What's a good time to visit Vegas and California?

[Darth Wong]

OK, I managed to get a free flight (courtesy of my father's frequent flier miles), but the travel window was dictated by the flights I could get with those miles so the scheduling decision was taken out of my hands (convenient in a twisted way; I don't have to worry about deciding).

Anyway, I'm flying into Vegas on July 10 and flying out of Los Angeles on July 20. Now I just need to figure out where to stay in or around Los Angeles (we want to see Paramount Studios, Universal Studios, and Seaworld in San Diego) and how to get from Vegas to Los Angeles somewhere in the middle of the trip. I suppose I can just rent a car once I hit Vegas. Should I worry about booking rental cars etc. in advance, or can I just fly by the seat of my pants as usual and just waltz up to a car rental place when I get there?

And how bad is the traffic in LA? Seriously? Has anyone been to both Toronto and LA in rush hour so they can give me an idea of the difference? And will I need directions to avoid driving into a shitty part of town and getting myself killed?

[The Kernel]

And how bad is the traffic in LA? Seriously? Has anyone been to both Toronto and LA in rush hour so they can give me an idea of the difference?

It's pretty bad, but if you are convinced that you want to drive it's manageable. I live in an area with only moderate traffic and I don't have a problem driving in LA, especially when I stick to the major freeways.

And will I need directions to avoid driving into a shitty part of town and getting myself killed?

No, as long as your driving during the day, you're fine whereever you go. At night there are certain areas that aren't great, but you'll be using the freeways for most of your traveling, so you probably won't inadvertenly go into any bad areas. It isn't nearly as bad as Detroit and the areas are far smaller.

[The Kernel]

BTW Mike, since you plan on travelling quite a bit in LA, might I suggest getting a rental car with a GPS system? GPS is offered in most rental cars these days, and the cost is low enough; just call ahead and reserve one.

[Crayz9000]

Oh yeah, a tip about Los Angeles freeways. According to most all other drivers (just looking at how they're driving I mean), anything below 75 miles per hour (120 km/hr) is considered slow. However, the speed limits in the outlying areas of Los Angeles sit at 65 mph (104 km/hr) and 55 mph (88 km/hr) in the heavily urban areas. Additionally, the California Highway Patrol has severely started cracking down on the freeways, so be warned.

I generally go between 65 and 70 mph, since that's the zone in which the CHP generally won't bother you. However, the rest of traffic will bother you at those speeds (sometimes necessitating extreme acceleration or deceleration to avoid getting boxed in so you won't miss an exit).

[Knife]

Anyway, I'm flying into Vegas on July 10 and flying out of Los Angeles on July 20. Now I just need to figure out where to stay in or around Los Angeles (we want to see Paramount Studios, Universal Studios, and Seaworld in San Diego) and how to get from Vegas to Los Angeles somewhere in the middle of the trip. I suppose I can just rent a car once I hit Vegas. Should I worry about booking rental cars etc. in advance, or can I just fly by the seat of my pants as usual and just waltz up to a car rental place when I get there?

I did a San Diego/LA trip last year and I played with the idea of one hotel room for both but ended up having one in SD and one in LA. The distance between the two is just too great.

You should be ok for a walk in rental but I wouldn't take the chance. If shit goes bad, you can always rent the Viper or Ferrari's down town.

And how bad is the traffic in LA? Seriously? Has anyone been to both Toronto and LA in rush hour so they can give me an idea of the difference? And will I need directions to avoid driving into a shitty part of town and getting myself killed?

There will be some serious choke points depending on the time of day. On the I-15 south from LV to LA, you'll encounter heavy stop and go traffic when you approach the 91 west just about any time of the day. If you keep on the I-15 south to San Diego, you'll be alright until you hit highway 78 around Escondido and from there its heavy traffic durring rush hours on I-15 and I-5.

On I-5 north from San Diego to LA, you'll hit seriously bad traffic around the highway 78 and then about 20 miles up the road at the boarder checkpoint. You'll be good to go then on I-5 till you hit the I-5/405 split at Irvine. Once you get sorted out on that you'll be good to go again until highway 101. If you want to go to Universal Studios (wheee, I loved that place) you'll want 101 and its a fucking desaster most of the day all the way through LA and on into Hollywood, and Universal City.

*tip* Don't stay in Van Nayes. Go for either Universal City it self or go for one of the outlaying cities like Oxnard or such.

As for driving accidently into shitty places, well, more or less SoCal is set up so you have to take the freeway everywhere so as long as you don't get off the freeway on a unscedualed stop you should be ok.

[nechronius]

If you're interested I can offer a quick tour of where the L.A. Riots 1992 touched off. I'll show you where I made beer distribution runs for my dad when I was old enough to drive but not old enough to drink. There's a great taco joint near an old tire making plant that makes killer carne asada burritos (no pun intended). I'll even show you where my parents' store was broken into and looted beyond recognition during the riots and then again one year later. Quite interesting how stuff like that seldom gets reported after the initial incident. Or my parents' other store where my dad built a room with bullet proof glass where he could shoot back at would-be armed robbers. And I think I know where the complex is where Korean store owners armed with semi automatic AK-47 type rifles held off looters.

Ahh the good old days.

[The Yosemite Bear]

And how bad is the traffic in LA? Seriously? Has anyone been to both Toronto and LA in rush hour so they can give me an idea of the difference? And will I need directions to avoid driving into a shitty part of town and getting myself killed?

*shudders*
*twitches*
*attempts to repress 2 years of memories of college and civil service work in LA county*


erm, what ever you do Don't drive in the Greater Los Angeles area after 8am, or before 7pm...

stay close to the freeway, all of the stops you want are close to freeway off ramps, and have their won signs, I might suggest getting a week long pass from the Metro bus for all of the connections. Los Angeles is not for a nice civilized driver, hell I had instant right of way, bright red paint job, and a flashing yellow light, and I still got shot at.... <reminder at least you aren't a causacian civil servant in uniform, in south central....>

[The Yosemite Bear]

Yeah, like everyone else said, stick to the major freeways, learn to drive fast and be a jerk. Get a rental with GPS onboard. Alternative to flying from Vegas you could just take Death Valley highway during the day, and be there in a few hours. (just don't take death valley highway at night, the Darwin award rodents are very bad.

never driven in Toranto, I only lived two years in Vancouver.

[Col. Crackpot]

at least you aren't a causacian civil servant in uniform, in south central....>

asian, caucasian... does it really make a difference in south central?

[Glocksman]

This may sound like a stupid idea, but what about taking the train from Vegas to LA and from LA to San Diego?

If you want to look it up, the station codes are Vegas=LVS, Los Angeles=LAX, and San Diego=SAN.

[Alferd Packer]

I suppose I can just rent a car once I hit Vegas. Should I worry about booking rental cars etc. in advance, or can I just fly by the seat of my pants as usual and just waltz up to a car rental place when I get there?

This may be dependent upon whether or not there is a convention in LV when you'll be there, and how big it is. Consulting the official Las Vegas tourism site, we see that there is a rather large convention a few days after you arrive. You may want to book a rental car a few weeks in advance, in light of this information.

As for the car itself, I recommend a full size model (Crown Vic, Intrepid, and the like) if you can afford/feel like shelling out for it. It makes life so much easier when hauling family and luggage across the big empty. Oh, and since you'll be there in the middle of July, it's going to be, in all likelyhood, as hot as hell. The road to LA is fairly well traveled, but you may want to make the drive at dawn or dusk to minimize the risk of overheating (also another reason why a full size car is better: bigger radiator/cooling system/air conditioner, and the engine doesn't have to work as hard and thus can better manage heat at highway speeds).

And how bad is the traffic in LA? Seriously? Has anyone been to both Toronto and LA in rush hour so they can give me an idea of the difference? And will I need directions to avoid driving into a shitty part of town and getting myself killed?

Traffic is, IMNSHO, abysmal. There is traffic 24/7, it's just not so bad during off-peak hours. I imagine that if you don't bat an eyelash at most Toronto traffic situations, you can handle LA traffic. Problems may arise when you've gone 500 feet in 45 minutes and your kids are ready to explode all over the back seat. Just stick to the freeways as much as possible to get around, and make sure you have a current map of the city handy, in case there's a horrible accident and they start rerouting traffic off the freeway.

Oh, and San Diego is about 2.5-3 hours away from LA, just so's ya know. Or maybe that's Tijuana. I forget exactly.

[Bob the Gunslinger]

I'm thinking of taking a vacation through Vegas and California this spring or summer, and I need a bit of help from the board's residents who may be familiar with the area. What's a good time to go through? Are there special sites which I should try to make room for?

What kind of two-week itinerary would be good for such a vacation?

Well, there is a topless magic show...

Seriously, Vegas has tons of cool stuff, like Mandalay Bay, the Excalibur and the Luxor have shows/reinactments, so does Caesar's Palace, there's some little Trek experience I hear (actually it's pretty fun if you're cool with your nerdy side), there's the bunny ranch, Penn and Teller, etc.

LA has too many attractions to mention, like the walk of fame and such. If you have kids you might like to bring them to the La Brea Tar Pits--it's a hoot.

The Bay area has San Francisco and Berkeley, with their 6 gajillion famous landmarks. The swankier places in SF and Napa valley are quite nice, but mellow and expensive. There's always a party in the Castro district or a parade in Berkeley. Oakland lets you watch innocent people gunned down nearly every day (Just take the 51 or the 43 South to Broadway.)

Central California has more cows than you could eat in your entire life, all standing right by the 5 freeway looking adorable, and tender.

San Diego has a lot of culture and a lot of surfing. Also, it has Seaworld and the biggest damn zoo this side of the Mississippi.

OC, where I currently live, has Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm, the Beach, The Queen Mary, lots of SF conventions, etc.

It would be cool to show you the real sights, but my wife might resent that.

[Bob the Gunslinger]

Knott's Berry Farm! The theme park! It has a tower of terror ride that's AWESOME!!

Linky.

Knott's Berry Farm
8039 Beach Boulevard
Buena Park, CA 90620
(714) 220-5200


And it's cool if you don't want to go out there when IB will be there. I'll just have to fly out to Denver, pick up my friend John, and do a road trip to her. Never will a trip of mine have such a lovely destination!

Knott's rocks!

Be warned though, Knott's security policy is different from Disneyland's:
If you harass Micky, plainclothes security will escort you from the park.
If you harass Snoopy, he'll kick your ass!

The only place with a tougher bunch of costumed characters is Chuck-E-Cheese's, and that's only if you really push them.
(Seriously, Chuck leaped over a dining table to nab this little bastard who'd shoved some wet napkins up the back of his neck.)

[Bob the Gunslinger]

Disneyland has a roller-coaster: Space Mountain. Although as far as coasters go, it's nothing special.

You should definitely check out Great America.

Space mountain is closed until 2005. So is Indiana Jones. But somehow, Big Thunder Mountain--which just killed a man in the most horrible way--is open to the public.

And Star Tours is open. It has the most entertaining hour-long line wait of any amusement park ride I know.