Days 1 – 4 Los Angeles
THE FLIGHT – We flew American Airlines Auckland to Los Angeles and the flight was 11 1/2 hours and was one of the better airlines that we have flown with so far. The food and service was great and the flight was early so we arrived 30minutes before we were scheduled to. Our one bug bare would have to be the seats as they were tiny and there was very little leg room, which equals ZERO sleep. However we picked up our airfare for $549 NZD pp which was quite reasonable and would definitely recommend them to anyone flying this route.
THE RENTAL CAR – We hired a car for 12 days from Dollar rentals and had originally picked a Nissan Sentra for $546.65 NZD which advertised that it had room for…., however on arrival the lady at the desk informed us that there is absolutely no way that we would fit in and that we would need to upgrade to the larger car for $436.16 NZD extra. This was SUPER frustrating and I am absolutely guttered that I made such a stupid mistake (I still secretly think that we could have fitted in). She also tried to sell us multiple other add ons to which I replied very quickly NO thank you. Well I have learnt a very valuable $$$ lesson, over estimate the size not under estimate because if I had of ordered the larger car to begin with it would have costed much less.
This car turned out to be a bit of a dud, the oil needed changing pretty much on Day 2 of our road trip and we had to put air in the tyres everyday, which we found that if you are not purchasing gas at the same time the air costs $1 USD. So we didn’t feel very safe driving it around but we had already gone too far to turn back and get a replacement.
THE LODGINGS – We spent 3 days in Los Angeles staying in Tarzana at the Tarzana Inn, this was a very affordable Motel (around $512 NZD for 3 nights) that included breakfast, a pool, and has very clean rooms. The Motel is also very close to Hollywood and downtown LA, we hired a car but if you didn’t have one it wouldn’t be an issue as there is buses running right by the Motel. The breakfast consists of pastries, fruit, cereal, toast with jam, bagels with cream cheese and coffee juice etc. There is also a deli next door and takeaway shops within walking distance and In and Out is 1km down the road. We were very happy with our stay here.
ACTIVITIES
This was very hard for us as getting to sights seemed impossible! First day we were too jet lagged and then second day there was a Storm with flash flood warnings. However we found our feet on Day 3 and managed to tick off a lot of the sights that we had wanted to see.
Hollywood Sign
Griffith Observatory
Hollywood Hill walk
Hollywood walk of fame
Shopping – Citadel Outlets
Venice Beach
In N Out Burger
We also stumbled upon The Lego Movie 2 Space Hollywood interactive zone as part of the launch of the movie. This place was FREE and amazing, the kids had an absolute ball. There was dancing pads, Emmets house, photo booths, Lego play and freebies.
The kids have had an absolute ball in LA, we will need to come back again as we have not even scratched the surface of seeing the City.