California Trip
My whole trip literally felt like I was living a dream. I got to fly in Business class with American Airlines to LA, fly home in Business class with BA, experienced and saw some amazing things and stayed in lovely hotels. I crossed a lot off my bucket list with this trip.
We arrived in LAX, had a private car take us to the Mondrian Hotel in West Hollywood, which is such a modern, quirky hotel. The rooms were huge and unique. I did love this hotel and the location of it. We dined in the hotel restaurant ‘Ivory at sunset’ which was a lovely meal, the sky bar which some of us went to for cocktails was also lovely and popular amongst celebs too.
While in West Hollywood we did a bike tour of Beverley Hills, Greystone Manor and Rodeo Drive which was truly the best way to see the area and the celebrity houses, this was a big highlight for me. We had lunch in V Wine with some wine tasting too. We went up to the Griffiths Observatory to see the Hollywood sign and did the walk of fame and saw so much of the area. I used to think staying in Hollywood wasn’t worth doing, now I think differently and would advise staying in West Hollywood on Sunset Boulevard area which is where we were. It was lovely and in a great location to see everything.
After Hollywood we drove onto Pismo Beach which was like a little American style fishing town, so quaint and something you would see from the films. We stayed in the newly opened Inn at the Pier. This was my favourite hotel of all the ones we stayed in. While in Pismo we went Sand Dune Buggying and visited a vineyard and went wine tasting.
We then moved onto San Luis Obispo but en route we went to a brewery for a beer tasting and lunch and then onto one of my favourite things of the trip - horse riding at a ranch. This was truly amazing and something I will never forget. I will recommend it to my customers to try when visiting America, visiting an American ranch was brilliant. We then moved on for a night at San Luis Obispo where we visited the local weekly food market which was busy and had a great vibe about it. It was lovely to walk around and look in the local shops too.
We then moved onto Santa Cruz. This I was looking forward to as I am a great Lost Boys fan and it was mainly filmed here. Walking along the Boardwalk listening to the Lost Boys soundtrack was pretty good. While here we boarded the Chardonnay boat for a wine and pizza private sailing. I generally don’t like going on boats, but this was yet another highlight for me, it was just stunning.
The next day en route to Oaklands Airport we went zip lining amongst the Redwood trees before catching our flight. What an amazing trip this was and I truly loved everything about it! My photos are on my Facebook page www.facebook.com/DonnaBidwellTC if you would like some inspiration for your trip to California, I would happily help you.