LA in 2 days🍭

July 2, 2017

Recently I went to LA for only two short days and we didn’t accomplish very much of our “things to see list”. So here’s what I recommend in order to maximize your experience in LA…

Map out everything in advance. LA is full of traffic and going just a few miles can easily take 30 minutes. It’s super important to figure out what you want to do beforehand and see which places are close to other places on your list so you aren’t running all over the town and sitting in traffic 24/7. LA is a big city with lots of different areas to it.
Don’t rent a car. For the sake of your sanity, just don’t do it. Parking is usually hard to find and if you do find a nice parking garage it is usually pretty pricey (especially if you’re on a budget). Instead, take an uber or lyft and save yourself all the hassle of driving in LA and trying to find parking in LA. Click here to sign up for an uber account with my special code and get your first ride FREE. Click here to sign up for lyft and get your first ride FREE.
Make reservations in advance. There are a lot of places that require you to make reservations in advance like The Museum of Ice Cream and The Broad. We had no clue about this and thought we could just show up and then were informed we needed reservations.
Prioritize your list of things to do in LA because odds are you won’t get to do everything on your list. We certainly didn’t. Here are the big things that were on our list…

LA County Museum of Art (LACMA)-discount for students with college ID
Santa Monica Pier
Griffith Observatory (more on that below)
See a taping of a show
Museum of Ice Cream
The Last Bookstore
Hollywood Walk of Fame
Chinatown
Hike to the Hollywood Sign
Sidecar Donuts
Verve Coffee
The Pie Hole
Walt Disney Concert Hall
The Broad
Alfred Coffee Melrose Place
Warner Bro Studios Tour
Universal Studios Tour

So obviously we didn’t get to do all these things⬆️ But that’s the thing with LA. There is SO much to see so if you only have a short time you have to decide what is most important to you. These are not listed in any type of order, just a random order.

Our experience of The Griffith Observatory⬆️ (the one from La La Land!) wasn’t as great as we imagined. How were we supposed to know there was going to be some huge event going on at the Greek Theater the night we planned to go there? So due to that, there was absolutely no parking and we didn’t even get to go inside. Faith dropped me off to snap a few pictures really quick, but that didn’t work out so well either. I did get my exercise by walking 30 minutes to finally meet up with her after her being forced to keep driving and continue driving down the hill. But I bet any other night or day, it would have been a better experience. The view was amazing and you can see the Hollywood sign from the observatory. It is known to have “one of the best views of LA”.

Try to request tickets to a show. There are SO many different shows that are filmed all over LA from America’s Got Talent to Jeopardy. Odds are, your favorite show is probabaly filmed in LA. But it all depends if the show is currently filming. Some shows are easier to get tickets to then others. Check online as soon as you are 100% certain you will be taking a trip to LA and see which tickets are available. We were lucky enough to get tickets to a taping of The Voice. Yes, I did high five Miley Cyrus, Blake Shelton, Adam Levine, and Jennifer Hudson. What a cool experience. It took up our entire day (8AM-4:30PM) but it was worth it! Somehow we got moved up to the second row and were literally inches away from Adam. The coaches were so funny and it felt surreal to actually be there in the audience as the contestants tried out and waited for that chair turn. The episodes won’t air until September when Season 13 starts, but look for me on tv then! You’ll spot me wearing a tan shirt and denim high waisted shorts. A little tip: Don’t wear what I wore. It was freezing in there. So wear some jeans and a jacket for sure.

Eat at Mulberry Street Pizzeria in Beverly Hills for some super yummy pizza! The slices are huge so don’t order too many like I did thinking they are just normal size slices. While you’re there, window shop and pretend like you can actually afford that $500 purse. And of course be on the lookout for those celebrities!! Sadly, we didn’t spot any.