This. I did college near downtown very close to the geographical center (USC). Back then it was a 90-120 minute drive on the freeways from the center to the edge of “LA” in any / every direction. Now, 45 years later, it’s bigger and the roads and especially highways are much slower.
Most folks from elsewhere, even in the USA, can’t quite grasp a city that takes 4-5 hours to drive across from edge to edge.
More specifically, use Google Maps to plan bus trips to various points of interest. For example, right now at 3pm local time, from Hollywood Chinese Theater to the Santa Monica Pier, about 13 miles, it’s a 45 minute car drive or a 90 minute bus ride.
For reference, rush hour is 6-10am and 2-8pm.
I interacted with one Brit IRL, that was in Denver for a conference, and wanted to catch an overnight bus to Minneapolis to see a friend, and then be back for his Monday afternoon flight home. That made so little sense to me I started answering the question of getting a one-way flight to MSP, and changing his flight home to depart from there. He got angry, because apparently that was the question everyone tried to answer, and he just wanted someone to tell him where to get a night bus.
This is exactly what I did for my trip to LA last October. Even though the area we wanted to see was relatively small, Intuit Dome, Exposition Park, and a beach, I quickly realized it would be far easier to rent a car. I get why that isn’t an option, though.
Perhaps combinations of Uber/Lyft and public transportation, even for a single journey, will work.
My best recommendation for driving in LA, is only do it during World Series games while the Dodgers are playing.
The OP said in post 22 that her daughter declined airport pickup when she enrolled in the program.
I didn’t see that in the post–but why would she decline pickup in a strange city?
There are several options for transit to and from LAX.
I am shocked the host family will not pick her up. That worries me (not like she is in danger but that the host really is not trying).
I’m kinda well traveled and comfortable on mass transit (not least cuz I live in a big city and use it all the time) but this is her first trip. Kind of a big ask to navigate such a big city via mass transit while lugging baggage around (and we don’t know if her destination is reachable via mass transit).
She might be better with an Uber but that can be expensive.
Here is the LAX website that details transit options:
Tell her to get the transit app to be able to pay for mass transit while in LA:
As mentioned above, LA mass transit is kinda shit. What they had was dismantled to make way for cars long ago. What is left is mostly busses and, while I have not been there in years the busses were few and far between. Maybe it is better now. Their subway has grown but still limited I think.
ETA: It does seem there is a link to LAX with the subway but it would require a train switch at least once (and maybe more). Personally, I would MUCH prefer taking the subway if possible as opposed to a bus.
I am another who is surprised that the host family will not pick her up from the airport. And equally surprised that she declined any airport pickup, opting for public transport.
I’ll defer to our Los Angelenos on this, but I don’t think any public transport out of LAX will get you where you need to go. And as has been said, LA is huge, and I can imagine Ubers and taxis will cost an outrageous amount.
I was first in LA when I was 19, as was my buddy, and we managed to find a place that would rent us a car. Not sure if that’s a viable option any more (the age thing), though it may deserve looking into. Between all the rental car companies, there may be one. Look for it. Because if she’s expecting European-style public transport (subways, buses, even streetcars, all of which go everywhere, or at least connect to everywhere), she won’t find it. She needs some way to get around the city, and LA’s public transport won’t work.
Above all, remind her that LA is like no place else on earth. As has been said, it is extremely spread out, and it can take four or five hours to go end-to-end
Oh, just to add—nothing wrong with what she wants to see, but the Hollywood Boulevard stars are just embedded in pavement, nothing special and people walk over them without a second thought. She can see the Hollywood sign from there; no need to climb a hiking trail. Grauman’s, or Mann’s, or whatever is is this week Chinese Theater is fun. Santa Monica Pier is worth a visit, as is Venice Beach. Heck, add in Universal Studios and NBC Studios and Disneyland. But if she’s planning to public transport between all these places, and her host family’s place, she’s going to be spending a boatload of money, and never quite getting to where she’s going.
(I missed the edit window)
Also, be sure to set her up so her cell phone works if she is from another country (not sure, seems like she is coming from another country). There are a variety of options but I think it is very important she can access the internet whenever needed while here. For mapping a route to a location to calling for a taxi/Uber to calling you to whatever…pay for cell service and internet access. Check with your cell provider to see what options you have. You can also buy a SIM card (or electronic SIM) easily when traveling. Whatever works best for her and the phone she has.
ETA: Also, she can download Google Maps for a given area in case she doesn’t have cell/internet service. Likewise, language packs for translation on the phone without internet/cell service. Handy to have, just in case.
my 2 cents I’d want her to go with a friend both to share expenses and be safer.
It does. Actually, she used an eSIM when we went New York two weeks ago and last summer.
Two weeks. And I don’t think that she’s supposed to help around the house apart from common courtesy things.
In that case, she’ll be landing at LAX as she’s flying directly from Germany.
That’s interesting. I would have thought buses were… not recommended.
Sorry about that, but I’m short on details too.
First, it seems that it was a bit of a last-minute decision on her part, so she had to hurry to fill in the paperwork. Then, she doesn’t live with me, so I got the news over the phone and it’s not the most convenient way to get to the bottom of things. Finally, I must say that she tends to speak in very cryptic and elliptic ways. She often leaves out details that seem obvious to her but aren’t to the rest of us. As a matter of fact, my younger daughter was laughing about precisely that when we were in New York two weeks ago.
As for having the host family picking her up at the airport, I’ll suggest she talks about it when they get in touch. She could say it was a misunderstanding.
As far as the organization is concerned, it is a famous and, as far as I know, reliable one.
This is something I’m concerned about, both in general and also because she tends to be very withdrawn. Again, I don’t want to rain on her parade, I’m really happy that she’s doing something for herself but… yes, I’m concerned about this kind of things. I’ll try to find a way to draw her attention to this.
You really need to find out what neighborhood she will be staying in. The advice you’ll get on how she can get around to where she wants to go will be wildly different if the host family lives in Hollywood vs El Segundo vs Arcadia.
Or San Fernando, or San Clemente, or San Bernardino.
All of those places are “LA” for generous definitions of the word. A teen coming from Germany has necessarily little notion of these nuances.
I would hope that her host family isn’t in San Bernardino!
Stranger
Perhaps West Covina?
Brian
Well, it’s a great place to visit if you like malls and self-serve frozen yogurt shops but otherwise it is basically an hour away from anything. Personally, I think you’d be better off just getting a fuckton of cats.
Stranger
Yeah, what would an Uber run you from LAX?
Yet another vote for the host family really needs to pick her up, or they kind of suck. It’s weirdly unwelcoming, and depending on where they live, the transportation costs (both to/from LAX and just getting around generally) might even exceed the cost of staying in a centrally located hotel for 2 weeks.
But as the OP said, maybe this is a forgotten detail that’s already been taken care of.
How about Montclair? Or Claremont? I’m sure the people that live there can tell the difference. I never could.
Claremont is in (very eastern) Los Angeles County, and Montclair is in San Bernardino County, and culturally they kind of reflect that divide. Claremont is not a bad place to stay although it is far enough from all of the popular attractions to make it modestly inconvenient, although both have stations on the Metrolink going directly to Union Station, so not a bad place to stage from if you wanted to rely primarily on public transit. But I’ll again reinforce that the Los Angeles MTA Metro system is a pale shadow of what pretty much anyone in Europe thinks of as ‘public transit’.
Stranger