Los Angeles
anchors the heart of Southern California and LA is the King
here in the south land.
International tourists who visit California often say to me, I visited Los
Angeles and
San Francisco,
and I really didn't like Los Angeles, but San Francisco was so awesome, such
a quaint town - easy to get around, small, manageable, picturesque etc. Well that is not what LA is about. To the
casual visitor Los Angeles can be extremely overwhelming to the
point that this city becomes a huge turnoff.
"It is so large, and its so spread out.
The
freeways make me cringe". Yes there is a well developed metro
& public transportation system but more about that later. "There is so much traffic. Where to start? What to do?"
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Unless you have gobs of
time, you must pick and choose carefully and try not to see it all. Los
Angeles is
best absorbed with multiple trips. You have to look at Los Angeles under a
microscope rather than from afar. Only then does its beauty become visible
and once you begin to examine the "details" of Los Angeles, this
incredible city really comes to life. |
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In Los Angeles size matters and we took that into consideration
when we originally put this article together. As we continue to update this article
it has definitely become the longest travel article on this site!
Los Angeles, is located in what is called the
"Southland" of California. While certainly not a small city
(it is the second largest in the USA), it is spread out over
many miles connected by a vast artery system of busy freeways. There
are almost 10 million people in LA county alone. |
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For a city of this size, Los Angeles has a
relatively small downtown area, and the buildings are not nearly as tall as
one might expect.
In fact tourists who visit Los
Angeles for
the first time often mistake the tall buildings along Wilshire Blvd in the
Westwood area off the 405 for downtown. Do not
make this mistake. When Los Angelino's refer to "the Valley", they are
speaking of the San Fernando valley which is the vast artery of streets and
cities that is situated just north of downtown Los Angeles.
Los Angeles is just as
cultural as San Francisco with its unique districts, wonderful restaurants
and incredible diversity. It is of course home to the very profitable movie and entertainment
business. The entertainment industry runs deep in this town. It in fact
dominates the worldwide movie and television market. You cannot visit Los
Angeles without seeing some glimpse of this industry. Billboards in normal
towns are ads for cell phone companies or real estate, etc - not in LA - the
vast majority of billboards are for upcoming movies and popular television
shows.
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Los Angeles has culture, superb beaches (when they are not overflowing with
people), great surfing, great weather, an incredible variety of restaurants,
world-class museums, the television & movie industry, huge ports, massive
freeways, the aerospace industry, esoteric districts, & great shopping.
However the greatest asset Los Angeles has is its diversity as individuals
from many countries in the world |
live here and in some
cases has the largest population of immigrant communities
outside of their native countries.
Did you know that LA has the second largest Spanish speaking population in
the world after Mexico City.
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Los Angeles celebrated its 225th birthday in September 2006. Modern day Los
Angeles traces its roots back to 1781 near the present day Union Station. Los Angeles has
a rich history and is a region that has exploded with growth in an unbelievably short
amount of time.
Read on for a glimpse into this multi-faceted city.
Note: We are often in the Los Angeles area and as a |
result this article is frequently updated.
We are just at home in the "other" City of Angels - Bangkok -
read
our Bangkok Article Here.
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