Hey So-Cal Folks,

Taking the Firebird and the family to San Diego this summer for vacation and I'm trying to figure out how to break up the trip home. The wife desperately wants to see Hollywood/Beverly Hills (for whatever reason) and we can make it a day trip if we find a place to stay a little north of LA.

I'm looking at the following options:

North Hollywood / Burbank Area - Studio City and that crap. Location is about right.

Oxnard - Up the coast a little ways, decent options. I know nothing of this town although it looks great on the map.

Santa Maria - Little pricey, getting too far from I-5

Santa Clarita - On the coast, still far from I-5.

Anyone got any good things to say about any of these places? Any other ideas?

 

For the best view of Los Angeles is from San Diego take the 405 N to the 110 N into downtown LA. Union station, Olvaria St, and Phillipes (great sandwiches) is on Alamada just north of the 101 (just east of the 110).
Take the 101 to Hollywood Blvd. make a left.
Continue west to Beverly hills.
For cars there is the Peterson Museum in West LA.
A drive up the coast on 101 is better than the 5.
A day spent near Pismo beach, Morro Bay is worth while. Nothing to see in Santa Maria.
After SLO you can cut over to the 5 on 42? James Dean hwy.
Between San Clemente and Oceanside, you cant miss the concrete **** and salute the Marines.

 

Good to see my family and I aren't the only ones who share this joke.

 

46 is the "James Dean" Highway.

Santa Clarita is about 45 minutes (no traffic) from the nearest beach, is close to Magic Mountain. I grew up in the North San Fernando Valley just over the hill. Kinda cool to know where the 405 starts (right there) and have lived on one of the longest streets in the world, Balboa Blvd. My folks were still living there when the earthquake caused the street to explode and catch on fire one block away. Exciting place, LA!

 

See, even Mother Nature tried to eliminate the valley and failed again.

 

Cool.

We're actually staying in Oceanside and know many 0311 types that have been through the area. I hope they leave my daughters alone.

Pismo Beach: Checking it out. Thanks for the scoop!

 

Known as the "nuclear knockers" in my family..



In terms of Burbank, there's a pretty big downtown area that's got plenty of shops and restaraunts but what's not to miss are the big friday cruise nights at Bob's Big Boy. They also do car-hop service on saturdays and sundays if that tickles your fancy. Highly reccomended.. if you get there around 8pm, it should be packed.

 

Santa Clarita is right off I-5 if you wanted to stop there. Not a lot to do in that area except stop at Magic Mountain or spend an afternoon at Castaic Lake.

Burbank/Studio City offers Universal Studios if you wanted to spend the day there. There is also City Walk right there with lots to see and do.

Oxnard is nice, but again not a lot to do except maybe head down to PCH and see Pt. Magu next to the Air Force base.

 

I think the Valley is tough as nails! My family moved to the house on Balboa in 1969. In 1971 we had a 6.9 quake (if I remember that right) and had no water for a few days. Many of my friends and neighbors had major damage to their homes. No-one I know moved!

 

No-one I know moved

I believe that. It's almost impossible to get Valley folk to anywhere south of the 10.

 

If cost isn't an issue, to make a day of visiting the Beverly Hills area, you probably want to stay in the area. I suspect the hotels in Beverly Hills are pricey, but most of the population of the valley is trying to get into LA in the morning and out in the afternoon. It is probably similar to trying to drive from San Mateo to San Francisco at commute times, except you guys have the train that runs along the side of the 101 from San Jose into San Fran to relieve the congestion. You don't want to stay in downtown L.A., there are some places that aren't too bad, but much of it is too close to South Central. The other place to look for accomodations is along the "Miracle Mile" on Wilshire Blvd. That would put you next door to the Peterson Museum and just a couple of miles from Beverly Hills.

 

That's because in The Valley, most stores and restaurants are only a 5 minute drive, there's little traffic getting there on nice wide streets, when you do arrive there's lots of places to park... and the parking is FREE.

 

Little traffic? I've been up there on weekends and there is still as much stop'n'go traffic as there is during the weekday rush hour!

 

I'm not talking about the freeway. I'm talking about driving on surface streets.

Try driving around Santa Monica, Marina Del Rey, Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach ...etc. Tiny streets with lots of vehicle and pedestrian traffic. When you finally do arrive at your destination, you then have to drive around looking for parking (hopefully close to where you're going) and then pay $5 for the privilege.

 

Thats the same for all beach cities on both ponds. And the east shore beaches are worse than here.

There is no traffic difference anywhere in the LA Basin or all of So Cal for that matter. 15 million people in a 5 million capacity bag is still overload.

FYI parking at UCLA medical center is $8.00. Thats not near the beach.