USA

California Roadtrip

After traveling to a bunch of asian countries these past years, it was about time to head back to the “big” country.

Being a passionate fan of the USA while growing up, I rapidly started discovering several states after my second trip to California in 2006. I visited California 7 times, almost once every year, and did most of the popular states like Washington, Oregon, Florida, Louisiana, New York, Illinois, … .

So far I’ve visited 12 states, and drove through a handful more.

After my first steps in Asia in 2013, my travel interests changed, and I noticed that my wallet definitely felt more confortable with asian countries. I could do way more trips within a year while wandering across Asia. Culturewise I was more keen towards eastern countries, than America.

Nevertheless, since my last holidays in the US, San Francisco again in 2016, I was looking forward to head over to my favorite state and discover some new spots.

 




Las Vegas, Nevada.

“What happens in Vegas, stays in a Vegas”, such a popular and often-repeated quote, that will make you think that Vegas is all about its second name “Sincity”. This should be my 6th time in Vegas. When I was younger I enjoyed the binge drinking nights and the dull nights at the clubs. However after been through that, I do really love Vegas for its hot climate, the luxurious hotels, the lovely outdoor pools and its casino madness.

We decided to stay at the Mirage Casino, as we got a pretty fair deal on our room. Mirage’s location is actually a bonus, as you’re only steps away from the beautiful Bellagio fountain show, and a big fashion Mall is just next door.

You don’t go to Las Vegas to get culturally educated. However there’s nothing wrong with enjoying some Mojitos at the beautiful pool, have fun at gambling throughout the night, and enjoy some of the pretty restaurants across the different casinos. It’s a fancy world which can be enjoyable for a couple of days.

I noticed throughout the years that Vegas had become a lot more expensive than it was 10 years ago. The parking lot that used to be free at several Casinos, switched from free to 25$ a day. A (small-size) Mojito at the pool was 15$ without tax nor tip. The usual dish at an average restaurant was between 22 and 29$.

Life’s fun in Vegas but it ain’t cheap.

Vanessa discovered a pretty hip spot, right on the city’s edge. It was the art installation “Seven Magic Mountains”. A bunch of colorful rocks stacked on each other. Plenties of rocks, plenties of colors! In my opinion it’s a must-see if you get bored of the glamour in Vegas. There’s a free parking, no entrance fee (which has become pretty rare nowadays), and you get the arty desert feel. It was also one of the few places where I felt at ease to fly up my drone.

 

Grand Canyon, Arizona.

Despite numerous trips to Vegas I’d never made it to the Grand-Canyon. My girlfriend and I, we decided to make it a one-day trip towards Arizona.

First of all I didn’t know that the Grand Canyon was located in Arizona. We had to cross the borders of Nevada, to Utah and back south to Arizona to reach the worldfamous landmark. As we left in the early morning before 8 am to headed east to the Antelope Canyon. The lower Antelope Canyon got more an more popular because of its beautiful shots on social media. As for myself I was really excited to take a couple of amazing photos with the light-beam shining through the different layers of the Antelope.

After we arrived in the smoking hot desert, we got disappointed that the only way to make it to the Antelope Canoyn was with a guided tour. On the side of the road we discovered 3 different companies that would offer a tour to the country. The cheapest was about 60-80$ per person. We were told that the Canyon belonged to the Navajo population and therefor it wasn’t possible to make it to the bottom of the Canyon without a tour. Bummer!

Two companies were completely sold out. One offered us a tour around 3:30pm. If we would have waited 2 more hours in the sun, we wouldn’t have made it in time to the Grand-Canyon. So basically we were driving almost 4:30 hours to the Antelope, for being told that we couldn’t get in.

I’d recommend to the readers of this post, inform yourself prior your departure of your trip and try to book a tour in advance. It’s sad that actually every cool spot in the US turns into a tourist attraction, where visitors have to pay for a guided tour.

Close to the Antelope, 20 minutes driving, there’s another cool spot called “the Horseshoe Bend”. Again we had to pay a 10$ entrance fee for our car. We parked on the big public parking and walked for about 20 minutes to a vista point where we could take some shots of the impressive scenery that forms the horseshoe river.

While asking for informations about the Grand Canyon we were told that there would be two main points that we could approach by car. The southern part of the Canyon or the North Rim. As we had to make it back to Vegas in the evening we opted for the North Rim which was about 2 hours driving away from the Antelope.

As the Grand-Canyon belongs to the National Park you had to pay a 35$ entrance fee to access it by car. We spent about 3 hours in the park and followed a route that lead us to different view points. They were all worth it.

Getting back to Vegas was a 5-hour-driving-adventure as there are no lights on the road at night, and you gotta drive carefully because of the wildlife in the surrounding woods and mountains.

In total we spent more than 13 hours on the road which got pretty unpleasant at the end of the journey. I’d recommend to stay at least a night in the national park or at least closer to the popular landmarks. It will make your trip and life more enjoyable.




Palms Springs.

The words “Palm Springs” always come up when people talk about southern california. The famous music festival Coachella, takes place every year just right next to Palm Springs. However if people would have asked me, what to do in the city, I wouldn’t have known an answer to their question.

Even now after having spent a night in Palm Springs, I can’t tell you what I would recommend doing while visiting. We had booked a night at the wonderful “Infusion Beach Club” Motel. Hands down it’s the coolest motel I ever stayed at. The view from the 2nd floor, over the pool towards the mountains was wonderful. The pool area, was surrounded by a bar that offered enjoyable cocktails, pool-beds, hip string lights and wooden bag toss games. The accomodation offered free bike-rentals to make it easier to the city-center. In the lobby you could use the photomat-booth and send them for free to your e-mail. They also servered free coffee and tea all day.

Obviously free parking right in the front of your room was a plus on a roadtrip, that’s why we opted for motel nights, as it made the trip cheaper and easier.

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On our only single night in Palm Springs on a saturday evening, we went downtown through the main road. It was pretty calm. Actually it was hard to find a bar packed with people. We were happy that we still managed to find a mexican restaurant after 10pm and went to a open-air bar, where we were served hot red wine, that we emptied in a flower-pot and went back home.

The morning was definitely more pleasant as you could enjoy the beautiful surrounding mountains. We rented a vintage-bike from the hotel, and went downtown for breakfast. Following that, we crossed a couple of neighbourdhoods, where we glanced at the impressive architecture. Actually there wasn’t much lef to do in Palm Springs, but we enjoyed the laid back vibe of the city. We wouldn’t have minded to spend a second night at the “Infusion Beach Club”. Definitely a motel I would recommend!






Salvation Mountain

After having checked-out at the hip motel, we headed towards “Salvation Mountain”. It took us a little bit more than an hour to reach the spot that intrigued me the most on this trip. Having been a fan for ages of the movie “Into the wild”, directed by Sean Penn, I always wanted to visit this special place, where a scene from the movie took place.

It’s just a bunch of colorful hills, decorated with letters, hearts and crosses, on which the actor Emile Hirsch has a very deep conversation with the artist Leonard Knight, who created those “mountains”. Leonard Knight plays himself in the movie.

Traveling the world together with Vanessa, for over a year now, I was happy that we both made it as a couple to Salvation Mountain. For me it was a very special place, that was on my bucket list ever since I’ve watched “Into the wild” for the first time. A specaial place with my special person.

Just as a reminder, it doesn’t look like a mountain at all. We expected to drive uphill towards a forest, the woods or a higher altitude. It’s located right on the desert low-lands. It definitely had a different feel while seeing it in the movie. Depsite that, it still remained a magical place.




San Diego

Almost 9 years ago I visited San Diego for a day, but it hardly ever felt like having visited the city. I couldn’t give any recommendations back then, and now after haveing spent 2 nights in San Diego, it still feels like I haven’t disocvered the real face of San Diego yet.

We booked a hotel room very nearby the italian neighbourhood, which pretty much was a good choice, as the blocks get very lively just before dinner. Catering wise I prefered San Diego’s italian neighbourhoood over NY’s “little italy”. The building and surroundings seem more authentic in NY, however the food looks definitely better in San Diego. We spent our first night at an italien restaurant where started the night with a few Apperol Spritz cocktails, and a pretty fair pasta dish. We enjoyed the italo-american accents all over the place.

Sadly the hood got quiter aroudn midnight. Two blocks down was a bar called “Waterfront” on both nights we spent in San Diego the place got pretty packed.

Obviously we spent some time around the San Diego bay walk, visited plenties of shops, moved east towards the Gaslamp District, where there was a market on a sunday. Walking around took too much time, so we ended up visiting the mexican neighbourhood downtown called “Barrio Logan” on our last morning just before heading up north towards Los Angeles.

For us the interesting part was the park under a bridge, where every single wall was painted with mexican propaganda graffitis, murals and texts. Not too far away, we also had a stop at the more touristic mexican block “Old San Diego”. Despite its very touristic flair, we still managed to enjoy the spanish vibes that took over the place. We almost felt like visiting Mexico.

Having spent 2 days in San Diego, I still can’t tell you what’s gotta be a must-see in the city.
Not the coolest city in California, but we enjoyed SD.




Los Angeles.


Los Angeles, the city of angels, you either love it or hate it. I’m one of those who never gets bored in LA. This must have been my 6th or 7th stay. And guess what? You’ll always find an indiscovered spot in LA.

The only thing that bothered me the most, must have been the everlasting traffic jams. Where ever you’re planning to go, it’s always gonna last about an hour, or slightly less.

Our inital plan was to find a cheap accomodation close to a beach, as we would have loved to ride a couple of waves, or at least trying to. We opted for Manhattan Beach, as the local motels were the only ones, that were available for a reasonable price. However it turned out that Manhattan Beach wasn’t the best location for surfing.

We visited the Venice area on our first two days. The legendary Venice Beach, that got even creepier over the years. I can’t tell you what about Venice Beach seems so appealing that people keep visiting the sketchy beach walk. The boardwalk is mixture of loud phsycadellic music, walking crack addicts, street artists, tourists, skaters & surfers, mixed up with the scent of marihuana.

The sweetest discovery around Venice was the handmade Icecream-Bar “Salt & Straw” which all over the bigger cities in the US. We had our first taste in Venice, and it unusual flavors with its smooth textures just blew our minds and tongues. Initially we noticed the shop in San Diego, where people were standing in a huge waiting line to get the cup of ice-cream. Watching the whole act, we weren’t intrigued to follow the line. At the end of our trip we were sad that we couldn’t visit another “Salt & Straw” and try the olive or goat-cheese icecream.

“Salt & Straw” was located in a pretty hip neighbourhood on Abbot Kinney Blvd. The place is packed with fashion stores, gift stores (like Urban Outfitters), many veggie- & vegan restaurants.

While being in LA, we discovered two instagramable attractions. The swing-over-the-city in Elysian Park and the Urban-Lights installation in front of the “Los Angeles County Museum of Art”.

On our last night in LA we went to a concert of an icelandic artist Junius Meyvant. While my girlfriend was visiting Iceland in November 2018, she wanted to surprise me with a vinyl record of Meyvant, being convinced it would be a cool present as it seemed to be a fantastic album that nobody ever heard of. It turned out, that I already owned the record, as I heard about Meyvant while visiting Iceland Airwaves in 2016. Watching a show of an icelandic arist in sunny California had become a must. After the show, we went for dinner, and landed in front the actor Danny Trejo’s mexican restaurant “Trejo’s Cantina”. The food was OK. Later on IG we found that that Trejo is visting his own restaurant weekly, as many people were posting photos with him on the social platform.






Santa Barbara & Carmel by the Sea.

On this wonderful roadtrip across California, we stopped by in two smaller cosier cities: Santa Barbara & Carmel by the Sea. There’s really not much to write about those cities, especially if you’re only planning to stay for a night.

The only thing we did, was having lunch/dinner and enjoying the sandy beaches with its sunset.

Both cities were the ideal spot to spend a couple of stressfree days with your family. Enjoy the sunny weather, a glass of wine, walk along the beach, go for a run in the early morning. And just enjoy the rest of the day with shopping or relaxing.

Santa Barbara is all about the several avenue filled with palmtrees, Carmel by the sea is about the charming beach.





Sequoia National Park & Yosemite National Park

While being in Santa Barbara we started thinking about changing our plan of visiting the National Park. Initally we decided to spend 3 nights in the several national parks, and then drive up to San Francisco within a morning.

On the other hand we enjoyed the quietness in Santa Barbara. Should we extend our stay for one more night in SB, or not?

In the end we decided to leave SB on the next morning, drive towards both national parks Sequoia & Yosemite, and stay one last night in Santa Cruz, before we started heading to our last destination San Francisco.

It took us about 4 hours to reach Sequoia. We were surprised how big it was, as there were many places that we could have visited, however they all were widely spread appart. It took us almost an hour to reach the famous fallen sequoia tree, where all the visitors stopped by and had a snapshot with their car, driving under the tree-tunnel. Sequoia wasn’t as packed with tourists as Yosemite, however the whole national park felt like a massive natural theme park. Indian families taking photos with every single family member getting up on the fallen tree, cars passing by every 20 seconds. It was almost impossible to take any descent photos, we had to wait half an hour to get a people-free photo.

All the lodged were sold out inside the park. We had to drive out towards Fresno to find a cheap motel to spend the night. “Cheap” was around 100$ a night.

The next day we headed back north-east towards legendary Yosemite, which turned out to be a huge disappointment. After having passed the entrance-booth, where we payed 35$ for our car-fee, we drove towards the Glacier point. After reaching the glacier, we were told by a ranger, that we would have to get in line with our car, and wait for about an hour, as the whole parking lot was full. We decided to move on and drive towards the Yosemite valley, to visit El Capitan & Mirror Lake.

Because of a massive traffic jam, it took us 90 minutes to reach the main parking area in the center of Yosemite National Park. 90 minutes stop&go. Only one lane could be used by cars, as the second lane was reserved for the bus-shuttle. Finding a free parking spot was a huge pain as well.

Getting out of the car, we walked towards a waterfall, which didn’t seem that impressive. We didn’t know that we had to rely on the free shuttle to get around, and we didn’t know where to jump on the shuttle.

Long story cut short, we took the shuttle, went to the wonderful piece of rock called “El Capitan”. We took a bunch of pictures, shot some video clips, enjoyed the views. While walking around, we spotted two wild deers just passing by. As soon as we decided to jump back on the bus, to get to the next point, we sadly found out, that the shuttle was only driving on the “purple route” til 5:30 pm. We had to walk back by foot to the main parking where our left our car behind. It took us almost 30-40 minutes.

We decided to use our car, to reach Mirror Lake, as the sun was already slowly setting down. The traffic didn’t seem too busy at first sight. We jumped behind the wheel, started the engine, and headed up north, after taking the first left, we just bumped into a huge traffic jam again. 40 more minutes to make it to the next parking lot. Bummer!

The time, til we made it to the parking, it had already started to get darker. We just made it in time, to get some underexposed photos of the lake, which didn’t seem that impressive at all. Maybe because of the high temperatures, the sea was partially dried out.

As for myself I was very annoyed, that Yosemite Park has ended up as major tourist attraction. The very first time I visited Yosemite 13 years ago in September, there weren’t any traffic jams. It was a real pleasure, driving around and witnessing the beautiful nature sceneries of the national park.

Thirteen years later it was just a big pain in the ass, fighting against the never ending traffic jam.

It took us another 30 minutes to make it out of Yosemite. We stopped at a lodge to get dinner around 9pm. We ordered the worst pizza we could get, and had to wait another 30 minutes. It was the longest day or our california trip.



San Francisco.


Hey folks Frank’s back home! My 7th time in San Francisco, and still enjoying it, more or less. We had 3 nights left to discover this gem of a city. We were exhausted for being on the road for more than 2 weeks, tired of driving endless hours, and tired due to the lack of sleep.

On our first day, the weather wasn’t on our side. It took me many years to find out, that the daily massive fog over SF, has a name. The name is Karl. Karl showed up on our first day, and prevented us to witness the beauty of the red lady (Golden Gate Bridge). The Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill was also less appealing due to the cloudy & foggy weather.

We showed up at the Madrone Art Bar at night, as we read about “Motown Monday”. The bar was pretty busy for a beginning into a new week. Plenties of soul and 70s songs got played, the crowds were dancing, and we had a pretty fun night in SF!

On our last night, we closed the chapter of our journey, as we met up with my friend Nicole, that I got to know 4 years ago in the city. We visited her art & fashion shop “Fleet Wood” located on 839 Larkin St. She took us out to a nearby Tiki-Bar called “ The Zombie Village”. Eventhough it sounds more like an episode of the walking dead, the bar fulfilled our expectations: the cocktails were delicious and made tipsy pretty fast. Despite rushing to frisco, and not being able to see the whole beauty of the golden gate bridge, we had a good time in SF. And as usual… this wasn’t my last stay in the foggy city!






San Francisco - Trails & Beaches

I just came back home from my 6th trip to San Francisco, and thought I'd get bored of publishing another blog-post about one of my very favorite U.S. cities, but that ain't the case. Once again I soaked up many new impressions and travel memories in San Francisco.

Just before my trip, I put a list together with all the interesting parts & sights I hadn't discovered yet. I pretty well filled up the schedule of my 6 days and planned ahead which parts I'd visit on the specific weekdays.

As my trip came to an end, I sadly realized that I still missed so many things, and that I barely completed my check-list. There's still so much to discover in San Francisco, even after 6 trips to the city. 

This time I really put my focus on its beaches. I was browsing through a couple of photos of the golden gate bridge, which were taken from the Baker Beach angle. I kind of felt ashamed that I never made it to Baker Beach, because you definitely get the best photos from that viewpoint. The typical tourist photos you see from right in front of one of both ends of the bridge, are the least impressive in my opinion. So I was looking forward to get to Baker Beach.

Baker Beach.

As I don't like taking bus-rides in big cities, I decided to start my "baker beach hike" early in the morning at 6am, just before the sunrise, to get a couple of descent photos of the city, just before sun rise. I walked from the union square neighbourhood toward the ferry building very next to the bay bridge, that leads to Oakland. I haven't even been close to the ferry building, on my previous trips, and I felt like i missed a beautiful spot of the city. You can watch the sun rise on the pretty wooden pier, walking through the middle of the lamp-post lane. The cupid-arch is withing walking distance as well. Inside the ferry building you'll find lovely shops selling different kinds of crafts, "french" pastries, delicious coffee at "Blue Bottle". 

I tried to avoid the popular pier 39, which only has tasteless tourist-shop to offer, and almost only restaurants which serve bad and greasy food. From the ferry building, I walked up too many stairs til I reach the beautiful Coit-Tower. It became one of my favorite parts of the city, even though it attracts a lot of tourists. The altitude of the hill gives beautiful views all over the different areas of the city. 

I moved forward through the colorful North Beach, towards the "Ghirardelli Square" at North Point Street, where I stopped for my second coffee in the city. I was impressed how good their chocolate was. Who ever thought Americans were great at making chocolate ? ;) Outside of the Ghirardelli square, you already can witness the beauty of the famous red bridge, and it feels like it's already pretty close, but it's not! It takes another 40-50 minutes to reach it.

After I made it to the bridge, I decided to move on to Baker Beach. Starting from the Golden Gate Bridge, you can choose different trails that will lead you to Baker beach. To get to the trails, you gotta follow the path below the bridge, as I can remember it's the only way to get to the other side without a car. 

You walk past several view points and it felt like forever to reach Baker Beach. I took my first photo shots down at Marshall Beach. There are a couple of paths that lead you down to the shore, but don't forget, that you gotta walk those paths uphill again to move on towards Baker Beach. 

On my way a couple of tourists asked me if I had seen restaurants nearby, but I didn't. I guess those folks, underestimated the distance of the trails, like I did. And of course, it felt like summer! The weather was just great for a november, real t-shirt and shorts weather. I caught a light sunburn, walking all day in the sun.

What I learned after I had reached Baker Beach:

- it's further and more exhausting than I thought it would be.
- it's only a small part of the San Francisco shores.
- once you've made it to the beach, you gotta get back to the city. If you don't have the exact change for the bus ride, can't get a cab in the area, "uber" doesn't work, because you don't have internet-access on your mobile phone because of roaming issues, it's gonna be a hell  of walk to walk back in the city center.

 

Ocean Beach & Sutro Beach.

On my second day, I decided to get back to the beach area. Walking down Powell Street towards Market Street, I took the "#5R-Fulton Rapid" busline, which was only 2.25$ . It takes approximately 35-45 minutes to reach the last bus stop of the route. From the bus stop it only takes a short walk to reach the beach, or to get to the wind mill that is located at the "Golden Gate Park".

Nearby there's a beach house, where I stopped by for coffee & breakfast. It was kind of pricey, but you could enjoy an ocean view while having breakfast. North of the beach there's the popular camera obscura and the famous "Cliffhouse Restaurant". Behind the restaurant, there were several pathes which lead to Sutro Beach, where only ruins of the once public swimming pool are left.

Following the different paths will lead you northbound towards Baker Beach, but it's still quite a few miles away. Nearby Sutro Beach, there's another vista point, which will give you a lovely view onto the Golden Gate Bridge. Besides the view, there's another big circle made out of stone to discover. It's really not a must-see, but while being in the area, why not check it out. 

Before heading back to the busstop, to get back to the hostel, I enjoyed some time on the beach, watching the waves collapse in front of me. The weather was just outstanding for a november. There aren't many cities that would come to mind, if i had to recommend a travel destination for the last two months of the year, except for asian countries or southern american countries.

San Francisco would be one of the cities I'd consider turning back to in november or december months.

Ocean Beach.

Hayes Street (Patricia's Green).

Afer visiting an art gallery which hosted a couple of artworks of Shepard Fairey (OBEY), I was told that Fairey recently painted two new murals in San Francisco. The one I really wanted to see, was a mural of Cesar Chavez, which was located at Hayes Street, nearby the Patricia's Green square. 

I can't remember if i'd ever been to Hayes Street, but I was so impressed by the charm of that lovely and colorful neighborhood. The hood was packed with different coffee bars, art galleries, craft-shops... Once I'll get back to San Francisco, this is definitely gonna be the place where I'd love to hangout or even book a room at a hostel or hotel in that part of the city. 

 

White Chapel (Gin Bar).

More to come about this fabulous place. I will write a separate review about my favorite bar in town. The link to the review will be added soon.

 

Clement Street (and 5th Avenue).

I had my best night at Clement Street (with 5th avenue). I met up with my friend Jessica on a Saturday at Haight Street for a coffee. She decided to take me out the same evening to a show at the venue called "Neck of the Woods". The whole alley on Clement Street was packed with different restaurants, bars, bakeries, flower shops. Somehow it felt totally different than the other areas I've been to in San Francisco. It had the vibe of a little american village. There weren't barely any tourists, and it definitely felt like a local spot. People were a lot more outgoing and easy to talk to. I realized again, that the city has so much more to offer than just the popular spots. Even after my 6th visit in the "City By The Bay" there's still so much left to discover.

San Francisco remains one my favorite U.S. cities, it could even be my favorite. I felt proud again that I had the initials -SF- tattooed on my right arm.

 

 

City of Angels

I apologize for a lack of recent updates, however I had to cancel my 2 recently planned trips, out of personal issues, and lack of finances. 2016 will be another fulfilled year with lots of travels, new stories to tell, and new friendships.

While waiting for my upcoming trip, I decided to write a post about the gigantic city of Los Angeles, California. As I was writing in my previous blog-posts that I used to be a legit fan of California, I've visited Los Angeles too many times. On each trip, there was always something new I could discover.

By the way, my very first trip to the U.S., was in Los Angeles. I instantly fell in love with it. Sadly people don't ever tell anything cheerful about L.A. It's very often considered as a dangerous & filthy city, with too many superficial californians living in a superficial bubble.

Well, in my opinion, there's a lot more to discover, besides the superficial people trying to stay in the perfect shape, or spending money on Melrose.

Here are my favorite spots in L.A., which I'd suggest to anyone who's curious about discovering the diversity of the city.

  • Santa Monica

You got it! It's the very touristic part of Los Angeles, where tourists crawl through "3rd street Promenade", and where too many shots of the Santa Monica Pier are taken. However everbody loves Santa Monica, it gives you the feeling of a summer vacation, and you can reach the beach within a couple of minutes. It's the perfect location for a hotel. And so many delicious restaurants and fancy cocktail bars are just right there in the neighbourhood.

I love the flair, of the old Santa Monica pier, and its amusement park, that everybody knows from the cheesy lovestory-movies. It's a safe area, and a very vivid location for night-walks.

  • El Pueblo

As you could have figured out by its name, El Pueblo, is a hispanic neighbourhood in the historic district of the city-center of Los Angeles. It was one of the last spots that I discovred in L.A. Actually it was very entertaining, still a little bit too touristic, but I totally enjoyed it. While spending a few days in the LA area, it's easy to notice that the hispanic culture has a big impact on the whole city. The buildings, the colors, and latino population all over the city. Lots of spanish words in the streets.

  • Venice

Who doesn't know Venice Beach? Ever heard about Arni's muscle beach? The tv show Californication? The legendary Dogtown, from the 80s legendary skateboard era... There's so much to discover in Venice Beach, too much street art, different music artists along the beachwalk of Venice. The diversity of people: rappers, dancers, hippies, bodybuilders, stoners, ... a whole melting-pot of different nations. 

Venice Beach is the perfect spot for nightlife. A lot better than Santa Monica, if you're staying in that area. People are a lot more laid back than in Santa Monica, where the locals mostly consist of waiters & vallets.

I love observing the people walking by... watching the hispanics play squash with their hands, streetballers doing alley-oops, the skaters grinding all over the skate-pools, the bodybuilders pumping iron. It's a fest for photographers. There are just too many subjects to take photos of.

 

  • Hollywood

Too many times, I spoke out my repulsive thoughts about Hollywood. Once you walked along the Hollywood's walk of fame, you gotta admit, that the streets aren't as glamarous as they're often considered in the medias. Drug addicts, bums, lo-fi comedians, ... annoying the tourists, asking for change. There streets are very filthy, there's trash on every corner. BUT... everytime I visit Hollywood, I bump into new streetart murals, I discovery new lovely shops, and I love passing a couple of hours at L.A.'s biggest record store called "Amoeba". As a music aficionado, you can have a drink at legendary venues, where your dad's favorite band used to play gigs in the 70s. Last but not least, there's the Hollywood letters left in the background. As soon as I discover the Hollywood sign from far out on the highway, I feel like i made it to Los Angeles. :)

  • Beaches

There are far too many beaches you can visit all along the shore of Los Angeles. Malibu, Venice, Santa Monica, Marina Del Rey, Hermosa, Huttington, ... Each of them has its own charm. Sometimes I just expected too much, but actually there's nothing fancy about Californian beaches, except the vivid alleys of Venice Beach.

One year I stayed at Hermosa Beach, because I was on a budget. It takes you approximately 30-40 minutes to get from Santa Monica to Hermosa by car. Hotels are way cheaper in Hermosa. Less crowded streets, and the beachpubs close the the famous surfer-statue leave a much more local impression, than the other touristic spots.

 

Well it's LOS ANGELES! How about watching the Lakers play, the Dodgers hitting a couple of homeruns. Check out a concert in Hollywood, Anaheim, or Venice Beach. Fancy a shopping tour on Melrose Avenue or in Beverlyhills.

I love visiting movie locations in Los Angeles. The old diner of Pulp Fiction's opening scene, the house of "Six Feet Under", the locations of "Californication", LA's China Town where Jacky Chan's "Rush Hour" was shot, Malibu's pier from Liam Neeson's "Taken 3". The search-engine google will help you finding out the exact adress of the different locations.

Rent a car, drive all along the beaches, on Mulholland drive through the Santa Monica Mountains, towards Hollywood. Enjoy the views, the cityscapes, the colours, the people. You will love it!