Monday 2 April 2018

Visit LA on a budget

After what had been the majority of the hardest year of my life, I decided I needed to get away, and go on a big trip to make up for the fact that I hadn't been on holiday since before I had Fletch. I was browsing whilst at my day job, and decided I had always wanted to go to America seeing as whilst in my previous relationship it was never even an idea I could entertain.  I knew wanted to go to Los Angeles at least once in my life and tick it off my bucket list. So, as a single mum, this trip had to be on a budget for me.


1. Find Flights
I went on Sky Scanner and sort of searched around the times I was planning on heading. I knew with my day job the times of year when it is easier to get a weeks holiday. We browsed about and ended up finding return flights from heathrow to LAX for £300-£400. I also then researched the average temperature in los angeles around the week we had picked and it turned out to be something between 14c and 18c. when we were actually there it was in the 20s. Los Angeles is relatively warm year round, especially for us Brits. Now I know £300-£400 seems like alot of money, but once you have an idea, save for that, accommodation can come later. 

2. Find accommodation.
 Finding accommodation may have been the hardest thing we had. picking an area to stay in Los Angeles is ridiculously hard. We debating staying in Hollywood, mid-city, central LA , Santa Monica and Venice Beach. We ended up settling on Venice Beach, as there is so much to do in this area and you can easily bike down to Santa Monica. For finding accommodation, we turned to Air BnB. We scouted this pretty religiously in the months running up to our trip, and using airbnb actually saved us a bunch of dollar. We picked a cute air bnb and it cost us £250 each for a week, and got a small amount off thanks to a referral from a friend - Here's a link for £25 off your first Air BnB stay too - https://abnb.me/e/UTNZ0uxDLL



3. Getting Around
most people know LA is massive, planning what you want to do before is a must, we had a brief outline of what we wanted to do and this is our biggest downfall of not having planned a better schedule for ourselves. LA has uber and Lyft and to be honest unless you are brave enough to rent a car, we found  these the best way to get around. We used Lyft most as the app allows to tip and American tipping culture was a bit overwhelming to be honest so having the power to do it after the trip and not handing dollars over face to face put me at ease anyway. 

4. Choosing Where To Visit Whilst You In LA
In all honesty we could have planned this way better. We had a few places we knew we wanted to see, hollywood walk of fame, Muscle beach, Santa Monica Pier etc. What we didn't have was a plan on what to see or where to go when. I do recommend making a plan, cause you can budget for your travel between places much better. I'm going to do a seperate post of my must visit places in LA, but i'll add here we had the BEST time at Universal studios there. Also most food portions in America are massive, my friend and I dont have the biggest appetites, so we literally had one Big meal out a day and then put in to our budget to have food in the Air Bnb.


5. Packing Appropriately And Saving Before You Go. 
I knew I wanted a decent amount of spending money for the american shops. So I decided that in the run up to going and the few pay days before i went I would limit myself on purchasing things I didn't definitely need, or that i could buy in America. I packed 1 pair of jeans, and then had a mix of skirts/trousers and dresses, all things that were light. this meant i would not risk having a mega heavy suitcase coming back and any additional fees. Packing appropriately and checking on sharing tolietries with my friend before we went also ensured we only took what we needed, and stopped unnecessary spending.

I had the best time in Los Angeles, and I can see why people live there. The sunshine is so infectious. I'm already thinking about the next trip I can take, and to be honest how I can get the best trip for not the most amount of money. Its all about the experiences and if your in good company you do not need that money to have fun. Does any one else have any good tips for finding bargains and the best places to visit? Or any good places I must visit?

Love

Kelsie 

xxx

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