So, hooray to Los Angeles!
I continue to plan my Christmas trip to New York. In first part I chose the places I wanted to see in New York, planned them out itineraries and figured 7 days would be enough. The deadline has to be around Christmas and New Year's Eve because I want to catch the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center and New Year's Eve in Times Square. In second part I was thinking about buying plane tickets and thanks to the Turkish Airlines promotion I completely changed my plans. And in addition to New York, I will also be stopping in Los Angeles. The question is for how long?
Plans in Los Angeles
For the past three weeks, I've been doing nothing but looking for places to visit in Los Angeles. I didn't buy a printed guide this time, so I have new best friends. Google, Wikipedia, a bunch of well-known and unknown travel sites, official city sites, public transportation, airports, individual site sites, and especially googlemaps.com and mapy.cz.
I carefully selected, read, composed, thought and planned. And I have to say that I made such a great guide that I wouldn't be ashamed to ask for 200 CZK for it.
When I put together an itinerary for each day, I have to say that it will be quite busy. And not just in terms of time, but literally busy. Judge for yourself….
Los Angeles is the second most populous city in the United States after New York. It is located in the west of the country, on the southern border with Mexico, on the Pacific Ocean coast. The city itself has an area of 1,302 km2 and has almost 4 million inhabitants.
The entire metropolitan area, which consists of over 80 other cities (such as Long Beach, Pasadena, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, etc.), is around 13 million.
It is one of the world's most important centers of culture, science, technology, international trade and education.
Accommodation in Los Angeles
Since the Los Angeles area is huge and I don't want to rent a car (also because I would spend half the day in traffic jams), I've been thinking a lot about where to stay. As you can see from the map, I'm a bit scattered. So I immediately researched how public transportation works in LA to see how long it would take me to commute. After all, I want to get a lot done, so there's no time for long commutes and I have to plan smartly.
I came across a recommendation for a place to live in Hollywood by chance. I was originally considering Downtown because it has Union Station, which I can get to from the airport, but Hollywood would be better. And when I came across Motel 6, which is about two minutes from the Walk of Fame and cost less than 10 thousand for 4 nights, so it was an obvious choice.
Itinerary
Day 1
Warner Bros. Studios (3h)
Universal Studios (4 hours or more)
Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood Walk of Fame, TCL Chinese Theatre
Day 2
Beverly Hills
Beverly Garden + Beverly Hills Sign (30')
Rodeo Drive (30')
Santa Monica Pier, Route 66 End of the Trail (20')
Pacific Park (30')
Santa Monica Beach (1h)
Venice Beach
Venice Canals (30')
Venice Fishing Pier (20')
Santa Monica Pier (1h)
Malibu Beach (3h)
Day 3
Griffith Observatory (1h journey, 30' view)
Hollywood Sing (1h journey, 30' view)
Mulholland (45')
The road to Downtown (1.5 hours)
Walk through Downtown (2.5 hours, approx. 7 km)
- Grammy Museum LA.
- Wilshire Grand Center
- Bunker Hills Steps
- S. Bank Tower
- Angels Flight
- Los Angeles Times Building
- Walt Disney Concert Hall
- The Music Center
- Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
- Grand Park
- Arthur J. Will Memorial fountain
- Los Angeles City Hall
- Triforium
- Olvera street
- Union Station
Citadel Outlets
So I have an itinerary for three days. I can start planning my flight to New York. I will arrive in Los Angeles on December 22nd at 11 am, I will fly to New York on December 26th during the day. So I have 3 and a half days to get as much done as possible from the plan. What do you think, will it work out for me? Feel free to leave a comment. And if you would like my complete "guide" or rather tips for the trip, write about him/her. I'll be happy to send it.
What's next? All I have to do is book flights from Los Angeles to New York, find some accommodation there (I already have a guide and itinerary), maybe even look into a trip to Washington, maybe for two days, we'll see. And then the New York CityPass and reservations for skyscrapers and museums and tickets to film studios in LA.
How am I doing financially?
So far so good. So far I've only paid for the flights, and they cost 14,209 CZK. The expenses for LA will be approximately as follows:
- approx. 10,000 CZK hotel
- approx. 5,000 CZK Universal Studios, Warner Bros. Studios and two attractions in Pacific Park
- approx. 880 CZK bus to and from the airport and public transport
- approx. 8,000 CZK for a flight from Los Angeles to New York (they are really expensive during Christmas)