Renting a car and other Los Angeles, CA Transportation Tips

'Mode': AROUND
Category: Car/Motor Home
Getting TO/AROUND: The attractions in Los Angeles are very spread out, unlike New York, Chicago or Washington DC where most of the sights that visitors want to see are in the central area or easily reachable by public transportation. LA has a limited metro and buses but you will want to rent a car to get around LA.

My most recent rental in October, 2008 was $13.95 per day from Hertz booked via Hotwire for a compact. We got a 4 door Mazda with a GPS for no extra charge, I was very pleased!!!

I have used both Priceline and Hotwire several times to get cars in LA, always check though to make sure it's enough of a savings as the rental is nonrefundable with both, you can check Bidding For Travel to see what the going rates are on Priceline and Expedia, Travelocity or Orbitz to see what the prevailing rates are.

Most of the big car rental agencies have a location at LAX, other places to look include Expedia , Travelocity and Side Step. Unless you are booking through Priceline or Hotwire, car rentals are usually cancellable.

I have used Dollar, Hertz, Avis and Alamo and all of them have been fine. All of the car rental locations are offsite at LAX requiring a short ride in a shuttle bus which you can pick up outside the baggage claim area.

A lot of the vehicles at LAX are larger vehicles such as vans and SUVs, a couple of times they've upgraded me, the first time it was a welcome upgrade to a van since we had 4-5 people traveling but the 2nd time I really wanted an intermediate car and they upgraded me first to a small SUV and then when I asked for something smaller I got a PT Cruiser which I did eventually get used to although it didn't get very good gas mileage.

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'Mode': AROUND
Category: Car/Motor Home
Getting TO/AROUND: I've used Hotwire and Priceline before when renting a car in LA, the obvious downside is that you can't cancel your reservation without losing your money. This time I encountered another downside, Budget had apparently rented out so many cars that they ran out of them, I had to wait in a 50 person line to get to the counter and then wait for another 1/2 hour to get a car. I had rented a full size car because I needed four doors and often with smaller cars they will not guarantee 4 doors. I ended up with a Ford Taurus, a bigger car than I am used to driving and I assume with not very good gas mileage.

I got a great rate, $11.95 per day, but I'm not sure that the savings was worth the hassle. I'm tempted to look into one of the major car companies programs where you get dropped off as a fast track booth and a car is sitting there waiting for you, then maybe I will end up with the exact car that I want!

But sometimes Hotwire works just fine, in October 2008 I got the exact car I would have asked for for $13.95 per day plus we got a GPS for no additional fee, it certainly came in handy!

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