Hi all,
We are heading to LA in 9 days, went once in 2019 however only spent 4 days there.
Would love all advice and information and especially cheapies $$ saving tips
We are planning on doing disney one weekday and tossing up universal.
Planning on renting a car as ubers added up very quickly last time we were there.
Have a well reviewed airbnb booked in wilshire - near the museum of art.
Theres a group of 5 of us going.
Thanks mate! Ty for the waze tip!
CALIFORNIA CHEAPIES WE'RE UNFORGETTABLE ;)
Maybe have a scan through slickdeals if something pops up you like. It's similar to cheapies site for US, on bigger scale.
Thanks mate!! exactly what i was after.
Got back from a 14 day trip a few weeks ago.
First thing to bear in mind is that LA is huge. And while we never had any major issues it has a reputation for badly congested traffic. I put a trip into google maps and it typically takes between 1:15 and 2:20 to drive from your place and disneyland.
If you are OK to pick one part of LA and stick with it, Ubers might be viable, but if you are going to be all over the place, you don't really want to be paying for two hour uber rides.
Rental cars are cheap in the USA. We typically go with Alamo (they generally work out quite cheap), and it is a great setup. You book and pay for your car, then they have a big lot with the various classes. You go to the row of the class you booked and pick whichever car you like. The keys are all in them, so you start it up and drive it to the exit barrier for the final bit of the check out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPwz8e7gQ3k
As a New Zealander they include full insurance (zero excess) in your price. Be aware not all brands do, as many US residents have personal car insurance that also covers rental cars. If you don't have this full insurance is mandatory, and other brands (i.e. Hertz) will insist you pay it at the desk before they give you a car.
Re Turo, once insurance etc was included, these wern't a great deal (and the insurance wasn't great excess). I would only go this route if you want something really special. Priced out a cybertruck, but was going to be USD 3000 for our trip which was too much for us…
We did over 1200 miles in our rental car over the 14 days. Get something you are going to be comfortable in. might mean a minivan if you have 5 adults.
Be aware that the going rate for parking at hotels is USD25 - USD50 a night, so hopefully your accommodation has a space included.
Unless you have charging at your accommodation, don't rent a non tesla EV. (and I say this as an EV owner). I have no idea why, but there is a serious issue with (non tesla) fast charging availability in LA. Saw a 15+ car queue at the burbank wallmart charge station…
Be aware that they sure know how to charge for parking in LA. As an example general parking at Universal studio's is USD35 (and they will try and upsell you to nearer $50 or $70 parking).
Valet parking is super common. A decade ago we found this great value, but this trip we never used it once due to the cost (not on top of the fee you are expected to tip a couple of USD).
Disney & Universal have dynamic pricing, work out what days have better pricing.
Universal had a 2 days for the price of one promo when we visited
Be aware the NZD is real weak ATM. In general everything is going to seem really expensive with some obvious exceptions like fuel, retail shopping (especially outlet), and groceries.
Note prices exclude sales tax which varies by suburb, but generally between 7 & 10%.
My view on pricing might be a bit distorted as my wife was taking me to Erawhon to by the USD18 -USD22 (+tax) smoothies…
Frustratingly there didn't seem to be any good mobile data deal's for tourists. ended up spending USD90 at Walmart for 2 sim's (1 with a 15gb cap, other unlimited).
We did a heap of shopping.
I got some battery power tools kits of stuff that is both not available in NZ and super cheap in the USA. (Check airline luggage policy of course).
Clothes, especially at the various outlet malls are a great deal. I brought so much at ross.
Hi Scott,
Thanks very much for the in-depth detailed reply.
We have a 20% disocunt and "status" with hertz, and have compared pricing with alamo. Hertz is still better due to the discount.
If we book and pay in full online will they still charge us more when we get to the desk in person?
Theres going to be 4/5 of us at times in the car - was tossing up between a EV6 and a ram 2500 lol. But sounds like getting a nontesla ev isnt a good idea - so we are gonna go with the ram, for the full experience.
Yup, our airbnb has 2 carpaks incl!
We have purchased our disney tickets + fastpass + parking online.
Haha yes, we also have no plans to go anywhere near erowhon!
Think we will just get an online esim for data - cheaper way to do it.
It was a decade ago I looked into the hertz thing. All I can recall is that the highest tier of one type of insurance (CDW?) was mandatory but not included in my quote at the time. If you have already played for the full insurance (of the mandatory type), there should be nothing further. If you just paid for the car, and not insurance, there will be more to pay at the desk.
For some reason Alamo didn't accept my Wase card, so be sure to have another credit card in case.
Personally I love the EV6, so it pains me to have suggested this outcome. But I stand my my suggestion that if you can't charge at your accommodation, there is quite a risk of having a bad time with a non tesla EV. You can look up video's online why public charging is such a drama an LA (and basically only in LA, rest of the USA is passable), but it has to do with many brands bundling free public charging their cars, meaning the electrify America charges get flooded.
On the Ram 2500, That would be a lot of fun. We were two adults and a 6 year old, so went with a dodge challenger.
Assume you are aware it is two sizes up from a ford ranger. I.e. ford ranger, then a size up to Ram 1500, then a size up to Ram 2500.
Also be aware that rental pick up trucks in the USA come with open beds (no canopy / lid etc). Given you are staying in the same place the whole time, this might not be a deal breaker as you only really need to take your bags from the airport and back. Odds of rain are incredibly low in LA, so an open pickup bed will be fine for this, but as normal don't leave unattended insecure bags.
We had a longer stay than you, and by wife wanted unlimited, plus we wanted US phone numbers (we go to a lot of restaurants with wait lists, so a local phone number is useful to us). Advantage of your route is you can get it sorted in advance. We waisted a solid 2 hours sorting our sims…
Hey, hope the trip was good.
I'm heading to LA in January, havnt been in a while.
Any updated tips, tricks, recommendations?
Hi mate,
Yup was a blast. Is it a family trip? How many days? Have you got accom location in mind?
@RSTH: Just my partner and I, be there 6 days (short trip on the way back from South America then back home)
Do have friends in San Diego, so probably be in SD for at least a day.
No location in mind, was looking at hiring a car as I do remember public transport being shite, and gets a bit expensive ubering everywhere.
@Lieutenantdave: 100% hire a car - we booked a large ram ute through hertz (used an amex 20% off i think) and it was great - No issues.
Highly recommend joshua tree national park as a day trip, super cool scenery. Palm springs on the way is nice, cool air museum there (with a retired stealth bomber) if thats your thing.
We booked an airbnb, however managed to negotiate with a host a cheaper rate (paid him cash in person off airbnb …) at your own risk ofc!!
Download waymo and try one of the 100% self driving cars - theyre very cool! and cheaper than uber sometimes. Play your own music in car.
Food and petrol are quite expensive for us kiwis in LA hollywood area, youll notice a price drop in the areas further away, mainly due to taxes.
I've not been to LA since before COVID so take this with a pinch of salt. I'd never consider LA without my own car to drive around. Ive been there three times and only the first time I tried it without a car - really hard. Most cities I've been to in the US I've found Turo, which is peer to peer car rentals, very cheap and effective. however in LA I just found one of the big rental companies that had a deal on and did that.
Next, driving around, I had Waze on all the time. This rerouted me through upcoming traffic very effectively.
I didn't need much cash as most big shops I went to had card machines. But I had a little for smaller shops. These days I'd use a wise card for even cheaper us/NZ conversion.
I'm sure there are lots of Groupon type services still around, for deals on experiences and so on. But often just searching the web found vouchers we could use. I didn't plan much before hand, so probably paid a bit more than I needed to.
Having a rental car allowed us to drive down to San Diego one day and to check out the sights there. I've not been to Disney, but I have done universal and we had a great time. I recall outlet malls were good for getting branded shoes and clothes cheaper but I don't know about that post COVID.
Don't forget that in LA parking rules are strict in some places so plan ahead or get the odd fine, which your rental company will pass on to you.
Otherwise, I'm sure you know it but LAX is an utter f@ckpit of an airport to use as an international traveller, but at least there were lots of car rental places near it.
I wish you a brilliant trip.