SD, LA & LV trip

Hazys

Looking for some advice on a trip I'm taking in 2 weeks; San Diego, LA & Las Vegas. I've been to Vegas a bunch of time but never Cali.

The trip sprung up out of nowhere really because of cheap flights. Its a short trip so i dunno if we're trying to fit in too much in a short time frame.

So the basic plan is:

Fly into SD on the Friday at 5pm, stay the night in SD.
The Saturday drive to LA, stay one or two nights in LA.
Travel to LV on the Sunday or Monday, stay one or two nights, then fly out on the Tuesday.

A lot is up in the air but the plan is to rent a car in SD and drop it off in LV. The prices of renting a car that you drop off in another location, vary wildly. Does any body have a recommendation of a Rental company to use?

Any advice on driving? Its supposedly 2hrs SD to LA and LA to LV is 5hrs...all I know is traffic in LA is supposed to be brutal. Is there certain times you should make these drives and times to avoid?

In LA, we want to see Hollywood, whats the best way to do this?


Sorry for the multiple Q's and little detail, still trying to work out a plan for this trip.

Paul_Hacket

To me the trip you describe is a little stop-start to be a comfortable vacation or to give you a real sense of the places you're visiting. The main pleasure in San Diego are the beaches and you won't really get to enjoy those if you're leaving the day after you arrive. Is your trip already booked with San Diego and Vegas as your starting and end points? If not I'd consider changing it to Vegas & San Francisco as they are both more approachable in a short period and the drive between them is nice.

If your flights are booked already though I'd consider narrowing it down to two cities and just doing San Diego and L.A. or San Diego and Vegas. If you go the Vegas route you could also drive up to Zion National Park (2 hours from Vegas) and spend a night there. You could even camp for a night in the Park, which is an amazing experience. If you get up early the next day you could drive up to Bryce Canyon, which is also remarkable, before driving back to Vegas in the evening. Google these places and you'll see why they're worth visiting.

The merits of L.A. as a destination come up a lot on these boards. There are some amazing things in the city but I don't recommend it to visitors on a tight schedule. It can take hours and hours to get around it and the best parts of it aren't actually the things you've heard about, it really helps to have a local show you around and if you don't it can take a long time to discover the best of it. Hollywood itself is not that exciting to visit.

InTheTrees

+1 on substituting Sf for Vegas. Any possibility of that?

As for dropping off cars in a different state. Just from info i've read on here it seems like there's no charges between Nevada and California. But I would call and make sure on that. I know there's charges between NV and WA and also CA and WA, so it can vary.

InTheTrees

With such short time I'd drive straight from the airport to LA. Evening traffic will be lighter and it'll mean you wake up on day one in LA.

LA gets such a bad rap (unfairly!) on these boards because its such a car-centric place its really unlike any other city you'll ever visit. But just as in any big city getting an hotel in a good location will make a huge difference to your stay. Where are you going to stay? Santa Monica would be number one followed by Beverley Hills.

InTheTrees

Hazys wrote: »

In LA, we want to see Hollywood, whats the best way to do this?

First of all a guide book, then you can zero in on what specifically interests you. You can do a lot of driving around yourself.

After that there's many many varieties of guided tours. From open top buses to individual guides. Your hotel will have details and be able to direct you.

www.tripadvisor.com has good ideas too.

Hazys

Appreciate the advice. The reason why its a short trip is my gf is going to a conference on Thursday and Friday in SD which goes onto 8pm on Friday night (i fly in 5pmish) and she wants to meet up with a friend in LA on the Saturday for a bday. Flights are booked out of LV on Tuesday. It will be rushed with a lot of driving.

Paul_Hacket

In that case, as someone said above, I'd consider meeting your gf at the airport in SD after you arrive and getting straight up to L.A. You aren't going to see anything in one night/morning in SD anyway. You can drive from SD airport to Santa Monica in 2.5 hours.

I'd spend 3 nights in LA, this will give you a little time to get a sense of the city, do a tour, hang out on the beach in Santa Monica etc.

Then go Vegas Monday morning. Vegas is very compact and it'll be quick to check in/out of the hotels on a Monday in April. You can see a lot in one day/night (you should go see something like Cirque Du Soleil that night) and then head to the airport the next day.

Lastly, if you have even a basic understanding of poker I strongly reccomend playing a little in Vegas. You can buy in to a $1/$2 cash game at most casinos for as little as $60 and it's a great experience. There's great craic around the tables and you'll get a chance to talk with all kinds of people. If you know even the basics and play reasonably tight then poker is by far the cheapest and most sociable game in the casino.

Hazys

Fox Rent a Car are by far the cheapest, almost half the price in some cases.

So companies were charging up to $500 to drop the car in a different location than pickup!!