California travel diaries

My husband and I have just come back from an incredible two week trip in LA California and as usual I will be sharing our itinerary with you and pictures and sharing our tips.  I always like to inspire people to travel or even help them with their trip planning if they are looking to also go.  We chose to go in September because we love going away when It starts to get chillier in the UK and also it’s just out of tourist season so will hopefully be a little quieter.  We couldn’t hire a car, which was okay and we managed with Ubers, the metro a very small amount and the Amtrak trains, but if we were to go back we would hire a car as it makes things more convenient.

 

Tips and things we would do differently if we went again:

•  Stay either on sunset strip or in Beverly hills, we were perhaps too close to Hollywood boulevard,  which meant we couldn’t really go out at night too much.  Hollywood Boulevard is very vibey in the day with tourists, but in the evening it can feel pretty dodgy and unsafe.

• Hire a car – Ubers add up and taking the metro feels pretty unsafe.  Although getting Ubers everywhere is fine, if you want to go on day trips to San Diego or Santa Barbara it is too far.  You need to go catch a metro to get to Union station and then an Amtrak train.  The Hollywood red line metro isn’t particularly nice to take and can feel pretty safe and the Amtrak train is extremely slow.  You can of course make do, we did, but it’s more convenient to hire a car.

• Buy the basic necessities so you save money on coffees, breakfast and sometimes taking packed lunches on day trips or your trip will become very expensive.

•  Food doesn’t need to be expensive; the best food is the Pizza slices, Mexican food and burgers.  Eat as many in n out burgers as possible and all the Cheesecake factory as it is the best food.

• Booking through Air BnB will mean you get the best value for money when it comes to accommodation.  Hotels in LA are very expensive!

• The weather also is something to bear in mind.  It tends to be cloudy in the morning and the sun comes out by lunch, so don’t be doing something like Griffiths observatory until the afternoon otherwise you won’t get clear views of the city.

 

We arrived in the afternoon on our first day and got an uber all the way from LAX to Hollywood as we were so tired and I can confirm this was very expensive and we don’t do it for the way home.  We only just managed to have dinner when we arrived and crash for the night.

 

Day one –

·        Celebrity bus tour – Our first morning we booked through get your guide a cheesy celebrity bus tour.  It was a really good way to not only have a little stalk at celebrity homes, but also drive through the city and see things so you could make notes for where you might want to go back.  Here we drove through the hills, saw the Hollywood sign and also drove through Rodeo drive.

·        Walk of fame  - We were dropped off after back in Hollywood and we walked the Walk of fame, went to Grauman’s theatre and explored Hollywood.  I got to go into target for the first time and enjoy food at the hard rock café.

Day two –

·        Warner bros studio tour – We started our day by having a studio tour of the warner bros studio.  This took about half a day and we got to see where some of our favourite movies and TV shows were shot.  I particularly liked seeing where Gilmore girls and Pretty Little Liars was filmed and there was plenty of friends stuff there.

·        Griffiths observatory – We then got an uber over to Griffiths observatory which had spectacular views of the City and a really good shot of the Hollywood sign.  You could hike all the way down as well.

Day three:

·        The Grove – We arrived first thing in the morning at the Grove when it was really lovely and quiet.  We walked around the farmers market and the shops and then had the famous Erewhon Hailey Bieber smoothie, it was delicious.

·        Rodeo drive – We headed to Rodeo drive after this and went straight to have our first Cheesecake factory of the trip, the chocolate truffle tower cake is honestly divine.  We walked all around Rodeo and went into a few shops like Chanel and YSL and I felt like I was in Pretty Women.  We even went into the store where she gets rejected, which is now Christian Louboutin.

Day Four:

·        Walk around Beverly Hills – We wanted a quieter day today as we knew we had a heavy 3 days ahead of us with travelling to different parts of California.  We got an Uber to the 90210 district and had a nice walk around the big houses. We ended up in Melrose avenue where we did some shopping and enjoyed some food.

Day Five – Santa Barbara day trip:

·        Walk down State street – We arrived around 11am by the time the Amtrak train got in and we walked all along State street.  It is full of quirky shops and nice food places and we spent a good few hours here.

·        East beach – We then headed to the beach and walked fully along.  The weather was beautiful and the vibes were great.  There were so many runners and the community seemed great here.

Day Six – Laguna Beach day trip:

·        Heisler Park, Thousand steps beach and Main beach – The Amtrak train doesn’t take you all the way to Laguna Beach annoyingly, so you arrive at the closest station and then have to Uber about 15 mins.  Once we arrived, we went straight to the beaches as that’s what I was most excited for.  Everyone had told me the beaches in Laguna were the most beautiful and blue and they were right.

·        Shop around the town centre – Once the rest of the town had started to wake up, we wondered around the shops.  Laguna is full of little boutiques, art galleries and shops and you can spend so long there

·        Lunch at Zinc Café – We enjoyed lunch at Zinc café, they had the most amazing salad selections and coffees.  We decided to Uber home as Laguna was the closest of our day trips and as it was out of peak hours, we managed to get a better price.

Day Seven – San Diego day trip:

·        Seaport village – We headed straight to the Seaport village once we arrived and it was full of surfer type shops and had amazing views of the harbour, you could walk around for hours.  We had our second cheesecake factory of the trip as well.

·        Balboa park – Next we went to Balboa park and honestly, unless you have children I would skip this one out and go to La Jolla cove for sea lion spotting or Pacific beach instead.  We ran out of time before needing to catch the train back, so missed the beaches.

·        Old town – However you have to make sure you go to Old Town, it’s a street full of Mexican food and like you’ve stepped literally into old town Mexico and this was an amazing experience. 

Day Eight:

·        Runyon Canyon – We woke up early on day 8 and ran from our air BnB to the top of Runyon Canyon and back.  The views were incredible from the top and it was nice to be around people that were walking and running for a change, as you don’t see many people walking the streets of LA, unless you’re in a touristy spot.

·        Dodgers baseball game – We had tickets in the afternoon for a dodger’s game and we saw LA dodger’s vs Colorado Rockies and this was an amazing experience.  The Vibe at a dodger’s game is great and we enjoyed many American hotdogs.

Day Nine:

·        Santa Monica Pier and shopping – We took the metro down to Santa Monice for the next part of our trip.  This metro was not as bad as the red line, it felt much safer.  We had booked an air BnB by the beach for 4 nights to experience a different vibe of California.  We enjoyed walking around the shops, there was a great selection and then heading to the Pier which was so busy and touristy.

Day Ten – Malibu day trip:

·        Walk along Carbon beach (Millionaire beach) – Malibu is only a 15-minute Uber ride from Santa Monica, so easy to get to.  We got dropped off at one end of Carbon beach and we walked all the way along, it took ages but was so nice to see the huge Beach houses.  It felt very exclusive and quiet.  You can see why people move there for privacy.

·        Lunch at Malibu farm café – At the very end of this beach you find the Pier and Malibu farm café.  We enjoyed a delicious lunch here and a little shop in their Malibu farm shop.  We learnt that it was owned by the guitarist in the rolling stones, and they sell Bamford and Daylesford items in there from the Cotswolds.  What a small world!!

Day Eleven:

·        Venice beach, Venice Canals, Muscle beach and Marina del ray – Day eleven was an exploring local day by Santa Monica.  We walked all the way along the beach, passing Muscle beach and Venice beach, which was very cool seeing all the roller bladers and Skateboarders in the skate park.  If you walk behind the beach and a little into the town, you come to Venice canals which is so quaint and beautiful.  The houses around the canals also look gorgeous.  You finally find yourself in Marina del ray where there are so many boats, and it looks gorgeous.  We had our first in n out burger here animal style and it was incredible!!  We managed to catch the sunset back at Santa Monica Pier, which is famous for being so beautiful.

Day 12 – Back to Malibu

·        Shopping in Malibu country mart – We didn’t have anything planned for our last day, so we decided to go back to Malibu as we realised we only really explored the beach here.  We went to their main shopping centre called county mart and had a good old wonder round.  They had many mainstream shops here as well as many quirky stores.  My husband and I discovered a brand we hadn’t heard before called Vince that we are now obsessed with!!  When we got home, we decided to go for a sunset run across the beach, which was so stunning and a perfect way to end our trip.

We checked out the morning after and got the metro to Union station, before getting the Flyaway bus back to LAX, which is much cheaper than the uber we took on the day we arrived!  This was one of our top 3 trips I would say, we just loved the Vibes of California, particularly the beach towns and we will be going again!