A little over a month ago I had the pleasure of taking Friday off and flying down to Los Angeles for a long weekend. My close friend Darcy moved back there from San Francisco for graduate school last fall. She is originally from the San Fernando Valley and is an LA native. To be honest, I have never been a huge fan of Los Angeles, but the last few times I have ventured down south I have been happily surprised by the experience. Los Angeles has the sun, the celebs, the shopping, the cuisine, the mountains, the diversity….and the list goes on. With sunglasses, flip flops, and sundresses in tow I ventured down for the SoCal experience.

Throughout the weekend we ventured to Los Feliz, Silver Lake, Westwood, Downtown, and Woodland Hills. My tour guide was anything but boring. This weekend wasn’t dedicated to your traditional sense of sightseeing but checking things out from a true local perspective. Thursday and Friday nights were infused with music at the old Orpheum theater downtown. This theater is majestic with it’s painted ceilings, golden trim and old Hollywood feel. The band we saw was Widespread Panic. If anyone reading this knows about Jam Bands, well Widespread Panic is at the top of my list and going to a two or three night run is never enough. We met people from California, Ohio, Illinois, Georgia…two impressive nights of live music especially set 1 on Friday night.

Daytime and nighttime we feasted on eats & libations at local establishments like There is No Place Like Home and Eat Well as well as one of the hundreds of A-rated taquerias in the LA area. We also shopped in Los Feliz, indulged in PinkBerry, and got $40 Thai massages at Pho Siam in Silver Lake. The final night of the trip we headed to the Los Angeles Film Festival and saw an indie flick called Rocket Science. I believe it just came out in smaller scale theaters a couple of weeks ago. It is about a high school kid that stutters who joins his high school debate team, I highly recommend it. My weekend in Los Angeles was just terrific and I even had my own private star sighting while on a walk around Silver Lake.

Next time I hope to learn even more about what makes Los Angeles famous or infamous depending on how you look at it. Viator has suggested itineraries for Los Angeles but I would like to recommend taking the following tours to get that perfect taste of what makes up this city of angels:

1. Movie Stars’ Homes and Celebrity Grave Site Tour - Yes, sounds a bit dark but there is an underbelly in every city.
   
2. Los Angeles Beach Cities Helicopter Flight - The coastline is really beautiful from an aerial perspective.
3. J. Paul Getty Museum - Everyone can use a little art inspiration in their lives.
4. Historic Downtown Los Angeles Walking Tour - Get a glimpse of the old school entertainment area.
5. Private Surfing Lessons - Need I say more?

–Liz P

Planning a trip? Browse all of Viator’s tours and things to see & do in Los Angeles.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007 at 9:00 am and is filed under Destinations, Travel Inspiration, USA, Canada, Mexico. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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