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Parking and Transit Tips in the Los Angeles Area


AaronJB
By AaronJB,
in

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  • 8 months later...

When I stay in Downtown L.A., I park at Union Station for $6 a 24 hour period. We then buy metro passes and use them to get to the hotel and then to Universal Studios, Hollywood, etc.

It has worked for us the last couple of years. I will not pay that much money to park at the hotels :)

Staci

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  • 2 months later...

There is a big parking lot with security patrols at the end of the Green line in Norwalk. You can park there for 72 hours for free. If you buy a day pass from there, the green line will take you to LAX. The train doesn't go right into the airport - you have to take a shuttle bus. It runs pretty regularly, though, both for tourists and airport employees that use that method to get to the airport for work. If you will be gone less than 72 hours and your flight times work with the metrorail operating times, you only have to pay for a one way ticket each way and have no parking costs.

The green line also runs into the Redondo Beach area. I don't know what the bus situation is from there to likely Priceline hotels.

With a day pass, you can transfer from the Green line to the Blue line, which will get you to downtown Long Beach, where there are a lot of Priceline possibilities. Or north into downtown LA. The Red line from there will get you to Hollywood. There is also a line that runs to Pasadena from Union Station downtown.

If you come into Burbank airport, there is a metrolink station across the street that will get you downtown. Also if you buy a Metrolink ticket, it is valid as a day pass on metrorail and buses. If you park at some commuter metrolink stations, which run as far north at Oxnard or Ventura, up into the Antelope Valley to Palmdale and Lancaster, out into the inland empire to San Bernardino and Riverside and south to Oceanside, and ride the Metrolink into LA you can get around that day on your metrolink ticket as a transit day pass. I don't know how close the metrolink gets to Ontario airport, but I imagine getting into downtown from there by rail can't be too difficult.

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  • 2 years later...

If you're staying in Downtown LA, don't rent a car. It's a pain in the rear, and parking is expensive. On the other hand, public transit is convenient, cheap and safe.

From LAX, take the FlyAway bus to Union Station. There is a bus leaving every 30 minutes. The trip cost is $7. On holidays, check the FlyAway schedule, and the connecting train schedule. Sometimes things shut down on Christmas, New Years, and etc.

Once at Union Station, the world is your oyster.

The Red Line and Purple Line trains can get you anywhere in downtown. I usually stay at the Bonaventure, LA Downtown (Hyatt), or the Sheraton downtown (around $100-150/night on Hotwire). The Sheraton is at the 7th Street Metro station, about 10 min. from Union Station on Red or Purple line trains. The Bonaventure and LA Downtown are each short three block walks north. The Dash buses run frequently in front of all of these hotels and can get you anywhere you need to go downtown - Staples, the convention center, Disney, and etc.

If you're on a budget, the Ramada at Wilshire and Western in Koreatown goes for around $75-90/night. It's a decent hotel, and it's at the end of the Purple Line train at the "Wilshire/Western" stop. All of downtown is accessible via the Purple Line trains there.

If you want to venture into Hollywood, the Red Line train has stops at Vine and Highland, deep in the middle of old Hollywood. You can find some motels and hotels fairly cheap there, and all are accessible from the FlyAway->Red/Purple Line train routes.

For day trips, Union Station has trains in all directions, including just west of Monrovia to the east, and Santa Monica to the west. There's a train to Long Beach, too. To get to Orange County, there's a real train, called "Metro Rail" that drops you off in the middle of Irvine. There is also a real train that leaves Union Station for San Diego frequently -- around $120 round trip with free Wi-Fi.

There's only one word of caution: If your flight is leaving early in the morning, sometimes the trains aren't running. In that case, you can hop a cab to Union Station ($10 from Bonaventure), or take the cab all the way back to LAX for around $50 (flat fee, fixed by city council).

I hope this helps all of you doing business in downtown LA or Hollywood!

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