A few years ago, I traveled to L.A. with the sole purpose of attending the Breeders' Cup (horse racing). It turned out to be an incredible trip, far exceeding my expectations. To be fair, I was pretty exhausted upon landing in L.A.—in the three weeks prior, I had flown Australia for two weeks of work, returned to England, and then headed to L.A. Let’s just say my body clock was a bit out of sync!
So I arrived got an Uber from the airport out to Burbank where I'd booked an Airbnb which was amazing, it was the end of October so everywhere and I mean everywhere was dressed up for Halloween. In the UK we generally set up the decorations on the day, LA must have been at it for a good week or two, the house's looked incredible. I didn't get to do any trick or treating!
As I'd had this trip booked up for a little while I'd arranged a couple of the Airbnb experiences, so after dropping my bags off, got back in an Uber and headed into the city for a whiskey tour, (I hadn't planned on all the work travel before hand!) but it was great, it was a whiskey tour of hidden bars (speakeasy's) which if you go to LA or anywhere in the USA, ask the locals or google Speakeasy's they are so much fun.
The holiday was off to a good start, meet some great people on the whiskey tour, we all decided to do a couple of other tours together which was a brilliant experience. More on those later.
I was here for my main event the Breeders Cup, I'd missed out on coming a couple of years earlier so was determined to come and see it. Tickets booked I headed across town to the race track Santa Anita Park, it was being held on the 1-2 November and again for those who like a new experience, be sure to check what's on whilst you are away on your holidays, it'll make for great stories to tell your friends.
The 2 days racing was amazing and that was the start of more great days to come.
Next on the list was the LA Zoo, now this is something I tend to do whether I'm on my own or with the family, is visit the Zoo. It's a great day out for the kids and I like seeing the animals, obviously I'd much rather see them in the wild and their own habitats but like many of us we just haven't had the chance.
I had ten days in L.A and made the most of it, stopping off at museums, parks, the observatory, horse riding, shopping in downtown and stopping at almost every star on the Hollywood walk of Fame.
All such good fun, I'd recommend an L.A visit, for the most part it's amazing, but like everywhere there is always need for an element of caution.
The evenings were just as good, and I'd headed out with a few of the people I'd met previously on the whiskey tour. We did an evening L.A bar crawl it would appear there's a theme here, but it was more a way of seeing the L.A nightlife without walking alone.
First stop food stop, welcome to Saddle Ranch brilliant fun with live music and a bucking bronco!
A mini tour of some well know places followed including:
I wanted to see as much as possible, getting around was pretty easy, Uber was my choice as it was quite reasonable and the subway was useful for getting around as well.
the tour continued as I set off for Beverly Hills, Venice Beach and Santa Monica Pier.
The acts along the pier were mostly superb. Magic shows and singers.
Now I'd done a lot more than I expected I would by this point, but there was still a bit more left in the tank!
One thing I do like to try and do whenever I'm away is horse riding, I had a look at places before I came out to L.A and decided that if there was time I'd go for it, luckily for me there was, so I booked up a trail ride with Sunset Ranch to ride the Hollywood Hills, such a great place, staff were so friendly and helpful (I'll leave a link below as I'd go again if I make it back to L.A)
With a day or two still remaining, the clock was ticking and I had two things left on the L.A list, I hadn't made a list I took each day as it came and made the most of it, next time I would definitely put a plan together.
Next was an NBA game, it worked out perfectly as the Clippers were playing at home to Utah at the Staples Center, sorted I paid $100 dollars for a ticket which was well worth it. The atmosphere was incredible and audience participation was something I'd not seen before, the UK football and rugby games are great but there's not the interaction that the USA sports have, makes the event so much more, I'd love to watch an NFL game at some point, but I can say without shadow of a doubt that the Clippers NBA game was one of the best atmospheres I've experienced, and they won which was a bonus!
Before the last activity, I was invited along to a Conan recording, now not going to lie, I had no idea who Conan was, but we went down queued for tickets then went in to be seated. So turned out he's a talk show host and a pretty well known one for that matter!
We got front row seats which was great and the guests were quite good to, Willem Dafoe for one!
Now I've been referred to by my fiancee as a big kid, which for the last activity on this trip I will gladly go along with.
Warner Brothers Studio tour. I was so excited for this, getting to see the sets, the props, the behind the scenes on favourite TV shows, like Friends and The Big Bang Theory. Then there's Batman, Harry Potter and Aquaman.
Again I paid around £100 for the studio tour, it was fantastic
Final Thought
The tour was great and the guide was brilliant, had everyone in stiches laughing all the way round, it was a fantastic way to end what had already been a awesome holiday.
L.A on the whole was a great destination, I went solo but now having a family I'd happily go back and experience L.A with them
There's lot's to see and do, but go with a plan, whether it's a week or longer, make a list of things you and the kids want to see. It can be a bit pricy so see what offers are available beforehand.
I enjoyed it immensely, with so much variety no day is the same and it'll be a place the kids remember for years to come.
Have you been to L.A, or planning a trip. Let me know in the comments what you did or what you would recommend doing in L.A
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Happy travels
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