Getting around California - Parking etc

[iLaura]

We're just trying to get our heads around organising everything.

We have a hire car booked, how easy is it to drive to places like Walk of Fame, Hollywood Sign, Chinese Theatre etc? And once near those places how easy/cheap is it to find parking etc. How easy is it to navigate around places and how likely are we to keep getting lost lol

Trying to decide wether to do a self-guide to get ourselves round on our 'exploring day' or wether to go with a tour which is $600 for 8 hours taking us to all the places on our to do list and means we don't have to think about any of it.

What would people recommend?

[Keegan]

We found it really easy. We did go on a Monday so it was easy to get parked as I imagine that area maybe busier on weekends.


We parked at Hollywood & Highland which allowed us to walk straight out onto the walk of fame. Huge car park with plenty of spaces, it felt ‘safe’ and secure.

For the Hollywood Sign, we didn’t walk up to it but we went to a fantastic viewpoint that I think is massively underrated. I think it was named Lake Hollywood Park, it’s up in the hills but easy to drive to and you can park on the street. It was about 20mins from the walk of fame.

[iLaura]

Originally Posted by Keegan

We found it really easy. We did go on a Monday so it was easy to get parked as I imagine that area maybe busier on weekends.


We parked at Hollywood & Highland which allowed us to walk straight out onto the walk of fame. Huge car park with plenty of spaces, it felt ‘safe’ and secure.

For the Hollywood Sign, we didn’t walk up to it but we went to a fantastic viewpoint that I think is massively underrated. I think it was named Lake Hollywood Park, it’s up in the hills but easy to drive to and you can park on the street. It was about 20mins from the walk of fame.

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From recollection do you remember if the parking was particularly expensive? Is it fairly easy to navigate around, DH has driven in Florida before but nowhere else in the US.

Thank you!

[Keegan]

Oh yeah super easy to navigate round, it was my first time driving in the US and I managed it. We went all over the place that day too, it was nice doing it at our own pace.

Parking was something like $2an hour with a max daily charge of either $20 or $25, can’t quite remember.

[Samm]

Originally Posted by iLaura

We're just trying to get our heads around organising everything.

We have a hire car booked, how easy is it to drive to places like Walk of Fame, Hollywood Sign, Chinese Theatre etc? And once near those places how easy/cheap is it to find parking etc. How easy is it to navigate around places and how likely are we to keep getting lost lol

Trying to decide wether to do a self-guide to get ourselves round on our 'exploring day' or wether to go with a tour which is $600 for 8 hours taking us to all the places on our to do list and means we don't have to think about any of it.

What would people recommend?

See more...

We did it ourselves. Parked really easy and close to walk of fame, wasn’t expensive. We went to Griffith park observatory and then from there drove to Mirror Lake park I think it was called and just parked car on the road to get pics of the Hollywood sign. Beverly Hills/rodeo drive we managed to park very cheap and close too

[daytonababe]

We drive ourselves around. , and have never had an issue parking . We usually park in the Hollywood & Highland shopping center park . From there you get a good view of the Hollywood sign , and the walk of fame and Chinese theatre is there too.

[Disney_time]

We had a car, but didn't drive on our sightseeing day - we just used the hop on-hop off bus and if memory serves correctly, it was like London, with a red, blue and green route and you could have ticket for one route or all routes, for one day or more days.

[YorkshireT]

We went hiking up the hills to the Hollywood sign, you can get right up to it, but just the back of it not the front. There’s some other peaks with great views and the Griffith Observatory, all hike able from the bottom where you can park, if you are fit enough.

[cornishfrogboy]

I am generally pretty much against guided tours, preferring to do my own research.

When in LA, we did an Hollywood Tour out of Santa Monica. It was absolutely awesome and I am so glad that we did it.

[iLaura]

Thank you for all the reassurance and tips guys, it's reassured us we should be fine going alone which will save us money which can be better sent elsewhere...

If anyone wants to share their 'must-dos' for LA, we're compiling our own list but open to suggestions of things we might not have thought of, or a thumbs up for things we have!