Los Angeles Travel Guide

Mike and I recently took a trip to Los Angeles over a long weekend. For anyone who has visited before you’ll know what I mean when I say this is a BIG city. It’s literally impossible to see everything in a weekend, so Mike and I decided not to even try. Having both visited in the past, we didn’t hit up all of the usual first-time spots, but there are plenty of things we saw on this trip that I would highly recommend to anyone!

Friday

We touched down at LAX around dinner time and headed to our aribnb in Los Feliz. Neither of us had stayed in this part of Los Angeles before so we left our bags unpacked and headed out to grab a bite to eat. For dinner we ended up at Kettle Black for wood fired pizzas. The food and ambiance were great! My only complaint was my pizza didn’t come with any cheese on it! Maybe I shouldn’t have assumed, but you’d think someone would give you a heads up when you are ordering it! I mean, no cheese?! Anyways, this was highly entertaining to Mike and despite no cheese, all the food we had was good!

We meandered down the street to the infamous Tiki Ti, one of the last tiki huts still running in Los Angeles. I’m pretty sure the place was only meant to hold 10 people, but there were probably 50 people in there. The 2 bartenders working were really quick even with the large crowd and the variety of drinks they had to make (they have 94 drinks on the menu!). Mike ordered the Space Cowboy and we kept joking the rest of the weekend that Tiki Ti’s took us to the moon, because man, those drinks were strong! Tiki Ti was the perfect nightcap for an early morning wake-up call.

SATURDAY

Saturday morning we had tickets for the Warner Bros. Studio Tour. We got up early and made a pit stop for breakfast at California Donuts. Oh my goodness – this little joint was so fantastic. Who would have thought this hole-in-the-wall in a strip mall in Koreatown would be donut heaven.

The donuts were so colorful and creative. Mike loved that the bear claw was actually in the shape of a bear claw. And how cute are those panda donuts?? Apparently the Panda’s name is Steppie!

On the way to the tour we passed the exit for the Hollywood Walk of Fame and decided to make a quick stop because Mike had never seen it. Honestly, I think it’s a bit of a let down for first-time visitors because there isn’t much to see, but we thought it was worth a quick 15 minute stop. Since it was early they had just washed off all of the foot and hand prints so that’s why they look a bit wet.The Warner Bros Studio tour was one of the highlights of the weekend. Our tour guide zipped us around on a golf cart to the various studios and stages–including a mock-up of Central Perk! They also had a green screen where you could see yourself flying through a Quidditch game. Gotta love the magic of movies!

That night we were supposed to grab dinner at Republique, but ran out of time so decided to pop into Little Doms in Los Feliz (recommended by our airbnb host). It was a low-key, cozy Italian joint, and as luck would have it we had our first celebrity sighting! Damien Chazelle, director of LA LA Land, strolled in for dinner with friends!

That night we had comedy tickets at the Groundlings Theater. The improv troupe there was hilarious! Mike and I were dying laughing. Definitely go if you visit LA. You will not be disappointed.

After the show we got in line for a dog at Pinks and then headed to the Dresden for a cocktail and live jazz.

SUNDAY

The next day we set out on the Hollywood Hike. I went into more detail on this here, but it was the perfect start to the morning.

After the hike we hit up In-N-Out burger. No trip to California is complete without a stop here.

That afternoon we drove up to Malibu to see the ocean. If this was your first time visiting, I would definitely check out Santa Monica and Venice first. Malibu is a beautiful area to see, but a little further out-of-the-way.

MONDAY

On our last morning we grabbed coffee at Intelligentsia and had our second celebrity sighting… Scott Speedman (Did anyone else love Felicity as much as I did!!?) I was really torn about saying hi, but in the end didn’t say anything–now I’m kicking myself!

We took our coffees to-go and headed up to the Griffith Observatory, which I wrote about in more detail here.

And sadly, that was the end of our long weekend. We saw A LOT, but there are so many things we didn’t have time to do and see. I was especially bummed we ran out of time for a visit to the light installation at the LACMA and a coffee break at Alfred’s tea house. Hopefully next time!

Happy Travels!

xo, Jenny