Are you faced with a long layover at LAX on an upcoming trip? It’s easy (and much more fun) to spend your layover hours at Disneyland instead of in a boring airport departure lounge! Tomorrow our family will have a thirteen hour layover at LAX and while our fellow passengers spend those long, tedious hours at LAX, we will be happily spending that time at “The Most Magical Place on Earth”!
Are you thinking it just sounds a little too hard to leave the airport, get yourself to Disneyland, and back to LAX in time for your flight? Let me assure you that it is rather easy and more importantly, it is truly worth the effort!
Our family will be renting a car at LAX and driving to Disneyland. If you do not wish to rent a car there are shuttles you can take from LAX to Disneyland and back again, however we find renting a car to be more economical and less stressful than catching the shuttles. It takes about 45 minutes to drive from LAX to Disneyland (over an hour in traffic) so make sure to allow enough time for your return drive to LAX. The Disneyland website has up-to-date driving directions to get you from LAX to Disneyland in the shortest amount of time.
As you will likely have less than a full day to spend at Disneyland, I highly recommend you buy the latest edition of “The Unofficial Guide to Disneyland”. Every time we go to Disneyland we buy the latest edition of “The Unofficial Guide to Disneyland” as it is worth its weight in gold with all of the time-saving tips it has in it. This guide will help you make the very most of your short visit.
A day at Disneyland is not cheap. For this reason we like to spend our time on the rides, not shopping in the stores. We also buy quick snacks instead of spending time sitting down for a full lunch or dinner. Do you have young children? Disneyland has several “pressed penny” machines that make quick and inexpensive souvenirs. For just 51 cents your child can choose the design of their choice and then hand-crank their very own Disneyland pressed penny. I get quarters and pennies from the bank before we leave home so we are ready to go when we see the first pressed penny machine.
Spending your layover at Disneyland is a world away from spending your layover at LAX! It is easy to do and it may just prove to be a highlight of your trip, instead of the absolute low point. Tomorrow our family will happily spend our layover, not at LAX, but at “The Most Magical Place on Earth”. We’ll let Mickey know you’ll see him soon.
