the last movie you watched: Springsteen & I-so cool! the last song you listened to: Somebody Else-The 1975 the last show you watched: The Blacklist-and the actress who played Noel's mom in A Dog Named Christmas was in it! the last book you read: Nobody's Fool-Richard Russo the last thing you ate: Breakfast bun where would you time travel to: Early 1900s Prince Edward Island (what can I say?  I love Anne Of Green Gables) fictional character you would hang out with for a day: Mickey Milkovich-for LIFE Time right now: 1:27 pm

it all depends what you’re looking for. the best part about LA is that we’ve got a lot of diverse neighborhoods depending on what you want to do. the worst part about LA is that even with recent transportation developments it’s still not very easy/convenient to get around without a car (it’s better than before, though). so you want something centrally located to all the things you want to do but not in some dead-end neighborhood with nothing within walking distance. that said, here’s some suggestions.

want to stay near the beach? santa monica is nice, you can spend an entire day at the beach/pier, and even another or half day at the promenade. venice is a little (a lot?) off the beaten path in terms of luxury. but you definitely won’t find a beach down in LA with more character. people watching there for hours. you can rent bikes or rollerblades and feel like you’re in an 80′s teen movie.

want to stay in the city? hollywood sunset strip is nice, and you can see all the hollywood attractions as well – chinese theatre, hollywood and highland, etc. this is also where I’d recommend to stay if you want to go to downtown, which I totally recommend seeing. I personally wouldn’t stay in downtown, only because hotels there are severely overpriced and you don’t get much for them, and imho downtown isn’t the safest place at night. but it’s an absolute must to go visit (fashion district/santee alleys, chinatown, little tokyo, olvera street, etc). I just think you could get more bang for your buck staying outside of downtown and driving in if that’s somewhere you want to visit. fairfax district/south of west hollywood is also a cool spot, funky and full of vintage shops and boutiques, as well as great eats like pink’s hot dogs, MILK, etc. that’s also centrally located between hollywood and downtown so that could be another option.

tripadvisor and yelp are your friend. tripadvisor is fellow travelers and yelp is mostly locals, so definitely check those out.

also if you’re looking for things to do all over LA, I have a list of 75 things to do in LA this summer on the cheap that would be useful for you.