What to do, see and eat on an 11 hour layover at LAX…
My journey to Australia started with an 11 hour layover at LAX, after my 4 hour flight from Atlanta. I have created a guide on what to do, see and eat in Venice Beach during your long layover. Got luggage? I have the solution for that too.
A problem that I have run into a few times on long haul flights, is not having a place to store my luggage so that I can explore the city and not having anywhere to freshen up before my long flight. I ran into this problem when leaving the Maldives. The last water taxi for the airport, left the resort at 4pm, but my flight out did not leave until 11pm. Passengers are not allowed into the airport until 2 hours prior to departure, so unless your resort has a lounge there, you must wait outside in the heat before your flight opens. It was too late to take a tour, so we sat at the airport for 5 hours.
Hotels by day solves this problem! Hotels by day allows you to experience a great hotel by day, without paying for the night stay. I downloaded the Hotels by day app and booked a room at the Courtyard Hotel at LAX, in less time than it took to get my luggage from baggage claim. The room was available to me from 11am until 9pm. This was perfect since our flight to Australia left at 11:30pm. The hotel had free shuttle service from the airport, so that saved us money. The room was ready when we arrived at noon. We freshened up, changed clothes and headed out to explore Venice Beach!
Venice Beach is the nearest beach to LAX. It is a $20 uber ride and right in the middle of the shore, great shopping and amazing food. Here are my recommendations on what to see, where to eat and what to do, while on a long layover at LAX.
Venice Beach and Santa Monica are beside each other, but you will get to Venice beach first. There was so much to do and see, that we spent all of our time here.
1). Walk along the Venice Beach Boardwalk…
The boardwalk is filled with street artist, souvenir shops and a beautiful coastline. Stop for a moment to watch the kids skateboard, catch a magic show and take some beautiful photos at the colorful lifeguard shacks along the beach.
2). Do it for the gram..
There is beautiful street art and murals on every building and street corner in Venice Beach. Don’t be shy about getting the shot. There were tourist with cameras and tripods everywhere. Some people even had professional photographers with them to get the perfect shot.
3). Eat!!!
Abbot Kinney Blvd is the hot spot for food and shopping. We took a break and ate at several restaurants while we were shopping. Our favorites were:
4). Where to shop…
Toms has their flagship store on abbot Kinney in Venice Beach, and it is the perfect place to shop and sit down to have a cup of coffee at the same time. If you are a fan of the “Shahs of Sunset”, you can visit Asa Kaftans .
5). Watch the sunset…
The High Rooftop Lounge is the best place to watch the sunset if you have time.
We let the traffic settle down and headed back to the hotel room around 7pm. We showered, packed up and headed back to the airport and had plenty of time to check in for our flight to Australia.
Happy traveling!
Alisha