Travel Notes

Online check-in must be one of the best innovations in recent years. It turns a truly horrible experience – the airport – into just an unpleasant one. Now, if only BA could work on giving everyone a bit more space in cattle class.

We had a hire car (rental) for most of the trip. It looked like an orange hearse, which we nicknamed Orange Crush. It was a Chevy HHR, and drew lots of looks (not all of admiration).

One of the other worst travel experiences must be renting a car. We pre-booked ours and so were subject to only a few minutes of hard sell (upgrades, roadside assiatance). Some others we saw had a horrendous time: “You need to give me another $300 for a one-way drop-off or you don’t get no car.” Nice customer service, Alamo.

By the way, I’d recommend Holiday Autos which searches all the hire companies to get you a good deal.

On the whole, driving in California is a piece of cake. Away from the big cities he roads are quiet and the driving is very orderly, sedate even. But then there’s LA.

The traffic is Los Angeles was comfortably the worst I’ve ever seen. At rush hour, and several hours either side, the freeways seemed to be jammed with cars. One of the sights of the trip was turning onto the Hollywood Freeway and seeing five lanes of stationery traffic. In both directions! A five mile drive to the baseball game took 45 minutes.

Something that was new to me this trip was valet parking at some of the hotels. It’s a cool feeling to pull up outside the hotel and just throw the keys to one of the attendants. Mind you, it doesn’t come cheap.