Welcome to LA!
LA is a huge city and figuring out where to stay was pretty difficult. It’s also quite expensive for accommodation and traffic is insane. We ended up staying in Hollywood (about 10 minutes walk from Hollywood Blvd) as we wanted to do a lot of touristy stuff around here. This probably worked out better than staying further out because of the commute you would have to do.
Hollywood Homes Tour
Hanging out in LA means celebrity spotting! We hopped on a minibus and were given a 2 hour guided tour. We travelled along Mulholland Drive (passing some film locations) and stopped off for some photos overlooking the city as well as the infamous Hollywood Sign. Next, we headed towards the Hollywood Hills to spot some fancy houses. Most houses you can’t really see as they are hidden behind trees/gates etc, but it was still cool. We then toddled down to Beverly Hills, which is technically a different city. Here you will find Rodeo Drive and lots of multi-million dollar houses (or palaces to us paupers). Unfortunately, we didn’t see any celebs, but our tour guide was fun and informative. He made the tour interesting and dished out a lot of gossip!
Warner Bros Studio Tour
The second tour of the day was a behind the scenes tour of Warner Bros studio. This was really cool and we got to see quite a bit. It’s odd to see that sets are actually pretty small and how the same sets have been repeatedly used in many different TV shows and films.
Our favourite part was the Batman area where you get to the different batmobiles as well as costumes from the latest film! So cool!
We also got to see the stage where Ellen is filmed. The stage itself is surprisingly much smaller in real life.
There’s also a Harry Potter section where you can try the sorting hat and see which house you are in.
We also got to see how they filmed certain scenes such as in Lord of the Rings, where they have the Hobbits and Gandalf.
Hollywood Walk of Fame
A trip to Hollywood means a trip to the walk of fame. We were even there to see the aftermath of the Trump star after it had been smashed to pieces with a pickaxe!
Once Upon A Time in Hollywood
We were also fortunate enough to be there when Tarantino was filming his new flick; Once Upon a Time in Hollywood starring Brad Pitt and Leonardo Di Caprio. Parts of Hollywood Blvd was set up to reflect the 1960s. The best part was that we were there when they were filming a scene and Brad Pitt waved!
Venice Beach & Santa Monica Pier
One day we took a trip to Venice Beach which took around 45 minutes in the taxi. It was slightly cloudy on this day, but still warm enough. Venice Beach is as you expect, shops selling touristy trinkets, a nice promenade and of course, it’s home to Muscle Beach. After watching some street performers and walking around, we toddled in the direction of Santa Monica Pier. It takes about an hour to walk (at a leisurely pace) or you can hire scooters/bicycles.
Santa Monica Pier is quite nice and it has a little fairground on the end with a decent selection of rides. We didn’t both going on any as we had just done 10 days in Orlando. We did eat at one of the pier restaurants which was pretty good for seafood.
As famous as this area is, it really isn’t anything special. It’s great if you are into water sports etc but it’s not something that people should run to if they are in LA.
We are making our way up the West coast now!