone have any suggestions of cheap car rentals? We'd have to pick the car up from the airport.

If we don't rent a car, what are our transportation options?

Will we be able to get from LAX to Hollywood to Anahiem and back!?

Thanks in advance! I'm so excited to start planning and booking things

 

[blackjackdelta]

I would rent a car! Public transportation take a lot of time to get somewhere no including the transfer hassles, etc.

Jack

 

[skiingfast]

Because of making a circle you will be much better off renting a car. At least for the Anaheim to Hollywood to LAX part. There are shuttle option from LAX to DLR. And there are many rental options around DLR.

You can rent a small car/compact car for small amounts. Try priceline though I'm not sure how that works being from Oz, it what I would do, but Aussie's don't seem to use it. You can bid on cars and could get the whole things for less than a shuttle from LAX to DLR.

Thread with LAX shuttle information.

 

[katesorad]

I definitely agree- rent a car. Public transportation in southern CA really isn't very good.

 

[rune_74]

I would rent a car...with priceline you can get a great deal...I got 11 dyas in oct for 225.

 

[ducky_love]

We have a full size car for 6 days reserved for $150. My DH can't deal with not having a car. Even if it is just parked he has to have one. (of course, we normally end up doing something we would have missed if we'd taken a shuttle.)

 

[the donut]

I can't imagine doing that itinerary with 4 big bags without a car. I'm with everyone else - you must get a car. Just remember that you might have to figure in parking fees into your budget along with the expense of renting the car itself, depending upon the hotels that you stay at. A possible alternative might be to rent a car only for your hollywood leg, return the car to the airport, and catch a shuttle to and from DL. I don't think you'd save too much money though, and you'd eat up a lot of time in a short vacation.

Priceline is a good way to go for car rentals, though with the fees I think it works better for longer rental periods. There's also no ability to cancel. I would also try pricing a car rental out at travel site like Orbitz or Expedia or looking for online coupon codes and going directly to the rental car site to get the lowest price possible. Good luck!