Unique Adventures at Hand for Those Who Travel by Foot (or Bus or Train)

Kristine Kadlec, an Angeleno, recently sent me an e-mail that said, “I always use public transportation. If I want to get out of the city for one to two days, how do I do it without a car?”

She is a traveler after my own heart, motivated by need or desire--it doesn’t matter which--to hit the road without driving. Pure inventiveness, not gasoline, fuels trips for people like Kadlec. They must lay their plans more carefully than those who throw their suitcases in the trunk and take off. They have to rely on buses and trains, ride bikes and walk, which makes getting around slower. Their excursions can’t cover as much territory as driving tours.

Of course, it’s like whispering into an amplifier at a rock concert to tell Southern Californians to leave their cars behind when they go on trips. Also, the hassles of plane travel have persuaded more people to take driving vacations.

But I can attest to the surprising pleasures of carless travel--the way inventive planning pays off, the pleasures of going slowly, the adventures caused by delays and the satisfaction of really getting to know one manageable place.

When I lived in New York City, I didn’t have a car, but I still used to get antsy to get away in the summer. Once, I took a lumbering little local train to the leafy Victorian town of Spring Lake, N.J., for a weekend at the shore. Another time, I took a commuter train from Grand Central Station to Tarrytown on the Hudson River to tour Kykuit, the lavish Rockefeller family estate and gardens.

Similar carless getaways abound in L.A. Here are a few:

* Trains and more trains: Amtrak’s Southwest Chief, Coast Starlight, Pacific Surfliner and other California trains leave L.A. from Union Station, the landmark railroad station downtown. Built in the ‘30s in a blend of Spanish and Art Deco styles, it’s a treat in itself, with a restaurant and bar, a 135-foot clock tower and deep leather seats in the waiting room.

An overnight ride on the Southwest Chief takes you from L.A. to Williams Junction, Ariz., where a free shuttle will take you to the Grand Canyon Railroad Station in the town of Williams. The trip to the canyon takes about two hours and ends paces away from the South Rim. Once there, you can settle in at one of the historic South Rim hotels or join a Grand Canyon Field Institute backpacking trip for a more intimate experience of the Colorado River canyon.

Santa Barbara and Solana Beach are two to three hours from L.A. on the Pacific Surfliner. The station in Santa Barbara is walking distance from the beach, pier and downtown shopping district and a handful of convivial little inns and B&Bs.; Heading south on the same line, there’s a stop at Solana Beach, where a free shuttle takes passengers to and from beautiful Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, started by Bing Crosby and cronies in 1937.

Amtrak trains like the Coast Starlight connect L.A. to Oakland and Emeryville, where bus connections are available to downtown San Francisco. My idea of an inviting long weekend there would be to watch a video of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 thriller “Vertigo,” take the train to the City by the Bay, where the movie is set, and check in at a fancy Nob Hill hotel. The Huntington would fit the bill, with doubles starting at $195. The San Remo Hotel, a European-style pension nearby, is less, with shared-bath doubles for $55 to $75.

* Outdoors with a group: The Sierra Club, REI Adventures and other groups offer trips of all kinds into the great outdoors. I want to try one with the outdoors outfitter Adventure 16, which offers such wilderness expeditions as a six-day backpacking trip in the Inyo National Forest, over Rohn and McGee passes, for $545.

* Get away in the L.A. area: Almost every weekend I’m in town, I fantasize about pretending I don’t live here, packing a bag and finding a wonderful little hotel where I can hide away. I did this once in Culver City, where I went ice skating, ate Italian, heard a free band concert and felt away from it all. Now I’m thinking of checking in at the chic little Avalon Hotel on West Olympic Boulevard (doubles $199 to $229), where, after listening to hipsters strike deals while drinking martinis by the pool, I would explore Beverly Hills. You could tour West Hollywood by staying at the reasonably priced Standard Hotel on Sunset Boulevard (doubles $135 to $185) or Malibu from a room at the Malibu Beach Inn on Pacific Coast Highway (doubles $249 to $279, including continental breakfast).

I could ride my bike to the lovely Ritz-Carlton Huntington Hotel in Pasadena or the secretive Hotel Bel-Air. Do you suppose they have valet parking for bicycles there?

Adventure 16 Wilderness Outings, (619) 283-2362, Ext. 139, www.adventure16.com.

Amtrak, (800) 872-7245, www.amtrak.com.

Avalon Hotel, 9400 W. Olympic Blvd., Beverly Hills; (800) 535-4715, www.avalon-hotel.com.

Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, (858) 793-5533, www.delmarracing.com.

Grand Canyon Field Institute, (928) 638-2485, www.grandcanyon.org.

Grand Canyon Railway, (800) 843-8724, www.thetrain.com.

Grand Canyon National Park Lodges, (888) 297-2757, www.xanterra.com.

Huntington Hotel, 1075 California St., San Francisco; (800) 227-4683, www.huntingtonhotel.com.

Malibu Beach Inn, 22878 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu; (800) 462-5428, www.malibubeachinn.com.

San Remo Hotel, 2237 Mason St., San Francisco; (800) 352-7366, www.sanremohotel.com.

Santa Barbara Convention & Visitors Bureau, (800) 676-1266, www.santabarbaraca.com.

Standard Hotel, 8300 W. Sunset Blvd., Hollywood; (323) 650-9090, www.standardhotel.com.