Meandering around Los Angeles

In 2011, Los Angeles Airport was the fifth busiest airport in the world, with 61,862,052 passengers: most of them going somewhere else. Grabbing their bags trying to find connecting flights. Jet lagged and cranky. All in a hurry to get out of Los Angeles.

But there are reasons to stay. Los Angeles is huge. Freeways criss-cross its sprawling 467 square miles. Where to start? Well you can stay off the roads and just meander around.  Here are some of my favourite walks. And they cost nothing.

1. Window gawking. Whether it’s the crazy wig shops or the lingerie stores on Hollywood Boulevard. There’s always something to photograph.

      For something trendier wander around Melrose Avenue.

For the outrageously up-market go to Rodeo Drive. An easy way to get to all these places is to use the ‘hop-on hop-off’ tourist buses as a taxi.

2.Watch a movie being made. Being Hollywood there is sure to be a movie being made close at hand. The Roosevelt Hotel is a favourite location.

3. Get up early and wander down Hollywood Avenue before the shops open. You’ll find plenty of debris, both human and non from the night before but the shop shutters will still be down and have been painted to honour Hollywood royalty.

4.Visit a cemetery and commune with the dead. Hollywood Forever Cemetery, originally called Hollywood Memorial Park Cemetery, is one of the oldest cemeteries in LA. It is located at 6000 Santa Monica Boulevard adjacent to the back of the Paramount Studios. Among those buried or entombed in the cemetery are a number of important personalities and famous persons. Rudolph Valentino, the De Mille family, Peter Lorre and Dee Dee Ramone to mention just a few. 

      Another cemetery worth visiting is the Woodlawn Cemetery at 1847 14th Street Santa Monica. Woodlawn has views of the Santa Monica Mountains and the Pacific Ocean and manicured lawns. It is very calming and green and is a reasonable walk from Santa Monica.

5. Experience the fun of the fair. While you’re at Santa Monica walk along the pier and have a glass of Californian wine while watching the world go by.

      Or just go for a ride at the amusement park.  If you have a lousy plane connection at LAX and have a few hours to kill it’s simple to get out of the airport and catch a cab or bus to Santa Monica for a breath of fresh air. The simplest way to get there is to catch the big Blue Bus: the Rapid 3 line runs between the Aviation Green Line Metro Station and downtown Santa Monica with additional stops within the city. From the transportation islands at the airport, shuttles run to and from the Green Line Station (Route G) and to the LAX City Bus Centre transit station (Route C) at Parking Lot C, which is the best place to catch the Rapid 3. Fare is $1.

6. Visit the beaches. There is a shuttle bus between Santa Monica and Venice Beach but if you have the extra time walk between them. 

      Visit the skateboard park and graffiti walls along the waterside.

      Avoid the sick waiting outside the Medicinal Herbal Clinics.

7. Take in a market. The Farmer’s Market can be reached by the tourist buses and is worth visiting for a cheap feed and shoulder rubbing with the glitterati. It is also reached by the Metro Local Line 217 from Hollywood Boulevard.

The Grove at Farmers Market is an attractive out-door mall that is connected to the market by a Trolley but it is an easy walk.

8. Get some culture with a view. The Getty Center at 1200 Getty Centre Drive, Bel-Air is perched on a hill with a wonderful view from the street of LA to the Pacific Ocean. Entry is free and there are marvellous gardens to stroll through.

      The building itself is a work of art designed by Richard Meier. I found the architecture and the gardens more inspiring than the actual collection. The Getty Center is served by Metro Rapid Line 761, which stops at the main gate on Sepulveda Boulevard.

9. Art Deco spotting. Downtown Los Angeles boasts an extraordinary collection of Art Deco buildings, luckily some are still intact. There are great examples along the Miracle Mile, on Hollywood Boulevard and around Santa Monica.

10. Smell some history. The La Brea Tar Pits are a cluster of tar pits in Hancock Park, in the urban heart of Los Angeles. Tar has seeped up from the ground in this area for tens of thousands of years. You can smell methane gas that bubbles up through the tar. Step back in time with a visit to the Pleistocene Garden, a prehistorical landscape in Hancock Park that represents the vegetation of the Los Angeles Basin 10,000 to 40,000 years ago.

11. And just to revisit my favourite Los Angeles activity. Go window shopping again.

10 free things to do in marvellous Melbourne

No-one spontaneously comes to Australia. It’s not like being in Europe and 

dropping into Paris for the weekend or in the US and visiting New York to see 

a show. It takes forever to get here. From Los Angeles you’re looking at 15 hours, 

from London it’s closer to a full day, travelling with people you probably wouldn’t 

invite out for a drink and not being able to get away from screaming children. 

Can’t some airline devise a nursery in the baggage hold. Please. 

You get fed meals at odd hours that you'd never order on the ground.

And it costs a lot. The strong Australian dollar is forcing us all off shore for cheaper

holidays. So your euros, pesos, rupees and dollars simply don’t go very far here. 

If you are coming to Melbourne these are some things to do that will entertain you 

and help your budget.

1.       Open Air Art: Love it or loathe it Melbourne is well known for its graffiti. 

Hoosiers Lane, Crofts Lane and various lanes off the Bourke Street Mall have 

council sanctioned street art. 

For grittier work visit the back streets of Carlton and Fitzroy, both close to 

the city centre. 

2.      Weather watching: In Melbourne there is a joke that you can experience 

four seasons in one day. If we are having a crazy weather day there is no better 

place for cloud and sunset watching than the beach at St Kilda. A short ride on 

the 96 tram from the city. 

There are restaurants on the beach but save your budget with a sandwich 

and watch the show for free.

3.      Moomba: If you’re here in early March there is a three day free festival. 

It’s a bit cheesy but it is free fun. There are fireworks, concerts, a big parade 

and the Birdman Rally. 

The Birdman Rally involves idiots strapping on wing contraptions launching 

themselves off a high platform to see how far they fly before dropping into

the Yarra River. The festival takes place on the banks of the Yarra.

 

4.      Be a sport: We are known for being sports crazy and if you’re willing to pay there 

is the Australia Tennis Open in January, the F1 Race in March, cricket in summer 

and Australian Rules football in winter at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and various 

other arenas. But for nothing you can check out suburban sport fields. Catch a local 

game of football on a winter Sunday at the Peanut Farm Reserve in St Kilda.

5.      Feed a swan: If you think that swans are white visit the Royal Botanical 

Gardens and see our black swans. Don’t be too startled if a hungry eel gets to 

the bread before a swan. The Gardens were established in 1846 and are among 

the best in the world. You can spend a day wandering its 36 acres. And drop in 

to see the feral colony of grey-headed flying foxes. They hang around the 

Gardens during the day and can be seeing in the surrounding suburbs flying 

around looking for food. Not good for a bat-phobic. 

 For a more distant adventure the RBG has an off-shoot in Cranbourne that is 

very spectacular and focuses purely on Australian plant life. Its 45km out of the 

city but is worth the visit. Tour groups that go to Philip Island for the Penguin 

Parade usually spend some time at the Cranbourne Gardens. 

Other gardens worth visiting in the city are the Fitzroy Gardens which has Captain 

Cook’s cottage and a fairy tree and  the Carlton Gardens that have the World 

Heritage Exhibition Buildings, the Melbourne Museum and an Imax Theatre.

6.      Have a party with the locals: Most inner city suburbs have big festivals during 

summer. Free music and parties. One of the largest is the St Kilda Festival held in 

early February. The festival area is blocked off for pedestrians only and sprawls 

through the streets and onto the beach with sound stages and art shows. 

Around 300,000 people invade St Kilda.

7.      Buy some cheap, fresh food: Melbourne is blessed with many local markets: 

South Melbourne, Prahran and the Queen Victoria Markets. The best for travellers 

is the Queen Victoria Market. The market was built in1878 and has not really been 

modernised. The Market site and its buildings are listed on the Historic Buildings 

Register. Queen Victoria Market survives as one of the largest and most intact 

examples of a great nineteenth century market. It’s best known for its huge variety 

of fresh produce. The best time for those on a budget is late when stall-holders are 

dropping prices to get rid of their produce. The rest of the Market sells all sorts of 

cheap clothes, household objects and a bewildering array of tat.

Both Photographs from Tourism Victoria

8.      Get a bit of culture: On a wet and windy day, and there are plenty of those in 

Melbourne, nothing is better than going to a gallery. And the two major Victorian 

Galleries are free and very close to the city.  The Ian Potter Centre at Federation 

Square specialises in Australian art and has a fabulous collection of indigenous art. 

The National Gallery of Victoria just over the Yarra on St Kilda Road is home to 

collections of European, Asian, Oceanic and American Art.

Federation Square

Photograph Donaldytong/Wikipedia

9.      Catch a tram: A fun, free way to work your way around the city. The City Circle 

tram is a renovated old fashioned tram that is hard to miss as it trundles through 

the city. The service operates in a circular route passing major tourist attractions.

Trams run approximately every twelve minutes between 10am and 6pm Sunday to 

Wednesday and extended hours, 10am - 9pm Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Photograph from Tourism Victoria

10.   Go to where local tourists go: St Kilda gets quite a few mentions in the list but it is

also a destination in itself. Every Sunday there is a market on the Upper Esplanade. 

The stall-owners are artists, photographers, silversmiths and furniture designers. 

It’s a great spot to buy Australiana that is a bit different than a stuffed koala. 

Every weekend the ice-cream eaters descend on Acland Street to see the 

cake shops and people watch. There’s also Luna Park: a mini Coney Island. 

St Kilda has the highest population density in Melbourne, and with that have 

come numerous bars, cafes, restaurants, galleries and a buzzing street life. 

I know because I live there.