Los Angeles often seems to be a sprawling city of nothing very much, with a few areas such as Hollywood to brighten the horizon. However, although I only spent a weekend there (staying at the fabulous Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood), I found the city exciting and interesting. There are several museums, there are always concerts on at the Music Centre or the Hollywood Bowl, and there are the character-full parts of the city such as Olvera Street and the Latin American quarters which are fascinating. Hollywood is great if you're a film fan and I loved looking at the hands in the pavement before Grauman's Chinese Theatre, eating dinner below the huge elephants in the Mall (in homage to D.W. Griffith) by the Kodak Theatre, host to the Oscars, and walking down Sunset Strip spotting favourite film actors remembered in the pink stars every few feet.

The easiest way to see Los Angeles is to take a bus tour. The tour operators will collect you from your hotel and are informative about all the different areas, often first-generation immigrant drivers with great senses of humour and plenty of entertaining anecdotes.

If you are driving round Los Angeles, don't miss Beverley Hills and Mulholland Drive, from where you get fantastic views over the city as well as being able to gawp at the luxury houses of the stars. And if time permits, drive out to Santa Monica along Route 66 and enjoy the ocean. And Malibu is round the corner with its fabulous homes tucked away in the canyons.

The sensible option is to fly to LA and hire a car - the one thing you can't rely on in California is public transport! The best time to go is probably Spring or Autumn when it's not too hot. And, of course, LA is a great jumping off spot for the mountains and deserts of California, or the wonderful coastal drive up Route 1 to San Francisco, not to mention that it's only a day's journey from Las Vegas.

Recently our insatiable thirst for travel led us to Los Angeles, California, commonly referred to as L.A. As our plane approached LAX, we were greeted by one of the city’s most recognizable landmarks, the Hollywood sign. After landing we proceeded to find ground transportation that would take us to our hotel. Unbeknownst to us it would take an additional 30 minutes to get out of the airport because our shuttle driver was determined to get maximum capacity in the van . Needless to say, it was a cozy ride. It was a beautiful spring day and the skies were surprisingly smog-free. So we enjoyed a mini-tour of the city while en route to our downtown hotel. Upon our arrival at the Westin Bonaventure we were warmly greeted by the hotel staff, who were very professional and provided excellent customer service. Our room was located on the 36th floor of the Green Tower and featured a view of the aforementioned Hollywood sign.

After checking in, we dropped our bags and took a taxi down to L.A. Live, one of the city’s most exciting attractions. It has been described as a one of a kind entertainment campus and a world-class sports and entertainment destination. It is comprised of apartments, ballrooms, concert theaters, movie theaters and wonderful restaurants.

Although it is always an exciting place to be, the excitement was heightened by the fact that it was March 17th, so St. Patrick’s Day celebrations were happening throughout the complex. It was a festive atmosphere filled with live music, dancing and lots of beer. This area’s color scheme is normally dominated by purple and gold, the colors of the world champion Los Angeles Lakers. But due to St. Patrick’s Day, green seemed to be the dominant color. It didn’t take us long to find out that green is always a dominant color in L.A., because it takes a lot of “green” to take advantage of all that the area has to offer. Los Angeles can be an expensive vacation destination.

Like many other cities, L.A. offers a plethora of dining choices, from street food to fine dining. One restaurant that we really enjoyed was Yang Chow, and judging by the celebrity photos on the walls and the long line out the door, it is an area favorite for many. The portions were quite large and we highly recommend the slippery shrimp. We look forward to dining there again.

Although we were only in town for three days, we managed to see a lot of the area. We spent a great afternoon on Venice Beach enjoying its eclectic vibe. There were street performers, artists, musicians, dancers and of course the beautiful coastline. From there, one of our good friends took us on a whirlwind tour where we cruised Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood Boulevard, and the Melrose District.

Later that night we returned to L.A. Live where we attended a party at the Grammy Museum. It was sponsored by the L.A. Times Travel and Adventure show and guests included Samantha Brown, Rick Steeves and other travel celebrities. We’ve all heard the much-used phrase, “Party like a rock star”, but that night, we really did. The party was catered by Wolfgang Puck and it was open bar. Needless to say, a good time was had by all.

On our last day in town, we took time to enjoy a leisurely brunch at the hotel. As we dined, we began to notice some unusual sights. We saw a number of people entering the lobby and they all had several things in common. They each were dressed in athletic attire, they were moving slowly with great difficulty and appeared to be in a great deal of pain. After about 10 of these individuals crossed our path, it donned on us that they had been participants in the L.A. Marathon. Earlier that morning we had watched the beginning of the race on television and we’d even seen the male and female winners at the end. So we had seen the thrill of victory. Now, 6 hours later, we were witnessing the agony of defeat. What a sight….

Would we go to Los Angeles again? You’d better believe it. L.A. is LIVE!

We booked three nights in Santa Monica so we could visit the area. Santa Monica is very over rated. The pier is nothing special and we didnt find any great places on the front to eat and drink. On the upside the beach is huge, very clean and is popular with surfers. Perhaps April was just too 'out of season' but if you want to visit you won't need more than a day. We also made a trip into LA and went on a bus tour to see the sites. However most of LA was just congested and in parts was quite grubby and shabby looking. We have probably been spoilt with European cities like London, Paris and Rome and so LA just didnt compare. We really liked San Francisco and San Diego though so if you are planning a trip to California I would recommend spending more time in these places.

Having just arrived in LAX from Vegas as part of a 3 city tour from the UK.

Dont waist your time or money on visiting this city.
It is so big and so spread out its very difficult to get around, unless you hire a car and then sit in traffic all day.

Not a city we would recommend to visit. unless you have links to some decent form of transport other than paying out lots on local taxis.

We were not impressed with this city at all.

We did go to Six Flags magic moutain which was brill and took us away from this over rated city.

Ok city if your going stay near the beach, or if you want spa break in beverly hills.

Or maybe if your looking to catch sight of a star or two maybe.

This is a real big city and you have to pick the area you want to spend your time up front and is takes ages to travel form one area to the other, no under ground transport to speak of and taxis are costly.

Best way is hire a car and put up with the traffic.