Few days in LA
 

I am staying in La next april for 4 days. Want to see hollywood, disneyland, universal,some of the studios. I am staying in Santa Monica, . Any tips anyone on optimizing my stay. Leaving 29th and going up to San Francisco.

If you wanna see all that in 4 days you'd better rent a car!

1. Rent a car. It will be the only way to get back and forth from Santa Monica to your places of interest.

2. Universal Studios IS a movie and TV studio, although the theme park has overwhelmed the actual production facilities in the eyes of tourists. But there's still a lot of film and TV production going on. Warner Brothers Studios runs a better, no-nonsense tour. Do one or the other, but not both.

3. Do the studio and your Hollywood tour on the same day. Even Warner Bros., in Burbank, can be combined with a spin through Hollywood, which really only takes a couple of hours to do.

4. Disneyland is quite far from Santa Monica (maybe 50 miles-- almost 80 km), so it will take up a day by itself.

5. LA is huge. You will see barely 0.00001% of the interesting things in the area. You'll have fun, but you'll be missing a lot. And you'll have to accept that. I've been here over 21 years and I'm still discovering new parts of the area.

Great tips, thanks. If i did have an extra day or so, what do you recommend to see and do. I have to say it is the Crime i would be paranoid about, as i have a relatively good camera which i would be afraid of being mugged for. Any more help is well appreciated.

Suggestions: Griffith Park; which includes the Autry Museum, http://www.autry-museum.org/

the Griffith Park Observatory, which should be open after extensive remodeling by next April
http://www.griffithobs.org/reopening.html

Getty Museum (for the view, gardens and cafe, not the holdings)
www.getty.edu (no reservations needed for the one in West LA)

Guided walking tour of Downtown Los Angeles http://www.laconservancy.org/tours/tours_main.php4
and visit to Japanese American Museum and First Street in Little Tokyo
http://www.janm.org/

or Disney Concert Hall.

It would be nice if you could see a bit more than the usual tourist circuit of studios, disney and theme parks.

You are watching too much TV...Being mugged is not something you should spend your energy worrying about.

Point taken. Thanks,

Just topping to note that mlgb has provided a superb list of LA notable sites that needlessly fly under the radar of most tourists. I urge you to work in at least one of the places on that list; you won't regret it.

You might also consider some of the museums. LACMA is in Mid-Wilshire which is not too far from either Beverly Hills or the Farmers Market/Grove at 3rd and Fairfax.
Mugging is not an issue in any of the places you have mentioned.

Griffith Observatory Reopening has been announced, November

http://www.griffithobs.org/

new link

There will be a reservation system in place for a few months. There will be a shuttles from Hollywood and Highland and the Zoo. There is a charge if the shuttle is used, more details on the website.

mlgb:

<b>SWEET!!!</b>

That's wonderful news! I can't wait to get back there!