Juice with ashes, breakfast in a greenhouse and, with a lot of luck, a cinema seat next to Quentin Tarantino: There is nothing that does not exist in Los Angeles. Anne and Clemens travelled around the world on the Star Alliance Round The World ticket and spent five exciting days in the crazy metropolis on the US West Coast. Here are their 13 tips for a short trip to the City of Angels. Read more about LA here: https://www.latimes.com/
Los Angeles, Hollywood, Southern California – this is where dreams come true or still dream. L.A., a place so big that it combines all the facets. Be it the wide sandy beaches, the glittering shopping streets or the secluded alleys where artists tinker with their own Southern Californian dream. We spent five days in the US metropolis, fought our way through the dense traffic and explored well-known, but also completely new and up-and-coming areas of Los Angeles. Here are our 13 tips and highlights for a short trip to Los Angeles.
West-Hollywood und Beverly Hills
The Rodeo Drive became known as THE address for noble clothes at the latest through the romantic comedy Pretty Woman in the 1990s. Even today the palm-lined street is still popular with those who like to bring a little money among the people and the others who just come to “people watching”. You can safely park your car in one of the side streets, from where you stroll towards Rodeo Drive. When the shop windows of Gucci, Prada and Co. are reflected in the tinted sunglasses lenses, then one is at the Rodeo Drive: even without shopping, one can feel there once like Richard Gere or Julia Roberts.
Since 1945, Nate’n Al in the heart of Beverly Hills has been serving sandwiches with fresh corned beef or salad, pickled herrings or fried chips. The typical American diner has everything a diner needs: Leather sofas that must have had dozens of people sitting on them, dimmed lights, and a service that is not nice but efficient. Our recommendation: the pastrami sandwich and a homemade lemonade.
If you remember the Melrose Place series from 1992, the solarium-burned, hydrogen-blonde women who fell in love again and again with the six-pack Johnny from next door are on your mind. The real Melrose Place, however, is somewhat different from the one depicted in the US series, which (fortunately) ended in 1999. Today it is the area where young entrepreneurs and creative people are building their own little cafés and shops between big brands like Diane von Furstenberg. A short walk through this manageable quarter shows that the young, hip, up-and-coming guard of the locals meets here. A perfect place to dream of a chic house, your own shop or even a juice bar in the sun along the cactus-lined streets.
The vitamin kick for in between: Moon Juice
Alchemy, cosmic, dust: the Moon Juice branch is teeming with vocabulary that is untypical of juice, so that it is difficult to understand what is really in the bottle. Real Angelenos have known the brand for a long time, of course, but for newcomers the first purchase is a real challenge: We chose the greenest juice on the shelves and the ginger-lemon juice. This was a good choice, because freshly mixed, the two were not only super delicious, but above all they were real energy kicks.
Once a year actors and the big names in the film business fly halfway around the world in the hope of taking one of the coveted trophies from the Oscars in Hollywood. Then Hollywood looks glamorous, big and special. Away from the spotlight of the Oscars, however, the area around the Walk of Fame, the Chinese Theatre and Dolby Theatre radiates anything but glitz and glamour. Day in, day out, hundreds and hundreds of tourists cavort on the famous street, in between beggars and self-promoters. The streets and also the shops that are located away from the main tourist resorts hardly arouse the desire to actually set foot in them.
If you are in L.A., you must have been in Hollywood, too: once you put your own hands in the handprint of Will Smith, take the obligatory photo in front of the stars of Christoph Waltz, Michael Jackson or Harrison Ford and dream of a ticket to the Oscar ceremony while looking down from the top floor of the Dolby Theatre. To be honest, that was it – and that’s a good thing. Because Los Angeles has even more corners that are more beautiful, more appealing and, well, cleaner than Hollywood.
Take a look behind the scenes: Paramount Pictures Studio Tour
Admittedly, it could hardly be more touristy, but if you are already in the city of movies, then you should not miss the chance to look behind the scenes. We decided to take a tour through the Paramount Studios. On this tour, one is driven for two hours in a golf caddy over the whole area (costs: 58 USD, approx. 52 Euro). The exciting thing about the tour is that you never know which studio is free and can be visited. Thus, what one really sees during the tour cannot be exactly determined from the beginning.
If the whole city is already revolving around the topic film and the stars and starlets, then one should also sit oneself into the comfortable seats of a big cinema hall and enjoy what is produced only not far from the cinema itself: a Hollywood blockbuster. We chose the Pacific Cinerama Dome, which belongs to the Arclight Cinemas and is located in the middle of Sunset Boulevard. Why? Rumour has it that this large cinema hall with its own dome is the secret favourite of star director Quentin Tarantino – we can understand why.