Vacation guide to Los Angeles
So, a few weeks ago I went on a road trip with my family traveling to the big cities on USA's West Coast. It was beyond wonderful and I would definitely recommend it. Only make sure that you can get along with your traveling buddies - it can be tough being together 24/7.
I thought I would do five individual posts on what I would recommend seeing, documenting my vacation and maybe give you some ideas of what to see if you visit the place. First up is Los Angeles or shortened LA, the entertainment capital.
We had four days in LA and I would definitely advice that you have at least that many days. There are so many sights to see and in LA everything is so far from each other, at least in context to many European big cities. Which brings me on to my next part - you'll need a car.
You can't go to LA without having to drive everywhere and since the public transport isn't very available or easy to figure out, you have to rent a car. And mind you, the traffic is truly terrible so make sure to add extra traveling time when you're going somewhere. One of the tips we went on would usually take 15 minutes but due to rush hour it took close to an hour.
Our hotel was the SAS Radisson which was located right next to LAX. That meant that the actual city life was quite a bit away and we rented a big Dodge Durango AWD. It's the hugest car I've ever been in but it wasn't an odd sight around LA. A lot of people were driving big cars.
One thing you need to see when in LA is the beautiful beaches, which was why we despite having flown for over 12 hours ventured out to visit Venice Beach on our very first day. We had arrived around noon and were all ready to hit the sheets but needed to go out to make sure we got our internal time clock turned around.
The weather was absolutely beautiful and very hot (around 32 °C). One thing is that you can become rather lax in hot weather especially when you're tired. A few people who weren't tired was the boys on penny boards (skateboards) that skated around on a platform made for them. Some of the boys tried to impress girls sitting along the ridge by jumping over their heads.
We also saw different street performers lined up and striding down the beach walk it was filled with quirky shops offering things like palm readings. The performers gathered up crowds and showed off their weird dance moves, one guy could move his shoulder as if they weren't properly attached.
We sat down and enjoyed a late lunch slash early dinner before being so tired that we had to go back to the hotel and get some rest.
Next day we had reserved the entire day to spend at Universal Studios and it was an amazing place. If you're traveling with kids they would probably enjoy Disney World more but for older teens and adults I think Universal Studios offers a bit more. I am a huge Disney fan but I've been to the one in Paris twice and never been to Universal before, so it was with excitement we drove the +20 km to the destination. It was moderately expensive to park another thing you need to be weary about with LA, you need a car and it will be expensive to park.
People lined up to take photos with the Universal Studios as did we but I since I don't feel comfortable posting photos of myself or my family online like this, you only get to see random families lined up.
We walked through the gate and headed through the security. Back home a month before our arrival we had ordered front of the line passes and although they are double the price of normal tickets, I would still recommend it if you can. A lot of people visit Universal Studios and this enabled us to jump the line for everything once and thus enabled us to see everything which would have been impossible otherwise even if you spend the entire day there.
We arrived only half an hour after the opening hours and the LA sky hung grey only to turn cloudless after a few hours. It was like that all of the days we spend in LA. It just to inform that even though the weather might look gloomy in the morning, it is likely to turn into a bare sky and become hotter later on.
An advice for Universal Studios is to plan your time. Shows premier at certain times while other events are open all the time and if have a front line pass and you want your extra behind the scenes then make sure to check which of the performances you should go to.
We started out with the show about Waterworld, which was hands down the best show of them all. It had action, great effects and even famous actors and despite the fact that I've never watched the movie, I found it very entertaining. It's been running for over 15 years which is also an indicator of the quality.
Another highlight of the day at Universal was the tour around the real sets. They said that you can even get lucky and see celebrities. That we did not however an untitled pilot was being filmed on their set as we took the tour. We got to see a lot of scenes you could recognize from the movies, like...
The backdrop of countless Western movies
The shark from Jaws eating a diver. I tried to photograph the mechanic but by then it had swam up the side of the cart and scared the bejeezus out of me. The shark was nicknamed Bruce after Steven Spielberg's lawyer.
We drove down Wisteria Lane and it felt weird seeing the entire set and that the lane was actually real after having seen it on TV countless of times. Of course only some of the houses are real but the feel of the lane was quite overwhelming.
The hotel from Psycho and we even got a little performance by no-other than the psycho himself. Our guide promised that we could get autographs, but he was a little pre-occupied carrying... something.
The famous scene from War of the Worlds. I'm still baffled that they bought an actual airplane and tore it apart. One of the perks of being Steven Spielberg I guess.
After the tour we went for lemonades, the first of many of our entire USA trip. Those american just know how to make lemonade. Damn.
My second favorite show was the Animal Actors. It was simply incredible what they had taught the animals to do. Dogs, cats, chickens, pigs, birds and mice all jumped around on stage. We also got to see how they film a bird flying for the films. With the help of a big fan, a green screen, a patient trainer and a very well trained bird they get the amazing shots you see of a bird flying close up.
Finally we also got to see one of the oscars Universal Studios has won.
It was the perfect end to a very eventful day and after having spend 7 hours in Universal and had seen or tried simply everything you could, we headed for a dinner at Taco Bell on the way home.
Our 3rd day was the schedule said: HOLLYWOOD. Like the tourists we were, we wanted to see the sign, walk on the stars along the boulevard, see the the hand and footprint by the Chinese Theatre and spy on the celebrities' homes.
We got to see many stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and kneeled down on the hot black pavement and burnt our bare knees. Here's a few of my favourites.
We then headed to the theatre and was offered a very expensive tour inside to watch costumes of famous films like Gone with the Wind. However none of us really was that keen on it and politely declined. But if you know a lot of the "old" films and want to know more about them you might want to take the 30 minutes tour.
We settled for taking photos with the hand- and footprints.
As you might guess, Johnny Depp is one of my favourite actors of all time and I was surprised when I actually saw him in Hollywood!
Obviously he's just a wax figure. There's a Madame Tussauds smacked down along the Walk of Fame and I would definitely recommend it if you haven't visited one before. A few years ago I went to the original one in London and it's really fun, although a bit creepy, walking around between wax figures of celebrities. Then you can get to take a photo of fake them and pretend you met them.
When we sat down with cold beverages to cool down around noon, we were fortunate enough to watch a Australian group of young dancers preform in front of a store having a sale.
It was quite surreal how many performers was in Hollywood, people walking around in costumes and some tried to sell us their music.
We then took a moderately expensive tour around Hollywood passing famous hotels, celebrity homes, the Hollywood sign and more. We debated if it would be better to drive around in our rented car but decided against it as it is rather difficult to get close to the sign yourselves. And we got a lot of information about the sights from our guide.
The famous Beverly Hills sign.
The famous Beverly Hills Hotel, in which many celebrities has stayed according to our guide.
Iron Man's house, that's also been used in countless other movies, including Charlie's Angles.
And finally the Hollywood sign. Turns out we didn't get that close, so if you want that you can drive up to a parking space and hike very close to it. An anecdote we learned was that originally it said "HOLLYWOOD LAND" because the people who owned all the surrounding hectares wanted to sell of the land. Hollywood was simply a nickname for the woods because it had a lot of hollies. When all of the land had been sold off the owners just left the sign to decay. However it had now become iconic and Hollywood area was beginning to become famous and the city bought it and simply only restored the Hollywood part. To think that such an icon started as a huge advertisement.
We also got to see an incredible view of LA.
For our final day in LA we had a lot of things that we still wanted to see. We started out with visiting The Page Museum. It turns out that due to LA's tar-pits they have the biggest and oldest collection of ice age bones in the world. We couldn't pass up the opportunity to visit a place like that.
The animals would get stuck in the tar and either starve to death or its cry of panic would attract predators that would attack. That meant that sometime an entire food chain would be found together in the tar.
The tar preserved the bones so well and kept them fairly close together, so they have almost complete skeletons.
The discoveries have given scientists a better understanding of how the animals lived and to this day they continue to find more bones in the tar pits.
If you're looking for an interesting and unique museum or you might have an extraordinary interest in animals, like me, I would definitely The Page Museum. It's not that large but you can even get to see employees and volunteers work with the bones.
Next up was shopping in the Grove but due to the fact that I hate shopping as do my brother and my father, we decided to leave my mother to look at windows by herself while we headed to the Santa Monica Pier. If you enjoy shopping, the Grove seemed like a really great place. It was a it expensive but US store seem to be flaunting all sorts of sale during July, so you should be able to get yourself a good deal and some nice clothes.
As all of the other days, LA was really sporting beach weather and many people had come out to enjoy it.
We walked to the end of the pier and enjoyed the view for a few minutes before we headed down to the beach for a quick dip in the ocean. It was cold-ish at first but you quickly got used to it. Much warmer that the Danish beaches has ever been.
We had to go back and pick up my mother, so we didn't spend time walking around looking on the shops on the pier or go on the giant Ferris Wheel. My brother was slightly worried that the pier would collapse due to the enormous weight but that of course wasn't a problem.
It had neared rush hour when we needed to go and this was the dreaded trip that took nearly an hour. Finally we got her and back to the hotel for a quick shower before going to explore downtown LA.
We were in for quite a shock as the area was completely dead. There wasn't even anyone monitoring the parking lots and we couldn't pay for parking. Not that I'm complaining but that was weird because signs told us the fee but no one was around to accept it.
All the food places had closed as well, except one really local food court-like arrangement. It had a certain charm and we were to only tourists venturing in among the locals.
Somehow that was the perfect end to our last evening in LA. I had made a promise that I would by a T-shirt form every place on our road trip and for LA I opted for the usual I love LA back T with white lettering. As the trip went on I chose different styles.
I really enjoy having a souvenir from all the cities I went to and at the same time it's something I can use and every time I wear it I can look back to the amazing family vacation I had in 2014.
If I were to sum up my most important advice and the places I would recommend the most, it would be like this:
- You need a car, you'll have to drive everywhere, the traffic sucks and parking is expensive
- Must sees include at least one LA beach, Universal Studios, Hollywood Walk of Fame & The Page Museum
- Get a usuable souvenir from LA, like a T-shirt or a hat, to remember the trip by.
Maybe someone read this and found it useful, otherwise I know I'll be happy when I look back on this years into the future and can remember it all over again.
I thought I would do five individual posts on what I would recommend seeing, documenting my vacation and maybe give you some ideas of what to see if you visit the place. First up is Los Angeles or shortened LA, the entertainment capital.
We had four days in LA and I would definitely advice that you have at least that many days. There are so many sights to see and in LA everything is so far from each other, at least in context to many European big cities. Which brings me on to my next part - you'll need a car.
You can't go to LA without having to drive everywhere and since the public transport isn't very available or easy to figure out, you have to rent a car. And mind you, the traffic is truly terrible so make sure to add extra traveling time when you're going somewhere. One of the tips we went on would usually take 15 minutes but due to rush hour it took close to an hour.
Our hotel was the SAS Radisson which was located right next to LAX. That meant that the actual city life was quite a bit away and we rented a big Dodge Durango AWD. It's the hugest car I've ever been in but it wasn't an odd sight around LA. A lot of people were driving big cars.
One thing you need to see when in LA is the beautiful beaches, which was why we despite having flown for over 12 hours ventured out to visit Venice Beach on our very first day. We had arrived around noon and were all ready to hit the sheets but needed to go out to make sure we got our internal time clock turned around.
The weather was absolutely beautiful and very hot (around 32 °C). One thing is that you can become rather lax in hot weather especially when you're tired. A few people who weren't tired was the boys on penny boards (skateboards) that skated around on a platform made for them. Some of the boys tried to impress girls sitting along the ridge by jumping over their heads.
We also saw different street performers lined up and striding down the beach walk it was filled with quirky shops offering things like palm readings. The performers gathered up crowds and showed off their weird dance moves, one guy could move his shoulder as if they weren't properly attached.
We sat down and enjoyed a late lunch slash early dinner before being so tired that we had to go back to the hotel and get some rest.
Next day we had reserved the entire day to spend at Universal Studios and it was an amazing place. If you're traveling with kids they would probably enjoy Disney World more but for older teens and adults I think Universal Studios offers a bit more. I am a huge Disney fan but I've been to the one in Paris twice and never been to Universal before, so it was with excitement we drove the +20 km to the destination. It was moderately expensive to park another thing you need to be weary about with LA, you need a car and it will be expensive to park.
People lined up to take photos with the Universal Studios as did we but I since I don't feel comfortable posting photos of myself or my family online like this, you only get to see random families lined up.
We walked through the gate and headed through the security. Back home a month before our arrival we had ordered front of the line passes and although they are double the price of normal tickets, I would still recommend it if you can. A lot of people visit Universal Studios and this enabled us to jump the line for everything once and thus enabled us to see everything which would have been impossible otherwise even if you spend the entire day there.
We arrived only half an hour after the opening hours and the LA sky hung grey only to turn cloudless after a few hours. It was like that all of the days we spend in LA. It just to inform that even though the weather might look gloomy in the morning, it is likely to turn into a bare sky and become hotter later on.
An advice for Universal Studios is to plan your time. Shows premier at certain times while other events are open all the time and if have a front line pass and you want your extra behind the scenes then make sure to check which of the performances you should go to.
We started out with the show about Waterworld, which was hands down the best show of them all. It had action, great effects and even famous actors and despite the fact that I've never watched the movie, I found it very entertaining. It's been running for over 15 years which is also an indicator of the quality.
Another highlight of the day at Universal was the tour around the real sets. They said that you can even get lucky and see celebrities. That we did not however an untitled pilot was being filmed on their set as we took the tour. We got to see a lot of scenes you could recognize from the movies, like...
The backdrop of countless Western movies
The shark from Jaws eating a diver. I tried to photograph the mechanic but by then it had swam up the side of the cart and scared the bejeezus out of me. The shark was nicknamed Bruce after Steven Spielberg's lawyer.
We drove down Wisteria Lane and it felt weird seeing the entire set and that the lane was actually real after having seen it on TV countless of times. Of course only some of the houses are real but the feel of the lane was quite overwhelming.
The hotel from Psycho and we even got a little performance by no-other than the psycho himself. Our guide promised that we could get autographs, but he was a little pre-occupied carrying... something.
The famous scene from War of the Worlds. I'm still baffled that they bought an actual airplane and tore it apart. One of the perks of being Steven Spielberg I guess.
After the tour we went for lemonades, the first of many of our entire USA trip. Those american just know how to make lemonade. Damn.
My second favorite show was the Animal Actors. It was simply incredible what they had taught the animals to do. Dogs, cats, chickens, pigs, birds and mice all jumped around on stage. We also got to see how they film a bird flying for the films. With the help of a big fan, a green screen, a patient trainer and a very well trained bird they get the amazing shots you see of a bird flying close up.
Finally we also got to see one of the oscars Universal Studios has won.
It was the perfect end to a very eventful day and after having spend 7 hours in Universal and had seen or tried simply everything you could, we headed for a dinner at Taco Bell on the way home.
Our 3rd day was the schedule said: HOLLYWOOD. Like the tourists we were, we wanted to see the sign, walk on the stars along the boulevard, see the the hand and footprint by the Chinese Theatre and spy on the celebrities' homes.
We got to see many stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and kneeled down on the hot black pavement and burnt our bare knees. Here's a few of my favourites.
We then headed to the theatre and was offered a very expensive tour inside to watch costumes of famous films like Gone with the Wind. However none of us really was that keen on it and politely declined. But if you know a lot of the "old" films and want to know more about them you might want to take the 30 minutes tour.
We settled for taking photos with the hand- and footprints.
As you might guess, Johnny Depp is one of my favourite actors of all time and I was surprised when I actually saw him in Hollywood!
Obviously he's just a wax figure. There's a Madame Tussauds smacked down along the Walk of Fame and I would definitely recommend it if you haven't visited one before. A few years ago I went to the original one in London and it's really fun, although a bit creepy, walking around between wax figures of celebrities. Then you can get to take a photo of fake them and pretend you met them.
When we sat down with cold beverages to cool down around noon, we were fortunate enough to watch a Australian group of young dancers preform in front of a store having a sale.
It was quite surreal how many performers was in Hollywood, people walking around in costumes and some tried to sell us their music.
We then took a moderately expensive tour around Hollywood passing famous hotels, celebrity homes, the Hollywood sign and more. We debated if it would be better to drive around in our rented car but decided against it as it is rather difficult to get close to the sign yourselves. And we got a lot of information about the sights from our guide.
The famous Beverly Hills sign.
The famous Beverly Hills Hotel, in which many celebrities has stayed according to our guide.
The room in which Michael Jackson died...
And finally the Hollywood sign. Turns out we didn't get that close, so if you want that you can drive up to a parking space and hike very close to it. An anecdote we learned was that originally it said "HOLLYWOOD LAND" because the people who owned all the surrounding hectares wanted to sell of the land. Hollywood was simply a nickname for the woods because it had a lot of hollies. When all of the land had been sold off the owners just left the sign to decay. However it had now become iconic and Hollywood area was beginning to become famous and the city bought it and simply only restored the Hollywood part. To think that such an icon started as a huge advertisement.
We also got to see an incredible view of LA.
For our final day in LA we had a lot of things that we still wanted to see. We started out with visiting The Page Museum. It turns out that due to LA's tar-pits they have the biggest and oldest collection of ice age bones in the world. We couldn't pass up the opportunity to visit a place like that.
The animals would get stuck in the tar and either starve to death or its cry of panic would attract predators that would attack. That meant that sometime an entire food chain would be found together in the tar.
The tar preserved the bones so well and kept them fairly close together, so they have almost complete skeletons.
The discoveries have given scientists a better understanding of how the animals lived and to this day they continue to find more bones in the tar pits.
If you're looking for an interesting and unique museum or you might have an extraordinary interest in animals, like me, I would definitely The Page Museum. It's not that large but you can even get to see employees and volunteers work with the bones.
Next up was shopping in the Grove but due to the fact that I hate shopping as do my brother and my father, we decided to leave my mother to look at windows by herself while we headed to the Santa Monica Pier. If you enjoy shopping, the Grove seemed like a really great place. It was a it expensive but US store seem to be flaunting all sorts of sale during July, so you should be able to get yourself a good deal and some nice clothes.
As all of the other days, LA was really sporting beach weather and many people had come out to enjoy it.
We walked to the end of the pier and enjoyed the view for a few minutes before we headed down to the beach for a quick dip in the ocean. It was cold-ish at first but you quickly got used to it. Much warmer that the Danish beaches has ever been.
We had to go back and pick up my mother, so we didn't spend time walking around looking on the shops on the pier or go on the giant Ferris Wheel. My brother was slightly worried that the pier would collapse due to the enormous weight but that of course wasn't a problem.
It had neared rush hour when we needed to go and this was the dreaded trip that took nearly an hour. Finally we got her and back to the hotel for a quick shower before going to explore downtown LA.
We were in for quite a shock as the area was completely dead. There wasn't even anyone monitoring the parking lots and we couldn't pay for parking. Not that I'm complaining but that was weird because signs told us the fee but no one was around to accept it.
All the food places had closed as well, except one really local food court-like arrangement. It had a certain charm and we were to only tourists venturing in among the locals.
Somehow that was the perfect end to our last evening in LA. I had made a promise that I would by a T-shirt form every place on our road trip and for LA I opted for the usual I love LA back T with white lettering. As the trip went on I chose different styles.
I really enjoy having a souvenir from all the cities I went to and at the same time it's something I can use and every time I wear it I can look back to the amazing family vacation I had in 2014.
If I were to sum up my most important advice and the places I would recommend the most, it would be like this:
- You need a car, you'll have to drive everywhere, the traffic sucks and parking is expensive
- Must sees include at least one LA beach, Universal Studios, Hollywood Walk of Fame & The Page Museum
- Get a usuable souvenir from LA, like a T-shirt or a hat, to remember the trip by.
Maybe someone read this and found it useful, otherwise I know I'll be happy when I look back on this years into the future and can remember it all over again.
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