*Travel Tips>>>Los Angeles Travel Tips

Tell me about So Cal!?

Travel Info
I will be there in the beginning of August, and am truly excited to see the West Coast! I would appreciate some suggestions in and around the Burbank/Los Angeles/Santa Monica area! I love everything from nightclubs to museums and nature hikes. Can you also tell me weather-wise? Let me know, thanks! ~N

Travel Tips

Let's start with the weather-wise part first. Here in SoCal in August, it's gonna be warm, and the farther you get from the coast, the warmer it's gonna be (triple-digit in the San Fernando valley, out towards Riverside, and anywhere that's inland and not in the mountains). Burbank is going to be hot, let me tell you.

Near the coast, it will be a lot cooler, especially if we have a Catalina eddy (a local weather phenomenon) keeping the marine layer over the coast.

Things to see/do: if you like museums, there's the Getty Center, which is on top of a hill overlooking the Seulveda Pass, and the Getty Museum at Malibu, just off Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu. These are both world-class museums, admission is free for both of them although you do have to pay for parking, and you do have to have reservations. This is the website for more information: http://www.getty.edu/

Downtown LA has some nice museums, the LA County Museum of Art http://www.lacma.org/, which includes both contemporary art and modern. There's also the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and Music Center, which is very beautiful and a good place to see the downtown center.

There are the La Brea Tar pits and Page Museum: http://www.tarpits.org/ Ice-age animal skeletons and natural history stuff.

There is the LA Museum of Natural History and the Science Center, both located right adjacent to the LA Colosseum (where many events of the 1984 Olympics were held). http://www.nhm.org/ http://www.californiasciencecenter.org/...

If you want to drive a bit in from the coast, you can go to Pasadena and see the Huntington Museum, Library and Gardens http://www.huntington.org/ , the Norton Simon Museum, http://www.nortonsimon.org/, and the visitor center at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/.

It's a bit more of a drive, but you could go out to Palm Springs, although August is about as hot as it's going to get out there-- and believe me, it is going to get HOT. PS has lots of shopping, very trendy and upscale, it has some desert parks and sights, it has the aerial tram up into the mountains, but it's also going to be hot enough to fry eggs on your car that time of year. If you do go, be prepared to spend most of your daylight hours either by a pool or in an air-conditioned place, and do your sight-seeing either in the early morning or the late evening.

There are loads of other obvious things to see, like Disneyland, Universal Studios, all the usual tourist traps. You can also drive down to San Diego for a day trip, which gets you to the Zoo, Sea World, all the attractions and fun of downtown San Diego.

Lots of stuff to do, limited only by your budget, your stamina, and your willingness to deal with high temperatures and smog. Enjoy!
Others

Well welcome to Southern Cali i hope you have a great time there are many htings to do over here. it will still be pretty warm here in LA. but take a sweater if your going out at night.
In LA:

Hollywood Boulevard.
Mulholland Drive

Historical
El Pueblo. Also known as Olvera Street
Union Station

Museums/Galleries
The Getty Center - amazing place i went to see it a few months ago with my junior class and i loved it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA)
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)
Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History
California Afro-American Museum
Page Museum at La Brea Discoveries

Ethnic
Chinatown
Little Tokyo
Little Armenia
Little Persia
Little Gaza
Thaitown
K-Town (Koreatown)
Little Ethiopia

Amuesment Parks:
Magic Mountain
Disneyland
Knotts berry farm

Sports:
See a dodger game youll love it

Santa Monica :

Bergamot Station Arts Center
Montana Avenue - is a local street with lots of small stores and restaurants
Main Street - while most folks go to the Third Street Promenade when they come to Santa Monica
Santa Monica Pier
Santa Monica Beach
Third Street Promenade

Burbank:

Warner Brothers VIP Studio Tour
NBC Studios
Burbank Media Center
Television Show Tapings

AS for bars and night clubs here are a few
Santa Monica:
Circle Bar
Mor Bar
Etoile
Britannia Pub

La Bars and clubs:
There are many but they are hard to get into.
for more stuff to do go to this site and type in the city name http://wikitravel.org/en/main_page...
The best and most fun is to get t atour book and pick out all your fav. things. This is such a hugh city with so much to offer that ther is not engough room here to list them.
There is SO much to do here. Paris Hilton, a regular contributor here, has a list of over 100 things to do in the area, which would probably take all year to do. I have my own condensed top ten list below.

Weather in August is usually HOT. Maybe not as hot as where you are from, but definitely HOT, as my Edison bill peaks that month. Previous poster said you might need a sweater, but unless you are right at the beach and the fog is coming in at night, you really don't need one.

Note: Please don't come out here expecting to see celebrities in every restaurant and club. Most celebrity sightings are rare enough, but even they like to escape the heat, so they also get out of town.

Top ten:

Disneyland: The Happiest Place on Earth. Half a billion visitors can鈥檛 be wrong. (Sometimes it seems all at once)

Universal Studios: A theme park that grew out of a studio tour. Check out eBay. You can find some discounted tickets there. And Universal City Walk is a fun place to hang out in the evening after your day inside the park.

Hollywood: Hollywood Boulevard is ready for its close-up, thanks to years of urban renewal and renovation. Enjoy the Walk of Fame, Entertainment Museum, Mann's Theatre and more. You can see a lot for free. I have also added the Hollywood & Highland complex to my top ten list鈥?it has lots of shops and restaurants, and the Kodak Theater (home of the Academy Awards). I like the El Capitan theater, because it has been restored to its former glory, unlike the Chinese, which was essentially gutted and turned into a multiplex.

Rodeo Drive, 90210: Packed with exclusive shops, full of gawkers. They all came to enjoy the excess. Free, unless you intend to buy something.

Venice Beach: Los Angeles kitsch and over-the-top culture at its best.
Here you'll find Muscle Beach, street performers and tacky shops galore.
Fun, VERY interesting, but I avoid it after dark, when it gets a little TOO interesting for my taste. And it's a short bike ride from:

Santa Monica Beach and Pier: Great beach scene and a classic seaside amusement park, complete with antique carousel that has been in a lot of TV and movies. (The Sting and "Three's Company" come immediately to mind).
After visiting the pier, you can ride a bike south a couple miles to Venice Beach.

Santa Monica Third Street Promenade - Downtown Santa Monica's shopping promenade is often the scene of movie star-sightings. Just a short walk from the Santa Monica Pier.

Sunset Boulevard: Perhaps one of the world's most famous streets, it began as a route between the stars' posh neighborhoods and the Hollywood studios. It runs from downtown to the ocean, passing through the "Sunset Strip" on its way. It makes for a fun drive. Along the way, you see a lot of different neighborhoods. Hollywood, West Hollywood, Bel Air, and Pacific Palisades. When you get to the ocean, stop at Gladstone's for Fish.

Queen Mary: Once the largest ship afloat, she's been docked in Long Beach for longer than she sailed, and her elegance never fails to impress. Free to visit. You can actually stay on board, for a price.

Farmers Market and The Grove - A new shopping complex right next to a Los Angeles landmark, The Grove and Farmers Market coexist. Enjoy a movie or shopping, then take the trolley to the Farmers Market for lunch or dinner.
Farmer's Market is right next to CBS, so walk across the lot to see if they are taping "The Price is Right". You might even get in.

Griffith Park - Home of the Los Angeles Zoo, Griffith Park Observatory, Travel Town, the Greek Theatre, and Gene Autry Museum of Western Heritage.

Getty Museum - The Getty's architecture is so beautiful that it keeps me fascinated. No matter whether you like their art or architecture better (or maybe you'll just enjoy the view), the Getty is sure to please. Free.

Attend a TV taping - You can get free tickets at audiencesunlimited.com, or see the booth at Universal City walk. It's very interesting to see a show being taped. The most popular, by far, is the tonight show. Check the NBC web site for all the details there.

Places to eat:
In-N-Out Burger: Multiple locations, best burger in LA, ask anyone.
Pink鈥檚 Hot Dogs: 709 N. La Brea, just north of Melrose. Might see a celebrity.
Tommy鈥檚 Chili Burgers: Look for the shack, an LA tradition. Original location at Beverly & Rampart, a couple miles west of downtown.
Canter鈥檚 Deli: 419 N. Fairfax, between Beverly & Melrose. Near CBS, might spot a celebrity.
Phillippe鈥檚: 1001 N. Alameda. Great roast beef sandwiches. Near Union Station, Olvera Street. Watch the mustard, it鈥檚 hot.

Places to Stay:
In Hollywood, I recommend the Hollywood Celebrity Hotel and the Farmer's Daughter Hotel.
In Anaheim, I recommend the HoJo Anaheim, and the Candy Cane Inn. If you want to splurge and make this a most memorable trip, stay at Disney鈥檚 Grand Californian. You get the full Disney experience. If you don't need to stay by the park, then stay at the Doubletree on Harbor, or even the one in Orange on Chapman.
In Santa Monica, the Holiday Inn Santa Monica is close to the pier and reasonably priced.

Places to Shop:
South Coast Plaza, Costa Mesa
Fashion Island, Newport Beach
Third Street Promenade, Santa Monica
Citadel Outlets, Commerce
Beverly Center, Los Angeles
The Block at Orange, Orange
Ontario Mills, Ontario
That first answer is very comprehensive. In addition, if you like hiking, the Santa Monica mountains offers many great hikes. The one I like is in Pacific Palisades, but you can get there in many ways.
In the box next to search for questions, type in Los Angeles, CA then go to the advanced section and choose open and resolved questions. You will see a huge history of answers for what LA is about.

Paris Hilton (not the jailbird) has a list that she has listed on several questions that will tell you the fun things you need to see in LA.

Inland is hot, the beaches are cooler except during August, where, even on the beaches, it's hot. It hasn't rained in a long time so the sky is very funky looking right now.