Yes, I'm planning to be at the GTG.

rkkwan-I look forward to meeting you! Filmwill has a new thread on the GTG on the Asia board, make sure you check it out...

yk, my thx to lvk too then ;) I'm reworking my itin to see if I can take in one of their guided tours.

Kristina, I had no idea of the GTG - thx a mint for mentioning it! I'll be in downtown LA on that Sunday. Actually, I'm there for World Figure Skating Championships (last one before the Olympics!) but am heading to the West Coast a bit early to check out Disneyland - I'm a Dis NUT...LOL! I'd love to meet up for dim sum if it's not too late to sign up/there's still room...I'll go check out that thread.

Enjoy-la!

klam-email "Filmwill", the organizer, for all the details.
http://www.fodors.com/community/asia...lmost-here.cfm
That's the most current thread and his address is there.

i even got quoted in Fodor's latest Los Angeles guidebook
:-)

I did a search for the LA GTG and didn't see it cuz I only checked the US forum so thx a mint for that link, Kristina! I e-mailed filmwill yesterday to ask if there's still room for me (but of course, I completely understand if there isn't).

Cool, suze - what did they print?

Enjoy-la!

Nothing earth-shaking, believe me, but it made one of the main pages upfront of the book.

"If I had 1 day in L.A., I would do Olvera Street & Chinatown, then Farmer's Market, perhaps walk of the stars of LaBrea tar pits, then head to Santa Monica and Venice Beach." -suze

Hardly rocket science :-)

The guidebooks "Word of Mouth" quotes are often quite general, like mine above, and are chosen when they make a good preface to the next chapter.

Yours was obviously well worded, suze! :) Good job; I've yet to make any guidebook.

Enjoy-la!

my 6th one ;-)

Posting back to say thx a mint all for the fab info. I've revamped my itin now. Overall, even without the Farmers Mkt on Fairfax, it works out a lot better:

Saturday
- LA Conservancy Historic Core guided tour
- Grand Central Market for lunch
- Little Tokyo
- Union Station

Sunday
- Empress Pavilion dim sum, check out Chinatown
- WDCH guided tour
- Cathedral of Angels, City Hall
- Olvera

yk, the LA Conservancy tours looked so good I've decided to forego the Olvera docent-led tours offered on Sat. And while I won't be able to take the Symphonian tour, I can still take the WDCH tour on Sunday.

I would love to have afternoon tea at the Biltmore but unfortunately the timing doesn't work - at least I will be able to visit the Grand Dame.

Kristina, I just wanted to let you know that I haven't heard back from filmwill, either on the GTG thread or via e-mail, so I guess that dim sum dance card is full...LOL! Too bad as I was looking fwd to my first GTG and meeting you and others whose screennames I recognize. Still, I wanted to post to thank you for letting me know about it.

Enjoy-la!

Hi klam-

I think your itin looks great. It is tough to try to fit everything in just 2 days, so you'll just have to return to LA in the future for the rest!

The Historic Tour seems to be the *best* in terms of seeing all the important buildings.

Are you interested in eating in Little Tokyo? You can always get a taco in Grand Central Market as a snack, then have a real lunch in Little Tokyo. There's also a store in Little Tokyo that makes/sells fresh dorayaki... I missed it on my last visit as it wasn't open on Monday I think.

Also, if you're walking from Grand Central Market to Little Tokyo, you can visit City Hall en route. (is the interior open on weekends?)

I think you still can have afternoon tea at Biltmore on Sunday. Assuming you take the 11am guided tour at WDCH, it'll end around 12 noon. Visiting the Cathedral won't take more than an hour. Since you've already "done" City Hall on Sat, you now have a few hours free which you can have your afternoon tea. I think Biltmore starts service at 2pm. Even if you spend 2 hours on afternoon tea, you can still visit Olvera Street afterwards, unless you need to be somewhere else Sunday late afternoon.

hi yk, yes when I looked at the primary bldgs I was interested in, they did match well with the Historic Core tour. Fresh dorayaki...yum! I found a few places that make it so I'll stop by when I'm in LT...hehe.

I don't know if the City Hall will be open on the weekends...if not, I'll have to take a pass as I won't have free time during the weekdays to check it out. Sorry I forgot to mention that the "gala" - skating winners' exhibitions - is on Sunday from 2-4:30pm so it conflicts with afternoon tea. I'm going to head to Olvera after the gala but leave the area by 6:30pm (sunsets at 7:15pm).

Thx again - enjoy-la!

Hi klam_chowder -

Just wondering how your trip went? How was the LA Conservancy tour - did you have a large group? Hope you had a good time in LA!

klam_chowder wanted to see the homeless in Skidrow. But her driver didn't know which street has the highest concentration. She saw some people hanging out on the sidewalks, but didn't see many actual tents out.

<i>But her driver didn't know which street has the highest concentration. </i>

What kind of driver was that!?!? Has he been fired? :-O ;)

Definitely not worth tipping for. At least the driver dropped her off at the right terminal at LAX. I hoped.

My trip was great! Sorry for the delayed posting...I anticipated getting a reasonable amt of sleep on my red eye flight back but of course that only happens in Utopia. The lil girl next to me was lying sideways with her feet nearest to me and she was a sleeping kicker. Hope she rested well as she restlessly unstretched her feet into my legs and ribs several times each hour. Anyhoo, the lack of sleep for that one day blew my schedule and I've been playing catch up...LOL!

The LAC website you suggested, yk, was excellent. My gf and I took the Historic Downtown Core tour on Saturday, 10am-12:30pm. Tip: bringing $10 exact change will make it easier. All the docents were seniors.

We arrived a bit early to check out the park and as soon as enough people registered to comprise a group, a docent took the group out to start. We just had time to sit down and organize our stuff when the tour, with about 10 people total, left at about 9:45am. A great beginning!

The docent started the tour off with a brief history of the LA area, and gave us each a tour-specific booklet which had a map, and the history and details of the venues we would view. The booklet was quite good and our guide asked us to put it away immediately so we would not contradict her if her "facts" were slightly off...LOL! I kept mine out to read the extra details but let the docent lead us and did not mention any discrepancies made. ;)

As expected, the tour covered the historic highlights of the downtown core. The only disappointment was that the Central Library and the Biltmore were talked about while we stood outside, but we did go into those venues. The docent said a separate Biltmore tour was available if we wanted more detail on it. After the tour, we double-backed and checked the venues out for ourselves as the library-run tour and the Biltmore-specific tour clashed with our schedule.

All in all, the tour was okay-good. I've done walking tours before and while this didn't top the list it wasn't a dog either. Of course a lot of it has to do with the guide you get. Our guide was very concerned about where the other groups were, who was leading them, and she dissed another guide twice for ending theirs so early, etc...LOL! All in all, it was worthwhile taking, esp for the very reasonable cost.

I'll post more from my trip tomorrow.

Oh and about that driver? Well, my repeated attempts to pay for his dinner were declined so alas a thx e-mail was all I could offer. Dependable drivers are hard to find these days; I'd recommend this one for your next visit! ;)

Enjoy-la!

Thank you, klam_chowder! If you're going to write more about your trip, I think perhaps you can start a new thread for it and tag it as a TR ... your great description of the LA Conservency tour should be copied and pasted to the new post too, as I am not sure if many people will bother to read through all these 30+ replies on this thread!

I plan to take the Art Deco walking tour this coming weekend. It's good to know that the size of the tours aren't huge.

Doh! My previous post should have read the tour did NOT go into the Central Library nor the Biltmore. Hopefully, that paragraph makes more sense now...LOL!

Okie doke, yk I'll do a quick TR in a new thread. Have a fab time in LA (=

Enjoy-la!