Many visitors to the USA land at Los Angeles International Airport and then head off to have adventures and need to stow a bag for a few days. Of course with security concerns, storage lockers in airports and other transit terminals are no longer available. My friend UK Sarah discovered LAX Luggage Storage last year when she broke her journey from London to Auckland so we could visit Yosemite.
This year we were determined to visit the Grand Canyon and she needed to store a bag. This became even more important since we were flying on US Airways and an extra bag meant an additional $25 each way. She could not remember the name of the company. So after she cleared customs I found her we went to the information desk in the Tom Bradley international terminal to ask for companies who store luggage. The older woman with a heavy Russian accent at the counter hardly let us finish our question when she began to protest that the airport does not provide luggage storage. We tried to explain that we were looking for a company UK Sarah had used last year. She said to look it up on the internet.
We were booked into the Hilton Airport Hotel and I was pretty certain that the concierge would know a company that could stow the bags. Sure enough he called LAX Luggage Storage and within 20 minutes the van arrived to pick up the bag. It was $77 to store the bag for 5 days. The fee is $10 a day plus a $5 pick up and drop off fee. They only accept cash. When you need the bag again, you call the number on the card and give them your claim number and then within 20 minutes they drop it off. It is a terrific service and worth the fee.
After UK Sarah collected her bag and checked in at the Air New Zealand terminal, we said goodby and she headed to the Koru lounge and I walked to Terminal 1 to check my bag for my Southwest flight. I was using my smart phone for my boarding pass for the first time. All of the lines for check in were long, so I joined the express line and waited and waited. It gave me an opportunity to chat with a young woman from Portland, Oregon who used a website called Spinlister to rent a bike from someone local in Redondo Beach.
The tagline for Spinlister is “rent a bike from someone you like” and it is modeled after AirB&B only for bicycles. Rental rates vary. Her rental was $10 a day and included use of a helmet and bike lock. It also offers surf and ski gear. Spinlister is a very cool idea.
americanjulie.com 