- Ten things to know before you go to Hollywood Boulevard.
I'm Chris, this is Topher
and today I'm joined by a special guest.
- Ernest from Tripastube.
Thank you Chris for letting me join you today.
- Absolutely, and so today we're gonna tell you everything
you need to know about visiting Hollywood Boulevard
and Ernest doesn't actually live that far from here,
so he's gonna give you some local knowledge
about Hollywood Boulevard.
The first thing to know
before you go to Hollywood Boulevard is that
it's really not as nice as you think it is.
I guarantee you, seeing Hollywood Boulevard on the Oscars,
in the movies, it looks glamorous,
it looks glitzy, it is not.
And you might be looking at the video saying,
"Chris it looks pretty nice".
We are starting at the nicest part of Hollywood.
It's full of a lot of cheap, tacky souvenir stores,
low-budget restaurants, street-performing entertainers.
We'll talk more about them later
and so just be prepared for a little bit of grit
when you come to Hollywood.
- Absolutely and Hollywood is just one of those places
where it's so big and people just think
"oh, Hollywood is just a small town"
but it's huge and there's so many little hidden gems
all over the place.
If you wanna see more of Hollywood,
you gotta escape the main street here
and actually look around.
But, today we're gonna focus on Hollywood Boulevard
and we'll see where it takes us.
So the second thing you should know about Hollywood is
that you should park at the Hollywood Highland mall.
This place has a ton of parking
and you can get validation
from most of the businesses in the area.
Also, the maximum is $17 so you won't end up spending an arm
and a leg just for parking.
- So you might be inclined to think you're smarter
than Ernest and say, "I'm not gonna take his advice.
"I'm gonna park at a parking meter,
"there's tons of street parking around Hollywood."
You're right, there is tons of street parking
around Hollywood but don't do it
because the signs around here
and the parking instructions are crazy.
I'm gonna show you this sign right here.
This is right now in front of the Dolby Theater.
There's this sign, this is no parking on Saturdays,
no parking on Sundays, tour bus parking from eight to 10
and something else that's a five minute limit.
I mean, you have to decode all those things,
just park in the parking structure at Hollywood Highland
and don't worry that your car is either
gonna be towed or ticketed when you get back.
And they do tow cars here
if you're really in a big no-parking zone.
The third thing to know
before you go to Hollywood Boulevard is about the Subway.
Yes, Los Angeles has a Subway
and it's one of the best ways to get to Hollywood,
better than driving because you won't sit in the traffic.
Best of all, it's $1.75 per ride.
And there's three stops on Hollywood Boulevard,
Ernest, what's the best ones to get here?
- I think the best one is either
Hollywood and Vine or Hollywood and Highland.
So, definitely check those two out.
- Yeah, Hollywood and Vine,
it'll bring you to the Pantages Theater,
so if you're seeing a show, there.
Or where we started that would be Hollywood and Highland.
- Absolutely
- There's also Universal Studios Hollywood stop
on the red line that's not Hollywood at all
but, Ernest, do you recommend Universal Studios Hollywood,
do you like it?
- I think it's a cool place.
I mean it's definitely worth checking out
if you haven't seen it before.
It's definitely a big tourist attraction here in LA, so--
- Yeah
- definitely worth checking out.
- Well we'll talk about Universal Studios in another number.
- The fourth thing to know is to take a photo
with a street performer.
Unfortunately, these guys are not here
out of the kindness of their hearts.
They will expect some compensation if you take a photo
with them and they will be a little bit forceful.
- And so, we're not telling you to not take photos
with them, just so we're clear.
They are here to make money
and sometimes people will be happy
to take a photo with Chewbacca who's in the background.
Just know they do expect some money
after you take that photo.
It's probably best to negotiate the price upfront so then
you're not caught shocked when they say, "that'll be $10."
Speaking of pictures and souvenir stores,
I know earlier I said the souvenir stores
here are pretty crappy.
If you're gonna come into one, come into this one,
it's on the corner of Hollywood and Orange Boulevard,
right next to Madame Tussauds wax museum.
It's really cool, it looks neat and you can come in
and take a picture here with the predator.
- For free.
- Good deal.
The fifth thing to know
before you go to Hollywood Boulevard is about the food.
Most of the food you're gonna stumble
on in Hollywood Boulevard is pretty mediocre and overpriced.
(people chatting)
but if you want some better options that are also cheap,
check out The Deck
on top of the Hollywood and Highland mall.
It's on the top floor, it's a food court
with a few cheap eats options.
Pokinometry, really good and they do good poke bowls
or go one block over to Sunset, Sunset Boulevard,
there's an In-n-Out Burger
that is the busiest In-n-Out Burger in all of the US.
But what if you want higher end, nicer options Ernest?
- Well, yeah if you're looking for something a little bit
more fancy like a sit-down type place,
I definitely recommend doing a Yelp search
in advance just to make sure.
You're probably not gonna stumble
across something just by walking down the street
and you can always check out our other video
which is the Ten Things to do in Hollywood.
We cover a couple of the restaurants in more detail.
The sixth thing to know about Hollywood is making movies.
Ironically, they're not made in Hollywood anymore,
they're actually made in Burbank.
- Yeah that's where most of the major studios are
and if you wanna see Hollywood productions,
you'll pretty much have to do a studio tour.
Warner Brothers, Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios
all do studio tours so you can check those out.
If you're in Hollywood, the closest thing
you can do to experience motion pictures,
is take a tour of the Dolby Theater.
If you are planning to take a tour of the Dolby Theater,
buy those tickets when you get here first,
because they're timed tickets
and then plan your day around that.
- And you can always go, I guess, to Universal Studios
from the Metro Station as well.
- Yeah, that's a easy way to get there
and then it goes right here, on the Subway.
One stop from,
two stops from Hollywood and Highland to Universal Studios.
The seventh thing to know is about the Hollywood Sign.
You can see it behind us right there.
You actually can't see it in many places
on Hollywood Boulevard, we had to come
in front of this vacant lot to shoot this scene.
We saw it 'cause a tour bus stopped
and was taking pictures of this lot, well, of the Sign.
Another great place to see the Sign is
at the Hollywood Highland mall on the third or fourth floor,
you can see it from there.
But that Sign, it didn't initially just say Hollywood,
it said Hollywood Land and it was built
to originally advertise a real estate area
and then in the forties
they changed it to just say Hollywood.
It's been there ever since.
- I think what's funny too is that
if you try to get to the Hollywood Sign,
and you put it in Google Maps,
it's gonna take you to the Observatory.
It's really hard to get there and a lot of it has to do
with the fact that the people there,
they just don't want you driving through their neighborhood.
So actually, what we recommend,
if you wanna go see the Hollywood Sign, is to hike
to the tree which is on the left side of the Sign.
There's this tree called the Wisdom Tree.
If you hike up there, you can actually hike
across to the Hollywood Sign
(sirens wailing) and get a good look at it.
The eighth thing to know about Hollywood are the stars.
The stars are actually known as the Hollywood Walk of Fame
and actually, in order to get a star,
you can actually get it in five different categories.
- So let's take a look at those categories.
If you take a look at this star, it shows all five of them.
Here, we have movies.
Stars can earn them in television,
they can earn them in radio, they can earn them in recording
and the newest one,
they can earn them in live performance or theater.
The ninth thing to know
before you go to Hollywood Boulevard
is a little more about the stars.
These stars, they're like awards
and they're given for somebody receiving a certain amount
of recognition but they're not free.
Actually, these stars have to be paid for
and they have to be maintained.
Ernest, how much do you think these things cost?
- I have heard they cost about 30 to $40,000.
So, we should totally get one I think.
- Yeah - You and I we should totally
get one. - We totally should.
And so somebody has to sponsor people
and so, if you think Ernest and Chris
and Topher should get a star, put it to Hollywood,
we could totally get that sixth category done for YouTubers.
- The tenth thing to know about Hollywood is
that celebrities can have multiple stars.
For example, we talked about it earlier
that some stars might have one for a movie or for music.
Actually, you can have multiple ones
and there's some stars that have the same name
in different categories.
For example, Michael Jackson appears twice
on the Walk of Fame
but it actually is a different Michael Jackson.
- And the most admirable star
on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Gene Autry.
Gene has stars in all of the categories.
Five stars for Gene Autry.
And right here, we're at Jennifer Lopez's star,
which is the 2500th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Well hey, we hope you enjoyed this video
and there's one more thing to know.
We've got more videos, we did a Things to Do video,
you'll find the link in the description below
or if you wanna see more from Ernest,
check out his channel over at Tripastube.
Ernest, it's been great doing this video with you.
- Thank you Chris, I really appreciate it.
- Yeah - Great doing this with you.