BootsnAll Travel Community

Hello,

I'm arriving in LA on December 28, travelling on my own, and rather than spend New Years Eve by myself I have arranged to join a Contiki tour in Vegas for a couple of days. But I still have a week to fill in so I'm wondering what I can see, what I can do, where I can travel to while I'm there.

How far would it be to get to Mexico or San Diego or anywhere else around there that you can suggest???

Would it be better to book tours from here before I go or would there be plenty of options once I arrive?

Thanks for your suggestions

What do you like? I'm not the greatest fan of LA, but it has some incredible nightlife. San Diego is a couple hours south, and a shorter road trip to Baja should be possible in a week. Otherwise, if you have a car, there are some fantastic desert areas only a few hours drive east (Joshua Tree, the Mojave, Anza-Borrego) and Pacific Coast Highway going north is world-class beautiful.

Vegas is only fun if you're drunk.

On the front page of this forum, there are over 3 threads on LA and one or two on Vegas. Check those out, and run a quick search to find a TON of great information.

LA has some great museums, if you're into art. The music scene is also pretty good. Look up http://www.laweekly.com/ for tons of entertainment info.

Of course, there's always the beach, but at the end of December, I don't know there would be much to check out. Hollywood is a site to see, but it tends to frustrate me more than anything.

San Diego, on the other hand is amazing. It's only about a two hour drive and you can get there easily on Amtrack. Check out the Surfliner .

I hope this helps a bit.

December is a perfect time to visit Death Valley. You'll need a rental car -- and you'll have to resist the temptation to beat it to death on the dirt roads -- but there's a lot to see in 3-4 days.

Jim Paris
Los Angeles