Getting Around

Metrolink Commuter Rail

As of 2006, taking public transportation straight from LAX ( www.lawa.org) to your Los Angeles hotel got a whole lot faster. Just read the Los Angeles travel guide below to find out how!

To downtown Los Angeles, Hollywood, Koreatown, MacArthur Park, Los Feliz, Thai Town, Pasadena, the Valley, Inland Empire, Ventura County, Santa Barbara, Lancaster, Palmdale, and Santa Clarita: There is now an express bus called the "Union Station FlyAway" for $3 one-way between LAX and LA's Union Station. The best part about this is that you can connect via light rail to Hollywood, Koreatown, North Hollywood, and Los Feliz via the Redline, Pasadena via the Goldline or a number of surrounding counties and communities via Metrolink commuter trains or Amtrak. The trains can take you to just about any Los Angeles activity or area and the buses run 24 hours. Every 30 minutes between 5:30am-11:30pm. You catch it at any terminal under the Green "FlyAway, Buses and Long-Distance Vans" signs. http://www.lawa.org/flyaway/

To Santa Monica, Venice, Malibu, UCLA: Take the express bus called the "Big Blue Bus Rapid 3." You can catch it at the Lot C LAX Transit Center. These buses can get you to a couple of Youth Hostels near the beach (including one on 2nd Street in Santa Monica).

To Long Beach, Norwalk, Watts, South Central: Take the G Lot Shuttle to the Green Line's Aviation stop (light rail). Going west there's not much to see. Even though it says "Redondo Beach," NIMBYism actually put the end of the line in the middle of an industrial area miles from the beach. Going east you can connect to the Blue Line, which gets you to Long Beach, Norwalk, and one of LA's hidden gems, the Watts Towers.

If you're not the public transport type, private shuttle buses will drop you at your hotel door. Super Shuttle is more reliable. Primetime Shuttle can be hit or miss and sometimes slower than public transportation. You can also try one of the many car rental agencies at the airport where rates are the most competitive in town. Taxis are convenient but expensive. Shuttles limos and taxis serve the area's other airports. In addition the Burbank Airport has Metro and Amtrak connections. You can find several major car rental agencies at all the region's airports.

Although LA is definitely built for cars, it is possible to get around on public transportation. There are four light rail lines (Red, Gold, Blue, Green, www.mta.net) as well as a commuter system (Metrolink, www.metrolinktrains.com) and Amtrak. Los Angeles County runs the main bus system, Metro, but smaller cities like Santa Monica (Big Blue Bus), Culver City, Torrance, Long Beach and Montebello have their own systems as well. There's also a system run by the City of Los Angeles called DASH, which operates within neighborhoods for just 25 cents.

Whether or not you should rent a car depends on where you are staying and where you want to go. If everything is along a light rail line, it's a quick, efficient and cheap alternative. Be warned that the lines DON'T run between 12:30am-5am. If you aren't staying near a light rail station, the city of LA sprawls over such a huge area that you're going to want to spend some time behind the wheel of your own car. Despite the sheer volume of traffic the city isn't hard to navigate if you stick as much as possible to the major arterials. If you want to get down to the nitty-gritty LA streets grab a copy of the Thomas Guides map books.