2 1/2 days in LA ..... my review

[aloisia]

We had 2 1/2 days pre-cruise in LA. Not nearly enough time however we tried to take in as much as we could before the cruise.

Cleared customs in Toronto - easy to pick up our bags and find a taxi to the hotel.

 

We stayed at the Summerfield Suites, El Segundo. It was an easy 10 mins from LAX , taxi was around $20.00. We chose this hotel because it offered 2 bedroom suites + pull out sofa in the living room since there were 5 adults. The hotel was very clean & the staff extremely friendly. BevMo, Bristal Farms & CVS were an easy 5 min walk from the hotel, however there is a free shuttle offered for places within 2 miles.

 

It is a location that requires a car if you are planning any sightseeing in LA. If it had just been the 2 of us traveling, Santa Monica would have been our 1st choice for a hotel location.

 

For our next full day, we had arranged a private tour with Sunseeker Tours. What a fabulous day with John our tour guide! :D We were taken to the Olympic Memorial Coliseum, Griffin Observatory for pics of the Hollywood sign, Greystone, Hollywood Blvd, Beverley Hills .... so much more. We were out with him for around 7 hours, and John always had new information no matter where we were, even on the way back to the hotel. Lunch stop was Mel`s Diner. Best milkshakes we had ever had. Great tour!

 

Our last full day, we had arranged a rental car through Enterprise. They didn`t have the category of car we had requested - instead a free upgrade to a Mercedes Benz was offered. We paid the extra for a GPS - so glad we had that! There is a mall + Ralph's grocery right across from Enterprise.

 

We had purchased LA GO cards before leaving home therefore our admission to the attractions we wished to see were already paid for. Note: Since we had LA GO cards, the times for the Studio tour were limited. 1st tour we could reserve was 2:00PM. This did put us in fairly heavy traffic going back to the hotel - I hadn't realized this when I bought the tickets on line.

The attractions we saw were Madam Tussaud`s, Petersen Auto Museum and Warner Studio Tour. The whole group enjoyed all the sights (actually hubby could have spent a day at Petersen's :rolleyes:) + we managed to grab wonderful corned beef sandwiches + bag of cookies from Canter`s Deli to go! Yummy.

 

Parking was available right behind Madam Tussand's. We were told to have the parking ticket validated at the Kodak Theatre - just a few doors down and the parking was N/C.

 

In the evening we were still tired from the time change & decided to have a stroll in Manhattan Beach. Very pretty.

 

Saturday morning was pack up & get ready for the cruise. I had pre arranged for transportation through Zippy Shuttle. We were picked up right on time and it was maybe 20 minutes to the port.

 

Thank you to everyone here for the very helpful info you offered me. Our time in LA went so smoothly and we had a wonderful time.

[erewhon]

Thank you for your helpful review.

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the review.

 

 

Kirk