Travel Guide : Los Angeles

[scandinavianchic]

We stayed in the Merry room - it's amazing!! (even better than it looks) http://www.madonnainn.com/tour/164.asp

 

[Artemis]

My favorite place to shop for vintage clothing is Telegraph Ave in Berkeley (it's about a 45 minute drive from SF). Berkeley is a college town so everything is affordable and there is a plethora of vintage/consignment stores. Be sure to check out: The Buffalo Exchange - it isn't the cheapest of the cheap but they make sure the clothes are clean and in good condition before they sell it; Amoeba - for a huge selection of cheap CDs; and Cafe Intermezzo for lunch, the lines are long but the food is worth the wait *drool*.

http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/coolthings/Streets/Telegraph.html

Also take a walk down Solano and/or College Ave (still in Berkeley) for some nice restraunts.

Another good vintage shop is Thrift Town in SF (Mission St and 17th) which is HUGE and will take a really, really long time to get through and isn't the cleanest, so only go here if you have time to pick the diamonds out of the rough.

 

[.francesca]

i've been craving cafe intermezzo! i agree about telegraph, but it's really not that affordable. nothing in the bay area is.

 

[rhiannonmars]

i've been craving cafe intermezzo! i agree about telegraph, but it's really not that affordable. nothing in the bay area is.

Telegraph is soooooo scummy now. I never go there anymore. I'd rather shop on Ebay and be clean, safe, and not harrased by dirty bearded kids who are far from being real punk rock!

 

[Artemis]

Is it really that bad now? That's a shame, it was pretty nice when I was last there.

 

[.francesca]

it's no worse than haight street, main street or any other street. i've never had a problem with telegraph. "real" punk rock is whatever it is. that seems like a weird thing to say.

 

[rhiannonmars]

it's no worse than haight street, main street or any other street. i've never had a problem with telegraph. "real" punk rock is whatever it is. that seems like a weird thing to say.

The "punk" rockers I see are just REALLY dirty homeless kids who ask for beer and pot and hold up stupid signs insulting the people who go by. There is punk rockers around with real style, but the regular fixtures of telegraph are druggie homless rats, so dirty, litterally smell of sh*t. I go by there and you also see old homless drug addict worn out looking people in front of that one cafe near Ameoba records.

I used to hang out there when I was 14-18 and felt pretty safe. Lots of teengers went there at night. Now, at night it is filled with scummy dangerous people. Peoples Park is out of control. For a while there it was in control, even empty at times.

 

[meme527]

i grew up in morro bay! i lived there for 8 years, then moved to los osos, which is another tiny little beach town, but much less touristy. i lived in san luis obispo for 2 years also before i moved to san francisco. the madonna inn is CRAZY! did you go into the men's bathroom in the restaurant? it has a waterfall!

i really miss slo! my parents still live there so i guess it's a good excuse to visit

i'm so glad you had a good time!

lord have mercy. i'm from lompoc......

it's a small world after all.

meme

 

[Spacemiu]

Mettchen* LA has great vintage stores, there's Waste Land, Slow & Ardvark on Melrose, and Decades for vintage designer. Jet Rag on La Brea is good to, there is a $1 sale on sunday mornings.

I think you would also like the stores on Third Street like Satine,South Willard, Scout, 4x4, Aero&Co. Also may be American Rag Cie on La Brea , wich also sells vintage. There are new Marc jacobs, and Marc by Marc jacobs, and Marni boutiques on Melrose also .




The Madonna Inn is great!

 

[Mettchen]

thanks a bunch space. great tips and i sure will check it out.


btw, i got my parents to book the pony room for a couple of nights

 

[.francesca]

what i like about eating in los angeles is that they have a county-wide mandate to rate all the restaurants according to health regulations. which means you can find the grossest looking mexican restaurant ever, but if it has an A rating, it means it's up to health code, and "safe" to eat there. it really helps when you just want something quick but something might look gross. i don't think they ever give Fs...they just clean the place up before they can give it a better rating.

mettchen i'm really excited you're going to slo! if you're there on a thursday night, be sure to check out the farmer's market that spans the entirety of the 'main drag' downtown. there are some amazing independently owned coffee shops down there, namely linnaea's on garden street and some really great small clothing boutiques and second hand shops.

if you have time to drive a little bit south, you should check out solvang. it's a small, danish inspired town and really, really cute! it's off the 101 highway, which takes you up and down the california coast.

if you're going north, make sure to stop in cambria. it's a tiny little community near the ocean, but nestled into a hillside. it's so quaint, i often dream of living there in my retirement years!

i miss california...i hope you have so much fun!

 

[yes that dog]

if you have time to drive a little bit south, you should check out solvang. it's a small, danish inspired town and really, really cute! it's off the 101 highway, which takes you up and down the california coast.

I hate to rain on the parade here, but Solvang is pretttttttttty boring. There's absolutely nothing there. A visit to Santa Barbara is much more worth your time than Solvang, and it's much closer to the Los Angeles area than Solvang. Solvang does however, have an Ostrich farm right outside of it, which is totally awesome.

 

[.francesca]

santa barbara is just like any other big southern california coastal city. solvang might not have a ton of stuff to do, but it's pretty spectacular looking and it has some nice parks. and windmills. and ostriches.

 

[Assembler]

I'm going to San Fransisco in a week, for a week (conference). What would people recommend for a single gal (on her own) for nightlife? Even just touristy stuff. I went ahead and booked that touristy sunset cruise, just to have something to do.

Any suggestions would be great. I'll be staying at the Savoy Hotel (Geary and Jones).

 

[Mr. Lee]

I'm planning to move to Cali in about a year but am not sure if I should move to LA, OC or San Diego. For my business (financing expensive homes) they should all be good but for the beach, the social scene, attractive girls, which county is best?

 

[Mr. Lee]

LA has a lot of Koreans but I will be dealing with mostly non Korean people so I'm really not sure.

 

[Mr. Lee]

I'm going to San Fransisco in a week, for a week (conference). What would people recommend for a single gal (on her own) for nightlife? Even just touristy stuff. I went ahead and booked that touristy sunset cruise, just to have something to do.

Any suggestions would be great. I'll be staying at the Savoy Hotel (Geary and Jones).

One of my customers own Lori Diner in SF. Has anyone been there?

 

[Marcella]

I'm going to San Fransisco in a week, for a week (conference). What would people recommend for a single gal (on her own) for nightlife? Even just touristy stuff. I went ahead and booked that touristy sunset cruise, just to have something to do.

Any suggestions would be great. I'll be staying at the Savoy Hotel (Geary and Jones).

check out the mission district if you want to go to some bars and pick up some guys . Zeitgeist is an alright bar if i rememeber correctly but i can be mixing them up with something else. the castro is always bustling at night, which may or may not be you're thing though . ummm check out the sutro baths and the beach if you want to chill. there is a little pathway up into the trees and foresty area and gives really good views of everything (golden gate, ocean, beach, san francisco area). the 38 geary bus all the way up to point lobos, the last stop, takes you there (since your hotel is on geary anyway).

golden gate park alone can kill a few days.

haight street (good stores in general, not designer but fairly cheap. there's this store, villian it has decent clothes and really cool shoe selection)
union street (and surrounding area, fillmore, etc.)
hayes valley
mission (needles and pens, good thrifting, good food)

 

[Assembler]

check out the mission district if you want to go to some bars and pick up some guys . Zeitgeist is an alright bar if i rememeber correctly but i can be mixing them up with something else. the castro is always bustling at night, which may or may not be you're thing though . ummm check out the sutro baths and the beach if you want to chill. there is a little pathway up into the trees and foresty area and gives really good views of everything (golden gate, ocean, beach, san francisco area). the 38 geary bus all the way up to point lobos, the last stop, takes you there (since your hotel is on geary anyway).

golden gate park alone can kill a few days.

haight street (good stores in general, not designer but fairly cheap. there's this store, villian it has decent clothes and really cool shoe selection)
union street (and surrounding area, fillmore, etc.)
hayes valley
mission (needles and pens, good thrifting, good food)

Thanks. One question though

mission (needles and pens) What does needles and pens mean?

 

[Marcella]

needles and pens is a cool little store. there's cool stuff out there at night sometimes, there is an art gallery right next door too if you are into that.

http://www.needles-pens.com/home.html

www.fecalface.com --- for gallery show listings, there are show openings and showings constantly, that's quite a popular nightlife shindig here if you know the good shows to go to.