I’m Planning A Vacation To Long Beach, CA & Los Angeles, CA What Are Cheap Ways To Travel In Those Areas?

The cheapest flights are always LAX.

But, check the airports in the area.

I would rent a car.

Keep in mind that getting around is a big pain in the a$$.

You may want to get a hotel room for two nights in

Long Beach,

Anaheim,

Santa Monica, and

Universal City

Because Long Beach is not close to Universal City.

It is probably better just to rent a car because the distances are so great going from Long Beach to any part of Los Angeles. It may be too costly.

Here's the deal: The city of LA is 450 square miles, over twice as big as Colorado Springs. But that's just the CITY of LA, and doesn't count the surrounding cities and metro area. Long Beach, Santa Monica, and Burbank are not included in that. The travel area for LA covers about 5000 square miles, so you're talking a huge area. No other place in the US is like LA.

Public transit is cheap, but inefficient. Taxis and even Uber and Lyft are too expensive due to the distances involved. For example, we had to take a taxi home from LAX because Super Shuttle left us stranded. The cost was over $130, not counting tip. Fortunately, Super Shuttle picked up the tab. And it was midnight, so the fare was even cheaper than it could have been. Bottom line: While rental cars aren't as cheap as public transit, they're the most efficient. And when you consider your time is worth money, they're good value. For example, a 30-mile drive to Disneyland can take 30-45 minutes via car, but 3 hours via public transit. Disneyland charges the same amount whether you arrive at 8:00 AM or 2:00 PM. If the cost is around $10 per hour per person, you can begin to see that a rental car isn't a bad deal.

Renting a car is a bad idea because driving is a little different in Los Angeles than Colorado and it's not really safe if you aren't used to it.

L.A. metro is really cheap (maybe $1-2 a ride), but it's mostly slow buses. Metrolink and Amtrak cost more, but they're faster (usually) and they're still cheaper than a taxi.

A rental car is the most cost effective way to use your vacation time while in LA. With any other way, you will be wasting too much time waiting for your rides.