LA from Anaheim without a car

[queenarmadillo]

To keep costs down, we were planning on spending our 3-day LA break at a hotel in Anaheim (walking distance from Disneyland). 1 day will be spent at Disneyland. I was hoping to spend the 4th of July in LA proper (chinese theatre, walk of fame etc.), lunch at a resteraunt I liked the sound of in Beverly Hills, and we have reservations for the Hollywood bowl fireworks starting at 7.30 (but will have to collect tickets from the box office there at some point during the day, I think). The last day, in the absence of any other inspiration, I thought we would probably spend on one of the beaches in the LA area (whichever is easiest to get to).

To my question--am I insane to think I can do this without renting a car? LA looks to have an ok rail system, but I have no experience of it, no idea how to get to Anaheim station from the Anaheim hotel, or how close to the things I want to see we could get dropped off. Are there organised shuttles from DL to LA which might be an option for us (which would leave LA late enough for us to catch them after we finish at the Hollywood bowl)?
Any information anyone can give would be appreciated (even if it is only "Yes, you are crazy, it will be cheaper than trying to do it on public transport and driving on LA freeways on the "wrong" side of the road will still be less scary than trying to find your way around without").

 

[dis-happy]

For what you want to do, I would rent a car. It will be cheaper and easier in the end. The freeways aren't difficult to navigate, you will be fine. FWIW, I can't imagine being in So. Calif. without my own transportation.

 

[tracys2cents]

4th of July traffic shouldn't be too bad with everyone off work, just rent a car for one day from Avis on Katella ave. They may even shuttle you to and from your hotel.
However, if you would rather take public transport, you'd have to take a taxi (maybe $12 ?) to the Anaheim station of Amtrak, take a train (maybe $18pp round trip and takes one hour) up to Union Station in Los Angeles....then ride the red line subway ($5 per person for a day pass) up to Hollywood & Highland (maybe 25 min trip). Unfortunately it looks like 7pm is the last train back to Anaheim on July 4th so you're out of luck. You'd be stuck with a $75-$85 taxi ride back to Anaheim at night.

 

[queenarmadillo]

Thanks for the detailed description on how to use the public transport. After the replies I received here, I seriously looked into getting a car, but being under 25 significantly raised the cost of hire, so it turned out uneconomical.

As the public transport doesnt seem to run late enough for us, we have decided to split the stay and transfer to a hotel in LA on the 4th July, as even the increased cost of a central LA hotel is cheaper than renting a car. Your public transport explaination was very helpful though, in figuring out how to get from our Anaheim hotel to the one in LA.

 

[tvguy]

With what you want to do, a rental car may be the only option. We're Northern Californians who normally fly into LA, we haven't rented a car in 16 years. We usually buy the bus transfers from LAX to our hotel and back. However, we never venture beyond Disneyland. If we think we will need a car, we normally drive instead of fly, because, even with gas at $3.23 + now in California, it's l cheaper for a family of 4 to drive than fly, and then we don't have to spend more to rent a car. We fly because my family isn't a big fan of 8 hours each way in the car.

 

[DizTheWiz]

The ART (Anaheim resort trasit) has a shuttle between DLR and the amtrak station. you can take amtrak into Uniun station in downtown LA. Get a day pass for the MTA and ride the redline subway to hollywood. Once in hollywood the Hollywood bowl would be a little bit of a walk or you could take a bus. If you want to see Beverly Hills then you can catch a tour bus in front of the Kodak theater on Hollywood Blvd.

 

[scooter15]

If you can't get a Metrolink train back to Anaheim then try Amtrak. They have trains that run late as opposed to Metrolink. Metrolink is a commuter train.