Last September, M and I went to LA and to various states in the west coast USA to relax and unwind. As you know, I'm quite the traveller so I like to save up and go to places I haven't been to. I've been to US last 2014 but I travelled east coast like NY, Chicago, Washington DC, Philadelphia and Florida. This time we went to LA, Las Vegas, Wyoming, Dakota, Idaho, Montana, Utah and Florida (again, to visit my auntie!).
Honestly it's a long vacation for us (more than 3 weeks) so I'm just gonna put up bullets to highlight the trip so as not to make it lengthy. This trip cost me about A$8,000 including some shopping and airfare. And we availed a 9 Day west coast bus tour with tours4fun. So you'd have an idea if you'd like to do the same. Link below to the tour.
More info here - https://www.tours4fun.com/yellowstone-mt-rushmore-skywalk-las-vegas-grand-canyon-west-9-days-tour.html
Los Angeles, California
We basically check in 3 star hotels to save money. We flew with Qantas airlines and it's a 13 hour direct flight! Imagine leaving in Sydney at 9AM and arriving in LA at 6AM. Serious jetlag. Prob is most hotels allow early check in only if there are rooms available. We were out of luck so we had to come back at 2PM as there is no room available at Best Western Plus Glendale.
Our first stop, downtown LA. We left our baggage in the hotel and hired an uber to take us downtown. We went to Walt Disney Concert Hall, Grand Central Market, The Broad, Bradbury building (oldest bldg in LA), rode the Angel's flight train (from the movie Lala land) and my favorite stop, the Last Bookstore. Honestly it's just a book store but it's quirky and certainly "instagramable". All these are just walking distance to each other so just purchase a local sim and you'll be fine. Btw our sim card in US cost A$100 for unlimited internet for 1 month! I'm surprised how expensive it is.
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| Inside angel's flight. It only cost a dollar to ride it. |
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| Short ride only about 3 mins. |
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| Just some quirky bookshelf found at the Last Bookstore! |
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| I'm surprisingly still awake after a sleepless 13 hour flight! |
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| Knowledge is power! |
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| Some art on the way to the Broad and Walt Disney concert Hall. |
The next day we took uber again and went to Hollywood boulevard. Did not expect LA to be quite dirty and polluted actually. After living in Sydney for a year, my expectations on cities have sky rocketed. LA sky has smog, traffic is bad, there's quite a number of homeless people as well. It didn't meet my expectations at all(based on hollywood movies I've seen!). Also I realised how fortunate I was to be sent to Australia instead of US. I wonder what my life would be like if I worked in Houston. (I was supposedly to be based there instead of Sydney). With all the random shootings happening, it's unfair how the country is not even black listed yet for tourists. I feel my home country PH is safer than US. Anyway we availed this half day coach tour because it was suggested by our driver yesterday haha.. So we can see some famous actors and actresses' houses and some places that were included in films. I'm not big of a fan of people in hollywood but we took it anyway. After the tour, we walked on Hollywood walk of fame, had lunch at In&Out burgers, met H and went to universal studios.
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| M at this artsy staircase |
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| Harry! |
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| Thanks everyone for my engineer of the year award |
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| Our coach tour took us where Leonardo Di Caprio lives, DJ Khale, shooting of the Body guard, Pretty woman etc, |
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| They say this is the most expensive town hall in USA - Beverly Hills |
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| The only place that impressed me in LA is Beverly Hills. |
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| Welcome LA banner |
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| I feel like I'm to star in a soap! |
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| USS LA! |
Our last day in LA, H hired a car. He actually lives in California so he was able to drive us around. It's so hard to find a good spot to photograph the Hollywood sign honestly. If you go on that coach tour, people are just gonna tell you it's forbidden to come closer. Luckily, H knows a spot that is quite hidden where you need to drive to a neighborhood that will lead up to closer to the sign! Halleluja H. We went to Griffith Observatory, Hollywood sign, drove to Beverly hills again because it's just awesome there (also was looking for hydro flasks,) Sta. Monica pier and LACMA at night (Los Angeles county museum of art).
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| Trust me this is the nearest we can find! Not all can find this spot and it's illegal to actually climb all the way to the sign. |
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| Beverly palm trees. The fire hydrant is made of platinum. |
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| Sta Monica pier! |
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| Hunting pokemons at Sta. Monica wishing to meet trainertips and mystic7 |
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| Gimme seafood! |
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| LACMA lights and columns. So crowded we couldn't shot a proper selfie. |
And this concludes my LA trip. The next day it's the start of our 9 day west coast tour with tours4fun which I'm gonna share on my next post. (when I get the chance to NOT be lazy)
