RallyEX

I'll be leaving on Sunday from Columbus, OH and flying in to the Ontario (California) Airport. The furthest west I've ever been is western Colorado, and this is also my first time flying.

I know Irwindale is somewhat close to L.A. Does anyone have any good suggestions for things to do while I'm not working? Any good/quiet beaches close by? Is it really worth taking the drive up the 101 along the coast line? Any cool bars I should check out?

Also, this is my first time flying. As a first time flyer, I'm very nervous about it as I am not a fan of heights. Any good advice for me?

Also, and sorry if I'm asking for too much here... All of the traveling I've ever done for work has been by car, and was usually my own vehicle or a coworker rented a car. I'm 24 years old, and have heard you can not rent a car unless you are 25. My travel mate is 25 and has secured a rental car, but he's not exactly in to the same kind of sight seeing I am, and I'll need to rent a car on the weekends so I am not chained to him the entire time. What can I do to persuade car rental agencies to rent me a car even though I am under their standard age? Will my corporate travel itinerary help me at all?

I tried searching TFP for everything I've asked here, but couldn't quite find the answers I was looking for... Sorry if this is a repeat thread.

BoltedDown

Hey RallyEX,

So you're coming to visit California. To be the best of my knowledge, not a whole lot goes on in Irwindale. Depending on when you are going to be here, you will have the opportunity to visit our L.A. county fair. It's very large (as many fairs are) and has plenty of things to do.

Beaches: Huntington tends to be very busy during the summer, but you may luck out a bit father south (Newport area). PCH has sooo many good places to eat that you usually can't go wrong. I'm sure other will have more knowledgeable opinions on this subject. Speaking of PCH, it is a very scenic route, if you want to go for a nice relaxing drive. It can get a little busy around the more populated areas depending on your time of day and day of week.

As a person who shares your fear of heights... I love flying. It's the coolest thing. I've never felt uncomfortable looking out the window. For your first time, you may want to take the aisle seat. If you are prone to motion sickness, ask your pharmacist about something to help you out.

Rental cars: In my experience (being 21), you can usually pay a small insurance fee and be allowed to drive a vehicle when under 25. This may change from one car rental facility to another, so don't quote me on it.

If you've got any more questions, shoot away.

And have a good trip!

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-BoltedDown

RallyEX

Thanks for the good advice man, I appreciate it! The L.A. County Fair sounds like a cool idea, I'll definitely check it out.

As far as beaches go, I was thinking more along the lines of Santa Monica... I hear the beaches there are great and that Santa Monica pier is a fun place to visit... any thoughts on that?

n0nsensical

It's possible to rent a car if you're under 25, just not necessarily from the rental companies that spend millions on advertising annually. Can't help much more than that. You might try Rent-A-Wreck.

The city of Irwindale itself is interesting because the population is 1500 in 9 square miles. That tells you it's mostly home to industry and offices, the notable exception being the Irwindale Speedway, which as you may figure, hosts racing and drifting competitions. I'm not in the loop on these things so I can't tell you what's coming up. Anyway there are tons of people in the cities next door like Baldwin Park, but I don't usually go out there so I can't recommend much else. Pasadena is fairly close and has a pretty nice downtown area. There's a Fry's, the world's best physical electronics store, fairly close by in City of Industry if you want to geek out.

If you want to do something outdoors, you're in luck because the Angeles National Forest is just a few miles north. Well, I've never gone camping there, but people do. However I have gone hiking there. The mountains go up to about 10,000 ft elevation (few that high; 5,000 is probably the average). You can drive around them or hike your way to the top of them if you're in good shape. Someone else probably knows about camping, and there's a thread about it on the SoCal board if you're interested.

Getting a little farther away, sure, Santa Monica will work, it's a nice place. If you want to go swimming, it maybe doesn't have THE cleanest water, but eh it's the summer, probably not an issue. You know, I do hear the Orange County beaches like Newport and Huntington mentioned are among the best, but I've never been to them. (I'm not big on the beach thing. Once I had a dream I was trying to surf, that's about it.) Some other nice LA County beaches are Manhattan and Hermosa, which are some miles south of Santa Monica but not TOO far. If you drive to Santa Monica, do it midday if you can, and if not, prefer the afternoon over the morning. If you drive from Irwindale to Santa Monica during the hours of about 7 AM to 10 AM (on a weekday) you will probably sit in a lot more heinous traffic than you want to sit in. You can also find not-so-urban beaches further north in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. Depends how far you want/are willing to drive.

To plug West Hollywood, there are lots of bars, clubs, restaurants, etc here, especially on the Sunset Strip. (Also a lot on Santa Monica Blvd., but the bars there tend to be of the homosexual persuasion.) The standard tourist stuff like the Walk of Fame and Chinese Theater are further east in Hollywood proper. There are also a lot of bars and clubs there in Hollywood too that are celeb-frequented. I don't really have specific recommendations for bars because I'm still (still) under 21. For live music (rock) though, I can say the Roxy Theater and Key Club are pretty good, also the House of Blues and Viper Room are noted.

To find out what to do, pick up a copy of the free LA Weekly published every Thursday, or go to http://www.laweekly.com. If you want to hang out some time, that'd be cool, but I'm no tour guide, so you should probably have something that you want to do in mind first. Also, I may go to Six Flags Magic Mountain (which is where to go if you like rollercoasters, but on second thought perhaps that's not your thing) some time in the next month, and I'm definitely going to Ozzfest on August 20th (that's going to be east of Irwindale near San Bernardino) in case you're also into that.

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"Prohibition will work great injury to the cause of temperance. It is a species of intemperance within itself, for it goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation, and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes. A Prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded." --Abraham Lincoln

RallyEX

n0nsensical: Thanks for the great tips... I appreciate the information su much. I fly out from ohio on Sunday, and can't wait to be on the west coast. I think I am going to check out irwindale speedway, definitely want to do Mann's Chinese Theatre and the Walk of Fame. I've also heard good things about HoB and the Viper Room, I hope to slip that way.

For some reason, I have this deep inner desire to see santa monica beach/pier... perhaps too much listening to the Everclear song in my days of misspent youth and listening to way too much mainstream music. I'm only 24, but that just seems so long ago... but for some reason the song haunts me and gives me some wierd draw the place... "Swim out past the breakers", if you will.

I am really worried about traffic and getting to these places as I have limited time during the weekdays/saturdays, but will have all day sunday to run around. I'm certainly interested in meeting another TFer, if you are up for it send me a PM or something. A tour guide you may not be, but familiar with the area and a familiar TFer in a strange city somehow seems helpful.

I'll definitely pick up the LA weekly as you suggested. As far as ozzfest is concerned, I'm not very interested.. but I hear there's going to be a Mars Volta/System of a Down concert going on closeby while we are out there, and I may hit that up.

A few more questions if someone is up for it:

Every big city I go to, I always check out the mass transit system. New York, Chicago, DC... I definitely want to experience MTA in LA. I looked at the map, and found that you can ride all day for 3 bucks.... are the trains/buses worth it to do some of my sightseeing? Do they have express trains/buses, or do they stop at every corner and it will take me 3 hours to get from irwindale/arcadia to Hollywood proper? Also, how are taxi cab prices?

Another question, then I'll end this post: Is it worth me checking out Baja Mexico and Vegas? Based on google maps, either one is 4-5 hours travel time. As far as mexico goes, I don't have a passport.... can I get through/back on my drivers license alone? Should I do vegas, if even for a weekend? I'm not much of a gambler... and while not at the top, it IS on my "been there" list.

n0nsensical

I usually say public transit here will get you where you're going, but not necessarily easily or quickly. The other cities you mentioned have fairly well defined and obvious centers for activity, but LA really doesn't. Downtown could probably be considered the center, but there are a lot of other areas that have almost the same importance spread out, maybe more importance to tourists, and so it's harder for public transit to cover every place one would want to go. There are also a whole lot of transit agencies other than the MTA, the main agency for LA County, for example, the area where you'll be is probably a lot better covered by Foothill Transit than MTA and many cities have their own as well like Big Blue Bus in Santa Monica. Getting from point A to point B often involves more than one of them and multiple transfers in the same agency, especially if you're covering long distances.

The easiest thing for you might be to take a Foothill Transit bus to the Gold Line which goes downtown, and from there you can probably get a bus or rail line to where ever you're going, Red Line to Hollywood, express bus to Santa Monica, etc. Which is a nice segue to answer another question, yes there are express buses. Metro Rapid buses run similar routes to other buses, but they only stop at major intersections, definitely a time saver. There are also some buses that run on freeways, such as the 434 MTA bus from downtown to Santa Monica. MTA trains all stop at every stop, but I imagine they're usually the fastest if you're going to a place along the lines.

The day pass is definitely the way to go if you're on MTA. I don't think it helps for other agencies, but check into the transfer rules if you know which ones you're dealing with. There's a trip planner at mta.net that will figure everything out for you, though I've found I'm sometimes better off doing things myself with the maps and timetables. (I think it tries too hard to match the exact arrival or departure times I provide while I'm usually flexible on the time and more concerned with the other details) So in summary, public transit is a viable option, if you're ready to deal with some complexity and a longer trip than driving. Once you've got it figured out it can be easier and less stressful than driving and parking especially since you probably won't know exactly where you're going when driving either.

If you want to go to Orange County or somewhere else out of MTA land though, you're dealing with a whole new game and I don't know much about it. Metrolink is commuter rail for greater LA so that's an option for longer distances, though service is usually limited on weekends. For long distances on weekends I would have to recommend driving since there's usually not much traffic on the freeways on weekends anyway. I don't really know about cabs. I see a lot of them around the Sunset strip, so they're out there, but I haven't taken one to get an idea of the prices. My guess is that they may not be all that badly priced, but the long distances can rack up large bills anwyay if the cab will even go where you're going. Probably best for short trips like bar to nearby hotel.

Last I knew, passports were not required for crossing into Canada or Mexico. But I haven't driven over the border since about, the 1990s and there may be some new "security measures" I haven't heard about. Don't think so. I've never been to that part of Mexico so I don't know if it's worth going. Vegas is definitely an interesting place if you have time, and it's doable in a weekend just to see most of it (just make sure your AC works well if you drive ).

__________________
"Prohibition will work great injury to the cause of temperance. It is a species of intemperance within itself, for it goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation, and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes. A Prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded." --Abraham Lincoln

goddfather40

Baja, specifically Tijuana, is 2.5 hours down I-5. I wouldn't suggest going unless you really want to. It's too tourist trapsy. If you do go, don't go alone and be careful.

Vegas is indeed 4-5 hours away, but can be as much as 6-7 hours on a Friday night and on the return trip on Sunday. Vegas for a weekend is fine, that's the way most of us visit. I like leaving early Friday and returning early Sunday to beat the traffic. Even if you don't like to gamble there is plenty of stuff to do.

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BoltedDown

I'm with goddfather40 on this one, if you don't make it to Mexico, you aren't missing much. At least in the more northern regions. Tijuana is a dangerous place after dark and once you get back, all you have to show for it is a hangover and less money than you thought you spent (as a lot of the policia like to take their cut, if you know what I mean). Vegas is fun but can be expensive if you visit the stage shows. If you can afford the Green Valley Ranch, try to stay there. It is off the strip and away from the crowds. I have heard only good things but have never stayed there myself.

__________________
-BoltedDown