Los Angeles, California

A melting pot of bold creatives and eclectic world cultures, Los Angeles offers so much beyond the glitz and glamour of Hollywood. It’s a city worth exploring again and again once you realize L.A. is an umbrella in which many different towns reside. In the past, the City of Angels was associated with extremes, with beaches, near-perfect weather, and a parade of seemingly famous, good-looking people on one side, and the legendary tangle of freeways, infamous smog, and American sprawl on the other. In reality, the best of Los Angeles lies between the two, in the city’s abundance of good museums, vibrant ethnic communities, and cutting-edge culture that’s tempered by a sunny sense of fun. Many travelers visit Los Angeles to experience Hollywood, but as the A-listers themselves know, there’s much more to the city once you stray beyond the Walk of Fame. The business of the East is switching West and bringing many new people and culture to the city, which I wrote about in an article: The Marriage of Media, Entertainment and Tech in the New Hollywood

West Side (“west of the 405”): Santa Monica, Venice, Playa Vista, Culver City…Malibu & Topanga

Central: West Hollywood, Laurel Canyon, Hollywood, Studio City, Beachwood Canyon, Los Feliz, Silverlake

Downtown:

South Bay: Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach, Palos Verdes

The OC: Newport Beach, Huntington Beach, Laguna Beach, Irvine, Anaheim’s Disneyland Resort

*Day/Weekend Trips: Santa Barbara, Ojai, Laguna Beach, Palm Springs, Cambria (Hearst Castle), Paso Robles, Big Bear, Arrowhead Lake, Las Vegas