You'l have a blast If your staying for 3 weeks then definately hire a car. Otherwise transport and cabs will kill you. Probably worth spending a little bit more time in LA as there is much more to see and do. Are you going alone or with friends/family? Things to do in LA: Tons of shopping. Recommend the Beverly center mall, a place called the farmers market I think which is just down from the beverly center about 10 minutes walk. Also the famous Rodeo drive is good for a look and pics but prices are higher. Booze is fairly cheap over there so go nuts drinking. If you like champaign then Moet is $30 a bottle and Dom is about $120. Compared to the prices here thats insane. Go to Disneyland/California Disney. Disneyland is more for kids but interesting to look at. Cali has more rides and is aimed at older groups. You can buy a park hopper ticket so check out both in a day no worries. Universal studios. An absolute must. Fantastic park with great rides, had a really good time. Make sure you do the behing the lot tour. Knotts farm, mainly rides, roller coasters etc. Meant to be great fun but didnt get time to go here. Beaches will be warm by then. Sanata monica pier is great. I recommend going there on a saturday morning as thats when all the natives come out and its pritty festive. Other beaches like Venice beach etc are close by. Heading south a bit is orange county. You can check out the mansions and the beaches if you like the show OC. Its all shot there. Heaps of nightclubs if you like that sort of thing. Honestly though at any of the popular ones just be prepared to slip the bouncer $100US to cut through the line or expect to wait 4+ hours most of the time. LAX and Skybar are popular. San Diego is about 1.5-2 hours drive from LA depending on traffic. Right next door to Tijuana so easy to go across and shop. Just dont drink the water or ice cubes. Be prepared for long waits getting back through customs though. Im told 3 hours can be the norm. San Diego itself is where we went to see Sea World. I think Shamu must be the most famous orca show and well worth seeing. Few rides and things there as well but be prepared to get wet. Also San Diego has a fantastic zoo. If your wanting to head a bit more north of LA I think San Fransisco is about a 2 hour drive also. Las Vegas. Heaps to do also but dont need to stay as long. Where abouts are you planning to stay? Most things are central. Gambling obviously is big. As long as your gambling, even at the 5c machines all your drinks are free so drink up. Tour all the great hotels. Heaps of shops. Heaps of shows. I wish I had seen the "o" show at the Bellagio but we ran out of time. Apparently is all done underwater and amazing. You can usually get tickets for these at half price at midday at 2 locations. Go out to the shooting range. Fire of AK47s, M16s, whatever. Fully automatic, go nuts. Definately go to the spearmint rhino. Fantastic strip club with the best looking strippers ive seen in a club ever. If you go there see if my fiances scarf is in their lost and found For the canyon, only 2 options really. Drive or fly. Driving is an all day outing and lots of the canyon is unacessible. Helicopter rides are reasoanbly expensive but give great views and only take about 4-5 hours total. Up to you depending how much time you have vs money. Hope this helps. Any Qs just drop me a line.
Re: You'l have a blast I am so looking forward to this trip. I had a good find on the flights. I had about 300K points from work trips over the last 4 years. It cost me $600 for all three of us air fares. (Me, girl friend and her daughter) The iteniery is Arrive LAX on the 20th of April. I have hire car organized for 3 weeks (AUD $1000 including insurance for 3 weeks ). We drive to Hearst Castle about 4 hours north of LA. Then across to the Sequioa forest (to see the biggest trees in the world). Then through Bakersfield via Death Valley, and on to Las Vegas. 3 days in Las Vegas. We are staying at the Stratosphere casino. Got a deal at $39 per night !! :thumbsupwas $135 before I joined the priviledge club and got the special deal in via email) Would have loved to stay at the Ballagio but it is super expensive. I have to see the Cirque de Solei (is that how you say it) under water show. It is meant to be unbelievable. I really want to see the Venice casino, also the Egyption one. Then drive north to the Hoover dam, then on to Utah. We are going to Zion Canyon. Where the indians dug into the cliffs to make their homes. The scenery and views are meant to be spectacular. Then down to Grand Canyon. After seeing your picture from the copter. I went looking for heli rides last night. Found a good one that leaves from a local airport for $350 US for the three of us. So that will be cool. Then drive across to Palm Springs then to Temecula to drop into work head office for an hour or two. Then on to San Diego. Trip down to Tjiuana for the day. Then back up the coast road via Torrey pines. The road is meant to be magnificent. The on to Anaheim. I booked a week in the Hilton through Disney travel. Got all our entry to Universal studios and Disney land as well as a weeks accomodation, also a few package tours for $2000. Seemed cheap. I have my zed goodies comming to the hotel from COZ, :LOL: Then back to LAX and home. We get back on the 10th of MAY. What shouldn't we spend time going to? I am up for the strip club !! :thumbsup:
