Alright, here we go…part two of my Los Angeles “Millennial” Travel Guide! I’m focusing specifically on all of the spots we visited including shopping, beaches and bars. If you are looking for restaurants and eats, head back over to part one of this series, which I’ll link here.
Before I begin, I want to give you some overall travel advice from my perspective after coming back from this trip. Spend your money on the activities, sights, and food. Don’t get all caught up with where you stay. We were barely in the room, unless it was to sleep or do an outfit change. Also, having a car is a MUST. We literally drove everywhere. Taking an Uber would have been so expensive. We were constantly driving back and forth from city to city anywhere from fifteen to thirty minutes from our hotel in Santa Monica multiple times a day. Speaking of Santa Monica, it was perfectly central to everywhere went, and was less than a fifteen minute drive to the beach. I couldn’t ask for a better location for our hotel to be!
Ok, so let’s start with shopping. Overall, the shopping in L.A. was just as amazing as I figured it would be. They seem to be big on outdoor malls, which is such a different experience compared to the indoor shopping malls in New York that I’m used to. Although the heat wave made shopping a bit tiring, we were sure to hit as many different locations as we could. Here are the main areas we shopped:
*I linked the website of each location, so just click the name for more info!
*Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills
As most of you already know, this is a famous street in Beverly Hills full of luxury shopping and very well known for being in the movie, Pretty Woman. We walked the entire thing, including the surrounding blocks full of amazing shopping destinations. Let me just say…these stores were absolutely stunning!! Drool-worthy. I held back and didn’t splurge on anything during this trip, because I wanted to spend my money on the experiences instead.
*The Grove, La Brea
We didn’t spend much time here because we had a flight to catch, but this outdoor shopping mall was really beautiful. In my opinion there weren’t many stores, and the ones that were there didn’t really excite me. I do think the location was gorgeous, especially the pond area in the center where you can eat outside. Obviously I had to get cute pic here!
*Santa Monica Place/Downtown Santa Monica Strip
This entire area I grouped together, because I couldn’t tell where the outdoor mall ended, and the stores on the street started…haha! This area was full of retail and department stores less than ten minutes from our hotel. The streets were pretty much blocked off for cars, and you could walk up and down to find stores, restaurants and bars. There were street performers all day and small vendors in cute carts selling food and souvenirs. It was extremely hot most of the days so we ducked in and out of stores for the AC…haha!
*Animal House, Venice Beach
This little vintage store was right by Eggslut in Venice Beach. You could expect to find vintage Levi’s there for under $50, band tees, and even some cute summer pieces and accessories. There were so many straw bags! I was tempted to get another one but I think I have plently already…
Bars:
*The Bungalow, Santa Monica
This was a chill spot to hang out and get a drink with friends. The word “bungalow” perfectly describes the vibe. Cozy couches were on the outdoor patio accompanied by a DJ and twinkle lights strung above the bar. Everyone here was so fashionable, but casual.
*Lure Nightclub, Hollywood
We wanted to experience nightlife in L.A., so we went here on Friday night to see what it was all about. Apparently celebrities and sports players have gone here? We didn’t recognize anyone famous, though. You pretty much need to be on a guest list or know someone to get in, but we got lucky at the door. The drinks are very expensive and there is also a cover to get in.
*Hog’s Head, Universal City
I’m laughing at myself for including this, but this is the bar inside the Wizarding World of Harry Potter where you can get Butterbeer and regular alcoholic beverages. It looks just like the movie inside! Pro Tip: the bartenders are not allowed to mix Butterbeer with alcohol for safety reasons inside the park, but they are very knowledgable of what shots pair well if you want to mix it yourself at the table. Just saying…
So last but not least, I wanted to point out the three beaches we visited on our trip. They were all so different and I liked each of them for many different reasons. Here we go…
We didn’t go on the actual beach, but people were still swimming in the water at like 6pm!! Crazy! We walked the entire pier, ate dinner, went on carnival rides and got some churros. It was smaller than I expected, but pretty comparable to a boardwalk on the Jersey Shore if you ask me. The Mariasol restaurant where we had Mexican food is at the very end (see part one of this post for more info).
This was the cutest beach-town! Unfortunately, parking is absolutely insane…we drove around for a solid 45 minutes before landing a spot on the street. The town is pretty quiet and on the edge of a very steep cliff/hill. When you are down on the beach, it looks like gravity doesn’t exist and the streets are going upwards (if that makes sense…?) The blocks are filled with little vintage shops, café’s, coffee houses and restaurants…most of which had outdoor seating. I wish we could have spent more time here, but it wasn’t that close to our hotel in Santa Monica and we had to make it back for dinner reservations.
I feel like I already spoke a lot about Venice beach, because we did spend a decent amount of time here. Venice beach was a bit more “hipster” than the other beaches, filled with people riding bikes, scooters and skateboards. You will find a ton of beautiful murals painted on the sides of buildings, which I of course took many photos in front of, haha! The boardwalk had many t-shirt and souvenir shops, along with hundreds of vendors selling things on the boardwalk. The beach itself was ginormous and the walk down to the water felt endless!!
We obviously did a bunch of [more touristy] things other than what I listed above, but two I would like to briefly discuss is the tour we went on and Universal! On the first full day in Los Angeles, we went to Universal Studios. If you are a Harry Potter fan (like me) I suggest buying the tickets online in advance, because as of now this grants you one-hour early admission to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter (linked). Although this location is way smaller than the one in Florida, it was definitely still worth it to go! They only have Hogwarts Castle and Hogsmeade at this location. For the full park including The Hogwarts Express Ride, Diagon & Knockturn Alley, you have to go to the one in Florida. One other memorable thing we did in Universal was the World Famous Studio Tour (linked). This is an hour-long tour that takes you behind the scenes to the Universal Studios lot outside the park where they actually film scenes of movies and TV shows! I’m so glad we did this. It was awesome to see how sound stages and sets look like in person.
On the second day of the trip, we also went on the Ultimate Hollywood Celebrity Home Tour (linked here), which was surprisingly very informative and not just all about seeing rich-people’s houses…haha! We did this in the beginning of the trip, which was a great way to learn the area a bit better before we went off on our own. The tour guide took us all around the different parts of Hollywood and Beverly Hills, including a stop to see the Hollywood sign. I highly recommend this tour if you want to do one!
So I think that wraps up my entire Los Angeles trip! I covered pretty much everything we did during the six days over on the West Coast. Ugh, I’m already dying to go back!! As always, I’d love your feedback and more recommendations for new things to do next time I’m over there.
I really hope you enjoyed my first-ever Travel Guide blog post! If you want me to continue doing these for upcoming trips, let me know and I’ll consider creating an entire Travel category on the blog.
Thanks guys!
/ / As always, this is my personal blog. This blog post is not sponsored. Any views or opinions represented in this blog are my own and do not represent the views of any company or individual I may mention. This post may contain affiliate links where I make a small commission if you click and shop using my links. It won’t cost you a penny, but helps keep this blog running!
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