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Hi. Myself and my wife have an option for a stop over in LA for two the three days at the end of March.
We have never been before so looking for recommendations on what area to stay in , any hotels or Airbnb recommendations would be welcome.
Plus any recommendations on what to do or see whilst we are there.
Please not too many watch related ideas!!
LA's a dump. Go someplace else would be my advice.
Cheers,
Plug
Los Angeles has the largest homeless population of any city in the USA outside of New York, in fact it's the only City left in the USA with an area designated as skid row. It can get unerving if you're out and about downtown at the wrong time of day. Hoewever still worth a visit, you could do worse than reading this thread.
What’s does a designated skid row mean?Quote:
Originally Posted by Thewatchbloke
others have probably accurately warned you off downtown LA
Check out somewhere like Santa Monica - great place on the beach. If you then fancy doing the Beverley Hills stuff then do it from there. Personally I wouldn't waste my time
Most large American cities had a skid row but they've all but disappeared now. Basically the term refers to a down at heel city area frequented by vagrants, it's where the term "on the skids" came from meaning in decline.
It's the 'designated' part I don't understand - do/did cities officially call an area that?Quote:
Originally Posted by Thewatchbloke
Hello
four years ago I was in LA for twenty days as a visiting academic, in a friend's lab in UCLA. I was staying with them in their house in South Hollywood, and was carried around with my friends, doing what they were doing.
Los Angeles is not a safe city, and you must have some knowledge of the no-go areas and of the great places.
The ones I did like were:
a- the Observatory on Mount Hollywood, great view and a nice park where we had a lab picnic.
b- Venice Beach, where we went for a bike ride on the path near the beach, and was introduced to the most blaspheme type of pizza, BBQ chicken pizza. We all laughed (many italian in the group), as I did like it a lot!
c- We went for food in a nice Italian eatery in Rodeo Drive, called "Il fornaio" -which also exists in Florence, my hometown. Good overpriced food, but liked the occasion to peep around the rich and famous' shops.
d- I remember well the Getty Museum of Art, which apart from the many works of art in the exhibition, was a genuinely beautiful example of modern architecture.
I did not like the cinema-related venues, Chinese Theatre, walk of fame which to me looked cheesy and prefabricated. I did like the excellent mexican and californian-sushi venues which are everywhere and were new to me.
Best wishes
Franco
I believe they were designated by banks who deemed some areas as high risk and limited borrowings/LTV there and in doing so locked in the cycle. Pretty hard for any area to recover under those circumstances.
They did.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kingstepper
Thanks, does seem daft thing!Quote:
Originally Posted by mondie
Yep, avoid downtown recurring theme. And stray a few yards in either direction from the Walk of Stars in Hollywood and it gets uncomfortable really fast, NOT worth the trip.
As others have suggested I'd head to the beach as most of those areas are nicer / safer.
Santa Monica by far and away the nicest place safe great food and bars
Thanks for the replies guys. I should have clarified a bit more!!
We are flying back from Hawaii (LAX-LHR) so were thinking of breaking the trip up a bit otherwise its a Looooonnnnggg flight so thought somewhere not far from LA international airport.
So Santa Monica sounds a lot more preferable.
Sorry I should have been a bit clearer!!
The airport is by Inglewood...............Quote:
Originally Posted by sjedwardz
Also, everyone drives and as a consequence public transport isn’t great and I’m guessing you wouldn’t want to hire a car for two days?
Personally Santa Monica is Ok as is Manhattan and Redondo to the south but given your time I’m not sure you’ll be able to see much. The airport isn’t in a good area. My motel car park had an armed security guard.
If you had more time and a car it’s not so bad as you can explore the nice areas. I loved the beaches to the south, Laguna and Newport. Pasadena is also nice, West Hollywood, all too far for you though I would think. Venice cool during day but wouldn’t be that comfortable at night.
The original Skid Row was in Seattle. Seattle is built on hills. Logging has always been a major industry in the Northwest and in the old days they used to slide the logs down a hill from the drop off point to the port. It was called skidding the logs. The area wasn't a place anyone would want to spend time so the down at heel congregated there.Quote:
Originally Posted by Thewatchbloke
I used to travel to LA a great deal and often stayed at the Marriott, Marina Del Rey. It's only a few miles to the north of the airport, in a nice area and, as the name suggests, is adjacent to the marina. It gives you good access to head further north to Santa Monica, Malibu etc. It isn't cheap and I'd be tempted to look at Air BnB somewhere around Santa Monica. You'll definitely need to hire a car to get anywhere.
A few suggestions for places to visit:
Getty Centre. Free entry though you pay for parking, just turn up. You can easily spend a day here.
Getty Villa. Free entry though you must book a time slot and you pay for parking. Half a day to see it all.
Griffith Observatory. Free entry.
Malibu/Santa Monica.
Paradise Cove. A location used for film shoots with a good restaurant/cafe right on the beach. It was the location of Rockford's trailer in the Rockford Files.
I really like Los Angeles.Quote:
Originally Posted by sjedwardz
Its a very different kind of city though, it was developed at a time when american's thought the motorcar was The Future and as a result its spread out over a huge area and filled with freeways. Today that means having a car is a necessity. Public transport is ineffective except for local. So if you're spending time there I would rent a car, which will probably also mean paying for parking at your hotel so check on that.
I would highly recommend staying Santa Monica, or Possibly Venice Beach which is immediately south. Those two areas area's are the most walkable (pedestrian friendly). You can spend a few days there without needing a car (but you'll need tours or taxis to see the rest of the city). Marina Del Rey is by the Airport and south of Venice Beach but is not really for pedestrians except for a very small area by the marina. Downtown Los Angeles, is like the City of London, there's offices and banks and a convention centre but not much for tourists, so avoid. If you're driving then there's Beverley Hills and the area around there that you can also stay, but they're not the best for walking.
If you dont have a car and are staying in Santa Monica, you needn't worry too much about safety beyond normal big city caution. If you do have a car then you have to avoid going off the freeway east and south of the airport. For any reason.
Went to LA a couple of years ago. The main thing that sticks in my memory is the stink of p*ss and weed. Anywhere you went, if you couldn’t smell weed, you could smell p*ss...particularly on walk of fame and Venice Beach.
Griffiths Observatory was worth a visit, that’s about it.
As a few people have mentioned, LA is absolutely massive, so pick your sites to visit carefully, and understand that transport between them could take a while.
Pete
What kind of things would you like?Quote:
Originally Posted by sjedwardz
Here's some random ideas:
The Peterson Auto Museum:
https://www.petersen.org/
LA Museum of Art:
http://www.lacma.org/
Getty Museum
getty.edu
- Rodeo Drive is the super expensive shopping street in Beverley Hills, its quite a tourist attraction. Can be a bit underwhelming though if you're not into shopping. Or spotting film stars.
- There's all the movie related tourist stuff too. Paramount Studio does a tour. There's the Walk Of Fame on Hollywood blvd. And the sign on the hill. There's the Beverley Hills movie stars homes that you can tour too.
- One of my favourite things to do is Mulholland Drive at night. Its a circuitous twisty road along the ridge of the mountains to the north of the city and the views are spectacular. Especially at night where you get the massive grid of lights. Obviously a car is needed.
https://goo.gl/maps/EW9yFm69SYM2
There's also Disneyland in Anaheim. You could do that in a day.
What about sports?
If you’re looking to stay in LA I’d stick to West Hollywood, you can get about easily enough to most places from there and it’s a nicer part of town. We usually stay on Sunset Boulevard near to Sunset Plaza.
We usually go to visit family so move onto the coast later otherwise I’d just stay in Santa Monica.
Wiki is your friend...Skid Row, Los Angeles: "Skid Row was defined in a decision in Jones v. City of Los Angeles as the area east of Main Street, south of Third Street, west of Alameda Street, and north of Seventh Street."Quote:
Originally Posted by Kingstepper
I stay in LA every summer for a week. It's not so much a city as a huge sprawl of connected towns. There are many nice areas and lots of fun stuff to see and do, just depends what you are interested in. I highly recommend renting a car even if it's just for a couple of days. Santa Monica is a good recommendation (and a pretty simple drive from LAX), but also some areas in the Valley can still be pretty good, such as Studio City (Where there are more sushi restaurants than you can shake a stick at).
If you're interested in cars at all, I highly recommend the Petersen Museum.
IMO of all the things mentioned to do on here the Getty museum and the observatory are the only true world class tourist things to do. But you have 2 days filled right there. Culver City was a lovely inner suburb to be around and where Sony have there studio.
Alternatively, San Diego is 85 miles down the freeway. Traffic is BAD though, and homeless shocking in that city too.
Well worth going to the Science Centre if you like space related topics - the space shuttle Endeavour is there:
https://californiasciencecenter.org
Just be sure to reserve your shuttle ticket in advance.
Petersen Auto Museum as an earlier poster mentioned is worth a visit as is the Griffith Observatory - really enjoyed this and you can do some walking in the hills around it.
Universal Studios is good if you like that sort of thing (theme park etc.). Full size Simpsons Springfield village as well as Harry Potter stuff and some rollercoasters (a bit tame but a bit of fun).
Hermosa Beach is OK. We stayed there for a few days at the recommendation of a friend.. some good hotels, plenty of bars / restaurants (probably aimed at a slightly younger crowd generally, but still some good choice) and a nice laid back vibe and you can drive up and down the coast to various other beach areas, of which there's plenty.
Only problem was it's on the west side of Los Angeles so any time you want to go anywhere for sight seeing, it's a drive. And the LA traffic is no joke.. you need to do all your sight seeing during the middle of the day and avoid the rush hours either side as it's beyond belief, or just accept your fate and allocate like 1 or 2 hours to do 14 miles..
One big advantage is it's very near to LAX so when it's time to go home, you're only a stones throw from the airport :) Made for a nice relaxed last day for us.
If you fancy something a little more down tempo, Santa Barbara isn't miles away and is really nice!
Totally agree , as from my post aboveQuote:
Originally Posted by noTAGlove
As said, public transport is terrible. But don't forget uber. They are literally all over the place and you are never far from one. Very cheap too.
It's a shame there's nothing on at The Hollywood Bowl, as that's worth a visit.
The Dodgers are playing from the 28th, that's different.
LA County Museum of Art is actually just as prestigious a museum as the Getty with a larger collection.Quote:
Originally Posted by noTAGlove
I always recommend people take a drive up to Griffith Park Observatory. Even if you don't go in the facility it allows for an incredible view of the LA area. Also the LA Farmer's Market is always a good time for lunch and a browse. If you're in LA on a Sunday you could hit the Melrose Flea Market at Fairfax High School. While you're over there you could hit the famous deli Canter's on Fairfax for breakfast or lunch.
For places to stay, I'd try to get an idea of what all you might want to do and then base the hotel as central as possible. LA is huge and can take up hours in traffic. I don't know about your budget, but there are many AirBnB options all over the area. If you're a rock and roll fan it could be fun to stay at The Hollywood Roosevelt or Andaz West, which used to be Hyatt House and has a long history of rock and roll antics. There's also a hotel tucked in nearby at the base of the hills on Franklin called Highland Gardens. That one is probably not as nice as some others, but decent and has a very cool mid-century style that is based around a picturesque courtyard and swimming pool. It also has a long history that is a mile long. Janis Joplin spent her last night there, Earth, Wind & Fire recorded an album in one of the rooms, Brad Pitt lived there for several years, and there are several minor celebrities that live there year-round.
I hadn’t been in LA since a kid in 1983, was there in 2012 on a coast-to-coast roadtrip and wasn’t looking forward to it... but REALLY liked it.
Car from the airport, short run from LAX to the Brentwood Inn. Ten mins from Santa Monica and 5 from the 405 freeway so access everywhere is easy. Missus will no doubt enjoy a gander round Rodeo, if you’re in any way a big kid or film fan highly recommend Universal Studios for a day.