Today's post is a fun one! I'm sharing all about the second half of our trip in Los Angeles (or if you're a die hard La La Land fan, the "City of Stars"). I've been itching to visit this city, probably due to the insane amount of bloggers & YouTubers that live there. I will say, though, you have to have a certain personality to live there. It was way too huge for me, and the traffic was insane, but I can see why people in the entertainment industry make the move. The weather wasn't actually too hot, surprisingly, but be sure to drink a ton of water. One of our Uber drivers told us that LA was a desert before it was populated, and your body dries out of water without you realizing.
Now, onto some of the hotspots! My mom and I did a ton of research, so I have more recommendations here than San Diego (and prepare for a photo overload!).
My mom and I woke up early on a Saturday morning and drove to the train station, where we took a train up the coast to LA. Overall, it was a pleasant experience; the one downside was that it was hard to navigate through the station with all of our luggage. They do allow you to check bigger bags, but the process of finding the baggage claim/dragging our bags through the station/finding our Uber driver was kind of a pain. But it was much smarter economically!
We took an Uber from there to our hotel-the Andaz in West Hollywood. My mom did a TON of research on hotels because she had read that a lot of them are kinda sketchy, but where we stayed ended up being great. (Just a warning--pretty much all of the hotels are crazy expensive, even Best Westerns. Some of my friends that have gone before stayed in an AirBnB. The Andaz was very accommodating, with pastries and coffee every morning and cold beverages throughout the day.)
Once we checked in, we were starving. Shake Shack was on my must-go list, and y'all, it did not disappoint. It might have been just that we were so hungry that it was so good, but was. it. good. From there, we went to the Drybar--everyone who I've told about this made fun of me, but it's been on my list of things to do for about five years, so I continued with the "treat yoself" mentality. After, we went back to our hotel for a little while, and then had dinner at The Grove. I had heard a lot of great things about this area--and I'm glad we dedicated ample time to it. It was on the way here that I had a partial celebrity sighting--NASTIA LUIKIN!!! I had thought I saw her walking down a sidewalk, but I was like "no way," until I looked on her Instagram and she had JUST. BEEN. AT. THE. GROVE. (If any of you are confused, Nastia was an Olympic gymnast in 2008. Best friend of other Olympian Shawn Johnson. Major gymnastics nerd over here).
The next day was our only planned day of the trip--we had purchased tickets for an all-day tour of the city. (For reference, the company was called "A Day in LA".) From my experience, these bus tours /all-day excursions are the best way to see the major sights in a big city. It was a little expensive, but overall if we had taken Ubers to all of the places, the cost probably would've been triple. Plus, we had a very informative tour guide who gave us the DL on a lot of things.
The bus picked us up at our hotel, and then we drove down to Santa Monica Pier to meet up with the rest of our group. Our first stop was Venice Beach, which I had heard of but didn't know much about. It's called "Venice" because when the land was purchased, the owner dug canals throughout the city to mimic Venice, Italy (just tryin' to insert some fun facts for ya).
It's most famous for its graffiti walls, which are repainted white once a month and are the only legal place in the city to spray paint. In addition, there is a huge skate park where anyone can skate. The most famous attraction is Muscle Beach, which is essentially an outdoor gym where huge dudes pay to work out and tan. (Essentially). Apparently Arnold Schwarzenegger is spotted here a lot??
Next, we went to the Beverly Hills/Rodeo Drive area. (On the way there, we drove past the Santa Monica courthouse--which is where OJ Simpson's trial was held! I've been really into that story lately, so I found it intriguing. )Around this area is the hotel where several presidents have stayed, the Beverly Hills sign, and several filming locations in Pretty Woman. We didn't have a ton of time here, but we did walk down Rodeo Drive to see the Hills sign. Our tour guide told us that there's a suit shop on Rodeo where many of the presidents are fitted--but it costs something crazy like $1500 just to make an appointment. BYE.
Next, we went back to The Grove for lunch, but what I didn't realize the first night was that they have a Farmers Market with over 50 food vendors--all fresh and local! We picked a Mexican place.
Our 4th big spot was the Griffith Observatory and the Hollywood Sign. Not going to lie, I didn't even know the Observatory existed before I saw Ryan and Emma's movie. But it was swarming with people. Here was where my mom and I were most grateful for the tour because the bus was able to pull right up to the front doors instead of parking two miles away and walking uphill like all of the other patrons. One of the greatest views of the Hollywood sign is also up at the Observatory. If we had had more time, I would have liked to go to the Planetarium (where Ryan and Emma float through the stars in the movie), but we didn't have enough time. I was kind of fan-girling knowing that RYAN GOSLING had stood on that same piece of land. Inside, there are also a ton of cool exhibits on outer space, telescopes, etc.
Our last stop was on Hollywood Boulevard. By this point, my mom and I were pretty exhausted, but we tried to rally since this area is so iconic to LA. I took pictures of as many stars as I knew, and my mom and I got ice cream at the Ghiradelli store. And after that, our tour guide dropped us back off at our hotel.
When we were on Hollywood Blvd., we drove by the Chinese Theater, which is a famous theater where a ton of premieres happen. And, they do regular movie showings as well! So, my mom and I decided to go see a movie at the theater, and then we finished the night with dinner at Hard Rock Cafe.
Our last day we had left open for any activities we hadn't gotten to do or any fun things we had discovered. We had purchased tickets to tour the Warner Brothers Studios the Saturday before (purchase tickets in advance, especially during tourist season!). This was probably my fav part of LA-and it wasn't really even in LA. I'm a sucker for behind-the-scenes type deals, so getting to see where PLL, La La Land, and GILMORE GIRLS were filmed had me fan-girling like crazy. Fun fact: Rosewood and Stars Hollow are actually the same town!! Just with different props. Sadly, we couldn't take photos of the actual town because another movie was being filmed here (& most of the pics here were super candid because they were taken on a golf cart).
Miss Pattie's dance studio
The actual Wonder Woman costume from the recent movie
We also got to go to the set of The Big Bang Theory, as well as The Ellen Show! (sorry photo is blurry)
At the end of the tour, they have a what they call the studio experience--basically, a ton of behind the scenes facts, props, and even a coffee shop!
The actual red coat from PLL
Inside Central Perk
Then, for lunch, we went to Lemonade. It was the one restaurant on my must-do list, probably because of all the YouTubers (#follower). My mom didn't love it, but they have a ton of healthy, fresh dishes served cafeteria style. So good. Then, we went over to Georgetown Cupcakes for a few minutes, and then back to our hotel. That night, we went to Third Street Promenade, which originally hadn't been on our list. But, one of our Uber drivers recommended it to us and the mention of it was vaguely familiar. There's a large outdoor mall on one side of the street, and the actual promenade is a ton of stores and restaurants. We ended the night at Santa Monica Pier, which with all the neon lights and people watching was a great way to end the trip.
Lunch @ Lemonade
Golden hour @ Third Street Promenade
A few tips about LA:
-Plan/research restaurants in advance. We had somewhat of a difficult time findings restaurants, mainly because the majority of them were too expensive or too far away. I recommend researching the places you want to eat first and then planning the rest of your day around those.
-Traffic is crazy!!! I had heard it again and again, but the traffic is insane. The majority of the Uber drivers know back roads and ways to bypass the jams, but always keep in mind that it could take awhile to arrive.
-Live audiences--this is something I wish I would've done more research on. Pretty much all of the talk shows and even some sitcoms like The Big Bang Theory film with live audiences, and most of them are free! Just be sure to reserve your tickets early.
And that wraps up my California recap! Feel free to comment or send an email if you have any questions.
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