Yes that's a great way to put it I'll add to this thread a bit later. It's great in parts not too great in others.
You are right Munky. LA is not the right place for a short stay, but if you can spend time there it is a fantastic place. It isn't really one city, it is about seventy different "cities", each with its own character. Many parts of it are delightful, the food is as good as you will find anywhere in the world, in fact authentic food from all over the world, and there's lots to do and see. It is everything you can imagine, and despite the generally held opinion that you spend your time grid-locked on its roads, in reality the freeway system is so good you can easily get around (as long as you avoid the 405 at peak times).
Just had a quick scan through the additional posts since lunch and I think I will post an update of my loose plans once I have had a better look at maps ect. I am so excited to have booked something like this that its hard to give everything the thought it probably needs right now. I also didnt mention that a friend of mine who I met at university lives in LA and is a football coach. I too did a coaching degree and I am very keen on maybe catching one of his sessions and being shown around when we first arrive. I am slightly overwhelmed by all the advise and I will be re-reading and picking through it all. I am sure it will be an amazing experience and all the positive comments that have been posted I am grateful for. On another note, fingers crossed for the game tomorrow!!! OTBC!!!!
We quite liked LA, though it is a bit of an urban sprawl, but trips to Hollywood, Sunset Boulevard, the Queen Mary were all really good. We stayed in the Standard Hotel in Downtown LA, its got a rooftop swimming pool and the early morning jet lag - induced swim with lots of helicopters buzzing round the skyscapers was amazing! Couple of other tips, take sweaters if you are going to San Francisco, they get a lot of fog and it can be quite cool there! Alcatraz is great and Fishermans wharf is a bit touristy, but great fun.... watch out for the Bushman! I won't spoil your fun by telling you more about him!
Oh, and depending what time of year you go, be careful planning your route over the mountains back to the coast.... We went in Mid June and had to travel hundreds of miles as all the main passes over the sierra nevada mountains were closed because of snow. When we did find a pass that was open we were astonished having come from 30 degree plus heat to have snow piled up 8 feet high either side of the road and huge frozen lakes! In California the scale of things and extremes is truly unbelievable for us Brits!
Here is an amazing statistic for all of us who love stats. West of San Francisco the cold California Current runs south down the coast while to the east, beyond the Bay and encircling hills, lies the hot Central Valley. This produces a steep upward temperature gradient from west to east. For example, the average maximum temperature in July is about 64 °F (18 °C) at Half Moon Bay on the coast, rising to 87 °F (31 °C) at Walnut Creek only 25 miles (40 km) inland, and 95 °F (35 °C) at Tracy, just 50 miles (80 km) inland. I.E. In the space of just 25 miles between the coast and Walnut Creek, the average July maximum increases by 23°F, I.E almost 1°F PER MILE!
Last year me and two of my mates done a road trip from Calgary in Canada to the South Western USA then back up to Calgary, we took three weeks which in my opinion wasn't enough time because we had to skim a couple of the Midwestern States. As mentioned by a lot of people the size of the country is vast what looks like a small drive e.g. from Vegas to the Grand Canyon takes longer then driving from London to Newcastle. Your best bet is to pick the most interesting city in the area and use it as a base to work out of. We used Las Vegas as one of our main area's to base ourselves it's easily one of my most favourite cities to visit, I've been there before so I had a rough idea of where was good. In my opinion the Strip is the place to be at, two of the other hotel casino's the Palm and the Rio are a bit further out but perfectly fine although you'll need to call cabs to get to the strip etc, Fremont street is a bit shat in my opinion it's like 1970's redneck Vegas full of hicks, blue rinses, if you get bored of the strip it's worth visiting though although keep on the main track. The Casino's on the strip cater to all budgets you have the high end places Bellagio, The Wynn, Aria (Great Coffee). The City Life Centre around Aria has some cool new hotels Cosmopolitan which has a bar we nicknamed Superman's Cave which is mental, your eye's will wander a lot at all the fit birds waltzing into the Marquee night club, Vdara and Mandarin are the other hotels in this area. Then you have the MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay, Caesars Palace which are a step down but relatively affordable and cool to check out. You have Paris which is a really light casino inside I quite liked the place, New York New York where we stayed we had a giant room at it was cheap worked out to $387 per room for a week we just strolled in and booked up, other hotels worth mentioning Monte Carlo, Mirage, Treasure Island, Luxor (if you hate heights the corridors are ****e). What I enjoyed is every casino has it's different theme imagine one big theme park with different zone's, what will shock you too is every place has about 8 bars, 8 restaurants, 2 nightclubs along with other attractions lions, shark reefs, fountain's, inside orchids etc. Las Vegas is great because it technically never stops you can eat and drink whenever you like and as you please, want a high end meal at 4AM in the morning you've got it! Not a fan of the clubs there as the music is that EDM ****e but the bars are wicked to have a drink in and have a laugh with people there is so much variation old style pubs, crooner bars, to more clubby type places. I'm a gambler so I hit the tables a lot if your not a gambler but want a flutter I suggest you try roulette, also here is a tip if you want to get pissed on the cheap sit at table or one of the machines and you usually get free drinks but it's worth tipping the waitress a few dollars.
Los Angeles is a bit of enigmatic place as Supers mentioned it's like marmite. My number one bit of advice for LA is stay in the North Western part of the city because you have to use a car to drive about and things are spread out. Firstly the beaches are superb like Tony I absolutely loved Venice Beach it's a top place to spend a day or two around there and Santa Monica going in sea, hanging around the pubs on the boardwalk people watching, there is this hilarious guy with a microphone who sings and makes comments about everyone walking by him, it's well worth being there. The North Western area's like Beverly Hills and Bel Air around there are a good laugh obviously very rich but worth an explore, Hollywood was alright Sunset Boulevard is good for drinking. There is some interesting architecture downtown and some famous hotels, I'm going to second Graham with the Standard as a shout it's a wicked hotel! My number one rule for Los Angeles is stick to freeways in you car and don't take shortcuts or be vague on where you are going, we got lost on foot and ended up in a **** area it was not fun and the locals intentionally didn't want us there, I imagine some tourists are not so lucky but don't let that put you off but please use your common sense, in my opinion it's a city that can change quickly. Stick to the freeways, the coastal area's generally seem safer as do the hills we had to drive down the Harbor Freeway south from downtown and the area's off there looked grim even with the palm tree's and sun. It's worth visiting some of the beach cities in the south Laguna Beach which we really loved, there are a couple of other beach cities in Orange County like Huntingdon and Newport we found them a bit less buzzy. San Francisco was great we only spent two days there the public transport system the BART works well but I found it a perfectly walkable city and really enjoyed that, check out Lombard Street if you get the chance and walk up the hill then use the tram! What I liked about San Francisco was it seemed so less commercialised then other American cities and towns I've visited you don't get the retail park area's with generic stuff. Apologies for the war and peace I hope you find the information useful mate!
If you enjoy wine, it's worth detouring off the 101 at Santa Barbara to Solvang - amazing wine growing region and Solvang itself is an old Danish settlement so very European. Great drive up there from LA and beautiful wines (try the Zinfandels). It wouldn't add more than a day to your trip up to SF (as I'm adding a night in for wine drinking), but a worthy dog leg.
Definitely recommended. Worth the detour through the Santa Ynez valley even if just for lunch at Solvang rather than overnight stay. (Name of particular eatery to follow!) [Edit] Los Olivos Cafe & Wine Merchant, for lunch or evening meal (booking ahead essential for the evening)
