advice sought for (split) first trip to LA
 

In late May/early June I'm flying LHR-LAX-SFO-LAX-LHR, with 2 nights in LAX in each direction. Neither I nor my companion have been to LA before, and are wondering what to do. Help, FT, help! :eek: :D

OK, a bit more detail: outbound we arrive on NZ1 at 1915 and are staying at the Holiday Inn Express Walk Of Fame. This seems like a pretty decent location for ticking a whole slew of tourist boxes on our first full day. On the following day our LAX-SFO flight is at 1952, so we have a chunk of that day available too.

On the way back, we arrive at LAX at 1100, and leave on NZ2 at 1630 two days later. No accommodation booked yet.

Apart from all the things in the vicinity of the Walk of Fame, our main considerations are a bit fuzzy and vague, basically "do/see things that we can't do/see in Europe", in particular see if we can't somehow manage to visit a bit of "proper desert" (no, I have no real idea what this means :) and appreciate deserts are diverse) - initial research suggests maybe Vasquez Rocks, or somewhere in Antelope Valley?

Possibly pertinent information: only one of us drives (and it ain't me :o) and she's never even been to the US before, much less driven there.

Any suggestions for what we can fit in to such a small amount of time, and where to stay on the second visit, are much appreciated :)

If you don't drive, visiting the "desert" may be difficult as the only feasible way to visit the sticks is to drive. If you stay within the Hollywood/Downtown LA/West LA/LAX nexus, you can rely on public transportation and an occasional taxi ride to get to where you want to go. Outside of this box, rental car is preferable.

As for things to see and do on your first leg, you can hit Hollywood Blvd and Sunset Blvd, which will pretty much cover all the tourist hot spots: Grauman's Theater, Stars Walk of Fame, Kodak Theater, Pantages, "the Sunset Stripe" etc. If you are into music, check out Ameoba Music on Sunset.

Try eating at Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles... a local institution in Hollywood. Take the subway Red line to Hollywood/Western and you can explore Thai Town and get some very good and cheap Thai Food.

Take the Red line subway to Downtown LA and you can explore a number of neighborhoods like Little Tokyo, Olvera Street, and Chinatown. There is also walking tours in the Old Bank District you can do that will give you a quick take on history of Downtown LA. Take the Purple line subway and you can also reach Koreatown, which has some good food options too.

On your return leg, I suggest staying close to the beach area (try Santa Monica) to get a different perspective from the heavily touristy Hollywood area. You can rent bikes and ride along the beach boardwalk and check out both Main Street Santa Monica and Abbot Kinney in Venice Beach. Public transportation in Santa Monica/Venice area by bus is very easy and convenient.

since you're staying close to the metro, some things you can see with a day pass (but not necessarily in this order!):

- union station and olvera street, north of downtown
- universal studios/citywalk
- old town pasadena
- little tokyo (assuming the gold line extension is open)
- long beach aquarium
- moca
- lacma/page museum/tar pits (by bus)

skip roscoe's, by the way. it's a local institution to the same extent the mannekin pis is a local institution in amsterdam. the true glory of LA is the wide variety and quality of its ethnic food (although some places may be hard to get to).

The most practical "desert" is Joshua Tree National Park near Palm Springs about 2-3 hours from LAX. The drive is not bad assuming you avoid rush hour traffic. Stay in Palm Springs/Indian Wells (plenty of nice resorts there) - prices should be quite cheap as it gets hot there by june. The added bonus a giant outlet mall in Cabazon nearby.

Thanks (all!). I was thinking about Joshua Tree myself :) is it feasible to pick up a car on landing at LAX second time (at 1100 on a Sunday) drive to/see JTNP, and then make it to Santa Monica for the evening and follow bzcat's suggestion for our full day?

Yes. It depends on how long you want to spend in the desert. There is traffic, even on Sundays. :)

I second bzcat's suggestion to check out the beach area, though. It really is a different atmosphere from west of the 405. In my opinion, more chill and relaxed. There are other beachy towns too south of the airport, like Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach and Redondo Beach. Manhattan and Hermosa are smaller towns and you can walk along the beach area. It's a completely different feel from Santa Monica, which has vast beaches and condos spread apart. South of the airport, you have fancy homes crammed next to each other along narrower beaches. Santa Monica is also more touristy. You can walk along alley ways in Manhattan Beach/Hermosa Beach, too, giving it a more small-town feel.

You can certainly do that but just keep in mind that it is at least 2 hours each way with a local behind the wheel: we know short cuts and how to use carpool lanes and what not to get around the bottlenecks - we also tend to drive faster than tourists :D

Santa Monica and Venice area can be explored at night as well (pretty safe) so if you make it back by late afternoon, you still have plenty of time to walk around. The bike rental places near the beach tends to close by 6 or 7 pm so you may not be able to that.

Perhaps but you are looking at 6-10 hours of nonstop driving (the park is big and you'll have to drive around). I personally wouldn't do it.
Stay in PSP overnight and do the Santa Monica stuff the following day.

I don't know about that. :) Santa Monica, yes. It's very safe at night. Venice beach area, well, it gets deserted and sort of sketchy feeling at night. I've walked along the beach/boardwalk area in Venice at night, and it wasn't a very comfy feeling. Once you cross into the Santa Monica area, even though not as populated as daytime, it felt a lot safer, but that's just my take. I could be wrong. This was maybe 3 years ago around 9pm or so.

Not really that much to do in downtown Hollywood itself, but you may want to take a tour (if not a larger guided tour, then a tour of Grauman's Chinese or the Kodak Theater, where the Oscar ceremony takes place). Lots of entertainment industry attractions are in other places (e.g, the best movie studio tours are probably Warner Brothers, in Burbank, and, after that, Sony Studios, which used to be MGM, in Culver City; Universal Studios has a short studio, I think, but is mainly a theme park). Santa Monica would seem a possible choice for your return trip, so you can spend some time near the ocean, but we don't know where else you'd want to go, and how you are getting around by car or public transportation (see http://www.metro.net/). If you want to see Disneyland, for example, I'd suggest staying in Anaheim itself.

Driving out to Joshua Tree for a day? That would make for a rather long day (and, unlike Death Valley, in Joshua Tree you really need to get off the roads to see the best parts). Out of a very short stay in the greater Los Angeles are? You could take a Metrolink commuter train to Lancaster and back to see a desert, but I don't think it'd be worth your time, considering all of the other things there are to see. Even taking a day trip out to Channel Islands National Park, or Catalina, would be better IMHO (and I like the desert). Heck, you could fly to Las Vegas, spend the night and come back.

Since your plans are fuzzy and vague, I urge you to get a guide book beforehand. Southern California is a huge, spread out area. No need to spend lots of money and precious time, especially if you may not make it back to the area, and miss what may be best for you.

I'd add this: Hollywood offers the visitor virtually nothing (I say, "virtually" because the Chinese Theater is worth a quick look -- nothing quite like it). Paramount offers a decent studio tour, but you'll need a reservation. So does Warner Bros., but that's in the San Fernando Valley, not Hollywood. I wasn't aware that Sony (former MGM) Studios has a tour, but perhaps they do. Universal Studios, as noted, is a theme park and has nothing to do with how the industry works.

There are other studios in Hollywood, but none are open to the public, and I'll you'll see from the street is a long line of buildings. The "Walk of Fame" is really nothing -- just the names of stars (and not-so-stars) set into the sidewalk. The Hollywood area itself is rather sleazy -- think New York's Times Square before it was cleaned up.

Death Valley is driveable from LA, but a fairly long ride, especially for a day trip. If you've never seen desert, the drive to Palm Springs is relatively short and will take you through some (though, as noted, not the most interesting parts). The drive to Las Vegas takes you through parts of Death Valley and you'll see a lot of desert. I know it's not on your itinerary, but it's only a little over 4 hours from LA by car and goes offers some fairly impressive desert views.

We've actually been cross-checking advice from here with a guide book and our latest plan is to hire a car upon arrival at LAX and drive to Palm Springs as PTravel and azepine00 suggest, staying there for one or both nights. Generic "time near the ocean" is probably being ticked off earlier in our holiday, in either Monterey or Carmel as a side-trip from SF (after driving to Big Sur).

Regarding our first stay, appreciate there's not much in Hollywood itself but the hotel was booked with PC points and we're happy to zoom around on the Metrolink while based there :)

Sounds like you've got a good handle on your trip. A couple of points:

- The beach culture of southern California is rather unique in the world, and quite different from what you'll encounter in Monterey and Carmel. I'd recommend at least a couple of hours at Venice Beach -- there's nothing quite like it.

- The Metrolink is, unfortunately, rather limited in where it goes (at least at present). It will take you from Hollywood to downtown Los Angeles, where there is little to do for the visitor, other than MOCA (the Museum of Contemporary Art), which is my least favorite art museum in LA (LACMA is far, far better, with a world-class collection and lots of interesting special exhibitions). The Los Angeles Music Center and the Disney Concert Hall are downtown, but unless you're going to see a performance (or are a fan of Frank Geary's architecture), they're not worth a visit. The other end of the Metrolink dumps you out in the Valley at Universal Studios where there is, literally, nothing worth seeing.

Argh! I meant just Metro, not Metrolink :o

Oh, and one other thing:

When you pick up your car, make sure get a good GPS with it (preferably one with good text-to-speech capability). LA roads and highways can be very confusing, with exits zipping by before you know it. A GPS will simplify navigating around town.