[YorkshireT]

Originally Posted by RockTheDots

Great trip report, sounds like you had a wonderful time. I especially enjoyed the LA and Disney parts as we're headed there next month.

How easy was it navigating the trails in Griffith Park? We're thinking of going there on our 1st morning as we're bound to be up super early so will hopefully beat the heat!

Also I'm glad to see you enjoyed Santa Monica, it's got quite a lot of negative reviews on Trip Advisor recently which has put my husband off going there but I want to see the end of Route 66

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It was relatively easy navigating the trails. We managed to do it by just taking time to look where they seemed to be heading. Be warned though if you want to move between Griffith Park and the Sign it’s a massive area. It will take you over an hour of quite hard walking between each, each way, and that’s after you get up there, unless you park up there.

Santa Monica should not be confused as the same thing as Santa Monica pier. The pier is decent and very busy. Yes quite a few homeless around the pier as there are around LA, Las Vegas and were also in New Orleans. Sad fact of life in many US and UK cities (Leeds’ homeless problem is getting worse I’ve noticed, and it wasn’t any worse than London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds really).
Santa Monica town is quite upmarket and full of restaurants and shops. The pier I suppose is downmarket as such compared to the upmarket town bit. It’s not like Naples pier for example, as it’s much more brash.
We were there for an afternoon and enjoyed the visit. On the pier as with any tourist trap be wary of dodgy street acts, peddlers, etc but it was packed and we saw no trouble.