Sun, Surf & Fame

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Geo: 34.0533, -118.245


I checked out of the Custom hotel in the morning and left my luggage for storage, the staff were most helpful and I was picked up from my hotel by the LA Tour promptly. I was taken to Santa Monica which has a theme park on a pier on the water, I looked around Santa Monica for some time while waiting for the rest of the group. The tour guide introduced himself as Brett and then we set off to beautiful Malibu, Brett parked the bus on the car park and told us that this was the car park where Jim Rockford's trailer was filmed in Rockford Files. We had a walk on the Malibu pier with great views of the beach.


We were taken for a drive up the famous Sunset Blvd passing through Brentwood, Bel Air and Beverly Hills, we all took pictures of the sign Beverly Hills. Brett was both very informative, entertaining and he told us few stories of celebrities. Then we checked out few homes of celebrities like Bill Cosby and famous Playboy Mansion.
After which we were taken to the Rodeo Drive for window shopping on the world's most expensive street where celebrities shop; it was strictly window shopping as the prices here are shocking, some of the items would cover my whole years budget but at least a girl can look.. I took a stroll around the streets but I did not see any one interesting.


The weather was sunny and warm, we were taken to the Farmers market for lunch, the Market has many souvenir stalls, eating places for all cuisines. I had a lovely Pizza at the Italian restaurant in the market which was very popular and the chef made pizzas in front of us.
Then we took the walk of fame where stars with famous names are on the Hollywood Boulevard to the beautiful Chinese Theatre, where the celebrity hand and foot prints are kept. That part of street was closed for preparation of the Oscars and they were rolling out the red carpet. The Dolby Theatre (aka Kodak Theatre) is where the Oscars are held! which is opposite the Chinese theatre. Some people there were weird and seedy but it was all very interesting, after which we passed Whiskey, Viper Room and Roxy music clubs while cruising the Sunset Strip.


Brett then took us to the Griffith Park for photos of the Hollywood sign and views of the down town L.A. skyline.The Griffith Park has breath-taking views of LA, this has to be one of the best places to see aerial views of Los Angeles and vastness of LA, you can see Downtown LA, the new city, Hollywood Sign and much more from here. There are trails from there for better views of LA, I also spend some time in the Griffith Observatory as well.
The Griffith Observatory is a good place to check out if you are interested in astronomy, visit the telescope, and experience the 3D models of solar system, galaxy & other astronomical models.

We were able to see the Hollywood sign a few times while driving around LA but Bret told us to take our Hollywood sign pictures from here. I had to queue to take the picture from the corner as from other places I was getting the sign as Hollywooo !! Well it is only a sign and I have seen it many times in pictures but when you are in LA then it is a must, so now I have the T shirt..

LA is very vast and this tour was perfect to see the highlights of LA where we covered little bit of everything but still had enough time at each place. It was a fun day and everybody in the group was really happy with Brett, if you are in LA for a short time, I would definitely recommend this tour as you will be able to see overview of LA in air conditioned bus with good music and excellent guide. I was the last one to be dropped off; I picked up my luggage from storage and took the free shuttle to airport. I had brilliant time in California and I saw many places in short time, it all turned out better than I expected, my favourite place was Yosemite Park which was awesome. Next stop is Auckland, New Zealand.

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