- Yellow Productions Presents
13 Things to Know Before You Go to LA,
I'm Chris, this is Yellow Productions,
I do travel guides that are fun,
informative, and entertaining
and in this video, I'll tell you things
you would like to know, before you go to Los Angeles
and there's gonna be 13 of them, so here we go.
Number one is that Los Angeles is huge,
or should I say, it's yuge?
Los Angeles is really, really big,
if you're coming on a trip to Los Angeles
and you're staying for probably anywhere less than a month,
you won't be able to see all of LA,
there is also no center of Los Angeles,
right now I'm in Downtown Los Angeles
at the LA Live District,
this is probably Downtown LA's closest to the center,
but you can't stay here and just walk to everything,
like you can in a lot of big cities
and so you will need a rental car,
if you wanna see a majority of the attractions,
LA is really, really spread out
and the other thing to know about Los Angeles
related to it being huge, is that LA is comprised
of many, many different cities,
so when people say Los Angeles,
they're also referring to cities
like Beverley Hills, Santa Monica, Malibu,
those are not neighborhoods of Los Angeles,
those are actually their own cities
and I think Los Angeles is composed
of about 50 different cities,
there's also Orange County,
just to the south of Los Angeles County,
many people consider that part of LA as well,
except people who live in Orange County,
then they'll say it's completely different.
Okay, the second thing you'll wanna know,
before you come to LA is traffic
and what will you wanna know about traffic?
Well, LA has traffic everywhere and all the time,
all day, every day, yes, even at one a.m. on a weekend,
just deal with it, there's gonna be traffic,
don't get pissed, don't get road rage,
it's just gonna be slow
and just use Google Maps and see how long it's gonna take,
there's a phrase in LA, that everything is 20 minutes away,
except when there's traffic
and in that case it's 60 minutes away,
I'll tell you, that may be true,
but if you're going Downtown LA to Disneyland
on a busy traffic time, it might take you two hours,
so really plan those routes about ahead.
The other thing to know about traffic and driving
is that the freeways, they have names,
you know, a lot of people refer to things
like the I-95 on the East Coast,
well, here, we don't really call it the interstate,
we call it the 405, we call it the five,
we put the word, the in front of the freeway
and they also have names, it'll be like
the San Diego freeway or the Santa Monica freeway,
'cause they have names based upon where they're going,
so those are things that you'll hear, when you're here.
The third thing to know,
when you come to LA is about public transit
and there's a lot of people
that say Los Angeles has no public transit
and I'm here to tell you that's actually not true,
Los Angeles has a really, really nice subway system
and it's a clean, modern subway,
it doesn't go a lot of places, it runs through
Downtown Los Angeles, it goes up to Hollywood,
great if you wanna go through Hollywood
up to Universal Studios
and it's pretty cheap, adults are a dollar 75 a ride,
seniors or disabled are like 35 cents on off peak times,
so if you are going someplace the subway goes,
check it out, the subway stations
are decorated pretty nicely
and they just opened the Expo line from Downtown LA,
which will actually take you all the way to Santa Monica
from Downtown Los Angeles, if you take that.
Okay, but the last thing to know about public transit
is LA has a lot of buses,
but you might not wanna ride the buses,
a lot of parts of the world, buses can be great,
efficient modes of transportation,
in LA, you'll probably be sitting on a bus
next to people, who smell bad
and generally the bus is not considered
a prime method of transportation in LA.
Number four, parking, so, 'cause you followed
my previous tip and you're gonna have a rental car,
you're gonna need to park it at a lot of attractions
and the things to know is that parking in Los Angeles
is often valet, almost always costs money,
is often very limited and has really small parking spaces,
the only place that you're really gonna get free parking
is probably when you're driving on the 405 freeway
and it's rush hour and you're not going anywhere
and so therefore you're parked on the freeway,
that will likely be free,
but if you're parking on the city streets,
particularly in Downtown Los Angeles, Beverley Hills,
Santa Monica, pay attention to the street signs,
they have bizarre regulations here
about what times you can and can't park,
typically during morning rush hour, you can't park,
afternoon rush hour, you can't park,
there's like two hours in the afternoon, you can park,
one hour in the evening, you can park,
some residential areas will have signs,
that say, like No parking Monday through Friday,
these times, no parking anytime Sunday,
they might as well have a sign that says Go Away,
pay attention to those signs, you don't wanna get a ticket,
I have, so I'm telling you that from previous experience.
Number five thing to know before coming to Los Angeles
is about navigation, so obviously
to be able to park your rental car someplace,
you're gonna be able to drive it and navigate it,
so LA has a lot of roads and a lot of routes,
my number one recommendation
is if you don't have a GPS or a phone with GPS,
get a GPS in your rental car, you'll want it,
the roads here are super confusing.
The other thing I'll say is it's good ahead of time
just to kind of know the exit,
that you're gonna take off the freeway,
sometimes they're not super well signed
and the exits just appear out of nowhere,
so know the exit you're gonna take,
don't take the wrong exit, because literally
if you take maybe one exit before or afterwards,
you might end up in some super sketchy neighborhood,
that you really don't wanna be,
so pay attention, take the right exit
and the other thing to know
is because Los Angeles has a lot of distinct cities,
the roads that run through LA can be really long,
it can be a 40 mile street, that runs through Los Angeles,
but it goes through 10 different cities
and the street numbering will like update,
every time it goes into a different city,
so you can have you know, 2000 Santa Monica Boulevard
in Beverley Hills and 2000 Santa Monica Boulevard
in Los Angeles and those are two different places,
so make sure you're entering the city
along with the address, 'cause if you enter
a different city, you'll be at a different place
and not where you want to go.
Okay, the sixth thing you wanna know,
before coming to Los Angeles is about the weather,
LA, contrary to what you've heard,
is not always sunny and warm,
yes, today happens to be a sunny day,
but it is not always sunny and it's not always warm,
particularly at night, it actually can get really cold,
a lot of people only come with shorts and a T-shirt,
but I'll tell you, at nighttime in the winter,
you will want a jacket and you'll probably want long pants,
I, as a southern California local,
I'll wear shorts all the time,
but I'll generally put on a fleece
and sometimes even a beanie, if it gets cold,
so do check the weather forecast
and don't just pay attention to daytime high,
pay attention to the nighttime low,
'cause the nighttime low can sometimes
be 30 degrees lower than the daytime high
and the other thing to know is that
inland Los Angeles can be 30 degrees warmer
than coastal Los Angeles,
so you might hear the weather forecast
in Santa Monica and it's 70 degrees,
but if you go out to Pomona, it can be 100 degrees
and that is really not an exaggeration,
those can be actual temperatures at noon
on any given day here in LA.
The other thing to know is about the ocean water,
you might be coming to Los Angeles to go to the beach,
the ocean water is not like Hawaii,
here it is cold pretty much all year round,
the summer high for the ocean water is 70 degrees,
that's about as high as it gets,
the warm, warmest days will be 72,
that would typically be in August or September,
in December, January, the water temperature
will be 55 degrees
and as LA or southern California locals,
we can tell the tourists, because those are the people
in the water not in the summer, that don't have wetsuits on,
pretty much all the locals will have wetsuits on,
you can rent those if you come to the beach,
just be prepared for cold water.
You'll also want to bring lots of sunscreen,
I feel like in southern California,
we're pretty close to the sun here,
particularly if you go to the beach
and so it's pretty easy to burn like a crisp,
bring sunglasses, the sun's bright, you'll want them,
a lot of activities are outside here
and the last thing related to the weather to know
is LA is considered a desert and so it's very, very dry,
so you'll either want to have some moisturizer
or use moisturizer in your hotels,
'cause your skin can get really, really dry here,
after you've been here for a while,
particularly if you're not used to this kind of a climate.
Okay, seventh thing to know about LA
is LA is really unlike the rest of California,
California is a really big state and Los Angeles
can often feel like its own different country,
I'm from San Diego and when I come up to Los Angeles,
I do feel like I've traveled a long, long way
to a very different place,
even though it's only 80 or 90 miles away,
in particular, if you want to feel
the most out of this world
and like you're actually in a different country completely,
check out Venice Beach, which is just south of Santa Monica,
the Venice Beach Boardwalk, it's famous,
there is nothing like Venice Beach
anywhere else in the world, crazy Boardwalk
with some of the most interesting characters,
that I think you will see anywhere.
Okay, the eighth thing to know about coming to LA
is Hollywood is in the neighborhood
called Hollywood, there are other neighborhoods
and cities called Hollywood,
there's West Hollywood, East Hollywood and North Hollywood,
East, West and North Hollywood are actually
very far away from the center of Hollywood,
when you think of the Walk of Fame
and the stars and all that stuff,
that's in Hollywood, probably the best place to go,
if you're doing Google Maps
is to go to the intersection of Hollywood and Highland
and there's a Hollywood and Highland mall there,
that's where the Dolby Theater is,
so if you're going to Hollywood,
that's where you'll want to go,
but oh, by the way in Hollywood,
there are actually no actors in Hollywood,
when people think of Hollywood, they're like,
"Oh, I'm gonna see stars and they're gonna be famous,"
and about all you're gonna see on Hollywood Boulevard
are maybe people dressed up as Elmo or Spider Man
and it's, you might see a few bums
and a few homeless people,
actually you'll see a lot of homeless people,
Los Angeles has a pretty big homeless community
and population, so just go ahead and be prepared for that
and oh by the way, a lot of people,
when they come to Hollywood or LA, they say,
"Hey, let's go see the taping of a show,
"you know, it's a 30-minute comedy show,
"it'll only take 30 minutes, right,"
well, if you go see a taping of a 30-minute show,
it will take at least four hours,
so be prepared to invest that much time,
if you're going to see a show taping.
Okay, number nine, something you're gonna hear a lot
when you come to LA is the term, the Valley,
people will say things like,
"Oh, I'll come in all the way from the Valley for this,"
what valley are they talking about?
They'are talking about the San Fernando Valley
and the San Fernando Valley is the valley
just north of Los Angeles,
this gets the term Valley Girl, the Valley accent,
the Valley or the city is primarily a Burbank Studio City,
North Hollywood and Van Nuys,
so if someone says, "I'm from the Valley,"
or "I'm gonna go to the Valley, that's in the Valley,"
that's the Valley north of Los Angeles.
Okay, number 10, and this kind of takes us back
to number eight related to Hollywood,
is that some of LA's most known attractions
are the most rundown,
lots of LA can be really seedy
and you know, when people think of Hollywood
or people think of Venice Beach,
they think of like glamor and glitz and all that stuff
and I am here to tell you
that there's not a lot of glamor and glitz
at most of LA's popular attractions,
they are certainly classic attractions,
but don't expect them to be nice,
actually take your expectations, if they're up here
and bring them way down here for about how nice they are,
the nicest things you'll find in LA
are things that are really owned and run
by private companies or corporations,
LA Live, the district behind me, really quite nice,
but there's a lot of places, the public places in LA,
not so nice and can be rundown, 'cause such a big city,
the tax dollars kind of go everywhere,
the nicest public building you're gonna find
is probably Union Station,
which is in Downtown Los Angeles, check that out,
also you can go over to LA City Hall,
see a view from the top
and see just what I mean about things being rundown,
LA City Hall has really seen some better days.
The eleventh thing to know about LA
is that from a dress code, LA is pretty casual,
you know, a lot of people think,
"Oh, it's a high end restaurant,
"I'll need to go, I'll need to wear a suit and tie,"
I'm here to tell you
that like shorts, a T-shirt and flip flops
will get you into 98% of all establishments in Los Angeles,
I'm sure some people will say,
"Well Chris, but there's this place and there's that place,"
yeah, there's a few here and there, that have a dress code
and they want you to wear you know, a shirt
and there's like .001%,
that you have to wear a shirt and a tie,
but that is pretty rare,
you'll fit in fine with shorts and a T-shirt.
Number 12, bring your own shopping bag,
California recently passed a law,
that supermarkets and food places
have to charge 10 cents for shopping bags
and so if you don't wanna pay 10 cents for a shopping bag,
bring that shopping bag or you buy a shopping bag once,
bring it back to the store,
the charge is for paper and plastic shopping bags,
all shopping bags that come from a food type place,
if you're going to a restaurant,
then they don't charge you for a shopping bag,
so you might wanna get some fast food, get a bag
and then you can take it to the supermarket.
Okay and the last thing to know about coming to LA
is Mexican food is awesome here.
If you're coming to LA and maybe you say,
"Well, hey, I don't like Mexican food,
"'cause Mexican food's not very good,"
I'll probably tell you haven't had good Mexican food.
I lived on the East Coast for a while
and people would always say, "Chris, I'm gonna take you
"to this really great Mexican restaurant,"
and after I went to about the sixth or seventh one,
I was like, please don't take me
to any more Mexican restaurants,
because they're all bad, I will tell you here in LA,
they are all, almost very, very good.
My favorite Mexican restaurant in LA
is called King Taco, it is a chain of taco places,
they sell tacos, burritos, nachos, tamales
and basically you pick what meat you want in it,
it's pretty simple, the taco's like a dollar 59,
some of the best carne asada, that I feel I've had anywhere
and just really simple, really tasty,
I'll also tell you, you won't find this at a King Taco,
but you'll find it at a lot of other Mexican restauranm,
get the fish tacos, fish tacos
are a Baja, California specialty and Mexico
and so since we're just right north of Baja, California,
you'll find lots of fish tacos as well.
It's funny, there's actually a place in LA
called The Best Fish Tacos in Ensenada,
Ensenada's in Mexico, but it's in LA,
so just kind of a funny name for a place.
Okay, well so, that concludes
Everything You Need to Know Before You Come to Los Angeles
and hey, if you're an LA local and you were watching this
and you think there's something else
that people need to know, please leave it in the Comments
below for other visitors, that come to LA.
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Alright, well thank you very much
and keep on traveling, bye bye.
(light uplifting music)