Practical travel information for practical travelers
Olvera Street, also known as El Pueblo Historic Monument, is the birthplace of the City of Los Angeles. The block-long street, one of the oldest in the city, features historic buildings lining a traditional Mexican style plaza, and is home to one of the most colorful marketplaces that you’ll ever see. The street was originally [...]
As the second largest city in the United States, Los Angeles gets it fair share of visitors attracted by the ocean beaches and sunny days. Home to Hollywood, Disneyland, and museums and parks galore, LA is as distinctively west coast as New York City is east coast. It is also a major city for sports, [...]
In any survey and list of things that people enjoy while on vacation, shopping always makes a prominent showing on the list of top vacation activities. Whether it’s scheduling a trip for a specific shopping experience, like Christmas Shopping in New York City, or merely buying some meaningful souvenirs of a fabulous vacation, shopping figures [...]
Being stuck at an airport is never any fun, whether it’s long ground time between flights, or a flight cancellation and serious delay. Wandering an airport can be fun. . . for the first couple of hours, at least. But when you’ve checked out every last gift shop, book store, restaurant or bar, and what [...]
Today’s Matchbook Monday comes from Matt at The Chicago Traveler. It’s from The Rooftop Bar at the Standard Hotel in downtown Los Angeles (550 South Flower at Sixth Street). In addition to its sweeping views of the city, the Rooftop has a heated swimming pool, a dance floor, outdoor fireplace, vibrating waterbed pods, and a [...]
When you think of the day after Thanksgiving, what comes to mind? Relaxing around the house and eating leftovers? Watching football? Listening to holiday music and putting up the holiday decorations? Or are you one of the many, many people who will be heading out to the stores for the kick off of the holiday [...]
Here’s a quick Halloween stop off! For 54 years, ConocoPhillips (yes, the Petrochemical company) has turned out the World’s Largest Jack-O-Lantern: a 3-million gallon storage tank, located at the ConocoPhillips Los Angeles refinery, all dressed up like a pumpkin. To get the pumpkin ready for public viewing takes more than 100 gallons of paint. And [...]
Claiming it’s the largest Halloween street party in the world, West Hollywood, California is preparing for its 19th Annual Halloween Costume Carnaval. Join in the festivities as close to half a million people take to the street ““ Santa Monica Boulevard in this case ““ in crazy, eccentric costumes. While some might argue that some West [...]
I haven’t been to Santa Barbara for quite awhile, despite some urging from friends who have recently moved there. They keep telling me how much the area has grown and changed, yet the city hasn’t turned its back on its origins as a quirky art community. Located a couple hours north of Los Angeles, between [...]
In addition to traveling, Mary Jo likes lingering over a cup of coffee, wandering in a museum, sipping wine at a cafe, enjoying a relaxing massage, and sharing it all with friends and readers.
Her most recent travels were to Portugal and Italy.
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