Los Angeles- California, U.S.A

Los Angeles, the big city on the west side of United States. The capital city of the American entertainment and film industry.

On June 2010 I visited LA for the first time in my life, after a trip in Hawaii, and decided that I am going to dedicate the few days I had there to explore the city itself. I was very curious to see finally what is it that everybody talks about and get a little bit of star dust.

Day 1: Santa Monica

We arrived to LAX (Los-Angeles) airport early in the morning, after a 5-hour flight with American Airlines from Kona in Hawaii.

After hesitating about where to stay in LA, and assistance from the voluntary travel adviser at the airport, we decided to choose Santa Monica as our base. We wanted a place where there is easy access to the beach, night life and that would also be a lively place.

Santa Monica Beach

Just from our ride in the bus from the airport to our hotel in Santa Monica, I discovered just how big L.A is. The streets are very long. For example, our ride on Lincoln Boulevard took us about an hour and even then were dropped only halfway along the street!

So, these are the places that you can visit in Santa Monica:

The entance to the pier at Santa Monica

• Santa Monica beach- Wide beaches with white sand. Here was shot the popular program from the 90's: "Baywatch". We were in June and it was cold and the water look so grey. To be honest the beaches did not impressed me so much.

• Santa Monica Pier - The famous pier that is also the end of the classic "Route 66", is a lively place. You can find there an amusement park with a roller-coaster, many shops, souvenir stalls, restaurants, video games room, outdoor performers. Visiting it brought me back to the 80's!

• 3rd street down town Santa Monica-Lively street with singers and performers in .the evenings. Nice atmosphere and many shops and restaurants.

Santa Monica Pier

Day 2: Walk of Fame

 Hollywood Blvd. Walk of Fame

• Hollywood Walk of Fame-The main part in Hollywood Boulevard with a trail of stars on its pavement, with names of famous people from the entertainment world on them. Look for your favourite actor/singer/band/comedian/Radio presenter.

• The Chinese Theatre- Many premiers of films are celebrated here. In the front of the entrance of the theatre. you will find the famous footprints, hand prints and signatures of many celebrities from all times.

 

 At the entrance to the Chinese Theatre

• Kodak Theatre - the famous theatre where the Oscar prize is given every year. The Theatre is located in a shopping centre full of restaurants, shops and tourists and from here you also will be able to see the famous Hollywood sign. I expected to see a glorious place full of stars but the only stars that you will see at night will be the stars on the sky.

Day 3: Venice Beach

• Farmers market, Santa Monica - This is a very nice market with great food from California, great local fruit and vegetables (especially the strawberries, oranges and tomatoes) and you can taste the produce in almost every stall.

 Farmers Market, Santa Monica

• Venice Beach - Lively board walk a few metres from the beach, surrounded by palm trees, full of performers and shops, interesting stalls and people, roller blade court, roller blade dancing area, "Muscle Beach", where Arnold Schwarzenegger used to train. There is still a feeling in the air that this was the hippie centre in the 60's. Don't miss a visit here!

Venice Beach

Day 4: Downtown Los-Angeles

We arrived there easily by bus from Santa Monica and walked through the districts 

• Little Tokyo - the centre of the Japanese-American community. A few shops and interesting buildings and the monument to the Japanese Astronaut, Ellison S Onizuka.
• Pueblo - The remnants of the Mexican community in LA is here. At the centre is Olvera street, which has many cool shops with Mexican food, clothes and souvenirs. You also can visit the oldest, Mexican style, house in LA there. (NB It closes at 16.00).
• Chinese area - We saw the gate with the dragons at the entrance to the main street and visited a Chinese temple.
• Civic centre- Many federal and municipal buildings are here. Between them you can find The City Hall. In the square at the front you can see a few flags that include the draft versions of the American flag prior to the final version of today.
• Jewellery district
• Fashion district

There is a feeling of being in a ghost town in Downtown, especially in the Jewellery and Fashion districts. At 17:00 all the streets were almost totally empty and many old buildings looked  abandoned and vacant, like remnants of the glory that was here in the early 20th Century.

Day 5: A tour by car
After discovering that travelling by bus takes time, we decided to rent a car for a day and discover the rest of LA. We saw a lot of things in one day.

• Venice canals - unlike the Venice in Italy, these canals here were a strange group of ugly channels with no meaning and definitely no glory. The original idea was by millionaire Abbot Kinney who dug the channels to drain land.
• Malibu -We drove north to see this famous beaches which did not impress me at all.
• Bel-Air - Yea Yea Yea, the famous neighbourhood where "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" was set. An exclusive neighbourhood with not much to see.
• Beverly Hills - What can I say about this famous neighbourhood where all the rich and the beautiful live? A very, very exclusive neighbourhood which every private house seems like was designed according to the fantasy of its owners. You can buy  a map of the houses of the stars from the shops in Hollywood Boulevard.
• Rodeo Drive- The famous street which is the shopping centre in Beverly Hills. You can find there many top designers and labels shops. We were told that there is a big chance to watch a famous actor do their shopping there and well, maybe I imagined it, but I swear that I saw Penélope Cruz in one of the shops!
• Sunset strip - A very cool area with plenty of restaurants.
• Hollywood sign - the most famous sign in the whole world that is located on the Hollywood hills. We were determined to see it close up. We found the secret of how to get really close to the sign. (Coming soon!)

 Hollywood sign (view from Hollywood Blvd.)

Day 6: Shopping

• Target - A big store for clothes, toys, make-up and other stuff (free parking for the 1st hour).
• The Grove - Such a cool outdoor shopping centre with a fountain that "dances" to the songs that played and a trolly that drove there in circles from noon in the area. At the other side the Farmers market of L.A. On the roof of the parking you can see the view of all L.A. AMAZING! (free parking for the 1st hour).
• K-Mart - An American net for huge department store. Great shoes!

That was our last day in the journey. We returned the car in Santa Monica and went to the airport, back home to Israel, tired but happy.

 At Hollywood Blvd.

Tips for the traveller:

• America is America: Huge shopping centres everywhere, with cheap, fatty, fast food. In LA you will also find a lot of (somewhat healthier) Mexican food.
• We missed our flight back home because of a huge traffic jam from Santa Monica to the airport. Come early to the airport.
• The bus system is convenient, but if we had rented the car for all the days, we would have done all this in half of the time.
• You will find many Tours that will be offered to you - like tour buses to Rodeo Drive and the homes of the stars. It is worth negotiating the price, because they ultimately want to fill the buses!
• Please notice that when you drive in U.S and arrive to a junction when you need to turn to the right, you can still can drive to the right when the traffic light shows red.
• If you have time, it is very popular to visit one of the famous studios or the theme parks, like Disneyland, Universal Studios and the Six Flags Magic Mountain - which is great if you like roller coasters!

Me at the Walk of Fame