Expert: Steve Summers - 3/22/2002

Question
Hi there!

My name is Andrew and I am a fellow expert on allexperts.com… You can find me in the E-Commerce category! It is very nice to meet you. How are you going?

I am writing to get a little advise about visiting Los Angeles. Thanks a lot for your time!
Your most kind!

I have just booked plane tickets from Australia (where I am from) to the US to visit New York
and Canada…

On the way home I am having an 8 hour stop over in Los Angeles before heading back to Sydney.

I am looking for advice on what I should look at visiting in LA during my day stop over.

Last time I was stopping over I spent the day at FOX MALL which was about 20-30 mins bus
From LAX.

I am wondering if you could suggest any interesting places to visit within 20-40 mins Bus ride from LAX. I am interested in either shopping or anything at all really.

If you have any instructions for directions on how to get there that would also be really appreciated. If not I can just ask at the air port.

Looking forward to hearing back from you and hearing your ‘expert' advise. It's really appreciated. It will help me out greatly!

Thanks a lot! Wishing you a fantastic day from down under!

Kindest Regards,
Andrew Kwitko  

Answer
How about Santa Monica & Venice Beach? These are pretty popular spots for sightseeing and people watching. The Santa Monica Pier has been around since 1906, and the carousel there was featured in a number of movies, including "The Sting". If you ever watched a terrible American show in the 70's called "Three's Company", the opening shots were filmed at Santa Monica Pier. More recently, when Forrest Gump was jogging across the USA, he went out on Santa Monica Pier. Also, Santa Monica Place is a shopping mall just a couple blocks from the beach, and the Third Street Promenade (adjacent to Santa Monica Place)is a trendy place to hang out for awhile.

Take the Santa Monica 3 Bus from LAX to Santa Monica Beach (get off at 4th & Broadway). From there, you can walk 2 blocks west to the beach, or go directly to Santa Monica Place for some shopping. Afterwards, you can walk the 2 blocks to the pier. Spend some time on the pier, then go back south next to the bike path the towards Venice Beach. Along the way, you will see world famous Muscle Beach. Get a Hot Dog on A Stick (a Hot Dog dipped in corn batter and fried) and a lemonade. Not exactly haute couture, but when in Rome... Keep on walking about a mile to Venice Beach, which has a lot of street performers, and fairly bustles on weekends. My favorite is still the guy who juggles chainsaws. I think Venice is a black hole for strange people. Mostly harmless, but definitely odd. Perhaps this is where the term "LA-LA land" originated.

I just had an idea: You can rent a bike at the Santa Monica Pier, which is more fun and easier than walking!

From Venice, you can catch the same bus back to the airport. Check the routes and schedules at www.mta.net, the web page for the LA Metropolitan Transit Authority. Follow the link to Metro Transit, and click on Trip planner. You can get anywhere in LA County using this web site. You can start by getting an itinerary from "LAX" to "Santa Monica Beach".

Here is a link to a decent Santa Monica Beach web page: www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lakes/1674

You can also check out Venice Beach at www.venicebeach.com.

Have fun,

Steve