Visiting LA

In February I'm going for a weekend to see the NASCAR race in the LA colliseum.  I know nothing of the area, how difficult would it be to not rent a car for the weekend and stay somewhere that I could take a bus/train to the event?   

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Nothing to add besides I'm jealous. I want to get a couple of my buddies to a NASCAR race soon. 

LA has very limited public transportation that isn't spelled Uber/Lyft. That might still be the easy button, though. 

The metro passes right through there. I would check the metro routes and see if they overlap with the places you are planning to visit. 

How many days are you going to be in LA ?
if it's a week , I would rent a car , but maybe take the bus to the race to avoid the parking mess.

the Bus  and Metro train will not get you around town very well, and LA area is big ,

Also the Coliseum  is pretty much in the "Hood"  so not a place you want to be staying except for the race , 

what other places do you want to visit ?

In reply to BoxheadTim :

I think this is unfair to LA Metro, I believe it matches the infrastructure of smaller cities and is able to hit many points of interest. The issue is that LA is gigantic and sprawling and there are many more points of interest. 

That being said I wouldn't rely on it completely, if your POIs aren't within Metro's (or neighboring municipalities - you can transfer on other systems like Long Beach Transit) reach, you'll have to Uber.

If you rent a car schedule some time for Mulholland Drive.  (The road, not the movie)

And rent a sporty car...

I've only visited twice. The first time I drove in and flew out, the second time I flew in and out (with a baby, no less).

I'm not sure if this is helpful, but here are a few tips I picked up on as someone who isn't an expert on L.A.:

• Try to skip LAX if you're flying. It's not the end of the world if you do use it, it just gets pretty crazy pretty quickly.
• I rented a car through Turo (more about that here), so that's an option if you want something different than what's offered by most rental car companies.
• I haven't had the chance to use it, but I'd recommend public transportation if it works out in your favor–even if that means Uber or Lyft. Most traffic I was is in wasn't Florida highway scary, but the thickness of it gets tiresome very quickly.
• Parts of L.A. aren't really that walkable, so be prepared to drive/be driven to get where you want to go.
• There's no shortage of amazing food to be had, so enjoy that.

And what airport are flying to ?  Burbank or Long Beach  are also local Airports , 

there are lots of Cars and Coffee all around SoCal .

and the Peterson museum is interesting.

Let us know what you are interested in seeing :)

Nothing on the transpiration front but try and get to the Peterson Museum if you can.

Last time I was in LA I looked up Turo rental options. You may be able to do a Uber/Metro/Turo combo to cover what you want to do.

In reply to Wally (Forum Supporter) :

Is that the race where they run the cars up the turnstiles ?

Check to see what on this Car Show schedule jives with your time there... 

http://www.socalcarculture.com/events.html

The LA Coliseum is across the street from USC and both are in a potentially very bad part of town.  Being at an event, this should cause no issues, but just be aware (e.g. don't wander away from Exposition Park, especially at night)

The LA Coliseum has also had historically horrible parking issues.  They have added some parking structures, but I am not sure those will handle the crowds for the Coliseum (which can seat a LOT of people), and they take up most all of the surface parking with the teams trucks etc, so I would expect limited parking. 

There is a light rail line that runs to Exposition Park (there are a couple of museums there as well as the stadium), so that is an option.  Be aware, as noted above, the rail lines are reliable, but only cover a fraction of LA.  E.g. I don't think there is a rail line near the Peterson.

The bus lines (sorry), are going to be a lot more sparse then you might be used to, especially as you wander away from the city, and might not be en enjoyable experience (if you know what I mean).  If you plan on wandering much out of the downtown area, you will almost certainly want a rental car.

Certainly lower your expectation of seeing a beautiful city, there are some rather bad things to see in LA these days, especially in the main city area.  Probably not terribly different from most large cities, but maybe....

... and for F's sake, please be careful around any sketchy characters (I am sure you are aware of those by now of course), parts of LA are effectively an open air mental health ward.

Have to agree with air-cooled,

It's not a good neighborhood, the light rail line that goes there does not really connect with anyplace you want to go , 

The museum is right there with the Space Shuttle.

It really matters how long you have , if you are arriving in the evening just stay near the airport , if it's LAX and you want to go someplace local to LAX , Manhattan beach downtown is a  good place  that locals go to eat and drink.

Let us know and there are enough locals to help you out,!

In reply to californiamilleghia :

The Shuttle exhibit is temporarily closed...someone took a sawzall to its cats. 

Purchase a rust free beater to drive for the week 

And back cross country to sell for a profit once back in NY

Wally, FATBURGER and Wahoos Fish Tacos. That is all you need to know besides the Clash Race.

There will not be much time for sightseeing, most likely flying out Friday night and home on Monday morning.  Work has been pretty difficult about time off for the last six months because we lost some people and they've made the position bad enough that no one wants to work here.   

There is about 5-7 active GRM members locally- if you had more time- Inam sure we could have put together a get together 

Have fun. 

So, you guy warning Wally about sketchy neighborhoods and weirdos know he works in New York, right?  

In reply to Streetwiseguy :

Everything I know about transportation in Los Angeles comes from this song:

In reply to Streetwiseguy :

Yes, we do, however...

Palm tree + bikini + dolphin = false sense of security.

Appleseed said:

In reply to Wally (Forum Supporter) :

Is that the race where they run the cars up the turnstiles ?

No such luck, they won't be running up like the supercross did.