Hello everyone, my name is Dave from Albuquerque, NM. I have enjoyed reading your posts about Amtrak, and they have convinced me to give train travel a try! I booked a reservation during Memorial Day week from Albuquerque to Los Angeles (and back) on the Southwest Chief. The trip is overnight (leaves ABQ at about 4:30pm and arrives at Union Station LA about 8am the next day) so have opted for the roomette. The roomette is in Superliner cars each way.
I really appreciate all the tips you 'regulars' have posted, and the videos by wkaemena are fantastic. I will be sure to follow peoples advice.
I am trying to avoid using a car on my vacation, so while in Los Angeles will use their public transit system. I am also thinking of visiting San Diego for a day or two and also Long Beach. If I could ask for some tourist advice...
1. Can anyone recommend a good hotel near Union Station that also is close to public transportation?
2. If anyone has visited San Diego, should I spent the night/2 days there or take a few day trips back and forth from Los Angeles?
I am really looking forward to the train. I usually fly everyplace on vacations, and when you are tall and big, sitting for hours at a time in cramped airplane seats is torture. This will be a nice change.
Welcome to the board, Dave! Hope you enjoy your first Amtrak experience!
There is a hotel near LAUS (Los Angeles Union Station) that has been mentioned a few times around here, but the name escapes me (just did a Google Maps search--it might be the Metro Plaza Hotel, since that's the only one that appears to be close to LAUS). Perhaps someone will drop by and post it, or perhaps search around in some threads that appear to discuss Los Angeles and you might find it. It's apparently a decent place, and Amtrak uses it as their crew rest hotel. If it's near Union Station, it's near public transportation, since Union Station is the hub of L.A.'s public transportation (bus, subway, light rail and commuter rail).
As far as the trips to San Diego, it's three hours each way on the Pacific Surfliner. I've only done day trips there, but I left after each trip feeling unsatisfied, so I think it's worth a good two days, so I'd try to find accomodations down there. I'll have to leave it to others to suggest a decent place near public transportation.
L.A.'s hard to do without a car, since so much of the city's sprawl is not connected to the rail system (either subway/light rail or commuter rail), but if you're willing to deal with navigating the city with two-hour-long bus rides, it can be done, albeit difficultly. Depending on what your plans are (check the
Wikitravel article on L.A. and the one on
Orange County) and make sure to pore through the numerous sub-articles, since L.A.'s so huge), if you find that it's just going to be too difficult to do without a car, take the Flyaway bus (departures every half hour from LAUS) to the airport and you can probably pick up a cheap rental car for under $15 per day. (There are a Budget and a Hertz inside LAUS, too, but I don't know if their rates are higher.) You may also find rental cars at Burbank Bob Hope Airport, just a short Metrolink or Pacific Surfliner ride north of Union Station.
From the above-mentioned Wikitravel page:
Attractions that are easily reached via the rail system include: Universal Studios and Universal CityWalk, Hollywood Walk of Fame, Mann's Chinese Theater and Hollywood/Highland Plaza, Thai Town, Griffith Park and the Griffith Observatory (via a brief bus transfer on Vermont), Koreatown, the Wiltern Theater, Westlake, Downtown (including the Financial District, Disney Hall, City Hall, Broadway, Union Station, Olvera Street, Little Tokyo, Chinatown, the Convention Center, and the Staples Center), Old Town Pasadena, the Watts Towers, LAX (via a free shuttle bus at Aviation Station), downtown Long Beach, and, via a frequent shuttle bus from downtown Long Beach, the Queen Mary and the Aquarium of the Pacific.
Ones off the top of my head that might be harder would be:
*The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley (possibly doable with a bus transfer at Simi Valley Amtrak/Metrolink station, but still a good distance)
*The Richard Nixon Presidential Library in Yorba Linda
*The J. Paul Getty Museum (possibly accessible by bus)
*Some of the TV show tapings in Burbank and Glendale (Universal City is on the Red Line, but other studios are farther afield)
*Driving tours of the stars' homes in Beverly Hills and the surrounding area (obviously difficult without something to drive...)
*Some of Orange County's beach cities (the southern ones like San Juan Capistrano and San Clemente are on Metrolink, but the northern ones like Huntington Beach and Newport Beach are accessible only by bus--try checking directions for Orange County destinations using
Google Transit, which partners with the Orange County Transportation Authority)
*The massive shopping malls of Orange County, like the South Coast Plaza, the largest in the country, or the Irvine Spectrum (almost an amusement park in and of itself)
Despite having lived in SoCal for the first 11 years of my life and making numerous pilgrimages home, there is much more to the L.A. area that I don't know about, so don't rely solely on my word. Have fun!
) , but I hear it's not fancy, but it is inexpensive and only a 5 minute walk from Union Station (and the subway. light rail, buses, etc...). Have fun!
