L.A travel tips

Thousands of hotel workers are on strike across the country, demanding better wages and workloads and a reversal of COVID-19-era cuts.

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines will launch a new flight between Portland, Oregon, and Amsterdam in October, replacing a flight from partner Delta Air Lines between the two cities.

On a dark night in February, east of the 5 Freeway, south of the 134, down the street from the so-called Gentlemen’s Club, glows the blue neon sign: Moonlight Rollerway. These are the industrial hinterlands of Glendale, a tidy enclave in the rambling city-state that is Los Angeles, and here, among plumbing supply warehouses and an Amazon delivery van lot, sits a squat cinder-block building, an unexpected portal.

Good morning from Skift. It’s Thursday, January 25. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

Los Angeles makes up for its lack of terraces and biergartens with an abundance of Instagram-worthy rooftop bars and restaurants. From playful poolside vibes to fine dining, rooftops across the city have a colorful variety of options for every mood. These are the stops we hold in the highest regard — literally.

Train fans and frequent travelers between Las Vegas and Los Angeles will have a new high-speed option that gets them from Point A to Point B. The Biden Administration has announced several projects to give travelers another way to travel. Here’s where rail projects are taking place, with several to begin construction in 2024.

High-speed rail in the United States may soon be a reality. The White House recently announced the allocation of $8.2 billion in funding for several key rail projects including a Las Vegas to Los Angeles corridor; a Raleigh, North Carolina to Richmond, Virginia, route; new service throughout California’s central valley; and more. The investment is a component of President Joe Biden’s “Investing in America” Agenda.  While high-speed rail has been a popular wish among travelers for many years, the allocation of funding helps put the project in motion, with one administration official sharing with Travel + Leisure that the Las Vegas to Los Angeles route could be completed in advance of the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. “If you’ve ever seen the standard of passenger rail service in Japan, Germany, Spain, or Italy, and come home and wondered, 'Why can’t we have these nice things?’ This is the beginning of the answer to that. Help is on the way,” Pete Buttigieg, the U.S. Secretary of Transportation, told T+L during a press briefing on the announcement.  Buttigieg said that the lack of investment in new rail services over the last several decades is a trend that is now being reversed and that while change won’t happen overnight, travelers will see improvements within a few years.  Over 35 rail projects were named as part of the funding announcement, including: 

August 9, 2023 was the final show this year of Taylor Swift’s tour across the United States. She won’t be back until late 2024 for some recently added shows in Miami, New Orleans and Indianapolis. It wasn’t just a concert; it was a tent show revival held in Los Angeles in the stunning SOFI Stadium.

Los Angeles is the promise of speed denied.

As travel times between major metro areas go, the flying time between Los Angeles and San Francisco is about as short as it gets: less than an hour in the air, and a bit longer gate-to-gate. Getting to the airport probably takes longer than the flight itself.