Los Angeles vs. San Diego (Visitor Appeal) (people, Boston, Chicago)
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Think what you want but there's a reason navigability is a common complaint among visitors to LA.
Agree 100%. But I'd add that he's right as well. Foreign tourists generally do LA differently. Partly because they're often more used to traffic and public transportation and maybe because they do more research. They're going to a foreign country after all. Lots of American tourists look at a map and think that they can stay centrally and easily get to Disneyland, Santa Monica, Hollywood, and others from the same location. They're shocked when what looks like 6 miles (or 6 minutes) on a map takes 30 minutes at noon. They've set their itinerary to drive here and there and end up spending all their time in a car and experience LA from a freeway with an hour between every destination.
Foreign tourists are often more practical and well planned. They use lots of public transportation and while that generally takes longer they often see more because they're more strategic.
It sounds like you are confusing "things to do" with "tourist attraction."
A tourist attraction would be something prominent enough that someone in another country would know about it.
A tourist attraction is an attraction for tourists. Why does it have to be famous in a foreign country to be a good attraction?
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From the Arts District to West Hollywood (roughly 50 sq miles)-Broad Museum, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Lakers, Dodgers, Clippers, Kings, Grammy Museum, highest open air bar in the western hemisphere, Chinatown, Koreatown, Hollywood Walk of Fame, The Oscars at Dolby Theatre, World Famous Comedy Store (bigger lineup there on a random Tuesday than LJ Comedy Store gets in six months) Hollywood Improv, Laugh Factory, Griffith Park Observatory..and on and on and that is just what is coming to mind as I'm typing.
How exciting, 75% sports and entertainment...That totally doesn't get boring after one event. This is a good reminder why I find LA so underwhelming for its size. The attractions are really mediocre.
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the tourist zones in Los Angeles are more compact, dense with attractions, and easier to navigate than San Diego.
Oh right, visitors to LA never complain how difficult it is to navigate the city and see the major sites.
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We're all free to think that there would be Korean tourists checking out coffee roasters in North Park or playing Laser Tag in Chula Vista but I just don't think that is the reality.
And you're free to think the Korean tourists are doing back-to-back comedy-NBA-improv-concert-Hollywood days.
Especially foreign tourists-not uncommon to see them more savvy with the metro than locals.
I've talked to too many car-centric tourists who aren't even aware so many big cities have installed light rail/subway lines where you don't need to put your hands on a steering wheel while there. And, always overlooked, is their bus systems. One trip to L.A., I decided to do all of L.A. by city buses (reportedly the 2nd best bus system in the country) and even forgo the rail lines, and I found buses came along every 15 minutes on so many routes. When I took the bus out to Santa Monica, returning to DTLA, I had 3 choices, the Rapid Bus transit bus down I-10, or the slow train, which makes every stop, and another bus which skips every other stop. And some of these buses have TV screens onboard.
When the Crenshaw line and Purple line open in L.A., and there's even talk of a light rail line out to Ventura, why on earth put your hands on a steering while there, and a 24 hour Tap card will only cost you $7, if you already have one, $8 for first time users. Nice thing about the Light rail lines, if you see something interesting along the way, hop off, and 15 minutes later another train comes by.
They don't have a 24 hour unlimited travel pass with BART in San Francisco, and to explore SF and the Bay area, it can get pretty pricey!
I've rode all of San Diego's light rail lines, but they're more limited.
And don't over look the commuter lines out of Union station is DTLA, one will take you out to San Bernardino/Riverside, another down to Laguna Niguel/Oceanside, another north to Palmdale/Lancaster, and another to Ventura.
I enjoy both the Chinatown's in L.A. and San Francisco, and that would make San Diego more fun and interesting, a Chinatown. Why no Chinatown in San Diego?
SD easily. SD is so much easier to get around than LA. In SD you can see everything you need to see in a long weekend. In LA, you can get to certain places, and have certain experiences, but you’re really only going to get a sliver of what LA is if you only visit for a long weekend.
This is not a knock to LA’s offerings, just a knock to LA’s horrible layout. I think it’s definitely the more amazing city of the two. But it’s just hard to see all of what LA has to offer in a short amount of time. When you take a bite out of anything, you want to taste all, or at least most, of what it has to offer. SD does that. With LA, you have to take like 5 bites before you get it.
You even left out a bunch of venues such as Greek Theatre, Hollywood Bowl, Sunset Strip, Melrose, Venice, etc etc etc.
There is just much more to do in LA, which shouldn’t surprise anyone since it is a much larger city. Better restaurants, nightlife (including more current and top drawing musical acts) and shopping as well, if that is a criteria.
I would either base myself in Santa Monica or Sunset Strip for a fun filled weekend.
If one does opt for San Diego, yet complains about LA traffic, not sure why they would recommend Tijuana (which I do / did enjoy for the restaurants, wine, craft beer scene, and authentic Cuban Cigars from La Casa del Habano) on a weekend even with a Global Entry Pass (and/or one would need to bring their passport). If you go to SD for a weekend skip Tijuana....a visit with a minimum 4-5 day stay would make much more sense and one would be well advised to go during a less crowded weekday.
And yet the TJ connection absolutely bumps San Diego into a much more international and diverse region than it could possibly present by itself. Few people realize that each city is the same size, SD only 100k larger at 1.4M. That cultural and economic exchange, the busiest border crossing in the Western Hemisphere, brings to San Diego a palpable richness of culture, dynamism with continuous rebuilding and reinvention that would be far duller without that influence.
It’s the result of what I call, Nebraska (the midwestern military/surfer crowd) meets Mexico City (the confluence of streams of peoples from the end of this continent to the stretches of the next, urban and rural, that make their way through here with a purpose). That all makes for a dynamic border region of nearly 5M and thus makes San Diego an interesting and complex city in its own right to dig into.
Think what you want but there's a reason navigability is a common complaint among visitors to LA.
Right-most likely tourists who are being told to rent a car for their trip by L.A. area suburbanites who don't know the city at street level (there is a thread in the Los Angeles sub where this exact thing is occurring now).
SD easily. SD is so much easier to get around than LA. In SD you can see everything you need to see in a long weekend. In LA, you can get to certain places, and have certain experiences, but you’re really only going to get a sliver of what LA is if you only visit for a long weekend.
This is not a knock to LA’s offerings, just a knock to LA’s horrible layout. I think it’s definitely the more amazing city of the two. But it’s just hard to see all of what LA has to offer in a short amount of time. When you take a bite out of anything, you want to taste all, or at least most, of what it has to offer. SD does that. With LA, you have to take like 5 bites before you get it.
What would be an example of not being able to access a tourist attraction due to the layout of Los Angeles?
I've talked to too many car-centric tourists who aren't even aware so many big cities have installed light rail/subway lines where you don't need to put your hands on a steering wheel while there. And, always overlooked, is their bus systems. One trip to L.A., I decided to do all of L.A. by city buses (reportedly the 2nd best bus system in the country) and even forgo the rail lines, and I found buses came along every 15 minutes on so many routes. When I took the bus out to Santa Monica, returning to DTLA, I had 3 choices, the Rapid Bus transit bus down I-10, or the slow train, which makes every stop, and another bus which skips every other stop. And some of these buses have TV screens onboard.
When the Crenshaw line and Purple line open in L.A., and there's even talk of a light rail line out to Ventura, why on earth put your hands on a steering while there, and a 24 hour Tap card will only cost you $7, if you already have one, $8 for first time users. Nice thing about the Light rail lines, if you see something interesting along the way, hop off, and 15 minutes later another train comes by.
They don't have a 24 hour unlimited travel pass with BART in San Francisco, and to explore SF and the Bay area, it can get pretty pricey!
I've rode all of San Diego's light rail lines, but they're more limited.
And don't over look the commuter lines out of Union station is DTLA, one will take you out to San Bernardino/Riverside, another down to Laguna Niguel/Oceanside, another north to Palmdale/Lancaster, and another to Ventura.
I enjoy both the Chinatown's in L.A. and San Francisco, and that would make San Diego more fun and interesting, a Chinatown. Why no Chinatown in San Diego?
As a transplant to southern California, I"ve found that often times the people least likely to have a working knowledge of the metro systems and Amtrak are the natives. Angelenos hop in their cars, knowingly drive into the most congested areas at the most congested times and exclaim "traffic in this city is ridiculous, when are they going to do something" as subways, light rail, commuter trains and buses are literally all around them. I had to show a 38 year old native San Diegan how to use the trolley after I told him he could take the MTS from downtown to where he lives in Santee-he was about to spend $30 on Uber because his car was being repaired.
Yes is spent $50 in two days on the BART, it is ridiculous. L.A. Metro is a better, newer system which is coming on to par with Chicago and Toronto in coverage for $7 unlimited.
"Why doesn't San Diego have a Chinatown" is a great question. Even Portland has a robust Chinatown.
What would be an example of not being able to access a tourist attraction due to the layout of Los Angeles?
LA is the most traffic-choked city in the country, by far. Add that to the fact that everything is so spread out, and it’s a nightmare. Just getting from the beach to downtown, for example, is a production. And LA’s rail coverage just isn’t that great for a tourist trying to get from point A to point B. Not to say it’s great in SD, but SD has much better traffic. For a tourist staying downtown, you can easily get to Balboa Park, Coronado, and even Mexico without a car, and with a car you can basically get anywhere fairly quickly over a long weekend. Trying to see what LA has to offer in a long weekend is likely going to entail many hours sitting in traffic.
Whenever I visit LA I normally don’t stray too far from where I am staying, because it’s just not worth the time wasted in traffic. And it’s mentally draining.
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