Everything you need to know if you're planning a trip to Los Angeles I'm Yasir this is Yasir Cloud I do travel guides that are fun in form of entertaining and in this video I'm going to tell you where to stay in Los Angeles how to get in where to eat things to do you will be a pro at planning your La trip once you're done in this blog.
- BACKGROUND
The first thing you should know about Los Angeles is Los Angeles is huge the Los Angeles metropolitan area is 4 000 square miles it's a really big place and it generally has no Center while downtown Los Angeles right there is the biggest collection of tall buildings there are lots of centers across Los Angeles and so there's not really one place that you're going to stay and walk around all of La you're going to be darting back and forth around different parts of the city and it's so big that even if you're here for a month you won't be able to see all of it so you should definitely be choosy about the things that you want to see and make sure they're near each other because you might pick one thing in Santa Monica and then one thing in downtown Los Angeles and realize it takes an hour to get between the two so don't make the mistake that a lot of tourists make of spending all their time driving between attractions you really want to spend a lot of time making sure the things you're going to see are in about the same area each day.
- TRAFFIC
The second thing you should know before you come to Los Angeles is about traffic and Los Angeles has lots of traffic everywhere all the time just go ahead and deal with it there's going to be traffic when you're planning your movement through Los Angeles you'll look at something and say it's five miles if I go on the freeway that should only take me five minutes well it very well might take you 20 minutes or even an hour at rush hour so just plan to go a little bit slower plan to have things take a while between destinations that will ensure you have a much better time you should also know about the freeways here in Los Angeles and that we give them names you know most freeways around the US people refer to them as Interstate 95 Interstate 15 but here we give them the proper the in front of it the five the 405. they are so epic we put the word the in front of it.
- PUBLIC TRANSIT
You should know that Los Angeles actually has a pretty good public transportation system provided you are going where it goes in particular many people don't know that Los Angeles actually has a Subway it does I'm standing at the entrance to the Los Angeles Subway at the Hollywood and Highland station probably the most useful line for tourists is the red line This goes from downtown Los Angeles basically up to Universal Studios and stops here along Hollywood Boulevard there's a whole bunch of other lines that you can take summer underground summer above ground you can take trains from downtown L.A all the way to the beach in Santa Monica which is pretty cool too and if you're going long distances from La you can take the Amtrak trains all the way down to downtown San Diego which is a pretty nice day trip or kind of weekend trip from Los Angeles now a lot of people ask me about the bus they say Chris Howard the bus is in Los Angeles there are a lot of buses in Los Angeles and a lot of people take them there's over a million bus boardings a day in Los Angeles but I don't think the buses are particularly friendly to tourists so I would recommend you stick to the Train the subway Uber taxi and lift to get you around where the train and Subway don't go if you're taking public transit.
- PARKING
Number four parking so you're gonna need to park it at a lot of attractions the things to know is that parking in Los Angeles is often valet almost always costs money often very limited and has really small parking spaces the only place that you're really going to get free parking is when you're driving on the 405 freeway and it's rush hour and you're not going anywhere and so therefore you're parked on the freeway that will likely be free if you're parking on the city streets particularly in downtown Los Angeles Beverly Hills Santa Monica pay attention to the street signs they have bizarre regulations here about what times you can and can't park typically during morning Rush Hour you can't park afternoon Rush Hour you can't park there's like two hours in the afternoon you can park one hour in the evening you can park and might as have a sign that says go away but pay attention those signs you don't want to get a ticket I have that's why I'm telling you that from previous experience.
- NAVIGATION
Number five thing to know before coming to Los Angeles is about navigation so la has a lot of roads and a lot of routes my number one recommendation is if you don't have a GPS or a phone with GPS get a GPS in your rental car you'll want it the roads here are super confusing the other thing I'll say say is it's good ahead of time just to kind of know the exit that you're going to take off the freeway sometimes they're not super well signed and the exits just appear out of nowhere if you take maybe one exit before afterwards you might end up in some super sketchy neighborhood that you really don't want to be so pay attention to take the right exit the other thing to know is because Los Angeles has a lot of distinct Cities the roads that run through La can be really long it can be a 40 mile street that runs through Los Angeles but it goes through 10 different cities and the street numbering will update every time it goes into a different city 2000 Santa Monica Boulevard in Beverly Hills and 2000 Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles and those are two different places so make sure you're entering the city along with the address because if you enter a different city you'll be at a different place and not where you want to go.
- WEATHER
The sixth thing you want to know before coming to Los Angeles is about the weather La contrary to what you've heard is not always sunny and warm yes today happens to be a sunny day but it is not always sunny and it's not always warm particularly at night it actually can get really cold a lot of people only come with shorts and a t-shirt but I'll tell you night time in the winter you will want a jacket and you'll probably want long pants I as a Southern California local I'll wear shorts all the time but I'll generally put on a fleece and sometimes even a beanie if it gets cold so do check the weather forecast and don't just pay attention to daytime High pay attention to the nighttime low and the other thing to know is that Inland Los Angeles can be 30 degrees warmer than Coastal Los Angeles so you might hear the weather forecast in Santa Monica and it's 70 degrees but if you go out to Pomona it can be 100 degrees and that is really not an exaggeration those can be actual temperatures at noon on any given day here in La the other thing to know is about the ocean water you might be coming to Los Angeles to go to the beach the ocean water is not like Hawaii here it is cold pretty much all year round the summer high for the ocean water is 70 degrees that's about as high as it gets the warm warmest days will be 72 that'll typically be in August or September in December January the water temperature will be 55 degrees as uh LA or Southern California locals we can tell the tourists because those are the people in the water not in the summer that don't have wetsuits on pretty much all the locals will have wetsuits on you can rent those if you come to the beach you'll also want to bring lots of sunscreen I feel like in Southern California we're pretty close to the Sun here particularly if you go to the beach and so it's pretty easy to burn like a crisp bring sunglasses the sun's bright you'll want them a lot of activities are outside here and the last thing related to the weather to know is la is considered a desert and so it's very very dry your skin can get really really dry here after being here for a while particularly if you're not used to this kind of a climate.
- LA IS UNIQUE
Seventh thing to know about La is la is really unlike the rest of California California is a really big state and Los Angeles can often feel like its own different country I'm from San Diego and when I come up to Los Angeles I do feel like I've traveled a long long way to a very different place even though it's only 80 or 90 miles away in particular if you want to feel the most out of this world and like you're actually in a different country completely check out Venice Beach which is just south of Santa Monica the Venice Beach Boardwalk is famous there is nothing like Venice Beach anywhere else in the world crazy Boardwalk with some of the most interesting characters that I think you will see anywhere.
- HOLLYWOOD
You should also know that if you've come to Hollywood to look for Stars about the only Stars you're going to see here are these in the sidewalk I ran into rise who's going to tell us a little bit more about what you should know about Hollywood Hollywood is an interesting place you may think you're going to see stars when you come here but you're going to see just people like you there's going to be a lot of different artistic people crazy people a lot of wild people you're going to get a lot of wildness that you didn't really expect okay the wildness could be from a character to the guy on the street to the guitar player or to the guy that ramley runs up to you so Hollywood is interesting be ready for something new and exciting that's what I can say thank you now you should also know that there's a few different Hollywood neighborhoods there's North Hollywood there's East Hollywood those are all different than Hollywood and if you get approached by someone here on Hollywood Boulevard to invite you to a 30-minute sitcom taping know that that's probably going to take you four hours Jimmy Kimmel Live films right here on Hollywood Boulevard actually his theater is right back that way but that's a one hour show but again plan to spend four hours if you're gonna do that that's about half your day if you're a tourist I don't know if it's worth it really if you're just here for a few days.
- THE VALLEY
Number nine something you're gonna hear a lot when you come to La is the term the valley people will say things like oh I'll come in all the way from the valley for this what valley are they talking about they are talking about the San Fernando Valley the San Fernando Valley is the valley just north of Los Angeles this gets the term Valley Girl the valley accent the valley or the city is primarily of Burbank Studio City North Hollywood and Van Nuys so if someone says I'm from the valley we're going to go to the valley or that's in the valley that's the Valley North of Los Angeles,
- RUNDOWN
Number 10 this kind of takes us back to number eight related to Hollywood is that some of LA's most known attractions are the most run down lots of La can be really seedy and you know when people think of Hollywood or people think of Venice Beach they think of like glamor and Glitz and all that stuff and I am here to tell you that there's not a lot of glamor and Glitz at most of LA's popular attractions they are certainly classic attractions but don't expect them to be nice actually take your expectations if they're up here and bring them way down here for about how nice they are the nicest things you'll find in LA are things that are really owned and run by private companies or corporations LA Live the district behind me really quite nice there's a lot of places the public places in L.A often not so nice and can be run down because such a big city the tax dollars kind of go everywhere the nicest public building you're going to find is probably Union Station which is in downtown Los Angeles check that out also you can go over to LA City Hall see a view from the top and see just what I mean about things being run down L.A city hall has really seen some better days.
- CASUAL
11th thing to know about La is that from a dress code code La is pretty casual you know a lot of people think oh it's a high-end restaurant I'll need to go I'll need to wear a suit and tie I'm here to tell you that like shorts a T-shirt and flip-flops will get you into 98 of all establishments in Los Angeles I'm sure some people say well Chris but there's this place and there's that place and yeah there's a few here and there that have a dress code and they want you to wear you know a shirt and there's like .001 that you have to wear a shirt and a tie but that is pretty rare you'll fit in fine with shorts and a t-shirt.
- SHOPPING BAG
Number 12 bring your own shopping bag California recently passed a law that supermarkets and food places have to charge 10 cents for shopping bags so if you don't want to pay 10 cents for a shopping bag bring that shopping bag or you buy a shopping bag once bring it back to the store if you're going to a restaurant then they don't charge you a shopping bag so you might want to get some fast food get a bag and then you can take it to the supermarket.
- MEXICAN FOOD
And the last thing to know about coming to LA is Mexican food is awesome here if you're coming to LA and maybe you say well hey I don't like Mexican food because Mexican food's not very good I'll probably tell you you haven't had good Mexican food I lived on the East Coast for a while and people would always say Chris I'm gonna take this really great Mexican restaurant and after I went to about the sixth or seventh one I was like please don't take me any more Mexican restaurants because they're all bad I will tell you here in La they are all almost very very good my favorite Mexican restaurant in La is called King Taco it is a chain of taco places they sell tacos burritos nachos tamales and then basically you pick what meat you want in it it's pretty simple the taco is like a dollar 59 some of the best carne asada that I feel I've had anywhere and just really simple really tasty I'll also tell you you won't find this as a King Taco but you'll find it at a lot of other Mexican restaurants get the fish tacos fish tacos are a Baja California specialty in Mexico and so since we're just right north of Baja California you'll find lots of fish tacos as well it's funny there's actually a place in La called the best fish tacos in Ensenada ensenadas in Mexico but it's in La so just kind of a funny name for a place and fellow Explorer is the last thing you should know before you come to Los Angeles is I have a ton more videos on La you'll find a link here to my entire series on Los Angeles you'll also find it in the description below you'll find videos like how to ride the subway what are the best cheap eats where are the food halls and many more so as usual I won't say goodbye because I'm going to see you in one of those videos