Travel to Los Angeles: Hollywood with a Heart
Los Angeles might be the big budget capital of cinema, but that is not to say that the Hollywood haute and haughty permeate the city’s cultural mood on its many other levels. Los Angeles is a multilayered and multiethnic urban and suburban sprawl from the waves crashing beneath Santa Monica Pier to the snow capped mountains of San Gabriel. State of the art entertainment and arts facilities are entangled among the high rises of Downtown, the remaining bohemian hippie culture of Venice Beach and the multitude of 5 a.m. joggers, housekeepers, writers and musicians who call this City of Angels home.
Once you’ve booked your flight to Los Angeles, remember to reserve a rental car! Los Angeles is fairly easy to navigate but is a spread out conglomeration of many smaller cities and enclaves. Buses and taxis run regularly but your wallet and your schedule will be happy to have regular transportation in this auto-powered metropolis.
SoCal Contemporary: Beyond the Beach
Los Angeles has long been a bastion of cultural growth and exploration, even longer than it has had the beach-bum reputation. Downtown is once again creating the trendy and elegant buzz of L.A.’s arts and dining atmosphere, far from it’s strictly business and crime lapse of the 1980s. The new Walt Disney Concert Hall designed by Frank Gehry is now the home of the L.A. Philharmonic Orchestra and considered to be one of the most acoustically sophisticated concert halls on the planet. If you can’t get tickets to a show, visit for the stunning architecture against Downtown’s skyscrapers. The Music Center is just down the street where you can attend the Los Angeles Opera at the beautiful Dorothy Chandler Pavilion or perhaps catch Al Pacino in a one man play at the Mark Taper Forum. Read the rest of this entry »


