Thread: Where to go in Los Angeles

My mom loves the Getty Center and kept telling me I need to see it (even though I am not crazy about art museums). After that, she has nothing to say about Los Angeles except how frustrating it is that the attractions are spread out in different areas. While trying to plan a return to Los Angeles, she gave up because of the long distances between places we would be interested in.

So right now my top concern is finding a part of Los Angeles that can be considered walkable. Meaning is there a district or urban park where you don't have to walk far to go from a museum to an aquarium, a garden, or a mansion? Or is it totally car dependent, even near the cruise ship pier?

Firstly we won a prize of four days at the Sunset Tower Hotel on Sunset Strip in West Hollywood. Subject to what people say that you need a car, there are plenty of buses going everywhere in LA. We did have a tour of LA in our prize, but we went to Rodeo Drive, Venice Beach, Santa Monica and downtown LA on the bus. We also went and had a look at Union Station, where we arrived a few years ago. Had a great view of the Hollywood sign from that bus. Also seniors get a really cheap day ticket for the bus. Our first bus we had a very helpful lady driver who gave us ideas where to go, and also bus numbers.

If you are cruising from San Pedro or Long Beach, both are a long way out of LA. We sailed from San Pedro on this prize trip, and stayed two or three nights on Queen Mary. A part of our prize was a limo from the airport to the hotel and back. As we extended our stay at our own expense for a cruise to the Mexican Riviera the limo came to Long Beach to pick us up.

Norman put it very well. The LA area is very large. If you want to do some exploring you need to check out small areas to see if there is an area you want to spend time in unless you want to do a lot of moving around.

If you're staying more than one day (say you get in on Friday afternoon for a Sunday cruise), you can look into a day tour for Saturday that picks you up at your hotel.

I would suggest staying away from hotels in the LAX area (you won't want to walk around there as there are many strip malls -- and I mean this literally) and downtown LA. Downtown LA is not a very walking friendly area. You would have to be careful as to areas you walk around during the day, even though some such as the Japanese area area are safe (my hubby dropped my daughter and I off last June so we can play tourist, but I didn't feel comfortable about jumping on a bus and going to other areas of downtown). In fact, he's worked for 30 years in downtown and he wouldn't feel comfy about staying in a hotel there. I worked there for a while -- only stayed near work at lunch. Even poodle/condo sit for a friend while she was on a honeymoon and didn't care for going out at night to take the dog for a walk.

A city tour would take you to the few areas (Olvera Street, Chinatown), that would be of interest. IMO, there are more interesting places to see in the city and county of LA but that depends on your interests.

If you're not into art, then you may want to skip Getty Center as that's it's focus. I've chaperoned a class of second graders up there (yes, you catch a rail shuttle that goes up the Santa Monica mountains to where the museum is) so they can analyze the art.

If your mother has an auto club membership, she can go in and get a Southern California tour book for free. I try to do that for any US port or city I'm going to visit.

As for the bus system, yes there is so-called rapid transit, but I would carefully map out routes with the hotel concierge and stick to going to Hollywood or Santa Monica or Long Beach. Do not just get off at any stop. Another thing to be aware of is that most people who are using the bus system here are doing so because they don't have use of a car and need to get to work. So don't try to save money and take the bus from the airport to a hotel to the cruise port. The bus isn't meant for transporting luggage and the locals will be totally ticked off at you.

A suggestion is to stay at the Crowne Plaza or Doubletree in San Pedro. Not great for playing tourist, but you'll be by the port. I think one or both of these hotels have a shuttle to the port.

Across the bridge is Long Beach. There are some nice areas to stay at and be close enough to the waterfront. The Aquarium of the Pacific is wonderful. A few years ago, the three of us went there and then caught the free bus to Shoreline Village which has restaurants and some quaint shops (it's very close to the Queen Mary). I don't know about staying at the QM as it's pretty old and the restaurants there seemed pricey when I checked out the menus then. The port is where most of the Carnival ships sail out of (the Splendor on Sunday and the Paradise on Mondays and Fridays).

Another option is staying at the Sportsman Lodge in Studio City in the San Fernando Valley. You can easily catch a cab (unless the hotel has a shuttle) to University City, which has Universal Studios and City Walk (a fun outdoors area that has many restaurants and stores, and a nice view as it's way up high). You can also catch a taxi to Hollywood itself as it's over the hill. I haven't stayed at this hotel, but when I was growing up, my family had many celebratory meals at the restaurant, and I've been to some events there as well.

Patty, do you know why the Queen Mary was retired and docked at Long Beach? She must have been a good ship because all of her cabins and restaurants are still in use and tours are available every day. If I was sailing on a Carnival ship, I would consider the Queen Mary as a breakfast option on boarding day.

It would be interesting to compare the QM and the QM2.

The history of the QM: RMS Queen Mary - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Basically it was old. I worked on an event there in the late 80s (a client held an event to celebrate its sponsorship of one of the Olympic teams). Was too busy to check out the ship.

I remember looking at the website Long Beach Hotel | The Queen Mary for the QM and deciding the menus were pretty pricey for my pocketbook.

In Los Angeles we had a bus tour, you are picked up from your hotel and taken to a central point, and you join your bus.

1 -2 The Hollywood Bowl – you can also see the Hollywood sign from the bowl.

3. The Walk of Fame

4. The Kodak Theatre we only had time to walk in the Foyer

5. Rodeo Drive if you want to do some expensive shopping.

If you like theme parks you have Universal Studios you can visit.

We found the local buses very good, going to Venice Beach and also Santa Monica, both are close together.

We stayed in the Sunset Tower hotel on Sunset Strip, very famous years ago, very expensive now. Had dinner one night bill came to $170. Mainly used the steak house over the road, main attraction was a mechanical steer. No1 we never tied it. Our LA tour stopped outside this hotel and the history is given

1 – Venice Beach
2 Santa Monica
3. Steak House
4 Steer in Steak House.
5 . Sunset Tower Hotel

We left Sunset Strip and did a Mexican Riviera Cruise to Acapulco.

Arriving back we stayed in the Queen Mary hotel details were given in the thread below which Andrea started.
(The original Queen Mary)http://www.cruiselinefans.com/cunard-cruise-line/57057-original-queen-mary.html?

I love HOHO tours with driver guides everywhere else but in LA it is all about things and people I have absolutely no interest in, not the gardens, zoos, aquariums, natural history museums, etc.That is what I am interested in, the nonhuman stuff, and LA is all about people.and entertainment. I always wish Princess would embark in San Diego, where a car is never required because all fun stuff is either at Balboa Park, in Coronado, or downtown and all I can miss is a dessert shop.

that Sunset Tower hotel isn't familiar to me. But then I don't need to know the hotels. Don't know which steak house is that either. I was thinking about the Sunset Strip the other day, about a friend treating me to a night of comedy at the Comedy Store. Many comics, but the headliner was Eddie Murphy with the surprise performer Richard Pryor. Pryor absolutely blew everyone, including Murphy, away. There used to be a fun store within walking distance, the Dudley Doo-Right Emporium. Yes, all about Jay Ward's cartoons. Was sad to hear it closed.