Best Places to Visit in Los Angeles [13/15]

Los Angeles was the third and last big city on our road trip across the USA. After spending 4 days in Las Vegas (and one on the Grand Canyon), we were ready to move on. The drive from Las Vegas to Los Angeles takes almost 5 hours, and we stopped in Victorville, California to get something to eat. I heard a lot of scary stories about the traffic in LA, but luckily we had no problems getting in the city. Getting around LA is tricky though, and I think I should write about that in a separate post. We spent 4 days in the city of Angels, and here are the Best Places to Visit in Los Angeles in my opinion.

This is only a part of our big travel series to the USA

For the other parts click here

Best Places to Visit in Los Angeles

Hollywood Walk of Fame

Hollywood: it's the place where Stars make Dreams and Dreams make Stars. Our AirBnb apartment was actually located in Hollywood, only 10 minutes walking distance from the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It's a crowded place for sure but one you will have to cross off your list eventually since all roads lead to it (and by that I mean the Metro system). While the stars on the walkway are interesting and make you want to walk around and explore I will say that this part of LA is not as thought it would be. There are a lot of people here trying to sell you something or get you someplace. It's very crowded and I would recommend visiting here at sunset. There will be less people here. A big mall is located right at the entrance to the Metro. From here you can easily access public transportation to get you to other parts of the city.

Walt Disney Concert Hall

We hopped on the metro and went to Downtown Los Angeles. The first sight that greeted us was the Walt Disney Concert Hall. It's the home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestra and the Los Angeles Master Chorale. The hall is in a vineyard seating configuration, similar to the Berliner Philharmonie. It's a very impressive building and we spent some time here, looking at the odd but interesting architectural features of it.

Downtown Los Angeles

We eventually moved further into Downtown Los Angeles. This part of the city is very modern and walking here is a great pleasure. You will not find many tourists here at all. There are cafes here, restaurants and shops, and while Downtown LA had a stigma of being unsafe in the past, it's truly turned around. Although I will say that once you step out of the business part of it it can get a bit weird. So make sure to stay in the nice part of it. Visiting by day of course is safe. We ate in the famous Cole's Restaurant. We each had one of their signature dipped sandwiches.

Beverly Hills

Beverly Hills is beautiful, charming and very fancy. Fancy, like im-out-of-place-here fancy. But all in all, its worth a visit. You will find a great variety of houses and amazingly maintained neighborhoods here, but also shopping streets, and the Ice Cream Lab, where they make fresh Ice Cream with the flavor of your choosing. Yummy!

Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills

This a high mile shopping street, located on the south end of Beverly Hills. It's beautiful indeed, but unless you are in the market for very expensive clothes, you will most likely only walk down this street. We happened to be here at sunset, which gave us some great light to take photos. It is a bit of a tourist spot as opposed to the general streets of Beverly Hills.

Griffith Observatory and Hollywood Sign

So here is the dirty secret of the Hollywood sign, the most famous landmark of Los Angeles. It takes two hours hiking to get up close, and then two hours back! And that's just from the edge of the city. If you are further away, get out your hiking gear. Well, we didn't have that much time, so we drove up to the Griffith Observatory. It has all encompassing views of Los Angeles, and you can also see the Hollywood Sign from here. It's not that close, but still close enough. If you have a zoom lens on you, you won't have a problem getting a clear shot. The Griffith Observatory has a free entrance and serves as a Planetarium with interesting exhibits inside, all related to space and science. Make sure to visit here at night (we did that on our first night in LA). The views are out of this world!

Disneyland Park and California Adventure in Anaheim

I will write about our trip to Disneyland Park more extensively in the next post, but this one here would not be complete without the mention of one of the best adventure parks in the world. It's a one hour drive away from Los Angeles, and you will have to choose the Disneyland Park (image below) or the Disneyland California Adventure (or get a grasshopper pass and see both parks). But more on that in the actual Disneyland post.

Santa Monica Pier

The Santa Monica Pier will be the final part of our USA Travel series, and I will show you many images taken here. It was nice to get back to the Pacific after a long trip through the desert. As with Disneyland, I will write about Santa Monica in a separate post, so you can look forward to that.

Only two more posts to go until we end our journey in the USA. Next up is our visit to Disneyland Park and the ultimate survival guide for it!

End of Part Thirteen

To be continued...

Where I'm Linking To