City Guide: Los Angeles
Credit: Unsplash
Published: March 2026
I was in LA in July 2025 for the Create & Cultivate Festival (who's going in 2026?!). Over one full day and two afternoons, here is my city guide 🤠
TRAVEL & ACCOMMODATIONS
As I will always say, book the red-eye. Get to your destination as early as possible so you have time to explore. If you’re staying at a remotely nice hotel, usually you can check your bags in early before your room is ready.
Flight: 7AM (ATX) → land in LAX at 9AM
Transportation: I got a rental car from SIXT in LA. It was cheaper than UBER and safer/faster than the metro line. This trip I was upgraded for free and put in a BMW SUV - this thing was so nice I couldn’t figure out how to start it.
Hotel: Whenever I’m in LA, I stay at The Hoxton. It’s a boutique hotel and allows for anytime check-in / check-out. You just pick the times at booking. The Hoxton is fairly affordable, really cute and they do breakfast bags to your door. Major note about Hoxton is that there is no iron in the rooms - they only have a certain number on site actually - so you have to reserve at booking which I didn’t know the first time. I ended up Doordashing an iron from CVS, and gave it to the Hotel. In turn they took $20 off my bill, so nice!
Food Recs
Danny Trejo's Coffee & Donuts(Melrose)
Chef Alvin's Amboy (Chinatown)
Pizzeria Mozza(Hollywood)
Pier Burger (Santa Monica Pier)
Sloopy's Beach Cafe (Manhattan Beach)
OTHER STOPS & RECS
The Comedy Store (Sunset)
Nipsey Hussle's Marathon Clothing Store (Melrose)
Now Serving, a cookbook-only bookstore (Chinatown)
Hike Griffith Park Observatory at sunrise
Hollywood Forever Cemetery
CITY RATING
LA is a cool city, and there are tons of cool gems and hidden things to do that will definitely fill your agenda (obviously see above!). LA has also changed a lot since I was last there in 2011, and frankly, I wouldn’t visit unless I had a reason too.
Flight: 10/10 - direct, no layover, affordable on Delta
Hotel: 8/10 - so cute, affordable, didn’t love the location in downtown LA
Food: 10/10 - no notes
Activities: 9/10 - I didn’t like being alone!
City Travel: 6/10 - I spent too much time in the car getting around
Planning: 8/10 - only because I couldn’t narrow down what I wanted to do!
OVERALL: 8.6 / 10
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