Los Angeles —
Hollywood, beaches and pure Californian magic

Hollywood Boulevard is exactly as iconic as you imagine — and it delivers completely. The Hollywood Walk of Fame stretches along the boulevard with over 2,700 stars embedded in the pavement, and spotting your favourites is genuinely brilliant fun. We spent a good while hunting down names and taking photos before we even made it to the end of the block.

The TCL Chinese Theatre — with its famous forecourt of celebrity handprints and footprints preserved in concrete — is one of those places that is impossible not to be charmed by. Seeing how small some of the stars' hands are in person is always a surprise. Just across the street, the Dolby Theatre — home of the Academy Awards — is genuinely thrilling to stand outside. Knowing that this is where the Oscars happen every year gives the whole stretch of Hollywood Boulevard a special kind of energy.

Sunset Boulevard is a must — drive or walk it in both directions if you can. The history embedded in every block of that road is extraordinary, from the old studio lots to the legendary clubs and hotels. Old Hollywood feels very alive here.

Beverly Hills is everything the films promised and then some. Rodeo Drive is one of the most glamorous streets on earth — even if you're not shopping, strolling past the boutiques and absorbing the extraordinary wealth on display is a quintessential LA experience. The architecture, the immaculate gardens, the cars — it's the real-life backdrop of a hundred films and it is genuinely stunning.

The celebrity homes tour by bus through the Hollywood Hills and Beverly Hills is brilliant fun — a knowledgeable guide points out mansion after mansion belonging to people you've grown up watching on screen. Some are behind gates you'd never get past on your own; from the bus you get views that are otherwise impossible. Excellent entertainment and a genuinely fascinating insight into how the other half live.

The Warner Bros. studio tour was one of the highlights of the entire trip — an extraordinary behind-the-scenes look at one of the world's most famous film studios. You walk through actual working soundstages, see iconic sets and props from productions you've grown up watching, and get a genuine sense of the extraordinary scale of what it takes to make Hollywood films and TV shows.

The detail and history at every turn is fascinating — from wardrobe departments to prop stores to the backlot streets that have been the backdrop for countless productions. If you grew up watching American TV and film, this tour will absolutely delight you. Book well in advance — it sells out regularly, especially at weekends.

The Griffith Observatory sits high in the Hollywood Hills with the most extraordinary views over Los Angeles — the city spreads out below you all the way to the Pacific horizon, and on a clear day the scale of it is genuinely breath-taking. It's free to visit and the hike up through Griffith Park adds a brilliant hour to the experience.

From the Observatory you get some of the best views of the Hollywood Sign — iconic, enormous and somehow even more thrilling to see in person than in a thousand photographs. At sunset the whole scene — the sign, the hills, the city below — turns extraordinary shades of orange and gold. One of the great views in America.

The Santa Monica Pier is one of the most iconic images in all of California — the Ferris wheel, the Pacific Park amusement rides, the wide golden beach stretching in both directions and the Pacific Ocean glittering beyond. Walking out to the end of the pier and watching the sun drop towards the water is one of those perfect LA moments that you carry home with you.

Cycling along the beachfront from Santa Monica down to Venice Beach is an absolute must — the cycle path runs right along the sand with the ocean to one side and the colourful beach culture of LA on the other. It's one of the great urban cycle routes in the world and the couple of miles between the two beaches fly by in the sunshine.

Venice Beach is extraordinary — chaotic, colourful, loud and brilliant. Street performers, Muscle Beach where people are actually working out in the open air, the famous skate park, artists selling work on the boardwalk, food stalls, souvenir shops and an energy completely unlike anywhere else in LA. The sunset from the Venice Beach boardwalk over the Pacific is genuinely one of the most beautiful things we saw on the entire trip.