Our family does a quick jaunt in LA

We had just arrived in LA in the morning after a 15 hour flight.  We had the foresight to do this in Premium Economy and if you can afford it I would recommend it.  Qantas do have specials or if you have points upgrade from Economy.  There's a lot more leg room and with kids and their stuff - you aren't finding it too difficult to get in and out of your seat.  Meals were pretty good too - especially the kids meals - with good choices and a few treats.

I would also recommend buying neck rolls for the kids, this really did help my girls sleep for some of the flight - Olivia and Laura slept for about 7 hours of the flight - Eloise - not so much...

Laura started her trip with a hamburger, it was great having lounge access before the flight, we got to chill out for the 2 hours we waited (our flight was delayed) and as I said lounge access always worth it!

Nothing prepares you for just how spread out LA is!!

Would also recommend having a car pick you up at the airport when you arrive - we used Blacklane and our driver was very friendly and helpful, had water waiting for us and a big van and pointed out the sights to our hotel.  Cost: $110 for a large van seating 6.

The weather was lovely too - about 20-22 during the day but crept down to about 6-8 degrees at night.  I personally like this kind of weather..

We made a great choice with our fabulous hotel Loews Hollywood which was close to everything and spent our afternoon walking around the adjoining mall, down to Hollywood Boulevard among all the well known stars and some aspiring ones in character outfits.  Graumans' Chinese Theater concourse with all the signatures of yesteryear's stars was great too - the best thing about these two things is they are free...

Our Olivia with her other favourite Olivia!

Grauman's Chinese Theater

Marilyn Munroe really had tiny hands and feet!

You'll have lots of people asking you if you want to take tours to see star's houses including Justin Beiber's house.. and as tempting as it was to think of graffiti-ing his place like he did with Australia, that's just not my thing... so we had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe - which has the usual a=American deep-fried and completely too-sugared up drinks.  I had the fish burger which seemed not too bad.

Then we made the big mistake late in the afternoon in rushhour of catching a taxi out to Commerce - this is the town with not only a casino but Citadel Outlets - cost us about $60 in a cab.  You can get cabs that hold 5 and we did thank goodness but it took an hour.  Once there though it was fabulous - We did quick jaunts to Old Navy, Gap ($15 GAP Hoodies!), Michael Kors, Coach (where I picked up a new handbag down from $500 to $171) there's loads of places to go - and really you need a whole day here - not the 3 hours we spent.  

They also had a huge Christmas tree!

Summary:  

There just wasn't enough time, but it was a stop-over so in terms of that we got a lot done.  If I had my time over and made LA a destination rather than a stopover I would have spent:

Day 1 - Local environs of hotel (Hollywood) and sleep, go to in-and-out burger

Day 2 - Citadel 

Day 3 - Santa Monica

Day 4 - Downtown LA, Beverley Hills

One thing about the hotel - you can get rooms for about $350 with two double beds, if you have one of two kids this will be enough for family - we had two rooms because we had 2 kids and whilst $700 a night is a lot - the rooms were lovely and the beds very very comfortable. Breakfast is ample and delicious and the staff could not be nicer.

Have you been to LA?  What are your must-see/do/eats?

Be a Fan

Print this post in friendly format