4 days in LA - how does this look?

[mike80]

We are flying to LA on Monday, as part of a longer California trip. We won't be at the hotel (Hollywood area) til late on Monday night, but how does the below look from people who have been recently? Last time I went was 15 years ago, and it was mainly theme parks and Las Vegas!

Day 1 :

Hollywood / Walk of fame etc. We don't expect this to take too long, but as we are staying close by might as well go and see it!
Long Beach
Venice Beach + Santa Monica - maybe evening meal etc. in that area.

Day 2 :

Universal Studios. This is already booked and paid for, so we will be there all day. For the evening I think there is a separate area with shops and restaurants, or we could head somewhere else in the evening. Any suggestions welcome!

Day 3 :

Griffith Park / Observatory etc. Worth a whole day for this area? I'd quite like to see the view during the day and at night!

Day 4 :

Part of this will be spent driving to Santa Barbara for the next stop but any suggestions for things to do in the morning or stops along the way are welcome!

Many thanks,

Mike

[mike80]

Cheers, we will have a look at that. We will do some general driving around some of the famous roads as well.

[mike80]

pushthebutton said:

You can walk from Griffith Park via Bronson Canyon towards the Hollywood sign and the Beechwood Canyon Trail. If you go down the hill towards to base of Bronson Canyon you can find the original Batcave and the shooting for numerous Western films with John Wayne as a well as the original Star Trek foreign planets.

That lot will definitely fill your day and you'll need the evening meal. You can get right up to the Hollywood sign from Beechwood Canyon and then there are great views of Lake Hollywood and downtown LA. If it's something you're interested in I can give you more details.

I'm not really a foodie, but if it was up to me I'd have every meal the the Cheesecake Factory. The original one is on Beverly Drive in Beverly Hills (near Rodeo Drive) and there's plenty of relatively cheap parking lots.

Edited by pushthebutton on Saturday 18th October 14:59

Sounds really good thanks! Is there a preferred place to park for this?

[mike80]

vescaegg said:

Drive the full length of Mulholland it's a nice drive with amazing views. It can basically take you all the way to the coast. Malibu is very nice and not that far away.

Hollywood walk of fame is, um, crap. Worth 30mins though. Easy to get there on the tube.

Cheers, we will do that on the way to Santa Barbara. I'm sure the walk of fame etc. will be crap!

[mike80]

pushthebutton said:

Ooh.

Just noticed Long Beach...if you're just planning to go because of the Queen Mary then a quick drive-by will be fine. It probably won't be the only drive-by you're involved in though

Cool, will bear that in mind. Not worth allocating much time to then?

[mike80]

We've been here since Monday night. Yesterday we did the walk of fame etc before breakfast. Only a short walk from the hotel and enjoyed it more than I thought I would - good for people watching!

Went to the Queen Mary after breakfast and spent some time on there, before heading to Venice. Venice beach is tacky as hell, but some nice shops inland. We were tired by then so headed back to hotel and got defeated by a massive dinner! Universal studios today...