LOS ANGELES — “Hollywood” is only five hours away from the 209 if the traffic gods all align.

And a trip to Warner Brothers and/or Universal Studios to combat the winter blahs can be worth the trip.

Tour packages at Warner (wbstudiotour.com) starts at $73 for those 11 and older and $63 or for kids 5 to 10 while admission to the Universal Studios theme park (universalstudioshollywood.com) start at $109 for the day with park hours from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Clearly, both are designed to wow guests although Universi al is more the theme park.

The $73 ticket to Warner gets you an hour guided tour, two hours unguided, plus the ability to spend more money shopping and dining.

I’ve been to both before.

I ended up going this holiday season to help me through what would be a rough period for me.

Christmas Eve was the first anniversary of my wife’s demise, and as such I wanted to be as far away from everyone and everything as possible. 

I was thinking of going to Las Vegas, but after extrapolating a rather unprofitable four-hour stint at the casino on Elk Grove over a three-day time period, I quickly determined that Vegas was out. 

So I decided on the movie studios – Warner Brothers and Universal. 

I have been to both before, the normal tour at Warner Brothers at the VIP at Universal, and I was hoping to get the VIP tour at Warner Brothers as well, but it was unavailable during my time window. 

So I chose the Golden Age of Television tour at WB. I thoroughly enjoyed my two previous tours at WB – they were intimate and isolated, almost as if we had the whole studio to ourselves. We went on at least one if not two soundstages, which is really interesting to me. 

I thought the Golden Age would be an upgrade – so much for figuring. It was anything but an upgrade.

 Maybe because it was Christmas Eve, but things were anything but intimate and isolated. Crowded and cattle-car esque with no sound-stage tours was not what I signed up for. 

That night I found a hole-in-the-wall Italian restaurant for dinner, and it was pretty good. Killer lasagna, just killer lasagna. 

In the morning I was headed for Universal and with the VIP tour came a pretty good continental breakfast. 

I opted to get the buffet breakfast at the hotel, for a whopping $32. That was a bit steep, but I figured I would get a decent omelet and some hash browns out of the deal. 

So much for figuring. No omelets, no hash browns. And when I got the bill, it was for $45! 

When I inquired as to the discrepancy I was told the mandatory 20 percent gratuity along with taxes. A 20 percent gratuity for bringing me one glass of water and one glass of cranberry juice is steep in anyone’s book.  

When I went about 10 years ago, breakfast and parking were included at this hotel – not this time. They have sent me a survey wondering about my stay – they will hear about it, that is for sure. 

The VIP tour at Universal was well worth the $509 price of admission. While rides do not mean a lot to me, there were no lines for us. I guess Harry Potter is a big thing – it means nothing to me either. 

I went on the “kiddie” (as my tour guide referred to it) Harry Potter roller coaster – only 29 seconds. Well, I could not have stood 30!

And the back-lot tour was outstanding, including a sound stage for a hospital comedy, something right in my wheelhouse.

 Some other highlights from the back-lot tour was “murder alley,” an alley that has been used as murder scenes in countless television shows and movies. The brick walls are facades, with different types of brick for different eras. 

I also got to see the façade for a brownstone that was used in “Home Alone II,” the Bates Motel, the clock tower from “Back to the Future,” a “Jaws” town and the plane crash scene from the remake of “War of the Worlds.” I left the tour early so I could go see the Waterworld Show and still be able to head north in a timely matter, and that show was outstanding. 

I stopped in Hollywood, and went to Grauman’s Chinese Theater, the home of footprints and handprints encased in cement of countless iconic movie stars, from Mel Brooks to Marilyn Monroe, Joan Crawford, Shirley Temple, Clint Eastwood, John Wayne – the list is not endless, but it is pretty close. I then grabbed a burger at Planet Hollywood on Hollywood Boulevard and headed north.

I did get extremely lucky with my travels.

 Both my southbound and northbound journeys were less than five hours apiece, with no traffic encountered while in the southland. I know people who recently took three hours just to traverse 10 miles on the Grapevine. 

The bottom line based on all of my visits — this past holiday season and before — is working in a trip to Hollywood centered around the studio tours is worth it.

My travels are over for now.

 A new year is upon us, and I know better than to tempt worse, so here is hoping for a better new year.