Los Angeles

John Roberts

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We will be flying to LA in a couple of months to begin a tour of some of the National Parks, we haven't fixed the exact itinerary yet but are wondering if it's worth staying in LA at all, or get straight on to the Pacific Coast Highway. Does anybody stay in LA I wonder, ride reorts always mention San Francisco and lots of other places but hardly ever LA.

Any thoughts? :)
 
Having worked in LA and flown in and out of LAX more times than I care to remember I have to say I hate it with a passion. Concrete soulless place. I would suggest you get out of there and up to San Fransico as soon as possible. SF couldn't be more different from LA and I enjoyed every minute I spent there. Just my opinion of course.
 
I will be doing the same sort of thing in October with my brother. Pick up bikes from Eagle Riders in downtown LA but have avoided their first hotel recommendation and have gotten them to make a custom route for what we want. I used to live in Orange Country so have a fair idea of where I want to stay and also where I want to ride. I don't really recommend downtown LA or anywhere near the airport as stop location. Very busy and unless you know where you are a bit risky. Heading south towards San Diego it gets better but then that's a whole lot south. Anywhere past Irvine / Newport Beach is quite OK.
We will take the bikes and head down to Irvine in Orange County, where I used to live. There are some nicer, quieter hotels close to Orange County airport. We will stay there for a night, venture into Irvine for some dinner and then will head north east out of the County towards Riverside County next day and the start of our tour. We have opted for a southern Cal tour but will go as far north as Death Valley & the Sierra Nevada mountains and as far east as Kingman in Arizona. Total riding time is 8 days. We've avoided Vegas. Been there too many times and find it overcrowded.

Actually northern Cal is probably better for the bike tour. Napa Valley, Redwoods, Yosemite, Death Valley, Sierra Nevada range etc. Depending on when you go Northern Cal is also better temperature-wise. Summer in Southern Cal, especially inland can get really hot 30-35 degrees easy.
We have chosen Southern Cal simply for convenience. I will fly from UK and my brother from NZ.

If you want any more details drop me a PM.
 
Having worked in LA and flown in and out of LAX more times than I care to remember I have to say I hate it with a passion. Concrete soulless place. I would suggest you get out of there and up to San Fransico as soon as possible. SF couldn't be more different from LA and I enjoyed every minute I spent there. Just my opinion of course.

Have to agree. I hated LA but Orange County, Irvine, Newport Beach and beyond was fine. Distances are pretty big so Southern Orange County to LAX is around 50 miles. Northern Cal is better in so many ways
 
Pacific Palisades is nice, for sure.

Big place, Los Angeles. Like Scotland and (at push) even Wales, not all of it is shite.
 
Santa Monica & Venice beach. is the place. I dont think anyone goes to East LA.
Avoid SF stay in Marin County San Rafael or Sausalito.
 
As above. I lived there for four months when I worked for Sony. What a horrible place and to be honest even santa monica and venice beach are over rated. The drive north to san fran is fantastic though. I really enjoyed the Joshua tree national park. Boulders the size of semi D's just tossed around the place like they were pebbles!
 
my brother lives in a small place called redondo beach which is very nice, near to hermosa and manhattan beach. venice is fun and quirky but that's about it....... santa monica looked nice on the way through but didnt have time to get further......
 
nah ,stay away from the main town, stop outside the area. Santa Monica is good or further afield Palm Springs...pick your bike up in LA ,ride round , hollywood ,sunset boulevard etc, then leave. enjoy the trip ,some really nice places to see and visit out there
 
nah ,stay away from the main town, stop outside the area. Santa Monica is good or further afield Palm Springs...pick your bike up in LA ,ride round , hollywood ,sunset boulevard etc, then leave. enjoy the trip ,some really nice places to see and visit out there

Palm springs is great but very hot in the summer. Joshua Tree National Park is also in the same area and indeed is well worth a visit but not as spectacular as Yosemite.
For a bike tour I'd go for the northern national parks around San Francisco. Napa valley & the wine area has some great roads to ride.
 
My advice is get the fuck out of Dodge asap. Traffic hell and the coast road through LA is grim, full of traffic and not nice.

As Clifton said, ride the Angeles Crest (hwy 2) just north of La La Land and ride out toward the coast toward Ventura. When you get to Ojai, head north on the 33 which is a fabulous road and generally missed by people as they think the LA coast is paradise but you will thank me for telling you. Join the 166 which takes you to the coast then head north.

Depends on your time frame but get to SF and the 101 gets really good and then you can head across to the national parks.

If you let me know what you are considering and a time frame I can give you some ideas and up to date info.
 
We will be flying to LA in a couple of months to begin a tour of some of the National Parks, we haven't fixed the exact itinerary yet but are wondering if it's worth staying in LA at all, or get straight on to the Pacific Coast Highway. Does anybody stay in LA I wonder, ride reorts always mention San Francisco and lots of other places but hardly ever LA.

Any thoughts? :)

Did the same a couple of years ago. Flew into LA, got picked up at the airport by a local hotel, met the rest of the crew, had dinner & early to bed. The following morning the rental company picked us up at the hotel & soon we were on our way out of town. At the end of the rental it all happened in reverse. Other than that I've no desire to spend time in LA.
The parks were all stunning but get yourself one of their annual cards - https://store.usgs.gov/pass/annual.html Especially good value if there's up to 4 of you travelling



there are actually some great MC roads just to the east, Angles Crest being one of the best
Absolutely. Just be careful early in the morning cos it takes them a while to clear the fallen rocks from the road :rob
 
The LA Crest Highway is one of the best roads I've ridden anywhere in the World :thumby: Especially on a Wednesday morning in late May about 45 minutes after picking the bike up from Eaglerider and having it all to ourselves :cool:
 
I enjoyed L.A. but I like a lot of that 60's Laurel Canyon type music, so went around some of those places, nice driving round seeing the famous sights as seen on films, Hollywood sign etc. We stayed in Santa Monica.

Like Vegas I could only do a day though....that being said I would go back to L.A. certainly not L.V.

North or south of L.A. is great and cannot go wrong, if its your first trip to that area, I suppose North best more to see Highway 1, Yosemite, San Fran etc.
 
Stay in Santa Monica for a night - great town!!... food, bars, night life and live music, Santa Monica pier, Venice Beach loads to do in Santa Monica..

We will be flying to LA in a couple of months to begin a tour of some of the National Parks, we haven't fixed the exact itinerary yet but are wondering if it's worth staying in LA at all, or get straight on to the Pacific Coast Highway. Does anybody stay in LA I wonder, ride reorts always mention San Francisco and lots of other places but hardly ever LA.

Any thoughts? :)
 
Check out Henry Cole's program about Steve McQueen. There was some good biking haunts featured in it.
 


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