Teen and mother to explore LA (San Francisco, Santa Monica: rentals, hotel, theatre)

[teebird1012]

I'm from Lexington, KY and will be coming to LA in February with my mom to look at colleges as I'm a junior in high school. I'll be looking at schools for a day or two, but what should we do for the other four free days we have in town? I've never been to LA, only San Francisco. She wants to go shopping for a day and I've love to take one of those studio tours- just the "touristy" things you know? One other question- is the 405 always jammed? We're renting a car and my mom is nervous about driving in LA- particularly from LAX to our hotel in Century City and back. Anyways any recomendations would be appreciated!

[fastfilm]

You're asking good, informed questions there teebird. You can combine a studio tour, shopping, dining, movie-going and touristy things by taking the Universal City studio tour, and shopping/dining/enjoying Universal CityWalk right next to it. Sometimes there are bands at night; there are always a lot of young people. There's parking galore, and you can then drive back over the hill to Hollywood Blvd. to see the Chinese Theatre with the celebs' footprints in cement, the stars with the stars' names on them on the sidewalks, the giant Hollywood sign up in the hills visible between office buildings if it's not hazy, a lot of toursists milling around, and a vestigial dregs of society scuzzy element.

February might have some rain the days you're here, but if it doesn't, go to the beach. Venice beach has bike rentals, and a good destination would be to go north alon the beach-side bikepath to Santa Monica. Good people-watching along the Pacific Ocean, and you can marvel at how expensive the beach properties are! Unfortunately for star-watching, most of the celebs live in Malibu, which blocks off its beaches.

Century City is next door to Beverly Hills, and you might want to walk around Rodeo Drive and environs just to see how flamboyant the wealthy can be. It's hard to park there, so you might want to take a bus or a really long walk there. CC is not that far from the beaches as well, so it's something you can plan after another activity. Go back west along Santa Monica Blvd. or Olympic or Pico, or even Wilshire to get to the beaches-don't bother with any freeway.

Yes, the 405 is always jammed. Do what we locals do and allocate twice as much driving time as you think you'll need, which ought to take some of the stress out of the norm of congested driving. So what if you're early: it's less stressful than being late because of horrendous traffic. Check out routes ahead of time on Mapquest, then double their time calculations to be more realistic. Now the only thing your mom will have to worry about while driving is the high percentage of unlicensed illegals driving here, but staying in Century City and around the West side in general, the problem lessens considerably. I think you can have a great time doing touristy things in between checking out colleges within four days. Good luck.

[teebird1012]

Thanks for the great info! I'll copy this in an email and send it to my mom.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by teebird1012

I'll be looking at schools for a day or two, but what should we do for the other four free days we have in town?

To try to kill three birds with one stone check out the Peterson Automotive Museum, the Fairfax Melrose districts and the Farmers Market/Grove Mall. They are all within a few miles of each other. If you are adventurous with food eat in Little Ethiopia which is also in the general vicinity.

You might also check out Santa Anita racetrack out in Arcadia.

Other things:
The Queen Mary
Venice Beach
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Griffith Park Observatory


Use the search tool to get a whole bunch more suggestions for people visiting Southern California.

[TheRealAngelion]

I would also add the following to your list:

Third Street Promenade (Santa Monica) - tons of shopping, cafes, restaurants, and great people watching.
Getty Museum - A must see, for the art and and great view of the city.
The Grove - Also has good shopping, restaurants, and a great movie theatre. It's kind of like a miniature Disneyland for adults without the rides.

These places are all within close driving distance to and from Century City.

[teebird1012]

Sounds great! As I said before I've only been to San Francisco once and that was to spend the night after a 12 hour flight from Tokyo before going on back to good ole KY (ha not really) and I only saw downtown SF. A number of my friends rave about LA and how awesome it is so I'm looking forward to seeing it for myself.