I had been saving a
bookmarked list of things I wanted to see in in LA for the last couple years
never thinking I'd ever get out there. So I was so excited to spend a week in Los
Angeles in early June! Everyone I met
was nice, easy going and had that sunny laid back Cali vibe.
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| Walt Disney performance hall |
I traveled by myself and
have to say that one of the benefits of traveling alone is that I am master of
my own day and that includes eating where ever I want. When I travel I enjoy
trying out vegetarian restaurants in every city I go to. I’ll write more about
this in another post later this week. Something new for me was that Rite Aid
has a liquor and wine aisle and plastic shopping bags cost you 10 cents a bag.
Being alone also forces
me to be more social with strangers as it gave me the opportunity to strike up
interesting conversations with my lyft and uber drivers in which I had a free
tour guide sharing some info about their city. As a city girl, I'm comfortable
walking everywhere alone and taking the city bus to get around. This gave me
the opportunity to explore a lot of neighborhoods including a free celebrity
star home tours as the bus went through Beverly Hills. Well all you see is
gates and tall shrubbery. lol I also toured San Francisco via city bus and this
also proved to be an easy way to get around. Random side note – did you know
dogs have to pay their own fare to ride the bus in SF? I saw a Chihuahua get on
the bus and take his own seat so I inquired. lol
When I travel I always
type up an itinerary of what to do each day as I like to squeeze the most out
of every day. I love traveling at my own pace and without compromise. So for
this trip I could breeze through the Getty museum as fast as I wanted to or
read every single plaque at the Japanese American Museum. Both museums are free
so I highly recommend visiting them.
Using the anytrail app I did a walking tour of
downtown LA and the app also gave me a lot of history of the area. I never
would have known what sites are worth seeing without it. Then I hiked up to the
Hollywood sign which was an hour long, steep uphill hike. LA is actually a city
in a desert with lots of great hiking trails.
I walked along the Hollywood Walk of Stars and checked out the nightlife on Sunset Strip. I also ventured to Melrose Place to go to Dash (the Kardashian store) and next door was Hermes (Kim's favorite designer of bandage dresses) and a Nars makeup store (which there's only 6 stores in the whole US). I kept an eye on Groupon LA before I left and snagged a coupon for a pedicure at Bliss Spa at the W Hotel in Hollywood where I saw Jermaine Jackson. Then I enjoyed strolling down Rodeo drive in Beverly Hills where I saw Tyra Banks. All the best stores are there - Giorgio Armani, Chanel, Prada, Coach, Saint Lauren, Lacoste, Guess, Cartier, Gucci, Dior, Louis Vuitton, G-Star Raw, and my two favorite brands - Badgley Mischka and Bvlgari (for sunglasses). Everywhere I went were ads for this funny movie.
I walked along the Hollywood Walk of Stars and checked out the nightlife on Sunset Strip. I also ventured to Melrose Place to go to Dash (the Kardashian store) and next door was Hermes (Kim's favorite designer of bandage dresses) and a Nars makeup store (which there's only 6 stores in the whole US). I kept an eye on Groupon LA before I left and snagged a coupon for a pedicure at Bliss Spa at the W Hotel in Hollywood where I saw Jermaine Jackson. Then I enjoyed strolling down Rodeo drive in Beverly Hills where I saw Tyra Banks. All the best stores are there - Giorgio Armani, Chanel, Prada, Coach, Saint Lauren, Lacoste, Guess, Cartier, Gucci, Dior, Louis Vuitton, G-Star Raw, and my two favorite brands - Badgley Mischka and Bvlgari (for sunglasses). Everywhere I went were ads for this funny movie.
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| bus stop |
I got around LA via
the public metro and bus systems, pretty cheap way to do it. My only complaint
was that the LA transit website and app is the worst I’ve used. For instance it
would tell me what bus to ride, but not where to walk to find the bus stop or
where to walk after getting off my bus, that’s pretty important details part of
the directions. I've found that mapquest
was better for finding public transportation routes for me. Another frustrating
thing is that you can not transfer from LA buses to Santa Monica buses (both
lines criss cross into each city) you have to pay another fare.
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