Santa Monica, Venice Beach and Downtown Los Angeles

For my first full day, I decided to go first to Santa Monica and Venice, two coastal cities that belong to Greater Los Angeles. You should know that Los Angeles is HUGE! Even if the map you'll have in hands will have the "same size" than a San Francisco map, check the scale, it has nothing to do! A lot of people say that you can't do anything in LA if you don't have a car, but actually the Bus Metro transit is growing more and more each year and you do can visit all the places you want to by only taking bus and metro. It is 1.25$ a ticket, and the driver can makes transfers. There are also one-day passes for the metro, 5$ each. A bus map is available at the hostel.


So Santa Monica. It is first-known for being the final destination of the famous US 66 Route that goes through the USA from Chicago to Los Angeles, passing 8 different states with its 2451 miles. Santa Monica is not much a big city and as a consequence there are not a lot of things to see. Though, it has the oldest amusement Pier of the West Coast, with an Amusement Park (Pacific Park) which has roller coasters and carousel. It has also a lot of tourist shops and restaurants. The downtown of Santa Monica is grouped along the 3rd street promenade, a car-free street where you can find dinosaur fountains and homeless artists singing nice and old rock and roll. Last but not least, the beach of Santa Monica is huge! It is very large, and you cannot actually see the ends of the seaside because it continues south to Venice Beach 3 miles away. Santa Monica Beach and Venice Beach are considered to be the main beaches of Los Angeles.




Going South on the boardwalk that boards the beach, you will reach after a 45 minutes walk Venice Beach. There is a big contrast between the two beach fronts. If Santa Monica's looks friendly and touristic, you will be amazed to see the reggae style of Venice's. A lot of homeless artists trying to make money, a lot of cheap stores to buy souvenir T-shirts, add to the whole thing a Marijuana smell and then you can picture how Venice Beach looks like. But I don't criticize it as I liked the atmosphere a lot! I stopped my beach front walk on Washington Boulevard. Then from here, the closest bus stop to go Downtown is about 2 miles away (or more) on Venice Boulevard and Lincoln. The walk is surprisingly long for the small distance that is showed on the map.


I arrived Downtown at 5:30PM, at the edge of the city at Union Station. I came to El Pueblo of Los Angeles, a Mexican area where you can go through a mini "Mexican tourist street market" with a lot of tourist souvenirs and pretty cheap guitars. I then come on Grand Avenue, the principal avenue of LA Downtown. I saw the Walt Disney Concert hall and its amazing design, and all the financial district, which is much less distracting than New York's or San Francisco's or even Miami's. I walked until the 7th street and the metro station center, to finally go back to the hostel at 7:30PM.

West Hollywood - First Day in Los Angeles

So like I said, the hostel is ON the walk of fame which means that I didn't have to do too much walking to visit Hollywood! I walked on the walk of fame, taking pictures of all the celebritiy stars I knew such as Nicole Kidman, Nicolas Cage, Harrison Ford... The walk is approximately 1 mile long or less.


I went in front of the Hollywood museum, the Kodak Theater, where the award ceremony occurs every year, with columns where you can read the movies that has won the oscar. Then I went in front of the Grauman's Chinese Theater, where you can see the hand prints of celebrities, I took pictures of the Hollywood signs from the viewing bridges at the Hollywood & Highland complex, even if it is not really good (the signs are far!), I visited the tourist shops such as Hollywoodland (a huge store with every tourist gift you can dream of). And that's it. Afterwards, you have to pay to go into the different museums or attraction. I think the Madame Tussaud Museum looks really good even but I didn't have the chance to go inside. Hollywood like you imagine it is not really big, the main touristic parts are located between Highland Avenue and Dr. Orange Avenue.



There are a lot of "Hollywood Tour Companies" employee that will harass you to come to their tour. They propose you a visit of the famous spots of Los Angeles: Beverly Hills and the Celebrity Houses, Santa Monica & Venice Beach, Hollywood Signs... for around 25$.

Then I had my first party the coming night. We started the warm-up in the common room, ideally to meet the other hostellers by playing pool and beerpong. I met especially three pretty German girls that made my night great. We all went to a rock and roll club on Las Palmas Avenue, quite close to the hostel. It was free for the girls and 5$ for the others. A good club, with a large out-door dance floor and particular music not quite usual for a nightclub (no dance, really). The beers were 3$ to 7$ which was quite affordable. We came back at the hostel around 3:00AM.

Hollywood Hostel

I am really surprised. This is the best hostel I went to, ever. It is the cheapest youth hostel you will find in Great Los Angeles (31$ a night, the prices displayed online are not the right ones), located in West Hollywood, close to the Highland Avenue and on Hollywood Boulevard. It is just in front of the famous Kodak Theater and Chinese Theater, and on the walk of fame! The best location you will find, much better than the USA Hostel in Hollywood also. The hostel is huge, with free coffee all-day, a very nice common room lighted by colorful spotlights, with a pool, a bar, coaches and kitchen. There is a small basement room ideal to play poker, a TV-room with a huge TV, a free internet-access room open 24/24. The dorms are great, 4-beds dorms with lockers and space. There are three "public" showers for the men cleaned every day. They are 2 floors. You can drink anywhere in the hostel at anytime, there is no curfew, and there are parties almost every night in the common room; actually there is even a beer pong table! The staff is ok, the guy who organizes the parties knows every good places in Hollywood and I guess Los Angeles in general, so feel free to ask. There are markets all around to buy whatever you want to. And if you are lucky, you will also see from the window the cops come to make an arrestation. It happens when I was at the hostel, about 10 police cars, two ambulances and two fire-truck came because a guy has been snaped with a knife just on the other side of the street! Welcome to Los Angeles, welcome to hostel Hollywood!

PS: in the main hall close the front desk, there is a poster signature where you can add comments. If you check in the middle, you will see <3 Paris, MC with a french flag. That's me!

Santa Barbara to Los Angeles

As usual, I took the greyhound bus to go to Los Angeles. It 13$ the trip, and there are 3 daily buses that go to Los Angeles. I took the one that leaves at 10:00AM, making me leave the hostel at 9:00AM. I decided actually to stay in Hollywood instead of LA Downtown, because the Hostel is cheaper. The bus-ride lasts 2hours 50 minutes.

Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara is known as a "student city" because of its well extended nightlife and the incredibly number of bars that board State Street (don't be surprise to see drunk people at 2:00AM a Saturday Morning). The city is quite similar to Santa Cruz, with a touristic Wharf with shops and restaurants too expensive for travelers on a budget, a "one street" downtown that goes from the Wharf to Mission Street, a really nice beach, no sunset on the sea (the beach faces south). I didn't do much in Santa Barbara honestly, I went to see the very nice Mission/Church up to Mission Street, but you have to pay 5$ to see the intra-mural garden. I spent most of day on the beach, getting some sunburns. I thing the best part of the city is the nightlife, but as I didn't really met "partying people" I just stayed in the hostel during the night and so on. But it is worth a day-stand, definitely.

Santa Barbara Tourist Hostel

First thing to know about this hostel, it is incredibly expensive during summer (May to September): 37$ a night, plus 20$ cash deposit for the key and 2$ cash to rent a towel.

Like Santa Cruz, the hostel is very well located, next to the beach after you pass the interstate HW101. It is three blocks away from the beach, 20 meters from the Amtrak station and 800 meters from the Greyhound Station. It has only one floor, compare to the building-typical-hostels that you find in the big cites. The front-desk is very welcoming like the "living room" with comfortable coaches and open spaced areas. The dorms are however hella small, something like 4*7 meters with 12 beds in eat! There are no lockers, no space to put your luggage and it is hard to get to the top buck-beds! For the price I paid, I thought it was ridiculous.



But it has its own charm, and I guess you will get use to it pretty quickly. Moreover, you never plan to stay more than 2 or 3 nights in those kind of hostels. There are 4 "public" showers for the men, free wifi and some computers to access internet if you don't travel with your laptop. There are like everywhere washers and dryers.

I liked the atmosphere of the hostel, which fortunately and obviously didn't have any curfew policy. The music keeps playing in the common room, and it is really easy to meet people and starts hosteller conversations. The hostel is close to the State Street, which is boarded by all the best bars and night clubs of Santa Barbara, so if you want to party, this hostel (and city) is definitely for you!

Santa Cruz to Santa Barbara

Once again, I chose to take the Greyhound bus to go to my next destination, Santa Barbara. There are 3 daily buses that do the connection, at 8:20AM, 1:30PM and 10:55PM. It is 43$ while the train is 45$. The ride lasts 6 hours.


The Greyhound Bus Station opens at 8:00AM, so you don't need to be there one hour before the departure time if you plan to take the 8:20AM bus. It takes only 10min to go to the station from the hostel.