A weekend in Los Angeles — just 43 hours to experience it all. In this blog post, I’ll share how my friends and I made the most of our time in the city. With such limited time, every moment counts, so here’s how we prioritized what to see.
Spring is one of the best times to visit L.A., so my friend In and I decided it was the perfect moment for our first weekend getaway. First, I asked my host parents for time off from Friday night until Monday morning, then reached out to Paula and Jessica from Austria, and Lena from Germany, to join the adventure.
Friday
Friday night we flew from San Francisco International Airport to LAX. We rented a car at the airport and then immediately drove to our Airbnb, which was located right next to Santa Monica Beach.
Saturday
In the morning we got up very early and went to the Santa Monica Beach. There you can find a sign which says end of Route 66/Santa Monica Beach. The Route 66 starts in Chicago and ends in Santa Monica. After that we drove to the Hollywood Sign which was on the top of LA. We parked our car and then went up the hill for about 45 minuets.
Remember: You can’t drive up the whole way to the Hollywood sign.
The way down took us a little bit longer because Jess and me were chatting too much and so we took the wrong way. Paula and Lena were very annoyed but they still loved us.
This is how the way looks when driving to the sign. You can park your car in theses streets and then you have to walk up to see the sign:
Malibu & Venice Beach
After a very exhausting but thrilling hike we drove to Malibu Beach. I think almost everybody knows Malibu from different movies. In the evening we went out for dinner at Venice Beach. Later in the evening Lena and me drove to Hollywood. We were really lucky because on that weekend the Oscar nominations took place there. We walked into the Dolby Theatre and we saw all the preparations they made for this big day. We saw the red carped, oscar figures and a lot of reporters.
Sunday
On Sunday we drove to Hollywood again, because Jessica and Paula didn’t see it yet. We walked on the Walk of Fame and checked out the Dolby Theatre. After a while we were thinking of buying a Hollywood map where there are all addresses of the stars on it. But we decided to just drive to the Hollywood hills. When we were driving to Beverly Hills we saw somebody in a black car next to street who was selling Star Maps. We bought it for just 5 dollars.
Buy a Beverly Hills Map if you wanna see the homes of the stars!
Lena was totally into Leonardo Di Caprio and she wanted to check out his house. So we searched the address and drove to his house. His house was directly in the Hollywood Hills. We went up the hills on very curvy streets and then we finally arrived. Lena couldn’t stop believing that she was in front of Leonardo di Caprios house, which was a very funny moment, Paula was a little bit annoyed, Jessica was driving and I was laughing a lot because of Lenas reactions. We spent 5 min. at the house, after that a whole Security Team came outside the house with mad views. Because of this we decided to drive back.
If you are lucky, then you can meet stars at the Rodeo Drive or in Hollywood.
In the afternoon, we drove back to the Walk of Fame in Los Angeles, hoping to spot some stars. Unfortunately, we didn’t have any luck. So, we decided to relax at a pub nearby and watch the show on TV, soaking in the L.A. vibe.
On Monday morning, we caught an early flight back home. It was an unforgettable weekend — full of laughs and definitely exhausting.
