Sooooo obvs, USA isn’t the typical backpacker destination for a few reasons. There isn’t really a backpacker scene with hostels hard to come by but we both REALLY wanted to see America so we added in Los Angeles which we later extended. Not going to lie we were both really excited for this part of our trip.

HOLLYWOOD, LA

We landed in LAX to warm sunny weather which instantly had us smiling. We headed straight to our hostel which was in Hollywood (Time Zone Hostel, rating: 8/10). By the time we had checked in and settled into our shared accommodation it was late afternoon so we didn’t stray too far. We headed to In n’ Out Burger which was soooo yummy and soooo cheap. Neither of us had slept much on our 11 hour flight so we passed out early and didn’t get up until the afternoon of the next day.

We headed straight for the Hollywood Walk of Fame to take in the touristy stuff. We walked along staring at all the stars on the floor 80% of the time shouting out every time we saw a name we recognised. We stopped off at the Chinese Theatre to stare at the floor some more at all the celebs who had signed and stepped on wet concrete. It was a fun day being proper tourists getting excited at all the things you see in the movies. We treated ourselves to some big arse cocktails to celebrate our trip so far.

We became even bigger tourists the next day when we bought tickets for the sight seeing hop on hop off that brought us all around Hollywood through Beverly Hills and downtown Los Angeles. It was actually a really great way to see a lot of the city and learn interesting facts and information of places we passed. We stopped off around lunchtime to check out the Hard Rock Café and Hooters for lunch.

The next few days we hung out in Hollywood, chilling in bars and strolling the Walk of Fame. We decided to go to the cinema seeing as we were in Tinsel Town, we went to see the Stephen King horror It, which was pretty apt as the premier was going on whilst we were in town.

My most favourite thing we got up to whilst we were staying in Hollywood is that we got tickets to a baseball game: LA Dodgers v Colorado Rockies. It was so much fun and we ticked off all the must do’s at a baseball game: hot dogs, home runs, kiss cam and dance cam. Most of the time we didn’t really know what was going on but it was kind of similar to rounders so we just cheered when everyone else did! We left buzzed after having the best night..

SANTA MONICA, LA

We booked the next few days to stay in Santa Monica (Ocean Park Hotel, rating: 8.5/10). Seeing as it is soooo hot in LA at the moment we thought we would make the most of it and stay near(ish) the beach for a few days.

We checked out Santa Monica Pier and chilled on the beach for a few days soaking up the sun and getting browner (kind of aha). Santa Monica is such a nice place especially compared to Hollywood which is nick named Hollyweird by the locals. America has a serious homeless problem and there are plenty of people who are completely off their rockers. Even some normal looking people turn out to be cray cray. There is less of these people in Santa Monica.

Less so when you head to Venice beach. Venice beach is like a whole other world that you walk into. Everyone seems like they are stoned just having a good time. There are plenty of stalls selling all kinds of art. The whole place is bizarre but kind of cool at the same time. We walked from Santa Monica pier passing the original mussel beach, watching everyone showing off, all the way to Venice beach stopping off every now and again to soak up the sun.

Towards the end of our stay in the LA area we were lucky enough to get tickets to The Late Late Show with James Corden. You have to apply online as they are free and you get added to a waitlist and eventually get notified if you are accepted or not. It was such an amazing experience. The day started by queuing up outside as it is first come first serve even if you have tickets, we were close-ish to the front so we got in after an hour or so of waiting in the heat. Somehow once we got in we ended up being seated right at the front which was insane. Not only was it cool to see the guests (which included Gweneth Paltrow, Christin Slater and Adrianne Palicki) it was also cool to see how the show was filmed. The most annoying part was that we couldn’t take any pictures inside the studio to show off our experience. Once we had truly screamed our voices away and clapped our hands soar it was a wrap! After filming we headed back to Santa Monica pier to see the pier all lit up at night.

One of the most exciting things we got up to in LA is that we spent the day at Universal Studios Hollywood. Of course we got there bright an early and spent the day getting on every ride we possibly could. We were lucky as it wasn’t too busy so we never had to wait that long – which meant multiple go’s on rides. Universal is out of this world – literally. They have whole areas dedicated to different movies and TV series so you go from walking through Hogmead and Hogwarts to Springfield with Moe’s bar and Krustyland. They even have a studio tour that takes you around on a road train to see the active studio sets which was a lot of fun. We spent waaaay to much on novelty snacks and food but we couldn’t help ourselves, everything sounded amazing.

As we came to the end of our stay in LA, we picked up our hire car from Budget rental cars which was a surprising easy process. We were a little taken aback from how easy it was to pick up the car. We got a cool looking Mazda which we rented for four days. Our first day we spent around LA, checking out the residential streets of Beverly Hills ourselves (fun fact: each street in Beverley Hills has a different type of tree growing on it) and we also headed up to the Griffith Observatory to get great views of LA and the Hollywood sign. We took the Santa Monica Boulevard back to our hotel which meant we were driving on the famous Route 66!

MINI US ROAD TRIP

Once we left Los Angeles (which we were so gutted about) we started our mini road trip up the Pacific Coast Highway towards San Francisco. We spread the trip over two days pulling up to motels in the evening to check in for the night. During the drives we would stop off to check out the views – one view point also had Elephant Seals basking in the sun which were pretty cool it see. Ryan did so well with the driving (being under 25, I was an additional cost to add as a driver) it was two days of long driving with a mixture of open roads and frustrating traffic and driving on the wrong side of the road is weird.

We drove through places like Malibu, Santa Barbara, Morro Bay, Salinas and San Jose. It was another thing off the bucket list – road trip in USA (even if it was the smallest road trip ever – it still counts!)

SAN FRANCISCO

We dropped our car back at the airport rental centre – which again was the simplest process ever. You literally just pull up in a car pack and leave the keys in the car. Someone comes around to scan the cars in and you are good to go.

We headed straight to our hotel which was in San Fran city. It was pretty clear as soon as we stepped out of our Uber that we weren’t in the greatest of neighbour hoods. If we thought LA was looney town well San Fran is like the motherland because it is full of cray cray people. It was fine though – our hotel was good (Winsor Hotel, rating 7/10) and there was a few restaurants around which is all you need. Honestly though, we went for a walk at night just down the street and it was like spot the sane person. It was something out of a movie, we could constantly hear people shouting in the street or out their window form the apartment block across the road.

Our first full day in San Francisco we headed down to Pier 39 to check out the famous pier. It is full of restaurants, souvenir shops and sweet shops. It was cool to stroll around and get some lunch. From the end of the pier you can see Alcatraz – the prison island. You can book to do a tour around but you need to book waaaay in advance.

After we explored every inch of the pier we headed toward Lombard street to see the pretty decorated one way street. It’s cool to see something you see in pictures in real life – what you don’t see in pictures is the ridiculously steep hill you walk up before you get to the pretty looking part – killer. The craziest part is that there a big-ish crowd taking photos that literally stand in the middle of the road to get the perfect shot.

Our few days in San Fransisco we used as a bit of chill time after our crazy couple of weeks in LA. This meant hanging out in cafes and checking out the surrounding areas. Of course we went to see the famous Golden Gate bridge but as luck would have it, it was an extremely foggy day and we got to see about 50% of the bridge. It was still kind of cool to see with a blanket of fog layered over the top. The temprature in San Fran was fair bit cooler then LA so we warmed up with coffees and hot chocolates as we walked along the river bank back towards the city. This gave us great 360 views of the bridge, Alcatraz and the city skyline.