When you’re in La La Land 🌴🌴🌴

This summer I have been travelling from the west coast to the east coast of North America. I am currently in New York City (blogs about New York will come later when I’ve caught up!) and have been off the grid a lot of the time due to where I’ve been.

Now back to the beginning… Los Angeles!

(Views from Muholland Drive)

I flew into LA on the 22nd July and when I got there, boy was I tired! I struggled to sleep at all on the plane, plus the 8 hour time difference led to a very tired woman.

I had 4 nights in LA before I started my Trek America Northern Trail trip that went from LA to NY (I’ve just finished the trip and it was awesome – more to come!)

I stayed at Hostel International Los Angeles in Santa Monica on 2nd Street. I have stayed there previously and I really recommend it. It’s literally around the corner from Santa Monica pier. Definitely check it out: HI Los Angeles

This post is me saying what I did each day and focusing on the things that I would recommend you guys to do in LA.

First things first, LA is massive! You cannot walk anywhere! Uber becomes your best friend in LA and I got to where I wanted to go for a cheap price each time as well (I did always use the carpool).

Day 1

I went and walked along Santa Monica Pier, taking in all the rides, the different shopsand stalls, as well as the view, before going for a sunbathe on the beach.

As I stated a few sentences ago, LA is massive and despite the fact Santa Monica and Venice Beach look close on a map, there are about an hour’s walk apart. I rented a bike from Breeze Bikes in Santa Monica, which cost $7 for an hour. I cycled for a little bit on Ocean Avenue (which was terrifying), before cycling along the seafront to Venice Beach.

This advice about Venice Beach was repeatedly given to me – especially as a woman travelling on her own. It was to avoid Venice Beach when it started to get dark. Actually I was also warned this by a few about Santa Monica. Just thought I’d pass it on!

Day 2

I headed to Universal Studios on this day and I won’t go into too much detail here as I plan to do a blog post just about the theme park. I headed there on my own and had an awesome time.

I love love loved the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride as you get to walk theough Hogwarts and the ride itself makes it feel as you’re flying with Harry and co. I also loved the Jurassic Park log flume ride and of course got absolutely soaked!

I definitely recommend a trip to Universal Studios and will go into more detail in the blog post!

Day 3

I went to the Broad Museum in Downton LA and had booked my ticket for opening time at 11am. Tickets for the Broad are free, but they are gone fast. The museum puts the ticket online at the start of the month beforehand e.g. I got my July tickets on the 1st June. I definitely recommend this as the queue for people trying to get tickets outside the museum was absolutely insane! I did feel a little smug walking straight in, past the enormous line.

When you go in, you need to sign up to see Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirrored Room straight away. Even though the museum had just opened, I got a time of 2 hours later and was told that I would get a text telling me when to join the queue.

The art in the museum was really cool and I loved just wandering around, taking in the famous paintings and sculptures.

When I finally got my text and headed to the queue, I was told that I would have 45 seconds in the mirrored room and that started as soon as the door closed behind me. There was someone standing outside the room with a stopwatch.

Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirrored Room – The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away is absolutely stunning and is just wonder to behold.

Definitely get tickets for The Broad.

After that, I got an uber to Burbank to go to the Warner Bros lot for my 3pm tour. The funny thing was I met a girl in my uber carpool who was on the same tour, so we instantly became friends.

I loved this tour. The tour guide was great and incredibly knowledgeable about TV shows and movies. He took us straight to the town square set and it was still set up for Gilmore Girls ❤️ (one of my favourite shows of all time!)

We went to a DC comics exhibition, where a part of it was closed due to them bringing in Wonder Woman artefacts (that movie was beyond awesome!) and a Harry Potter exhibition upstairs, with a touch of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. I got sorted by the Sorting Hat and of course, I was sorted into Gryffindor. 🙌🏻

We also got to see cars from the Batman films, which was really cool. I reckoned several from the Christian Bale trilogy, which I love. They’re currently celebrating 75 years of Batman and it was great that we got to see the display.

We got to see the set of the Big Bang Theory, but could not take pictures as they are about to start filming. It was a lot smaller than I thought it would be, but apparently the camera pans to make it look a lot bigger. So so cool!

And then it was time for Stage 48. I got to see the set of Central Perk and then I got to sit on the Friends couch! Still can’t get over it! Best day ever!

I also got to hold an Oscar, which is actually really heavy. I finished my tour by buying loads in the gift shop (of course) and getting a drink from Central Perk.

If you love TV Shows, especially Friends, don’t miss out on doing the Warners Bro Studio Tour!

Day 4 – Last day!

I headed to the Poseidon Surf Shop on Ocean Avenue for my 10am tour of LA that would last for 5 hours! The tour was called the Perfect LA tour with a company called Surf City Tours. I got to see so much of LA, which was awesome!

The tour includes: Hollywood Boulevard, a lunch stop at the farmer’s market, going to Muholland Drive to see the Hollywood sign, Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive, homes of the stars and much more.

The tour was $85 and it did last the five hours. I saw so much and I would definitely recommend it! Go to Surf City Tours

After my tour, I picked up my bags and headed to a hotel near LAX while my Trek America trip would start at half 7 the next morning!