Los Angeles Highlights and Airport transfer?

[Wheeler825]

In June I've got a late flight out of LAX, 11:20 PM.  So I was looking at the two excursions w/airport transfer offered through Royal.  "Los Angeles Highlights & Airport Transfer" And "Los Angeles Highlights and Rodeo Drive with Airport Transfer".  Anyone done either of these? Are they worth it? If I didn't do one of these, what would I do with luggage and whatnot if I decided to do something else in LA?  Never been to LA before.

[Zacharius]

I am not familiar with either of those tours, but I might recommend looking at the price of renting a car. There are several rental car places around the port (both in Long Beach and San Pedro), and you might want to look at the cost of picking a car up there and dropping it at LAX. You then have access to the entire LA area, going to the place you want, on your own time, with a place to put your luggage. 

Los Angeles gets a bad rap, but being a fairly frequent visitor to the area, I really like it. You have ocean, mountains (or at least tall hills), desert, and city all within like 60-90 minutes of the city, so there's endless things to do as well as tons of great places to eat and drink, and good museums and cultural sites. Yes, traffic can be awful, but you have tons of time if you don't leave until 11:20pm. 

[Wheeler825]

20 minutes ago, Zacharius said:

I am not familiar with either of those tours, but I might recommend looking at the price of renting a car. There are several rental car places around the port (both in Long Beach and San Pedro), and you might want to look at the cost of picking a car up there and dropping it at LAX. You then have access to the entire LA area, going to the place you want, on your own time, with a place to put your luggage. 

Los Angeles gets a bad rap, but being a fairly frequent visitor to the area, I really like it. You have ocean, mountains (or at least tall hills), desert, and city all within like 60-90 minutes of the city, so there's endless things to do as well as tons of great places to eat and drink, and good museums and cultural sites. Yes, traffic can be awful, but you have tons of time if you don't leave until 11:20pm. 

Normally I'd consider this a very good suggestion, but I'm perhaps overly paranoid about traffic? I don't want to regret my life choices by sitting in a traffic jam for hours.

[Zacharius]

39 minutes ago, Wheeler825 said:

Normally I'd consider this a very good suggestion, but I'm perhaps overly paranoid about traffic? I don't want to regret my life choices by sitting in a traffic jam for hours.

Well, think about it this way...if you're taking a bus, you're going to be stuck in the same traffic jam, but without the opportunity to change routes or plans or say "screw it, I'm going to stop for lunch right now while it's slow". Plus it won't be hours...traffic moves, just slowly. And sometimes it moves fast. 

[bobroo]

I think you need a much earlier flight or a hotel room and a flight the next day.

 

It's a vacation, not the army.

 

 

 

[Wheeler825]

2 hours ago, bobroo said:

I think you need a much earlier flight or a hotel room and a flight the next day.

 

It's a vacation, not the army.

 

 

 

Not in a rush to get home, and not in a rush to spend more on a hotel or an earlier flight.  I just don't care

[Ryan79]

1 hour ago, Wheeler825 said:

Not in a rush to get home, and not in a rush to spend more on a hotel or an earlier flight.  I just don't care

I get that, but neither excursion is going to kill a lot of time so you are still looking at rotting in the airport for 8+ hours…which I don’t think you will be able to do. I don’t think you can drop off luggage and check into a flight 8+ hours in advance. You will still need to find something after the excision to kill another 6 hours or so to even be able to check in. The immediate area around LAX isn’t all that great for farting around and LAX is a miserable airport to be stuck at for more than even 2 hours. You plan is going to create some serious misery for you. I would highly consider a hotel or change of flight.

[Zacharius]

3 hours ago, bobroo said:

I think you need a much earlier flight or a hotel room and a flight the next day.

 

It's a vacation, not the army.

Redeyes are there for a reason. Yes, they're there to benefit the airlines and increase their utilization rate...but they're also there because people take them. While I am not a fan (they're too short for a US domestic flight, in my opinion) and only take them when my schedule requires it, the ones I take out of Los Angeles are always full and are often cheaper for the passenger. 

[Zacharius]

15 minutes ago, Ryan79 said:

The immediate area around LAX isn’t all that great for farting around

Hey, I've been known to fly to LAX for the sole purpose of watching the planes from the In-N-Out for way too many hours

[BMW Hoosier]

10 hours ago, Wheeler825 said:

Normally I'd consider this a very good suggestion, but I'm perhaps overly paranoid about traffic? I don't want to regret my life choices by sitting in a traffic jam for hours.

Use a good GPS and you would be fine. No, you really don't want to hit the 405 at rush but there are many ways around it and so much to see and do in your own driving on your own schedule. If you have never been there, I highly suggest your own driving tour. Go up to Hollywood Blvd, cut up through the Hollywood Hills, by the Hollywood sign, Griffith Park, meander west on Sunset Blvd, and hang out at Santa Monica, or Venice, or whatever. 

[bobroo]

5 hours ago, Ryan79 said:

I get that, but neither excursion is going to kill a lot of time so you are still looking at rotting in the airport for 8+ hours…which I don’t think you will be able to do. I don’t think you can drop off luggage and check into a flight 8+ hours in advance. You will still need to find something after the excision to kill another 6 hours or so to even be able to check in. The immediate area around LAX isn’t all that great for farting around and LAX is a miserable airport to be stuck at for more than even 2 hours. You plan is going to create some serious misery for you. I would highly consider a hotel or change of flight.

To expand a little bit. These types of excursions typically have their arrival time at LAX made up when all the participants are seated on the bus. The person with the earliest flight time will determine what time the bus gets to LAX. And sometimes….even though the excursion states “for flights after 4pm only”…. sometimes people on the bus have flights earlier than what they were supposed to; kinda like a chair hog or a person who feels they can board the ship at 10am no matter when their appointment is, or a person who brings a corded electrical device aboard and despite knowing full well why those items are not permitted, because it got through security; they use it in their stateroom anyway.

But let’s say the bus drops off at 4pm; you will not be able to check into your flight, drop off luggage, or go through TSA security usually till 3 hours before the flight departure. That leaves about 4 hours to kill, not in the good part of the airport where there are many bars, restaurants, or terminals to get 10,000 steps in. It’s 4 hours at baggage claim or the check in desks. I’ll tell you right now, LAX is a very, very undersized airport for the amount of traffic it receives on a daily basis. It’s bursting at the seams.

Once permitted to the real part of the airport, yes there is bars, restaurants, and furniture to sit on— but those kiosks, vendors, restaurants, and bars close. I don’t know what time, but 11 o’clock sounds really late. I would recommend buying a daily United Club pass for $60 and getting stinkyfaced drunk at their bar. 

Finally, if this flight leaves at 11pm; after time in the air, the hour it takes to use the bathroom and collect your luggage, the time it takes to get from the destination airport to your home, AND the time change as you travel east—- what time does somebody actually open their front door???

A person can say I’ll take a nap or I’ll sleep on the plane. We are all adults here and we all know it is one thing to fall asleep on a couch, it is a complete other to go to bed on one.

Los Angeles is a wonderful city, embrace it. Treat it like it is one of your port stops. Make it a part of your vacation, it has so much to offer. Don’t dismiss it like it’s Port Canaveral.

 

[BMW Hoosier]

On 4/28/2023 at 8:25 PM, bobroo said:

We are all adults here and we all know it is one thing to fall asleep on a couch, it is a complete other to go to bed on one.

Los Angeles is a wonderful city, embrace it. Treat it like it is one of your port stops. Make it a part of your vacation, it has so much to offer. Don’t dismiss it like it’s Port Canaveral.

 

I sleep on a couch every night and like a baby. Otherwise, I agree, LA is a wonderful place and so much to see relatively easily for a first-time visitor.