Layover in LA

Hi all

I have a day layover in LA in a few weeks (land at 11.30am from Canada and the depart at 10.40pm back to australia). Any recommendations on what to do during that time besides sitting in a lounge?

Thanks!

P.s. love the new site.

I've spent a bit of time in LA over the years and had a similar stopover late last year with a work client that had never been to LA.

We took an Uber down to Santa Monica, walked around the pier, walked the boardwalk up to Venice Beach, had a few beers in the bars in Venice and then Uber back to LAX to eat in the lounge.

If you've never been to LA I'd recommend this, I wouldn't recommend Hollywood Blvd or Downtown LA, both are dirty and not really what you'd expect.

Couple of suggestions:

1. Get a car and go visit the Getty Museum - it's an easy 3-4 hours spent amongst an amazing collection of art and antiquities

2. Get a car and go south to Hermosa Beach. It's more like Noosa and not as crazy touristy as Venice Beach. Have a swim then a late lunch overlooking the beach at Hennessey's.

3. Get a car and do a mini coast run up to Malibu.

If you're back early evening and don't necessarily want to spend 5+ hours in the lounge I'd recommend dinner around Marina Del Rey.

I would strongly second the Getty Museum in Santa Monica - a superb collection of art in an architecturally interesting building with beautiful gardens. The Getty also has a Villa in Malibu that houses its collection of antiquities which is worth a visit. As @markpk suggested, dinner in Marina Del Rey (or Manhattan Beach) would be a pleasant way to end the day - just allow plenty of time to get back to LAX - the traffic can be horrific (and affects rental car shuttle buses too, as all rental car locations are off site).

Whatever you do, don't sit in a lounge for such a long time - there is no lounge at LAX that is worthy of 11 hours of your time. If you wanted to stay closer to the airport, the In-n-Out on Sepulveda is an old-school US burger joint that has great views of aircraft movements at LAX. The Proud Bird is a food hall and bar at the inland end of LAX's runways that provides similarly impressive views of aircraft with a wider variety of food (and some booze). There is also the Flight Path museum (open 10:00 to 15:00 Tues to Sat) on the southern border of LAX that is worth a visit if aviation is your thing. I'd recommend an Uber or Lyft for any of these options - despite their relative proximity, LA is not a city for walking.

I live in Orange County, and travel through LAX pretty often. There's so many choices I'd ask what your interests are, for sure you don't need to spend 1/2 a day sitting in a lounge.

One thing to note though, there's major construction underway at LAX that's affecting travel times into the horseshoe (the roads into the terminal area). You need to allow an extra 30mins for that, evening is a very busy time there.

I would go to Manhattan beach ( about 15mins away), cycle along the beach to Redondo Beach and back, stopping along the way at the beach and pier. checking out the cute shops and cafes in Manhattan Beach...lovely spot and not too far from the airport.

The beaches close by, In Out burgers for a view of the aircraft and just chill out. Don't bother with Hollywood but if you must then the Dream hotel rooftop bar for lunch. CBD is definitely not worth a visit

Extra point to note is that LA traffic can be very bad so if driving any distance then careful of the rush hour traffic.

Thank you all! Some great recommendations to consider

I mostly agree with the above suggestions - especially Getty Center which is wonderful. The Huntingdon Library near Pasadena is great too. Don't let anyone tell you there's no culture in LA!

You can also drive a few miles to the California Science Center and see Endeavour, the last space shuttle that flew.