Best of 2000: Best (Cheapest) Way To Get From SD To LA

Oh sure, you can take a taxi ...

Oh sure, you can take a taxi ($250 by Yellow Cab), fly ($135), catch the Amtrak ($22), or Greyhound ($13), or the one daily Coaster-Metrolink combo ($11), but you've got time, not money. So catch a bus! It's 10:39 a.m. Broadway. Hop on a #50, pay $2, head for University Towne Centre. There, catch the 11:55 #310 for Oceanside; free, with transfer. Now: wander around Oceanside for two hours. Marvel at the sights. Buy some Navy surplus. At 2:35, board the 305, pay $1.50. Your voyage through the backlands of Camp Pendleton -- the last of untouched coastal Southern California -- will only take you 1 hour and 43 minutes, and you'll end up in San Clemente, seat of the former western White House. It's now 4:18 p.m. But swift: the #91 departs at 4:28 p.m. (get the all-day $2.50 ticket) to Del Obispo Street, then the #1 at 5:15 p.m. to Pacific Coast Highway and First, the #29 at 6:48 to the Golden West Transportation Center in Huntington Beach, the #29 again at Dock 9 at 7:53 to Beach and Crescent, the #460 (driver might allow you to buy just a 25-cent transfer; otherwise, argh! $3.35) all the way to Fifth and Spring. Scuzzy downtown L.A.! You've arrived! It's 9:57 p.m. Eleven hours, 18 minutes. And you've only spent, uh, $9.35. That's a savings of $1.65 on the Coaster/Metrolink! $3.65 on the Greyhound! $240.65 on a cab! Downside: you feel like you've traveled to China, in a container. Upside: at least you feel like you've traveled.