LA in December

Just a quick update, I emailed Warner Bros our preferred date and time (looked on their website first to see what times they offered), send off the email. They responded very quickly with a confirmation email, complete with a reference number.
 
Whoops, forgot to put this on my watch list! Update re Hollywood accom & red line metro as promised...

We arrived at the Holiday Inn Hollywood Express and found that they only had valet parking (no biggie, we were expecting self park that's all). The property itself is a touch on the tired side but the rooms were a decent size; being there for 4 nights it was important to have a bit of room. Breakfast was included and was basic but edible. It was a 10 min walk to Hollywood and Vine Metro station and there is a couple of restaurants and a convenince store right across the road. If I had my time again I'd stay at Lowes, it's closer to "everything" and looks much nicer and newer. We walked around a lot at night (never early hours though) and didn't feel at all unsafe, we just ignored all the spuikers. After the first night we actually walked a lot further and either side of the BLVD looking for less touristy places to eat and there are plenty along with some funky looking bars (there's even a traditional suburban movie theatre if El Capitan and TLC aren't playing what you want to see about 20 mins walk away).

The metro was easy to use, we now have TAP cards to take with us for next trip. We brought them at the station using the machines (we paid cash to avoid exchange fees) Topping up was easy at the machines at Hollywood and Vine. The stations we used were clean and for the most part well signed.

The trip to universal took about 20 minutes and then we used the walk over to catch the free shuttle bus up the VERY steep hill to the park. It was well signed again.

We also took the red line downtown (got off at the 7th Street Metro and walked to the Broad etc). While we never felt unsafe we were only there during the day, I'm not sure I'd want to be there later at night when the businesses were closed.

The TAP card we brought allowed us to use the Metro bus system (not all buses are "metro" buses, but it was pretty clear from the stops which ones were). We took the Red line to Wiltshire and Vermont and caught the bus to La Brea and then another to the Grove and then on a whim decided to see if the bus actually took us back to our hotel from Grove to our hotel, turns out we'd read the signs correctly and it did so it saved us back tracking to the train line and we saw some of LA that we might not have otherwise (including a large shoe warehouse on sunset not far from our hotel that we walked back the next day)! The bus also took us down Sunset and we used it again on another day to explore there. Google was very good (when we had coverage) telling us when to expect buses and what number they were. I did download the Metro app but only used it a couple of times.

You can also get off the Red line at Vermont & Santa Monica and transfer to a train that'll take you right down close to the beach at Santa Monica (it's about a 10 min walk from the last station).

All in all, I'd use the Metro system again, we didn't touch the car once we parked it.

HTH.
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!






Top