1 day la. Santa monica or venice beach

[portcbob]

we are 1st timers travelling to la for 1 day pre cruise from australia. Staying at lax crown plaza airport hotel. Just wondering on the morning of the cruise would it be better to go to santa monica or venice beach, and how is the best way to travel there. Which location is the closest to lax.

 

portcbob:)

[Winterstale]

Are you renting a car? What time of year will you be here?

 

Venice has got...character :D....Santa Monica has the Pier -- are you cruising out of Long Beach? If so, what day? All these things will factor in....

[portcbob]

we need to do the tour either santa monica or venice beach on the morning of the cruise which is the 28th March, 2010.

 

No we are NOT hiring a car and will have to rely on some sort of transport.

 

What would be the easiest for us and the most interesting place to visit. We will only probably have a couple of hours to kill as we want to be at the cruise terminal by 11am sharp to board early.

 

Regards Bob.

[Winterstale]

Hi Bob - okay, so you're leaving on a Sunday so that's good - less chance (mind you, I did not say NO chance :D) of horrific traffic. When you say tour, do you mean you're booking something through the cruise line?

 

Venice is actually closer to Long Beach (I'm assuming you're sailing the Splendor out of Long Beach so correct me if I'm wrong) than Santa Monica and you really want to allow about an hour of travel on either end to/from Long Beach just to be safe.

 

Might be fun to head down to Venice Beach, have some breakfast (lots of places right on the beach), and people watch -- nothing like people watching on Venice Beach -- and at the end of March, you're approaching (we hope :D) the end of the rainy season - beach temps could be high 60's, low 70's at that time of year -- might be lower, however, if you're there early in the day as you will be!

 

As far as transportation, it depends on what you want to spend. It would be VERY complicated to try to tell you how to get there on public transportation -- I don't think I could if I wanted to. I've lived here for 17 years now...and I can tell you....there's a reason why the line in that song goes "nobody walks in L.A." -- it's very hard to get anywhere without your own car here. I sometimes take public transportation downtown when I have jury duty but that's about it! A cab would probably be mighty expensive and L.A. isn't really a "taxi city" -- in other words, it might be easy to get one from Long Beach to Venice from wherever you're staying, but you'd probably have to schedule someone to pick you back up to go to the pier.

[Winterstale]

things to check out:

 

http://www.venicebeach.com/

[portcbob]

thankyou very much for responding to our questions. we really don't know much what is going on being from Australia and haven't travelled to la before.

We are cruising on the MARINER OF THE SEAS ( rccl ) out of SAN PEDRO PIER.

We are staying 1 night only at the LAX Crown Plaza Airport Hotel the night before our cruise ( Saturday evening ). We thought we may be able to get up early on the morning of the cruise ( Sunday ) and catch a shuttle, cab or something to Santa Monica or Venice Beach for a few hours just to have a look around and maybe breakfast. I want to be at the cruise terminal by 11am if I can???????

 

Many thanks Bob.

[roger001]

I grew up in L.A., visit still every couple of years. If that's the morning of the cruise that afternoon, I would just focus on getting transportation down to the ship terminal. You're not really going to have time, or trnsportation opportunity to do any sight seeing. We're going to be out there in a month for a Mexican cruise. However, we're a day early, renting a car, hanging out in my former hometown, Manhattan Beach, then off to the terminal early the next day. My opinion. L. A. is just not transportation friendly and is way too spread out.

[Winterstale]

Hi Bob - I would have to echo Roger here now -- if you've only got that morning? It would be very difficult to get to Venice or Santa Monica and then get to the pier by 11am. I don't think you could do it without renting a car and then...navigating L.A. freeways having never been here? I really wouldn't advise it.

 

the only way you could possible do it?? Would be to hire a private car and driver and that would be very costly. There's no such thing as shuttles to/from the LAX area and the beaches, unfortunately :(

[Jen1000]

Venice Beach is closer to LAX. You are on a tight time schedule so you probably need to use a cab to and from Venice Beach. You can grab a cab, have breakfast, people watch, look around and get a cab back to your hotel.

 

How are you getting to the port? Maybe they have an option to Venice Beach.

 

A shuttle (Super Shuttle, etc) is also an option, they run from LAX and the hotels but it may take more time and may not be cheaper than a cab.

 

I am sure it can be done by bus and I would inquire with the hotel if that is a practical option on a Sunday morning.

 

Hire a car to take you to Venice and keep your luggage and then take you on to the port.

 

Jen in SoCal

[portcbob]

after considering all the advice I think it would be unwise to attempt going to the beach on the morning of our cruise. we will now most probably just go to the cruise terminal after a late brekkie.

 

Thanx Bob.:)

[trojangirl90066]

after considering all the advice I think it would be unwise to attempt going to the beach on the morning of our cruise. we will now most probably just go to the cruise terminal after a late brekkie.

 

Thanx Bob.:)

 

I have lived in LA for 60 years and I say no way can you do it. There is really nothing around LAX, any way you could change your hotel & stay closed to the cruise terminal? If you stayed in Long Beach there are a lot of things to do by the Aquarium (great restaurants anyway).