Transport LAX to San Diego Cruiseport

[vikingtraveller]

We are planning a cruise with HAL from San Diego in early January.

Flying into LAX would give us a considerably shorter (only 1 stop) flight, than flying to San Diego.

 

What options do we have getting from LAX to the San Diego Cruiseport, and back - at the end of the cruise?

[jasmith52]

Options:

 

Taxi or limo - Likely to be expensive

 

Supershuttle - shared van ride

 

Car rental - best option in my opinion. Pick up car at LAX, drop at San Diego Airport - then either get their (car rental) shuttle or a cheap ~10 taxi to cruise port

 

Amtrak - taxi to Union Station, drops you 2 blocks from cruise terminal ~$30 pp each way plus taxi fare.

 

Metrolink/Coaster - (weekdays and Saturdays) taxi to Union Station. Metrolink (commuter) to Oceanside. Xfer to Coaster (commuter train) to San Diego. leaves you 2 blocks from cruise port. $15 pp each way plus taxi fare.

[vikingtraveller]

Thanks!

I agree. Car rental looks like the best option.

[kenish]

You do not have to take a taxi from LAX to LA Union Station (train). The Flyaway Bus runs between the airport and station 24 hours a day. Amtrak is the long distance train, Metrorail/Coaster is the commuter train and makes more stops. You will have to transfer from one to the other in Oceanside, halfway through the trip.

 

I agree that rental car is the easiest here in car-crazy LA. Navigating the route is easy; however if you arrive in the afternoon on a weekday you may want to spend time around LAX and start driving to San Diego after 630pm. Then you will avoid the worst rush hour traffic, usually between 330-630pm.

 

Are you sure there are no convenient flights into SAN? If you fly from Europe to a hub such as ORD, DFW, DEN, ATL, etc. there are a lot of flights to SAN.

 

FYI there are a number of low-cost airlines that might not show up on some of the airfare search websites. For example, Southwest, JetBlue, Airtran and Virgin America all fly to SAN once you get to the US. Also check fares into SNA instead of LAX...it's about 70km closer to San Diego. Sometimes SNA fares are quite good, often they are very expensive but definitely check.

[Splinter]

I know of no shuttles that go from LAX to San Diego (or the reverse). Tried to find one a couple of years ago with no success. I think that there is one that goes from northern San Diego county as far as John Wayne (Orange County) airport, but not all the way to LAX. Cloud 9 (a Supershuttle franchise) in San Diego used to run a shuttle back and forth twice daily, but they stopped nearly 5 years ago.

 

A rental car is certainly the easiest, and generally you can make the drive in 2.5 hours, as long as it is not during rush hour in either area. If it will be during rush hour (0600-1000, or 1500-1900) add on at least another hour.

 

I fly on business out of San Diego on a regular basis, and it is nearly impossible to get anywhere without changing planes domestically, but is sure is easier than renting cars, fighting traffic, etc. etc. You might want to reconsider and check out some of the better sites for finding flights on-line. If you are flexible time-wise, for example, you can fly to NY and change to Jet Blue which will fly you to San Diego directly, but only once daily. You could also look into a flight from Norway to San Francisco or Seattle and then transfer to Southwest to fly directly into San Diego.

[kenish]

More comments- on my post 2 above this one, I should have pointed out the Amtrak station in SD is 200m from the cruise dock, very convenient. (SAN airport is about 4km from the docks). My explanation about trains was also unclear- Amtrak goes the entire distance from LA to SD; the local Metrorail goes to Oceanside where you must transfer to a Coaster train.

 

There are no bus services from LAX-SAN; van services will be very expensive ($200-$300). One option is a tourbus such as these: http://www.alllosangelestours.com/body.asp?tour=LAX-B0051&page=TourDetails or http://www.luxbusamerica.com/bus-schedule-pricing.php However they are only once a day so you would probably have to stay overnight in LA and take the bus in the morning.