You'll love it. I'm assuming you're a group of adults, so I guess the question is - what do you like to do? Are you there for the shopping; for the beaches; for the theme parks; for the museums; for the wide open spaces... ?
Yes travelling with 4 adults.. Shopping is our top priority. Theme parks will only be Universal Studios prob 1 or 2 days depending on how many day pass we can get. And stop by Warner Bros for a 3 hr tour. If time permits, perhaps might drive up to San Diego's Zoo (is this worth my time)?
Depends what you want to do and where you're staying. If you're staying around the west-side (Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Venice) you can probably get by with Uber - and if you're drinking AT ALL, you'll want to use Uber, the cops over here take drink-driving VERY SERIOUSLY.
But if you're staying way over the other side of town, or if you're doing a lot of driving, you'll probably want to rent a car.
We are prepared to rent a car as a lot of shopping will be done & it's pointless to use uber when there are 4 adults. We are choosing to stay either near Ventura or Wilshire Blvd as they are rather near to Universal Studios & Warner Bros. not considering Anaheim as we are not going Disney. If not DTLA, then where? U mention Santa Monica & Beverly Hills?
Nope, they'll need the driver's credit card probably, but you can add yourself as a driver or get a credit card for your significant other. This won't be too hard.
Yup. Done
1) I personally like Avis, though they're not exactly cheap. I've used Hertz in the past and never had a problem with them, but they're also horrifically expensive compared to the other companies.
2) Insurance: get the "third-party liability" insurance, and nothing else. You don't need the "personal accident insurance", and as long as you're a careful driver you probably don't need the "excess reduction", that just saves you some money if you ding the car.
3) GPS rental usually runs $10-$15 a day, so if you're renting the car for more than three days or so it's cheaper to just buy the Navigon GPS app for your smartphone of choice. It's about $49 for the whole-of-USA app, and you can download the maps to your phone so you don't even need data coverage.
Cost of rental of GPS factored in. Gonna be shared so it's ok.
Here's the thing:
Los Angeles is HUGE. You could fit the whole of Singapore within Greater Los Angeles about four or five times over. (Click that link: it shows you what Singapore would look like if it were dropped on top of Los Angeles. That might give you an idea of the distances we're talking about.)
There are probably two areas you'll want to choose between: the west side, where Hollywood and Santa Monica and Beverly Hills are; and Anaheim, where the theme parks are. Pick one and stick to it; the drive between them is an hour-long freeway nightmare even when traffic is light, and traffic in LA is
never light.
I'd pick the west side, just because I like Santa Monica and Venice Beach; if you pick Santa Monica, the Oceana Hotel is a really good bet, I've stayed there and I can endorse it. Don't stay in Hollywood; it's tacky as hell and honestly kind of sketchy. West Hollywood, on or near Sunset Strip, is a much better bet; I hear good things about the Sunset Marquis and the Andaz West Hollywood.
Don't stay in downtown LA, it's completely dead. Nothing happens there after 5pm; I've even walked through it at lunchtime on a workday and there's nobody on the streets anywhere.
If you really have to,
go to the Citadel Outlets - it's not
that far out of town (about an hour's drive from Santa Monica) and like people have said, the stores are all the same anyway.
The people recommending Desert Hills...
that's an awfully long way from anywhere. If you're going to go there, you might as well make an overnight trip of it, and spend a day or two
exploring all the historical Hollywood glamor of Palm Springs.
