Los Angeles Travel Answers

Who is "we"? If you have kids, then visiting LA without a car is definitely a bad idea. The public transit there leaves much to be desired and you can only reach a few places easily.

Welcome to VT. Not certain where you live in Scotland, but I've enjoyed a number of travels over there to visit my uncle and some business aquaintances in Edinburgh. As to your post, you should not need a car in Las Vegas, or San Francisco. Depending on the Island in Hawaii, you'll probably not need a car but it might be easier to have one. LA on the other hand is NOT very friendly for travelers without a vehicle. The public transport will get you around, but not to most of the tourist attractions. Depending on budget there are a number of hotels in Hollywood that I've stayed at and would recommend the Rennaisance on Highland (next to the Kodak Theater) or the Best Western on Franklin just few blocks from most Hollywood "attractions." I can get more recommendations from my daughter who lives just under the Hollywood sign if you need them. Email me in VT if you'd like more. That said, the Hollywood Bowl, Universal Studios and most others are not close enough to walk to. Paramount is walkable but there's not really much to see there like there is at Universal. Bus transport via MUNI and BART in San Francisco make the city quite easy to navigate via public transit and for most tourists, driving in SF is not a fun experience. Las Vegas transit to your hotel can be done by cab or less expensively one of the Hotel Shuttles. "The Strip" is for the most part walkable although from one end to the other is a couple miles. Most of the "new Strip" on the South End also has two mono rails that are easy to use, although quite slow.

I'm a little curious as to how you are fitting Hawaii into a 3-week tour of the west coast? LV, LA and SF are all reasonable distances but Hawaii is on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, not exactly a day trip. Have you set aside several days to fly over and back? If not, you may want to concentrate on the mainland for this trip and visit Hawaii as a separate vacation in the future. If you have kids and no car, I'd suggest Santa Monica as a good central place to stay in LA. There is a lot to do right there including the Santa Monica Pier with all sorts of fun things for kids of all ages. You can get around LA by bus and taxi but it is expensive. The city was made for cars so having one makes visiting things much easier. Of course you'd be driving on the "wrong" side of the road and drivers in LA are not noted for being polite so using public transportation might be a good idea. You can get some of the transport info here. www.metro.net/ Bus goes to the Getty Museum and the museum is free. http://www.getty.edu/visit/ Huntington Library and Gardens are spectacular. http://www.huntington.org/ LA County Museum of Art is next to the Brea Tar Pits and an excellent museum. http://www.lacma.org/ Lots to do in LA. Have fun.

I agree that if your visiting LA with kids, you will need a car. No way around it. In Hollywood, there is the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Graumin's Chinese Theatre and loads of tour buses that can take you on a tour of where all the celebrities live. California is a big state and you will need to drive to see it. Family fun things to do: visitcalifornia.com/Things-T... Free Things to do in Hollywood: gocalifornia.about.com/lr/fr... Are you planning to visit Disneyland, California Adventure, Knotts Berry Farm, Wax Museum, etc.? Then I would suggest you stay close to these amusement parks. Many of these places are geared for families. disneyland.disney.go.com/hot... Get yourself a free visitor guide from here for California, they are a wealth of information. visitcalifornia.com/Visitors... ULTIMATE TOURS: visitcalifornia.com/Articles... If your going to navigate the freeways I suggest you get yourself some good maps or GPS. http://www.laalmanac.com/LA/lamap2.htm If your going to navigate the freeways avoid the rush hours 3:00-7:00PM. Take a deep breath and be patient. Las Vegas you probably can get away without a car unless your flying there. If you stay close to the Las Vegas strip, it is easily walkable. Loads of places to stay on or near the strip. http://www.vegas.com/resorts/ They are plenty of types of transportation available, such as Taxi's, public transit (buses) and many of the Resorts have services where they can pickup you up and drop you off at the Las Vegas Airport. http://www.vegas.com/transportation/ If you want to see Freemont Street then you will need a car or just take a taxi there. Pretty cool with all the free light shows and a zip line, but stay within the confines of the Freemont cover. vegas.com/attractions/off_th... Here is good site with loads of info for your las vegas visit. http://www.vegas.com Hawaii sounds fun, but to see it, you'll need a car too. I will leave the advice to some of the folks in VT about Hawaii. How exciting, a family adventure:) Yaqui Dee

Hi.Here is your answer.Flying Glasgow to Vegas for 5 nights.Fly Vegas to LA for 8 nights.LA to Oahu for 7 nights.Oahu to San Francisco for 3 nights.San Fran back to Glasgow. We did a similar thing two years ago on The East Coast to Washington DC,New York,Cape Cod and Boston.

Sounds good. The only thing I'd change is switch the number of nights for LA and SF. There is a lot to do in LA but transportation is problematic without a car. There is a lot to do in SF and public transportation is excellent. In the summer, SF will probably have better weather too . . . not so hot. LV will be HOT HOT HOT in the summer. In LA if you stay near the ocean, it will probably be okay. Have a great trip.

Hello!! When in LA, we stayed at the Hilton in Anaheim. It was in walking distance from Disney, and there are a lot of resturants, shops and liquor stores; literally 3 minutes walk from the hotel. We did have a car, so we drove to Hollywood etc. But, I couldn't really see and family activities around there. I hope this snippet of information is helpful! Hayley :)