Category: Los Angeles

Information about traveling to and from Los Angeles, California

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Where to book your Los Angeles hostel

At this point there aren’t a ton of hostels in Los Angeles, but if the worldwide trend continues here, it won’t be long before more open their doors. Many Americans are still unfamiliar with the concept of hostels, but that is definitely changing. The other major trend on the worldwide hostels scene is that more hostels are adding more private rooms to their dorm setups, and this will definitely help more Americans get on board.

When you are searching for hostels you’ll discover that virtually every booking site has the exact same hostels at the exact same prices. In a way this is good, since it means it’s almost impossible to get ripped off when booking a hostel. But this might also make people think all the sites are otherwise the same, even though they aren’t.

Some hostel-booking sites have helpful maps of the area and others have good travel guide information that helps first-time visitors decide which parts of the city are best to stay in. You can’t trust all the boastful claims about each hostel because they are usually written by the hostel itself (or at least someone working there, probably not the building doing the writing). But the hostel-booking sites do each add value so you should check them out and decide which appeals to you.

For your convenience, here are some of the major hostel-booking sites that cover Los Angeles:

BootsnAll
HostelBookers
HostelsClub
HostelWorld
TheBestHostels

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Los Angeles

Newport Beach

lagunanewport.jpgNewport Beach is a city at the heart of Orange County with much more personality than the narrow focus of reality shows or teen soap operas have given it in the eyes of the rest of the world.

The main attraction in Newport Beach, as the name suggests, is the beach. The picturesque coast brings tourists in from around the city and the beach is one of the most popular with body boarders and surfers as well. The famous Wedge, a challenging set of waves that break right off the Balboa peninsula, attract surfers and athletes to play in the curling waves.

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Southwest Museum

sw-museum.jpgThe Southwest Museum in Los Angeles is home to over a quarter million American Indian artifacts and works of art. It was one of the most impressive collections of Native American pieces assembled in this part of the world and because of limited room, the museum could only display about 5,000 pieces.

This meant that at any given time, about 98% of the museum’s collection was in storage. But no longer. The Southwest Museum is going to be renovated and restored to a level that will give curators much more flexibility and option in their display selection and increase the usable space in the museum significantly.

Unfortunately, this will also force the museum to relocate from its neighborhood location on the top of tight-knit Mt. Washington, to the expanded campus in Griffith Park.

Previous problems with the building itself led to problems with leaking roofs during rain, flooding, electrical problems and an infestation of what the museum’s website calls “vermin.”

The plan is to have the Southwest Museum up and running again by 2009, in a new building with updated seismic technology, display capabilities and technology. Meanwhile, work will continue on the old building, which is scheduled for completion in 2010. The Southwest Museum will then become some other type of cultural building, as was stipulated in the donor’s will. Until then, the Museum store will be open on weekends and events and programs will be open to the public and put on around the year. The Southwest Museum website has information on the restoration, remodel and move to the new location.

Admission

Museum exhibits are now closed to the public until the collection is moved to another location. The Southwest Museum had a deal with a location in Griffith Park called “The Museum of the American West” that allowed for admission to both for $12.00, but that deal has been discontinued since the Southwest Museum closed.

Location

The new location of the Southwest Museum is undecided, although the plan is that it will be part of the expansion in Griffith Park. This is a map to the old location on Mt. Washington, which will become another cultural interpretive center.

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Los Angeles

Which travel site has the lowest fares to Los Angeles?

planesThere are more airfare booking sites out there than you can shake a stick at, but do they all end up with the same fares in the end. BootsnAll decided to put that to a test, so they ran Expedia, Hotwire, Kayak, Orbitz, Priceline, SideStep, and Travelocity through their paces on 6 different and varied itineraries. Los Angeles was one of the test cities, so if you are thinking of booking a flight to or from the City of Angels soon, this might save you a bit of money.

I won’t reveal the results here, but there were some surprises. One site actually stood out as the clear winner, so see for yourself how each site did and which of these travel search engines is the cheapest.

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Articles Los Angeles

Highland Park and Eagle Rock

highland-park.jpgHighland Park and Eagle Rock make up the area between Glendale and Pasadena in East Los Angeles. Although they are incorporated within the city of Los Angeles, the two neighborhoods have distinct boundaries and neighborhood identities.

Highland Park

Highland Park is a neighborhood north east of Los Angeles bordered by the 110 freeway, South Pasadena, and Eagle Rock. The neighborhood is relatively small, but within its borders there is a progression from a depressed neighborhood full of people just trying to get by, to an area of interesting architecture, beautiful houses and relative wealth.

Highland Park is one of the oldest settled suburbs of Los Angeles. During the 1960’s the area became predominantly Latino and in the last few decades a significant black and Asian population has moved in to the neighborhood.

Attractions in Highland Park include the Southwest Museum, which has a vast collection of Native American artifacts from surrounding tribes, and various local restaurants and bars.

Eagle Rock

A formerly somewhat depressed area similar to Highland Park, in the last few years Eagle Rock has been revitalized and rebounded from a few decades of decline. Termed “the new Silver Lake” when local residents realized that housing prices were somewhat less in Eagle Rock than surrounding areas, Eagle Rock has seen an influx of urban hipsters and residents with disposable income that has tipped the neighborhood on its head.

Eagle Rock’s small area has the self-contained feel of a college town. The neighborhood is home to Occidental College, a small liberal arts university with 2,000 students and a significant number of those students stay in Eagle Rock after graduation. The local student watering hole “The Chalet” is frequently ranked in the top ten bars in Los Angeles and local restaurants like Casa Bianca and The Bucket draw accolades from food critics across the city.

Restaurants

Casa Bianca and The Bucket are both neighborhood mainstays in Eagle Rock. They are landmarks that have been around forever. Two new restaurants have opened across the street from each other on Colorado Boulevard at the heart of Eagle Rock, Dave’s Chillin’ and Grillin’ and The Oinkster. “Dave’s” is a sandwich shop run by Massachusetts transplant Dave Evans which focuses on the quality of ingredients for the best sandwiches in the city, The Oinkster bills itself as “slow fast food” and has the name of fine dining chef Andre Guerrero to back it. While the Oinkster participates in such foolery as making their own ketchup every day from scratch, the dining experience at Dave’s makes you feel like you’re getting a custom sandwich. Just ask Dave about his ingredients and watch him go.

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Articles Los Angeles

Runyon Canyon

puppies_puppy_silly_242881_l.jpgRunyon Canyon offers a set of easy hiking trails close to Griffith Park and Hollywood for locals looking for exercise and tourists looking for views of the city.

In 1984 the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy bought Runyon Canyon from Adad Development and transformed it into a park with hiking trails leading up the steep slopes to a hillside with beautiful views of Los Angeles, the Hollywood hills, and the surrounding metro area.

Runyon Canyon sits in the same hills as the Hollywood sign and hikers can access the trails from Fuller Street, a few blocks West of La Brea. The park’s trails and outdoor setting bring out dog walkers, runners and hikers from Hollywood’s stable of acting and entertainment hopefuls as well as regular folks from all over the city.

There are two entrances to the park at the bottom of the canyon, on Fuller Ave and Vista St. and one at the top of the park, where Mulholland Drive intersects the main trail. Parking is limited to street parking at each entrance, which explains why the park is mainly used by locals, but public transit can get you within walking distance of the park at the Hollywood and Highland rail station and several bus lines will drop you even closer.

Once you arrive at the park, your hiking options are between a clockwise or counter-clockwise circuit of the trails, or an out and back to the upper portion of the park. The top of the park is a steep mile from the bottom, but it seems farther than that because of the incline and hikers should allow at least 45 minutes for a 2 mile hike.

Frank Lloyd Wright House

Architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed a house in 1944 for George Headley which now stands within the bounds of Runyon Canyon Park. The house, off Mulholland Drive, follow one of three designs that Wright submitted for the building, all designed around a central chimney and high master bedroom that stands alone and makes use of the full circle of views from the top of the hills.

Additional structures were supposed to be built after Lloyd Wright designed a country club called the “Huntington Hartford Play Resort” in the hills that are now Runyon Canyon, but those plans were abandoned when the developer purchased different land and decided to invest in that instead.

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Manhattan Beach

volleyball_beach_blue_268276_l.jpgThe city of Manhattan Beach is a beach community close to the downtown area of Los Angeles and LAX. Named for New York’s Manhattan island, the city is one of the most desirable places to live in the city and home to many notable residents. Athletes especially seem to gravitate toward Manhattan Beach. The point guards for several NBA teams have houses in Manhattan Beach, as well as Michael Olowokandi, the Boston Celtics center, Olympic figure skater Michelle Kwan, soccer player Landon Donovan and baseball player Nomar Garciaparra.

Manhattan Beach began in the late 19th century when several ranches were purchased and combined into one mega-sized plot of land that is now the 10.2 square mile city.

Beach Sports

It is not terribly surprising that so many athletes would gravitate toward the city. The beach attracts athletes of all levels to roller blade or bike along the paved path that runs up and down the entire length of Los Angeles’ beaches as well as a large number of surfers, beach volleyball players and joggers who want to exercise on the sand itself.

Manhattan Beach is actually the de facto home of beach volleyball and the epicenter of the pro beach volleyball circuit. Although the sport was technically invented in nearby Santa Monica, the scene volleyball scene is nowhere better than Manhattan Beach. Numerous nets and courts are set up each day for public use and pick up games are easy to come by.

Pros describe the Beach volleyball tournament at Manhattan Beach as the best that the circuit has to offer and because many grew up playing on the sandy courts at Huntington and Manhattan Beach, they games are often the most competitive at this tournament. The national television audience and high prize money probably doesn’t hurt either.

Manhattan Beach can fill up on the weekends and parking can be hard to find. There are a few parking garages sprinkled throughout the city, but be sure to bring quarters to feed the meter and be sure to head back to your car promptly. Parking enforcement comes through swiftly and writes hefty tickets if they get to your car.

Real Estate

Money Magazine ranked Manhattan Beach the fourth most expensive city to live in in America in 2005 and Forbes ranked the Manhattan Beach ZIP code 90266 the 29th most expensive in the nation that same year. Houses typically sell for millions of dollars depending on the proximity to the beach and as sets of family size houses are torn down and replaced by beachfront mansions, the prices have continued to climb.

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Costa Mesa

costamesapic.jpgCosta Mesa is a suburban city in Orange County located halfway between several popular beaches and Disneyland. The middle class community has been settled throughout most of American history but exploded in population after local families training for deployment in World War II lived in Costa Mesa while they trained at the Santa Ana Army Air Base.

South Coast Plaza Shopping Center generates almost 1 billion dollars at its 322 stores each year. Although not the largest mall in the U.S. the stores generate more money than any other shopping center in the country. Stores draw clientele from all over Orange County to shop at its upscale and ultra-luxury boutiques and many stores report that their South Coast Plaza locations make more money than any other location around the world.

In addition to the mall, the Orange County fairgrounds are located in Costa Mesa, which hosts the Orange County fair, one of the largest fairs in California. The fairgrounds host music and comedy acts during the fair, which receives more than one million visitors each year.

The city of Costa Mesa literally makes up the middle area between Disneyland and the beach. Like the rest of Orange County, it consists lots of shopping centers and chain restaurants but it is also the best place to find cheap accommodation away from the inflated prices of the beach and out of the Disneyland bubble that fills Anaheim with theme park addled families recovering from their adrenaline rushes.

Costa Mesa is a perfect place to stay if you’re looking for more variety out of your Los Angeles vacation than spending all of your time just at the beach or Disneyland. Costa Mesa is not oriented just for tourists or streamlined so that you spend all of your time spending money in an amusement park. It’s a place to stay for those who want to see a little more of Los Angeles and spend some time taking in the sights around the rest of the city after they can no longer handle the roller coasters or the waves for the fourth day in a row.

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Natural History Museum

museum-kid.jpgThe Natural History Museum of Los Angeles is a museum displaying artifacts and diverse specimens of plant and animal life from around the world. A staple of Los Angeles’ museum circuit, the NHM displays the cultural artifacts from Latin America, African and North American mammals, the “mega-mouth” shark and 2,000 specimens of rock on display in the gem and mineral hall.

Right now, the museum has on temporary display a photography exhibit exploring the history of the Natural History Museum’s building, its construction and architecture by Joseph Hall, an architectural photographer.

Past exhibits include “Sonic Scenery” which is a collection of music that was inspired by the exhibits at the Natural History Museum and performed by several different world-renowned orchestras and the “Pavilion of Wings,” a display of live butterflies that visitors can handle and learn about interactively.

Location and Hours

The Natural History Museum is located right across the street from the University of Southern California at 900 Exposition Boulevard between Vermont and Figueroa. The museum is open 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on the weekends.

Admission

Admission to the museum is free on the first Tuesday of each month and the museum’s members, USC faculty and USC students receive free admission to the museum’s First Fridays concert series.

For non-members, adult admission to the museum costs $9 and a bunch of other discounts for the old and young bring the admission down to $6.50.

The Natural History Museum recommends that you don’t even visit the museum on USC game days because of the hundreds of thousands of people that come to the area. Street closures and traffic jams make visiting too much of a hassle, the museum says.

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The Grove

shopping_cart_presents_261532_l1.jpgThe Grove earned its place as one of LA’s most popular shopping centers by offering something for everyone. There is not only a farmer’s market full of produce and fresh made crepes, pizza and other standard farmer’s market fare, for those of you who have left your holiday shopping until today, a series of department stores, clothing stores for men and women, electronics and book stores.

And the selection does not end there. There is a museum celebrating the movie industry with artifacts from television and film productions that have firmly embedded themselves in our culture and seasonal decorations that demonstrate a fervent commitment to holidays.

The Grove is also home to one of the most advanced movie theaters in Hollywood, where the seats are large and plush and the picture is crisp and the tickets are expensive. Because of the quality of the showings, The Grove Theater attracts a dedicated type of moviegoer and those moviegoers in turn attract pre-release movies where directors, producers and actors gauge audience reactions. Ever see that a movie is on “limited release,” which means that it’s only playing in New York and LA? It’s a good bet that it’s playing at The Grove.

The mall offers concierge services that go above and beyond your usual expectations for services at a mall. The Grove Concierge was named the #1 concierge in the nation by the Wall Street Journal and their assistance delivering packages, procuring event tickets, making restaurant reservations and loaning strollers, wheelchairs and designer umbrellas to their patrons has them positioned to stay at that ranking.

The concierge service is so comprehensive, it will book you through your trip to Los Angeles through partnerships with the city’s top hotels. The Grove claims you will receive special rates as well as VIP treatment by booking your trip through their service at such prestigious places as Chateau Marmont and the Beverly Hills Hotel.

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