A Day in L.A. WORDS DI VON ESSEN If the prospect of a 20+ hour flight to Central or Eastern USA doesn’t thrill you, why not break it up and spend a day in Los Angeles? It might not seem like much – but an early morning flight (and luggage storage at an airport hotel) might be just the ticket to wake you up, get you into holiday mode and add some unexpected sightseeing to your itinerary. It may also help you stave off jet lag too! If you have a flight the next day, staying near the airport at a hotel that offers a shuttle service to and from LAX is probably worthwhile. If you’re on a budget, the Holiday Inn Express LAX is good value (in LA terms, at least!). They offer a free shuttle service and luggage storage if you arrive before check-in, but luckily for us, even though we arrived on their doorstep at 7.30am, our room was ready, and the staff allowed us to check in early and freshen up before heading out. When you’re short on time, hiring a car and navigating between tourist spots is a no-go. What you need is someone who knows the hot spots, can navigate the traffic (there’s lots of it), can help you learn a little along the way and is flexible in case your flight is delayed. Oh – and did I mention – on a budget!
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Starline’s City Sightseeing tours allow you to hop-on and hop-off en route if you want to spend more time in a location either shopping, dining or celebrity-spotting. This seemed like an ideal option for a layover, so we grabbed an Uber to a hot spot on the tourist trail to kick off our whirlwind tour. Santa Monica Pier was not too far from our hotel and a great place to grab a meal because, really – who actually eats plain food? Sorry – I meant plane food. Opened to the public in 1909 and jutting out into the Pacific Ocean at the intersection of Ocean and Colorado Avenues (at the western end of the famous Route-66), Santa Monica Pier has retained all the charms of days gone by and is still one of the most photographed locations in the world. If you’re looking for some Californian souvenirs, it's also not too shabby – with market stalls selling a variety of goods from t-shirts to keyrings and everything in between. It’s also a great place to stretch your legs while experiencing the seaside views and filling your lungs with some salty air. By Australian standards, the surf is pretty flat (ok, very flat) and hailing from the opposite end of the Pacific Ocean; I wondered if it was even possible to catch a wave. But who am I to judge?
Centrally located on the pier is Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. For lovers of the movie Forest Gump, the restaurant lets you get your first taste of the U.S. and test your trivia skills. Branded as an American icon, the restaurant showcases memorabilia and photos from the movie, along with reproductions of script pages, storyboards and even some costumes. The staff also halted proceedings mid-way through our meal with trivia questions about the film – which was entertaining. The menu features shrimp, of course, and they're also famous for their cocktails. Even though it was mid-morning in LA, it was definitely cocktail hour at home – and we were on holiday -so why not? The City Sightseeing double-decker, opentop bus collects tourists from Santa Monica, which enabled us to purchase a ticket on boarding and gave us access to two hop-on, hop-off tours. Each tour was approximately two hours, and we could jump from one tour to the other from a stop in the middle at Beverly Hills. Along the way to Beverly Hills we pass through some well-known, palm tree-lined streets – Santa Monica and Wilshire Boulevards to name two, both of which brought TV theme songs to mind –maybe I just watch too much TV. The commentary that’s delivered via earbud is a little unsocial and out of date but does provide a few interesting snippets of information, although the commentator did have a particular fascination with OJ Simpson and pointed out a few sites where he’d been, chased, hiding, caught or committed the crime. The distinctive red, barn-style buildings of Brentwood Country Mart provide a novel shopping experience and is apparently a good location for celebrity spotting, being a favourite haunt of Hollywood stars. Opened in 1948, Brentwood houses a wide variety ▶ 31
