Cheap Flights To Los Angeles

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Cheap Flights To Los Angeles

Overview
When to Go
Airport Information
Weather
Things to Do
Local Attractions
Must See Sights
Insider Tips
Getting Around

Overview
With its balmy weather, up-to-the-minute style and ever-present possibility of a star sighting, Los Angeles is both a vacation destination and a pop-culture mecca.  Bathed in sunshine 325 days of the year, with more stage theatres and museums than any other US city, LA is much more than just the movie-making capitol of the world.   The city of angels is full of a variety of cultures, activities, events, venues, restaurants, bars and festivals.

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When to Go
Almost anytime of the year is pleasant in LA, the climate is mild year round.   Airfares and hotel rates are generally higher during summer months when tourists fill the city.  Winter temperatures are mild and offer lower traveling costs and fewer crowds.  

High Season
Tourism peaks during the summer, when coastal hotels fill to capacity, restaurant reservations are hard to book and attractions are packed with visitors and locals off from work or school.

Low Season
Moderate temperatures, fewer tourists and lower hotel rates make travel easier during the winter months when savvy travelers can snag affordable mid-week accommodations rates.

Best Time to Go
From early autumn to late spring is the best time to visit, when smog is minimal and the city is at its prettiest.

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Airport Information
Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
Distance: 23 miles from Downtown Los Angeles
Drive time: 24 minutes

The main gateway to Los Angeles is the Los Angeles International Airport (310-646-5252, www.lawa.org/lax.com), better known as LAX.   The main airport is located minutes from Santa Monica and local beaches and about 30 minutes (without traffic) from downtown and Hollywood.  Free shuttle bus A connects terminals within the airport.  Taxis from the airport to Hollywood, downtown and Beverly Hills run about $40.  Some major hotels offer free shuttles so check if this is an option before you fly.   Supershuttle (800-258-3826) offers minivans from LAX to any location in the city.

Cheap flights to Los Angeles offer a great opportunity to have the LA experience at an affordable price at almost any time of year. Don't finalize reservations before seeing the airline tickets available to LA using LowFares.com. Cheaper fares might be found by flying into one of the city’s smaller airports, Burbank is near downtown, Pasadena and the major studios and Irvine is closer if your destination is Disneyland.

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Weather
Contrary to popular belief, LA does have seasons.  Winter brings crisp sunny days from November to May, but even in November daytime temperatures can reach well into the high 70s.  Summer can be very hot in the inland valleys where temperatures and smog can be stifling.   The city’s coastal areas are often engulfed in “June gloom” during early summer months, an ocean fog that keeps the beach cities overcast into early afternoon hours.  The middle of autumn brings strong Santa Ana winds from across the desert, often resulting in hot dry weather in September and October.

The pleasant southern California climate makes year round travel comfortable, enticing many from colder regions to take advantage of cheap flights to Los Angeles to enjoy a bit of warmth and sun during their winter months.Flying into LA from New York City or Miami can cost about $300, from Chicago the price can be around $200, and that's before fees and taxes.

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Things to Do
The Beach
Miles of public beaches line the Los Angeles shoreline.   Santa Monica is a good spot to settle by the shore, with well-kept sandy beaches and high canyon cut mountains.   The Santa Monica Pier (Colorado Avenue at Ocean Avenue) houses a historical carousel, ferris wheel and a Coney-Islandesque amusement park and offers a panoramic view of the Santa Monica Bay. 

Rent skates, a bike, or just walk down the bike path to neighboring Oceanfront Boardwalk in Venice, home to some of LA’s most diverse street performers, panhandlers, bodybuilders and exhibitionists.   Hop in your rental, put the top down and take a drive west to laid-back star-studded Malibu for its privacy, prestige and unmatched stretches of coastline.

Hollywood
Start off walking down the 18 blocks running from Gower Street to La Brea Avenue that make up the Hollywood Walk of Fame, where star-shaped plaques in the sidewalk carry the names of Hollywood faves.   Along the way is the pagoda roofed flashy Chinese movie watching palace that is Mann’s Chinese Theater (6925 Hollywood Boulevard).  Catch a blockbuster and then see if you can literally fit in the shoes of over 200 movie legends who have left their hand and footprints cemented in history. 

A few blocks east lies Hollywood and Highland (6801 Hollywood Boulevard), the open air shopping mall housing the Kodak Theatre, permanent home to the Academy Awards.

Beverly Hills
Beverly Hills is more than just a fancy zip code made famous by a TV show.    It’s a glossy pocket of Los Angeles known for its sumptuous shopping, celebrity mansions and the lifestyles of the rich and famous.   Act like a local and put on some shades, stroll along the well-manicured tree lined Rodeo Drive for window-shopping at Tiffany’s, Armani, Chanel and Versace.   At the end of Rodeo’s three blocks lies the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel (9500 Wilshire Boulevard), one of the city’s grandest hotels and the location for “Pretty Woman.”  

Affluent visitors can get the star treatment by checking into LA’s most famous pink palace, the Beverly Hills Hotel (9641 Sunset Boulevard).  Political leaders, royals and celebrities have all stayed and partied here, and for a price you too can dine at the infamous Polo Lounge, tan poolside and sit next to a celebrity during their afternoon tea service.

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Local Attractions
Museums Abound
There is a myth that La La Land lacks culture, when the fact is LA is home to more museums than any other place in the nation.  

A good area to start is on museum row, a cluster of four museums all within walking distance of each other.  Start at the La Brea Tar Pits and Page Museum (5801 Wilshire Boulevard) where over a million bones from more than 200 species of invertebrates are housed and full size models of mastodons try to free themselves from the smelly tar pits.   Across the street lies the Peterson Automobile Museum (6060 Wilshire Boulevard), a four-story structure with over 200 mint condition cars, including luxury, muscle and movie prop vehicles. The city’s largest collection of art can be found at the Los Angeles County Museum (LACMA, 5905 Wilshire Boulevard), a vast museum set in six buildings.   Collections include paintings by Monet and Picasso, American and Latin American art, and works from the Middle East and Asia.    The nearby Craft and Folk Art Museum (5814 Wilshire Boulevard) is home to a collection of clothes, pottery, rugs and other crafts from around the globe.

Other museums worth a visit are the modern Getty Center (1200 Getty Center Drive), providing spectacular panoramic views and European art, and the Huntington Library Art Collections and Botanical Gardens (1151 Oxnard Road), with 150 acres of magnificently sculptured gardens, French and British art of the 18th and 19th centuries and over 15,000 kinds of flora and fauna.

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Must See Sights
Amuse Yourself
LA offers a variety of theme parks with unique rides and attractions   Opened in 1955, Disneyland (1313 Harbor Boulevard) remains a magical place for Mickey and children of all ages.  The “happiest place on earth” houses roller coasters, shopping and eating areas, rides, shows, nightly fireworks and parades.  

Another must visit is Universal Studios (100 Universal City Plaza), where visitors can get an insider glimpse of Hollywood and the industry with movie themed shows and rides and a backlot tour revealing 35 different movie and sound stages.

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Insider Tips

• Visitors will spend a good deal of time navigating through streets and freeway to get anywhere so it is wise to purchase a Thomas Guide or remember to bring your GPS navigator to help with directions.   Additionally, try to avoid freeway gridlock by traveling before or after heavy rush hours (in the morning 7:30 to 9 am, evenings from 4 to 7 pm).

• Contrary to what you may hear, celebrities do not hang out on Hollywood Boulevard.   Some good places to spot a star are Fred Segals in Beverly Hills (8118 Melrose Avenue), a Laker home game (Staples stadium, 1111 South Figueroa Street), the Ivy Restaurant (113 N. Robertson Boulevard) during midweek lunch, or walking their dogs at Runyan Canyon (Franklin Avenue and Fuller Avenue) in the late morning or early evening.

• You can’t actually climb to the Hollywood Sign, perched high atop Mount Lee in Griffith Park, as it is fenced in and surrounded by an alarm system.  The best way to view the sign is to drive up Beachwood Drive where you can make easy stops to snap a few pictures of the landmark.

• If you are traveling from the beach areas to downtown, the valley, Anaheim or Pasadena, keep in mind that temperatures can vary 20 degrees between areas so pack appropriately.

• If you want to see Jay Leno but don’t want to wait hours in line for tickets to his show, head to the Comedy and Magic Club (1018 Hermosa Avenue) in Hermosa Beach where the comic regularly performs on Sunday evenings, trying out one-liners for his weekly opening monologues.

• If you plan to visit Disneyland, utilize their free FastPass System.  Just insert your admission ticket into machines outside select attractions and receive a voucher with a pre-assigned one-hour time slot for faster boarding.

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Getting Around
It’s true, nobody walks in LA.   Taxis are hard to find and pricey because the city is so spread out and public transportation is best used for short distances.   Visitors best bets are to rent a car from one of the many rental agencies, all have booths at LAX (Avis, 800/831-2847, Enterprise 800/736-8222, Hertz 800/654-3131, or National 800/328-4567).

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