Travel itinerary: four days in Los Angeles

To be perfectly honest, I’ve never felt a real desire to travel to Los Angeles. All that sunshine, showeyness and sand – it just feels a lot like Sydney.

But, when the husband Jude and I were choosing our teams for our recent month-long jaunt around America, I chose New Orleans and San Francisco. He chose Portland and Los Angeles. So, alas, I found myself flying into LAX, ready to explore the celebrified city of concrete and palm trees.

Despite my hesitations, I had a good time in La La Land, soaking up the city’s surprisingly relaxed vibe, bumping into celebrities and basking in the dreamy Californian light.

Now an LA travel expert, here’s how I’d recommend spending four days in Los Angeles:

Where to stay in Los Angeles

OMG deciding where to stay in LA actually did my head in. I would have spent a good 578 hours researching hotels and Airbnbs, pondering whether it was better to be by the beach (Santa Monica) or on the doorstep of West Hollywood. At the heart of the challenge is the fact that LA is a ludicrously spread out city – making walking impossible and driving time-consuming. Not to mention, hotels are expensive. Trying to get a four-star-plus hotel in LA for under AUD $500 a night is a mission that requires Ethan Hunt.

In the end, I went half-way between and booked the Kimpton Hotel Palomar Los Angeles Beverley Hills, which despite the name is in Westwood. I immediately regretted it. Now we weren’t on the doorstep of anything, except UCLA.

But, after staying at the Kimpton-very-long-name, I’ve since changed my mind. I think it was a good choice. The area was peaceful and suburban, which was quite refreshing after spending five weeks travelling. It did also make a convenient base and parking in the street was a breeze. Oh – and the hotel itself was nice, modern and had everything you’d want in a Los Angeles hotel. Plus, it only cost us AUD $1204 for four nights, which is a steal.

How to get around in Los Angeles

Hire a car. Full stop.

Day 1: Griffith Observatory, LA shopping and Hollywood

Visit Griffith Observatory

After being dumped into the urban sprawl of LA, there’s no better way to get your bearings than to get above it all. The cute 1930s Griffith Observatory, which is perched on the southern slopes of Mount Hollywood, provides panoramic views of the Hollywood Hills, the Hollywood Sign and the gridded city below.

Los Angeles shopping

I’d carted an empty suitcase all through Cuba and America just for this moment. So many options, so little time. Los Angeles is well known for its gleaming mega malls – The Beverly Centre, Westfield Century City and The Grove – all of which are suitably appropriate for a power shop.

Of course, you can’t come to LA without doing a lap of the fancy AF Melrose Avenue and Rodeo Drive. Even if you have no intention of dropping bags of cash, it’s worth it for the game of celebrity eye-spy.

Walk the Hollywood Walk of Fame

If you think Hollywood. You think glamourous, right? Well the Hollywood Walk of Fame is about as unglamorous as you can possibly imagine – and then imagine some more. The pink-marble-starred strip is uber tacky, lined with an exorbitant number of souvenir shops, wannabe actors dressed in superhero costumes and pushy hustlers selling everything from CDs to celebrity home tours. I couldn’t wait to vacate the area, although happy I saw the tourist icon in the flesh and now have no reason to return.

Day 2: Santa Monica Beach, Venice Beach and West Hollywood

Spend the day at Santa Monica Beach and Venice Beach

You’ll need a full six hours to thoroughly explore Los Angeles’ famed city beach, Santa Monica, and its equally notorious neighbour, Venice Beach. Start with a poke around the shops along Third Street Promenade – that’s if you’re not broke from the previous day’s shopping splurge.

Then, after eyeing the funfair of Santa Monica Pier, hire a bike from one of the MANY rental shops and hit the South Bay Bicycle Trail – heading south for Venice Beach. Now, me and bikes aren’t exactly the best of friends, with an accident forever imminent. But, this is the best way to experience this playful stretch of coastline.

Once you reach Venice Beach, there’s no mistaking it. You’ll hear the music, smell the incense and see the scene unfold. How to describe Venice Beach? It’s bohemian, alternative, bizarre, hippie and a little tacky. While here check out the hundreds of street performers, have a gawk at Muscle Beach and take a dozen photos of Venice Beach Graffiti Park.

Before heading back to Santa Monica, lock up the bikes and venture into the Venice Canals. So peaceful it’s hard to believe the madness of Venice Boardwalk is only a few blocks away.

Dinner and drinks in West Hollywood

Dinner options are endless in this neck of the woods. We settled on Harlowe Bar, with its old-glamour Hollywood vibe – it felt fitting. Afterwards, we walked the block to Melrose Avenue and investigated the local speakeasy, The Melrose Station. Hidden inside a hookah lounge, behind a bookshelf, this swanky bar is a lot of fun. That is until you ask for the ‘house cocktail’. Jude the sausage didn’t read the cocktail’s ingredients. Therefore not realising the base ingredient was green chilli vodka infusion. He finally realised when his eyes started running as if he’d been watching The Notebook.

Day 3: Road trip to Malibu

What’s the point in hiring a car if you don’t explore some of the extended Californian coastline? We decided to drive the Pacific Coastal Highway and check out the celebrity-filled coastal city that is Malibu.

Some possible things to do in the Malibu area:

• Spend the day at one of Malibu’s many beaches – Zuma Beach, Westward Beach, El Matador State Beach – all glorious.
• Go surfing – County Line Beach is one of the best surf beaches in the area, or so I’m told.
• Walk the Malibu Pier – and bask in that dreamy Californian light some more.
• Be all fancy and eat at Nobu – you’ll just have to dodge the paparazzi camped out in the carpark.

On the way home, take Malibu Canyon Road for an incredibly scenic drive through the Santa Monica Mountains.

Day 4: Downtown, Manhattan Beach and Chateau Marmont

Walk through Downtown LA

Downtown Los Angeles has a completely different feel to the rest of LA – it’s a cool cat in the middle of a cultural and architectural renaissance. Walk DTLA’s streets and admire unbelievable architecture (especially along Broadway), amble through Grand Park, and visit museums and the famed Walt Disney Concert Hall. Of course, you must stop-by Grand Central Market and try one of eggslut’s breakfast sandwiches, which is a local celebrity itself.

Visit Manhattan Beach

Spend a lazy afternoon at Los Angeles’ more sophisticated beach city: Manhattan Beach. With its elegant seaside vibe, I fell hard for this one. Here you can walk the Manhattan Beach Pier and The Strand, play volleyball on one of the many nets, and hire a bike and cycle the foreshore path.

Choosing where to have lunch is hard. My pick: Rock’N Fish, Darren’s Restaurant and Bar or Tin Roof Bistro.

Dinner at Chateau Marmont

Finally, there’s no better way to spend a final night in Los Angeles than hob-nobbing with celebrities at the legendary West Hollywood hotel that’s long-been a hideaway for the stars. Chateau Marmont is where Lindsey Lohan infamously ran up a $46,350 bill and Britney Spears was ejected for smearing food across her face.

Not that I was tempted to display any diva behaviour. I was quite content in picking away at my poached prawns on the garden terrace, silently praying Leonardo Dicaprio would walk through the door – play it cool Lambo. Goes without saying, but you need to book this one in advance.

That’s it. Los Angeles in four days. Done.