Crappy job sending me to Los Angeles for 3 days

First two years was a week in Miami for training. The second trip I had to stay at a hotel in South Beach, plus I had to stay an extra Saturday to go to Pennsylvania for the following week.

Now I have more training to follow, 20 minutes from Los Angeles in two weeks. I'll have to leave the virtually leafless trees and the darkness of 6 p.m. sunsets to go near the desert and the Ocean on a Wednesday/Thursday/Friday. On top of that, my boss is letting me stay on the Saturday so long as I pay for the hotel and extra day of car rental

SO... anyone has anything to highly recommend in the area for a Saturday in November? My plane leaves for the return trip at 10 p.m. from Los Angeles Int'l airport. I was thinking about spending the day in Malibu, mainly at point Dume state beach (I read there's a cave on the beach*hint hint* and a nice little hike to the top of the cliff) or possibly in Long Beach and get as much sun as possible before coming back to the still young dark age months of the Great White North. I'm still open to suggestions, though...

Hi Cataract

I guess it depends on where exactly you'll be as it can sometimes take a long time to go places in LA.
Not sure if you've checked out TripAdvisor's top attractions for Los Angeles but you may find inspiration there. There a lot of museums in the LA area and the Venice Canal Walkway seems pretty interesting too.

If you're willing to venture a bit south, you can head to Long Beach where they have a good sized aquarium (Aquarium of the Pacific) or you can take the Catalina Express ferry over to Catalina island for a quick day trip.

Hope that helps. I wish you safe travels.

Thanks for the info.

I'm an outdoors guy and daylight is really getting scarce around here, so I'm very interested in spending a day with a hike, a view and some swimming. So far, point Dume in Malibu seems like the place for me (I read a bunch of great reviews about it) but, as you say, I'm a little worried about travel times. I will probably look for a hotel closer to Malibu for Friday night, so I can get there real early and leave for the airport in time or with time to spare somewhere closer (Trip Advisor will certainly help here). I just have no idea what kind of traffic to expect from Malibu to LAX.

EDIT: I just looked at the map and it's almost straight travel from Malibu to LAX. Unless there's an eastbound gridlock saturday afternoons on Pacific Coast HWY, travel should be a breeze... more or less, but at least I got traffic updates on my GPS

Now, I just need a good place for dinner and a backup for my secondary activity (I'll most likely make a hop around Hollywood and Beverly Hills just for kicks) and I'm set.

Just be careful. Never know what you might bump into out there:
http://youtu.be/Jw0sVNuBjNQ

Cataract said:

travel should be a breeze...

Click to expand...

Its LA. Traffic is never really good, more like less worse. Keep the miles down and the estimates up and you'll be fine.

I would recommend you go to Redondo/Manhattan/Hermosa Beach and hang out on The Strand. It is a path on the beach about 5 miles long you can hang out and people watch. Get there early to find parking.

Yah, your job sucks...

this link seems to pretty much include everything I know of..

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g32676-Activities-Malibu_California.html#

the ferry to Catalina is fun, you may see alot of sharks, and/ or whales..(I saw one yesterday) - nice hotel near the beach too, rent a golf cart and drive a few minutes to the Wrigley (yes, the gum guy, he's in a sarcophagus there, gum wads stuck underneath it..) cactus park, cool.