LA/DL Question

[bennifer]

We (myself, DH and DS13) will be taking a 16 day road trip thru California in June. I had been going back and forth about how many days in DL/DCA and I settled on 3. But now after talking to both husband and son, we decided on 2. We'll be spending the 3rd day in LA. I've already researched what tours are available at each of these places right now because of Covid and I do know it's LA and traffic is a nightmare. We aren't big on downtime while we're on vacations - we get plenty of that at home. Our plan is WB tour, La Brea Tar Pits, The Getty if we have time and Santa Monica Pier in the evening.

Here's where I need opinions. We want 2 full days at DL/DCA so we'll be staying in Anaheim 3 nights, but we already have 4 nights booked. Our plan is to get an early start (we're coming from PA, so early mornings aren't going to bother us), drive to LA and find a parking garage (?) and then uber. Is that a reasonable thing? I can't imagine we can uber from Anaheim to WB, or can we? Or....Should we pack up and move to a hotel in LA where we can park and uber from there? Is Ubering a good idea? We're looking for ease, not for cost saving this day.

 

[DLgal]

Why park and Uber around? You're double paying by doing that plus just spending more time dealing with traffic. Parking garages in LA are expensive. Just drive from place to place. If you start with the WB tour, you get free parking in the garage there for the duration of the tour. Then, drive your car to the next stop and park. Then the next and park, etc. Then drive back to Anaheim at the end of the day. Being reliant on Uber all day is going to be more annoying than anything. If you are going to be in CA for 16 days, you will be fine driving around LA. It's not that hard. Just use your phone GPS to get you from place to place. You CAN Uber from Anaheim to LA and back, but you may end up having a hard time finding a driver who accepts the job or you may end up paying an exorbitant amount of money due to surge pricing if not enough drivers are available to accept the route.

I will tell you though, your LA day is too ambitious. The WB tour takes a good 4 hours, at least. Then to try and cram in La Brea AND a museum and also the beach? It's not gonna happen. Pick 2 LA things and do them and return to Anaheim. You can't do that much in one day in LA. I'd recommend the WB tour with a start time no later than 10am, then plan for lunch somewhere in Burbank or LA after the tour. Then hit your second place. I'd choose between the Getty and the beach/Pier area, personally (the tar pits are pretty boring, IMO).You can potentially squeeze in the Pier after the Getty, maybe, but you will be looking at a very late return to Anaheim.

 

[bennifer]

Thank you! I was planning on the 9am WB Tour and a serious 30 mins at the tar pits because there's not a lot there that's interesting and no tours. (At least the last time I looked a couple weeks ago there were still no tours). The Getty is a big maybe and the pier is just an evening activity. If we don't get it all done, it's not a big deal, but I want to have back ups if we find ourselves being done with something too quickly.

About the Ubering - thank you! I was planning on driving everywhere and was happy to do it, but a couple different websites and blogs were starting to scare me about the driving. I just needed someone to calm me down.

 

[China Expat]

The traffic here is horrendous....every single day. Stay where you plan to tour!