Visting LA, Hollywood and San DIego from DLR

[Synonymous]

I've checked the stickies and browsed the boards, but haven't really seen much info about using DLR as a base to see LA and Hollywood. How hard is it to get back and forth? We'd like to stay at DLR and spend a couple days visiting other area attractions. How long does it take to drive to LA and Hollywood? How about San Diego?

Thanks!

 

[YellowMickeyPonchos]

I depends on where you want to go in LA. What other locations are you looking at?

Hollywood is about 50 minutes to an hour in good daytime traffic. Take the 5 North to the 101 and get off at Highland/Cahuenga - look for signs to the Hollywood Bowl - that will dump you into the heart of it.

Rush hour makes that an ugly trip, so plan on staying up in Hollywood until after 7pm. Otherwise, leave before 3pm.

 

[Synonymous]

Thank you, that's good to know. Don't really know specifically where we want to go in LA- we're just starting to plan our trip. I know we'll want to see some of the beaches.

 

[YellowMickeyPonchos]

Beaches are easy - most people visiting DL actually go just a bit south of DL to Huntington Beach. Otherwise, LA tourists tend to go to Venice Beach (to see the quirky beach community and it's denizens that have made it so famous) and Santa Monica - for it's shopping and Pier amusement park - so you can see an original and what some of Paradise Pier in DCA is based off of.

Others go to Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive to get a glimpse of the wealthy lifestyle, but you can see more real famous folks on Robertson Blvd - just a few blocks away. Or drive up to Malibu and go to the Country Mart shopping center after a trip to the beach there.

The museums are top notch too, if you love cars, the Petersen is amazing. The tar pits are an archeologists dream, and the Museum of Art is great. The science museum, down by the Colliseum, usually hosts one of the Body Worlds exhibits on a regular basis. Then there is the Forrest Ackerman Museum of Science Fiction - by special appt only. He is famous in the film community and has an exhaustive collection including the actual robot from Metropolis in his home.

Lots of amazing things to do in this area!

 

[Inkmahm]

I've checked the stickies and browsed the boards, but haven't really seen much info about using DLR as a base to see LA and Hollywood. How hard is it to get back and forth? We'd like to stay at DLR and spend a couple days visiting other area attractions. How long does it take to drive to LA and Hollywood? How about San Diego?

Thanks!

Excellent quesiton! We're experts at WDW but I haven't been to DLR in 20 years. We are just starting to plan a trip for next August and I have the same questions you do about using DLR as our base and traveling from there.

 

[tinks86]

Hi,

We are also interested in staying in DLR and travelling to different parts of So. California, how easy is driving in this area??? We are from the UK so obviously driving in the US is a bit more tricky but have driven around orlando etc before. Any hints/ tips for us? Is it easier to take a bus trip?

 

[YellowMickeyPonchos]

Traffic here is much worse than Orlando due to the extreme density of people. The biggest issue is sitting in traffic on a freeway and not moving for periods of time. If you have patience and time, it's not bad. If you don't possess very much patience, then maybe a tour is better suited.

 

[michelle1]

We were just in California this past summer and what we did was spend a few nights in a hotel in Santa Monica so we could spend time at the beach and also do our LA touring and then switched to a hotel across from DL to do DL for a few more days. The drive to Hollywood etc from Santa Monica was only about 20 minutes whereas driving from Anaheim would have been at least an hour...traffic in LA is horrible!

 

[mystic_path]

Grayline has really great tour packages to view these things. For me when I went through gray line I noticed that you can get the LA tour which takes you to all those places, but the one I took was the Universal tour which picks you up at the park and then takes you to those hot spots around LA.

Gray line picks you up from your DL anaheim hotel drops you off at Universal or takes you on which ever tour you book and then drops you back off at your hotel in Anaheim when the day is done. Its excellent.

 

[heatherbelle]

Traffic here is much worse than Orlando due to the extreme density of people. The biggest issue is sitting in traffic on a freeway and not moving for periods of time. If you have patience and time, it's not bad. If you don't possess very much patience, then maybe a tour is better suited.

This sounds just like the UK, M1, M6, Leeds ring road spring to mind! It'll be like home from home.

 

[Lizzybear]

I agree with YellowMickeyPonchos, you definitely need patience to drive in LA! The sheer amount of cars on the freeways is monumental compared to even the busiest UK motorways and even at times you wouldn't really expect (11pm on a Sunday) We knew to expect this but it was still frustrating at times, we just left plenty of time for all of our journeys and didn't plan too much for each day. I wouldn't recommend just staying in Anaheim if you want to visit more of the area.. We stayed at the Hollywood Orchid Suites to do the Hollywood attractions, Universal, Santa Monica, Page Museum, Six Flags (traffic isn't so bad going north) etc then stayed at the Fairfield Inn in Anaheim for DL and it worked out great for us. Also, San Diego is definitely manageable from Anaheim.. We went for the day just for the zoo (though wished we'd been able to stay longer!) and it was a nice and easy drive. I think it took around 2 hours. Enjoy your vacation, I miss California so much

 

[bec_oakley]

If you're heading up to LA for more than one day I'd agree that it'd be better to split the trip into two. Do Disney (and San Diego) from an Anaheim base, and then head on up to LA and stay there to do the rest.

It depends on what you're going to be doing up there - Santa Monica is a good base for the beaches, but quite far from Universal Studios, and can take quite a while to get to Hollywood if the traffic's bad. Depending on your budget, there are some reasonable hotels around the Century City area that would make a good base.

 

[jessica52877]

We did LA/Disney/San Diego 2x this year. Both times renting a car and staying at HoJo outside DL. We found the traffic to be fine for us (but we live in Atlanta). There were periods of stopping and what not when heading north to LA/Hollywood and back, but nothing was bad except friday evening. We left Santa Monica Pier around 7 pm and it took close to 2 hours to get back.

We had no issues going to San Diego one day or Legoland another. Went north to Hollywood, etc 2 days each trip also.

 

[disneyannie]

Bearing in mind the roads are busy - how easy is it to navigate them, getting in the right lane etc, are the signs quite clear with plenty of notice.

Planning a trip for 2010

Thanks

Annie

 

[jessica52877]

We had no issues driving around, but I live near Atlanta and hit their horrible traffic a couple times a year. To me, everything was marked well. We just made sure to keep our eyes always on the lookout. Both my DH and myself drove everywhere we went, 2 different weeks.