Los Angeles Travel Forum

We are flying to Los Angeles, CA and then need to get to San Diego for a cruise and then return to L.A. for a flight home after the cruise. Is there a bus or some form of transportation you can take from the airport in L.A. to a hotel in San Diego? Are there hotels in San Diego that would offer transportation to a Holland America cruise ship?

Check Megabus. I've never used them but it's a fairly new service just launched about a year ago. LA to San Diego is about a 2 hour drive.

Here's the link:

http://www.megabus.com/us/index.php

Hi,

Another option for you is to use the LAX FlyAway Bus (http://www.lawa.org/lax/LAXflyAway.cfm) from the airport to Union Station (downtown L.A.) then take Amtrak to San Diego. Amtrak drops you off in downtown San Diego (Santa Fe Depot) and you are two blocks away from the cruise dock. As for hotels, the nearest one is the Holiday Inn/San Diego on the Bay which is right across the street from the pier...(619) 232-3861.

Spartan

We just did a cruise out of San Diego. We drove and parked in the nearest lot to the terminal.

The Embassy Suites and Hyatt are closer to the pier than the parking lot. The Holiday Inn isn't much farther.

The train station is just a few 100 feet further than the parking lot, also.

I just spent one night at the Embassy suites and it is a great place and they would probably shuttle you to the pier and maybe even from the train station.

I guess if you have to walk from the train station to the pier or the ES it wouldn't be that bad; depending on how much baggage you have.

It also depends on how much time you have to get from LA to SD. There is some really cool stuff to do near the pier (USS Midway & Seaport Village) so I would get there ASAP and then find stuff to do until the ship sails.

We started to board the Carnival Spirit at 1:00 PM and were getting off by 10:00 AM.

Have you thought of renting a car to drive down?

Another, and faster, option is to fly from LAX to San Diego and then take your hotel's shuttle from the SD airport to the hotel.

Imklugue is a gem of a gal, but I wouldn't go with her advice this time(sorry! you know I love u!) A one way drop on the car will be expensive, unless you're a group of four or more to split the cost, and will be confusing on both ends for navigating unfamiliar streets and finding the drop-off site in San Diego. Enterprise will leave you at the cruise terminal as a courtesy, but this can all be time consuming.

Ouch makes my head spin.

Flights between LA and San Diego are not as cheap as one would expect.

Instead, go with the other poster: Jump on FlyAway to Union and get on Amtrak.

FlyAway is four bucks each way, goes direct from the airport and is how I travel...and I'm a local. It drops you right at the Amtrak terminal for the ride to San Diego. And, let me tell you, traffic to and from San Diego can be brutal, doubling the travel time...whereas, Amtrak is immune.

I tried to check the departure/arrival info for MegaBus to see if it would serve LAX, but couldn't get the site to work(wouldn't allow me to choose San Diego as a destination).

Still...buses? In SoCal? Traffic, baby.

Let me re-iterate: If it were me, I'd do FlyAway to Amtrak. So easy.

GC

I like gilescorey's advice regarding the Flyaway bus and Amtrak to San Diego.

Flyaway bus link at LAX:
http://www.lawa.org/lax/LAXflyAway.cfm
(You want to go to Union Station.)

Amtrak:
http://www.lawa.org/lax/LAXflyAway.cfm

I don't recommend the connection if you're flying in late at night. Downtown is not tourist-friendly. Stay in a hotel near the airport if that's the case. I recommend Custom Hotel in Westchester. It's close, but worlds away. It's located in a small neighborhood commercial district about 3 minutes away by taxi. Quite a different experience from the other airport-adjacent hotels. There are some nice restaurants in the neighborhood. A favorite is Alejo's.

http://www.customhotel.com/

Happy Trails!

Thanks for the shout out, Anacapa

I wouldn't worry about safety at night(bus goes right up to Union Station, no outside travel required), but I would worry about a meager late night schedule.

I love FlyAway and even have pics under my "Transportation" tips.