Apart from Universal studio's, disney and santa monica there isn't much to do. The English pub in Santa Monica (Kings Head???) is a good night out but wouldn't recommend it. A few nice beaches but 10 days might be a struggle. JohnnyH2 hit the nail on the head. My mate lives in LA and spends a lot of time in San Diego and highly recommends it
Not much for kids aside from the parks, inclined to agree with most on here wasnt a fan, but then we only really did one day sightseeing la itself on a rather cramped and badly driven tour bus sf and up north seemed much nicer although the coastal weather was pretty shabby when we went last august
Crazy City. It really is a marmite city - i love it to pieces. It has sun, sand, beaches, music and culture but it also has a much darker side to it. Drug culture etc makes things very rough.
Santa Monica and Venice Beach (camden town in its prime but with a beach) are must visits. If you're feeling touristy head to Hollywood and walk up and down the strip, meeting a few Michael Jacksons etc. Remember to tip the performers as they're mostly failing actors carving out a living.
San Fransisco is my favourite city in the world though. The people there are absurdly friendly and non threatening. The city seems to have its own microclimate and the weather there is very similair to a sunny/mild day at brighton most of the time.
California is one of the best states i've been to, it has everything. Wildlife at Yosemite, sun and large, almost untouched beaches around Monterey and route 1 and beautiful people and beautiful cities. If you go to San Fran, take the sunset cruise round the bay. it's beautiful.
Couldn't speak highly enough of nearly all the united states. The only state i'd steer well clear of is New Mexico - makes hackney look like Richmond to New mexicans.
Drove Highway 1 from San Fran to LA in a convertible Mustang, absolute heaven. Yosemite is fantastic camped the night in the RV and BBQ with wood from the forest. I love California and want to go back now for a third time
Drove Highway 1 from San Fran to LA in a convertible Mustang, absolute heaven. Yosemite is fantastic camped the night in the RV and BBQ with wood from the forest. I love California and want to go back now for a third time
mirror this completely.
Route 1 is a gorgeous road to go down, you'll drive past the occasional ferraris and porches of the millionaires that live along the californian costline. There's also wildlife such as Elephant Seals to spot.
Drove Highway 1 from San Fran to LA in a convertible Mustang, absolute heaven. Yosemite is fantastic camped the night in the RV and BBQ with wood from the forest. I love California and want to go back now for a third time
mirror this completely.
Route 1 is a gorgeous road to go down, you'll drive past the occasional ferraris and porches of the millionaires that live along the californian costline. There's also wildlife such as Elephant Seals to spot.
Really want to go again now!
one of my abiding memories of our first trip down Route 1 was stopping to overlook some seals flopping about on the beach - while taking photos wondered what that funny itching, burning sensation was around my ankle, only to realize I was standing on the mother of all (extremly angry, bitey) ant's nests!!!
Worked a summer in the hills out the back of Malibu and loved every minute of it. Santa Monica is where I would head, great part of town. Venice beach is great although was a bit dodgy after dark when i was there (talking 15yrs back now so may have changed)... My one tip... if you don;'t have a car and find yourself in down town LA an hour before sunset don't get on a bus marked Venice B...turned out it was the Boulevard not the beach and the last stop was the worst part of town 15minutes before sunset... ! That was one hell of a storey!
Worked a summer in the hills out the back of Malibu and loved every minute of it. Santa Monica is where I would head, great part of town. Venice beach is great although was a bit dodgy after dark when i was there (talking 15yrs back now so may have changed)... My one tip... if you don;'t have a car and find yourself in down town LA an hour before sunset don't get on a bus marked Venice B...turned out it was the Boulevard not the beach and the last stop was the worst part of town 15minutes before sunset... ! That was one hell of a storey!
Yeah, San Fran is was built for public transport, conversely, LA was built for cars. Hire a car whatever you do, it will be your main way round town
Agree with Damo that Laguna Beach is lovely - artist colony etc. Have a great pic of my kids aged 6 & 9 in the surf there - good memories from '84.
Have friends in Long Beach where the Queen Mary is now a hotel . Nice , upmarket area & worth a visit.
I too have friends in Long Beach, we stayed there for a month one week.... The day in the centre was good, apart from the foul mouthed driver of one of the free busses.
Stopped to photograph the sunset on Highway 1 and saw whales playing in the see, magical. Also saw dolphins swimming behind my husband and daughter on the beach at Santa Monica....... where is that travel agents number
Stayed in Venice when I went - was a bit on the "weird" side. Santa Monica seemed ok, but the rest was an absolute bob hole. Horrible horrible people. Shocking traffic. Just plain horrible.
We got a cab to Universal Studios with some mad Russian driver who just slagged everything and everyone off and when he found out we were English came out with "That Lady Diana deserved to die". Memorable journey that was.
Another cab driver said he'd been to Scotland when he was in the Air Force. "That's where all the guys wear green and have Shamrocks, right?" Thick as shit.
Well we've switched locations entirely and are now on the verge of booking 10 days in Austin, TX to coincide with a music festival taking place there at the end of April. I have heard many good things about Austin and it should be warm as well .......
Sorry to hear you've switched. Austin is a fine city/town, but it is parochial and you're traveling a long distance for little more than a (admittedly storied) music festival.
I lived for over a decade in San Diego and have an abiding dislike for Los Angeles, but, of late, we've found hotels in Laguna Beach (Orange County) that we enjoy -- with a walk down to a pristine and quiet beach and incredible tide pools for the kids. From there, it is relatively easy to drive into the city, to Anaheim, down to San Diego, or to a ferry out to Catalina Island.
If you are putting off the trip to L.A. but retain an interest in the city and how it became an urban dystopia (but nowhere near as horrid as Houston), you might pick up a copy of one of Mike Davis's books on Los Angeles: "Ecology of Fear" or "City of Quartz."
Well we've switched locations entirely and are now on the verge of booking 10 days in Austin, TX to coincide with a music festival taking place there at the end of April. I have heard many good things about Austin and it should be warm as well .......
LA is still on my list though
Went Austin last year, for different reasons to you, was bloody cheap drinking/eating. Didn't think a massive amount to do for kids or things to see really, but to be fair we only went into the main town itself twice. The music festival is supposed to be brilliant though.
Would love to have done SXSW this year, with a good mate's band playing and also the Jesus and Mary Chain but its impossible to find accomodation. One good thing is its easy and relatively cheap to get to Texas from Alberta given the oil connections between the 2 states.....
Sorry to add that also not a fan of LA and was very dissapointed. Santa Monica and surrounding areas re very pleasant but a few hours drive down to Palm Springs should offer very nice weather this time of year.
Santa Monica I found fairly pleasant (when compared to the rest of LA), Venice beach is interesting (and the canals there are surprisingly attractive). I wouldn't want to spend more than a few days in LA though.
There's an express bus into the centre of town which was quite civilised, whereas the local buses into town attract a more 'diverse' selection of passengers, the bendy plastic windows (as you get in marquees) were a bit disconcerting.
Would love to have done SXSW this year, with a good mate's band playing and also the Jesus and Mary Chain but its impossible to find accomodation. One good thing is its easy and relatively cheap to get to Texas from Alberta given the oil connections between the 2 states.....
Is it cheap cause you travel inside a pipeline a la James Bond?
Well i could have if those pesky Yanks hadnt stopped us Canadians building the Keystone pipeline to export our filthy oil down to the Gulf....
I agree with all of the above. LA is a slum. The stars are up in the hills looking down on a run down town. I stayed in the Hilton in the finance sector that was under a mile from skid row. Never heard of skid row until I arrived and its a place where close to 15,000 homeless live. No problem with homeless people just not the first thing you want to see when you step out of your hotel. I flew from here to San Fran, now that I can say is a clean and beautiful city!!!
I love LA ... can't really say why, but I find every minute there compelling. It's like nowhere else I have been to, a patchwork of different cultures, peoples, attitudes and abilities. Mile upon mile of ostensibly bland and boring suburbs (Melbourne eat your heart out) to dream confectionary like mansions .. from desert scrub to green oceanside ... see it before it disappears even further into the smog
Comments
Then on to San Francisco for a few days
Santa Monica and Venice Beach (camden town in its prime but with a beach) are must visits. If you're feeling touristy head to Hollywood and walk up and down the strip, meeting a few Michael Jacksons etc. Remember to tip the performers as they're mostly failing actors carving out a living.
San Fransisco is my favourite city in the world though. The people there are absurdly friendly and non threatening. The city seems to have its own microclimate and the weather there is very similair to a sunny/mild day at brighton most of the time.
California is one of the best states i've been to, it has everything. Wildlife at Yosemite, sun and large, almost untouched beaches around Monterey and route 1 and beautiful people and beautiful cities. If you go to San Fran, take the sunset cruise round the bay. it's beautiful.
Couldn't speak highly enough of nearly all the united states. The only state i'd steer well clear of is New Mexico - makes hackney look like Richmond to New mexicans.
Route 1 is a gorgeous road to go down, you'll drive past the occasional ferraris and porches of the millionaires that live along the californian costline. There's also wildlife such as Elephant Seals to spot.
Really want to go again now!
one of my abiding memories of our first trip down Route 1 was stopping to overlook some seals flopping about on the beach - while taking photos wondered what that funny itching, burning sensation was around my ankle, only to realize I was standing on the mother of all (extremly angry, bitey) ant's nests!!!
Also saw dolphins swimming behind my husband and daughter on the beach at Santa Monica....... where is that travel agents number
We got a cab to Universal Studios with some mad Russian driver who just slagged everything and everyone off and when he found out we were English came out with "That Lady Diana deserved to die". Memorable journey that was.
Another cab driver said he'd been to Scotland when he was in the Air Force. "That's where all the guys wear green and have Shamrocks, right?" Thick as shit.
LA is still on my list though
I lived for over a decade in San Diego and have an abiding dislike for Los Angeles, but, of late, we've found hotels in Laguna Beach (Orange County) that we enjoy -- with a walk down to a pristine and quiet beach and incredible tide pools for the kids. From there, it is relatively easy to drive into the city, to Anaheim, down to San Diego, or to a ferry out to Catalina Island.
If you are putting off the trip to L.A. but retain an interest in the city and how it became an urban dystopia (but nowhere near as horrid as Houston), you might pick up a copy of one of Mike Davis's books on Los Angeles: "Ecology of Fear" or "City of Quartz."
http://www.austinpsychfest.com/
Would love to have done SXSW this year, with a good mate's band playing and also the Jesus and Mary Chain but its impossible to find accomodation. One good thing is its easy and relatively cheap to get to Texas from Alberta given the oil connections between the 2 states.....
There's an express bus into the centre of town which was quite civilised, whereas the local buses into town attract a more 'diverse' selection of passengers, the bendy plastic windows (as you get in marquees) were a bit disconcerting.
Well i could have if those pesky Yanks hadnt stopped us Canadians building the Keystone pipeline to export our filthy oil down to the Gulf....