Day Trip near Los Angeles?

[nick s]

I'm off to L.A at the weekend, and i have one day free where i was planning on driving somewhere and spending the night. So the plan would be to leave LA at 7am or so, and drive somewhere within reasonable distance, spend the day and evening there and stay overnight then come back the next day.

My question is, where is the best place to drive to for this? From what i can see i have the following options;

Santa Barbara, San Diego, Tijuana, Palm Springs, Big Bear Lake.


Which of these would be the most interesting/best option? I'm swaying towards Santa Barbara at the mo for the "niceness" of it, but also to Big Bear for the activities on offer!

Edited by nick s on Tuesday 11th September 08:54

[nick s]

Yes i'm looking to keep the driving time to no more than about 3 hours away really, as it's only for an overnight trip. So driving 6 hours away for to spend an afternoon and evening somewhere and then to drive 6 hours back seems a bit much!!

And Vegas is part of the trip later on! Just looking for somewhere for a bit of a change of scenery as we will have done all the LA touristy stuff on the other days!


Been looking more at Big Bear and it looks awesome. Anyone been there and done any of the mountain bike trails and ziplining etc?

[nick s]

a311 said:

This is PH. It's not about the destination but the journey........;)

Really when I'm somewhere new and scenic I don't find driving longer distances any hardship as your constantly looking at things for the first time. I've not been to Big Bear but should offer you a change of scenery from the city scape, although I think San Diego is a must see if you can.

Stopping off at the seaside towns from Malibu, Santa Monica, New Port etc is also a nice change of pace from LA if you're staying in the city proper.

This is true! But I'd like to try and keep the driving to a minimum if it's just for a 1 day out of city overnight thing. We're only away for 2 weeks so don;t want to spend too much time on the road as we want ot fit as much in as possible!

We're staying 3 nights on Santa Monica beach whislt in LA anyway, so the plan was to do one day of cycling up the beaches etc, 1 day at universal, 1 day doing hollywood, griffith observatory, beverley hills mullholland drive etc. The GF has never been, so need to do all the touristy stuff

Then it's onto Vegas! It was just that we have 1 spare day, and ratehr than stay in LA we wanted to try and squeeze in another nearby place!

[nick s]

Bit of a Unit said:

Santa Barbara.

Easy drive out north of central LA.

Lovely beaches and marina. Book a table at Brophy Bros seafood restaurant and go early for a few cocktails. Talk to the barman and he will tell you which club is lively that night.

Wait for the waitresses from Brophys to arrive and have a great night.

Job Done

That sounds like a plan! I think i'm probably going to stick with Santa Barbara then and even check out that restaurant recommendation!!

a311 said:

Fair enough. Santa Monica is very nice IMO, people who stay in LA proper in my experience don’t enjoy the LA experience and wonder why. There’s a good tour company who operate out of Santa Monica, we used them to see the sights in LA we wanted to see rather than drive, from what I saw driving in LA was a bit of a st storm, having to drive and find somewhere specific could be stress you don’t need.

Are you having an over night stay in between LA and Vegas? It’s not necessary but I think exploring Death Valley rather than doing what most do and just drive through is time well spent. Weird and Wonderful place.

I've been to L.A a few times and actually really like it! I think it has a certain charm,

No, we're not stopping on the way to Vegas overnight. We're leaving L.A around lunchtime and stopping in Barstow on the way for some lunch and to hit the outlets there. I've timed it so that we arrivei nto Vegas after sunset as i've driven from LA to Vegas twice, once after dark and it was WOW as we came in, and once in the day and it was completely underwhelming! So as it's the GF's first time, i want that wow factor!!

Could i do Death Valley on the way to Vegas then? Instead of Barstow? how much of a detour is it? looks a little way out on google maps!

[nick s]

Mr E said:

We stopped in the Mojave on the way to vegas from LA. Was cool to wander about for a couple of hours, and had some lunch in the little diner in the visitors centre.

There are also some caves that I missed that may be amusing.

I wish I'd thought to get to vegas at sunset...

I'll look into that!

yes, it's 100% worth planning arrival time into Vegas if you're driving in. Coming up the i-15 you can see it all lit up in the distance and it looks amazing! Makes the next 20 mins of driving on the approach so much more exciting. Then if you come off the freeway at the right junction you come up past the famous sign etc, and it really does make it so much more special!