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If you’re a Bangkok first-timer, this is your invitation to explore a city teeming with life, flavour and history.
The entertainment capital of the world, Los Angeles, needs very little introduction – we’ll take a bet you know a lot about the city already.
As one of the world’s most filmed cities, its icons are the stuff of frequent movie-mention, making it hard to narrow down what to visit first when it’s your first time to La La Land.
If this year you find yourself spreading your wings to explore the City of Angels, this guide has you covered to exploring the best of Los Angeles.
Walk the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Did you even go to Los Angeles if you didn’t photograph your tootsies on the terrazzo and brass stars embedded along the Hollywood Walk of Fame?
Stretching 15 city blocks, the walk is a decent addition to your holiday step count, if you plan on wandering all 2,765-plus famous names.
From the first awardee, actress Joanne Woodward, to more modern names like Gwen Stefani and the cast of Friends, regardless of your pop-culture vintage, our bet is you’ll be posing with your fan-favourite.
Wander Venice Beach Boardwalk
For your very own Barbie and Ken moment, walk or better yet, skate, the iconic boardwalk of Venice Beach.
Stereotypes ring true of this beach, and day or night you’ll find fit folk working out in full view, running shirtless, showing off their tan or playing beach volleyball against the backdrop of the Pacific Ocean.
Want the beach minus the scene? The Los Angeles County has 112 kilometres of coastline, so it’s easy to go somewhere off the beaten sand.
(Window) Shop Rodeo Drive
It’s easy to recreate your favourite scene from Pretty Woman with a wander down Rodeo Drive’s palm-tree-lined three blocks.
Even if you’re not in the market for designer ware, Rodeo Drive sits up there with Corso Como in Milan as one of the most famous shopping streets in the world – and should make your Los Angeles itinerary accordingly.
Expect every high-end designer to have a place on this prime piece of retail real estate – with shopfronts designed to complement the iconic location.
Make for Santa Monica Pier
It might feel more like a set of a movie than a real-life location, but Santa Monica Pier delivers the all-American goods.
With a theme park right on the water, have yourself a ‘date’ just like the movies winning a giant stuffed toy, eating cotton candy and taking a ride on the Ferris wheel.
Good news for your hip pocket, unlike other amusement parks, it’s free to enter and you’ll only pay for the rides you want to go on – making it a relatively cheap visit if you cap the family to one iconic spin on the solar-powered Ferris wheel (the only one of its kind in the world thanks to LA’s 300 plus days of sunshine a year).
Take a Warner Bros. Studios Tour
You don’t come to Hollywood without chasing a little bit of Hollywood flair, do you?
For your perfect induction to LA’s glitter scene, take a guided walking tour through Warner Bros. Studios – only the oldest film studio in the world.
Set aside three and a half hours to wander sets including Central Perk from Friends, The Big Bang Theory, Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts to name a few.
If you thought the perfect souvenir didn’t exist, wait until you take home a photo of you holding your very own Oscar.
Dine at the (in)famous Beverly Hills Hotel
While your travel budget might not always lend itself to staying in the highest end Los Angeles hideaways, it doesn’t mean you can’t experience their hospitality.
Perhaps best known for accommodating Hollywood royalty since 1912 within its iconic pink façade, this legend of LA is still open to the public, and booking dinner is a great way to treat yourself to experience how the other half lives.
And you’ll want to - Marilyn Monroe called the hotel home, Elizabeth Taylor spent six of her eight honeymoons here and Prince Harry and Meghan Markle dined here more recently.
While no celebrity sightings are guaranteed, it’s not uncommon to spot a member of the Kardashian-Jenner family or the Beckhams dining here. The restaurant itself is no stranger to big names, being home to one of the most coveted Oscars after parties, hosted by none other than Chanel.
Hike for a closer view of the Hollywood Sign
Set aside a good chunk of a morning or afternoon if you plan on doing the Hollywood Hills on foot to see the Hollywood sign. There’s a number of trails to choose from but the Hollyridge Trail is the crowd pleaser, taking about two or three hours return to complete.
Be aware you can’t get close to the sign and certainly can’t touch it, so if it’s just a photo of the sign you’re after one of the other vantage points might be better and save you the leg work.
For visitors wanting to tick off two attractions at once, the Griffith Observatory parking lot has a cracking view of the sign.
Either way, it’s a must-snap photo of one of the most well-recognised landmarks in the world.
See space at the Griffith Observatory
There’s a reason the Observatory has welcomed over 85 million visitors since it opened – it has one of the best views over the Los Angeles basin – including downtown, Hollywood and all the way out to the Pacific Ocean. Oh, and you can see the cosmos too.
Standing 11,134 feet above sea level, The Griffith Observatory serves as a landmark seen from just about any spot in LA.
Inside, visitors can peer through telescopes in this live planetarium show. Did we mention, it’s completely free too?
Get your art fix at the Getty Center
If you fancy yourself a culture vulture, then swoop on into the Getty Center.
Aside from iconic pre-20th-century European paintings (including the original Vincent van Gogh Irises), drawings, sculptures and photographs – the outdoor sculptures dotted throughout manicured, terraced gardens is what makes this museum such a spectacle.
The building is almost as significant as the works housed within it, with architect Richard Meier commissioned to build a billion-dollar venue for the priceless pieces of art.
The result is the iconic travertine stone and glass building which hugs the ridges of the very hillside it sits.
Come for the art, but stay for the architecture and gardens, or so the story goes from the two million visitors who go each year.
Be prepared that things will take a little longer
If you’ve ever driven Brisbane’s Riverside Expressway and felt a little overwhelmed by the overpasses and exits, get ready to multiply that feeling, because LA is a big city and not surprisingly, home to big city traffic.
With a population of 3.8 million people, a good 1.6 million more than Brisbane, don’t be surprised if your first visit to Los Angeles feels a little overwhelming (in a good way).
The first thing most people notice about the second most populous city in the United States is its urban sprawl. The city rolls on and on and the traffic, … well, it will make your morning commute in peak hour seem like a meditation class.
Pro tip: allow a lot more time than you’d normally allocate to your Brisbane commute.
Tips for first time visitors:
GETTING THERE
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