Sylvia’s Guide Book

Your guest house is at short walking distance to four major Los Angeles museums: LACMA (the Los Angeles County Museum of Art), the Page Museum (the tar pits dinosaur bone museum), the Academy of Motion Pictures Museum, and the Peterson Automotive Museums. Your guest house's neighborhood is excellent for dog walks, as well as the parks surrounding LACMA and the tar pits.

LA is notorious for long distances. Pack water and a snack to take in your rental car with you.

This boat trip takes you whale and dolphin watching. It's incredible! California is home to the largest concentration of free dolphins in the world. You will not want to miss this beautiful experience!

It is illegal to smoke in all public places in Los Angeles. I highly recommend that you don't even try, as locals are not afraid to voice their dislike. There is also a no smoking rule inside and outside of your guest house here as well. If you must smoke, please try smoking along 8th Street, because this area feels a little bit less residential and away from the prying eyes of disapproving neighbors. Keep moving and walking, instead of standing around while you smoke. Second hand smoke kills, so this is why smoking laws exist in Los Angeles. This may be a good time to quit.

Be sure to visit the Farmer's Market at Third Street and Fairfax Avenue, a 15 minute walk from the guest house. Here you can have breakfast, lunch, or dinner; buy souvenirs; and feel like a local. Several tour buses leave from this location too.

Take a day to go exploring and shop at The Grove, our beautiful neighborhood outdoor mall, located beside 3rd street's Farmer's Market. This mall has anything you might need---gifts, new clothes, books, computers, restaurants, and a lovely, musical, dancing water fountain.

Los Angeles has many wonderful and beautiful malls, all worth visiting. Near your guest house is The Grove, just a 15 minute walk away. Ten minutes away by car is The Beverly Center, an indoor mall. I don't recommend this mall unless you need to buy a particular item not found elsewhere. I do recommend the gorgeous outdoor Century City Mall, 15 minutes away by car. Century City has an amazing food court, Eataly, authentic & delicious gelato, The Container Store, and incredible shopping.

If you worry too much about shopping, you will drive yourself crazy. Every neighborhood in Los Angeles has great shopping opportunities, and many of the same stores exist in all the different malls.

Distances in Los Angeles can be very long. Please give yourself one to two hours to drive anywhere "nearby." Depending on traffic, any "short trip" can turn into a two to four hour traffic jamming delight. Stay away from the freeway during rush hours. Enjoy taking surface streets like Olympic, Wilshire, or Sunset Boulevards, that all run east to west from down town to Santa Monica Beach. For longer distances, like any of the beaches or cities north or south of Santa Monica, leave early morning and return by 1 pm to avoid astronomical afternoon traffic. Feel free to message me for tips.

Stuck in traffic near the beach? Take Montana Avenue east, and then any surface street to Ohio Avenue east, bypassing the congested Westwood area, and then you can get back on to Wilshire Boulevard thru Beverly Hills until you reach the guest house. Coming from Venice Blvd, take Lake Avenue to bypass traffic, and get on to National Blvd until Westwood Blvd, hang a right on Pico or Olympic Blvd, until you reach Fairfax Avenue, and then turn left to 8th Street, turn right and then right again on Genesee Avenue to your guest house. Be sure to message me if you get lost.