This place is so cute! We were trying to find a nice place to get some breakfast in Santa Monica and both the places in my guidebook were a bust. We knew there were lots of places on the Promenade but weren’t sure about breakfast. This place appeared to be open and was still serving breakfast (~11am) so we jumped on it. It was a beautiful morning so we opted to sit outside on the patio (see picture below). It was really quiet and laid back. Just the right place to start out a hectic day of siteseeing if you ask me.

The food was one of the best breakfasts we had on our trip and very inexpensive as well. I had the “3×1 Breakfast” with some great pancakes, meat, and FRENCH FRIES for $6.75. I mean, where else can you get fries for breakfast??? Mom claimed the coffee was really excellent as well. It was windy outside and the birds made friends with you, but it was worth it. Our spot was coveted as well since it was so sunny.
If you prefer, there is ample seating inside and it looked very cute in there. I think there is a “Route 66″ ambiance to the place.

A good place for a relaxing breakfast in Santa Monica if you ask me.

Website: Barney’s Beanery

I’ve been to Gladstone’s a couple of times in my travels and I think it’s an enjoyable place to eat, especially for a tourist. The location right on the Pacific can’t be beat and there is a beach right out back. You can even dip your feet in the ocean. I think that is what boosts it up to two smileys. The place is fairly busy and I wouldn’t call it “upscale” at all. Very typical seafood place. But the seafood was fresh and very good. We were seated in under 30 minutes on a weeknight and they put us in a big booth right with an ocean view. To look out the window and see the Pacific Ocean is worth a few bucks in itself for me!

On my first trip I had the most amazing strawberry dessert. I still want to go back to try that again!! It was possibly the best dessert I’ve ever had! Sadly, at 8pm in the evening, they were all out this time. So that is something to consider for next time. I think the fish itself was very good, if not great. On the downside, you have to pay for valet parking, although the fee wasn’t terrible. But when you spend $30+ for dinner, it does seem like it could be included. It’s valet-only as well. Coming from Michigan, that isn’t something I am used to.

All in all, I think it is a pretty decent choice for the area although I would like to sample some of the other seafood places along the PCH as there were many.

Website: Gladstone’s

The first hotel we stayed at during our trip to LA and San Diego was the Westin at LAX airport. I felt this was a good value hotel. The location around the hotel was not great and there weren’t many places to eat but that was probably the biggest downside of this place. The hotel itself was quite nice. We got a room with two queen beds that overlooked Century Blvd. No problems there. And they heavenly beds were as advertised (VERY heavenly)!

Check-in proceeded very smoothly an they gave me no problems over my request for a room with two beds even though I booked the hotel on priceline. The room probably has seen better days but it was certainly clean enough and the bathroom looked to be remodeled at some point not too long ago. The lobby and general areas were very nice. Parking was $15/day, which is probably not bad for the LA area. And internet was $10/day, although I opted out of that option.

The location wasn’t bad if you wanted to be between the beaches and Hollywood/Beverly Hills. It took us about 20 minutes to get to the Farmers Market in off-peak traffic. And Santa Monica was an easy 15 minutes or so away. We ate at a place in Manhattan Beach, which was just south of the airport so that seemed to be a good location for shopping and eating.

Overall, I would say that it’s a fine base in the LA area if you want to be somewhat centrally located and save a few bucks in the process. Just keep in mind that it is only a place to sleep – you won’t want to spend much more time there than that.

Wednesday – May 23
We started out the trip with an evening flight from Detroit to LAX (on Northwest). The flight was uneventful and we arrived in LA on time, around 9:30PM. There were no problems retrieving the rental car from Budget, which I purchased on priceline. Then it was onto the hotel, the Westin at Los Angeles Airport. I will try to write reviews of the hotel and rental car at a later date but let me say that I was very satisfied with each. After a quick McDonald’s, it was off to bed.

Thursday – May 24
We woke to some low clouds but a generally nice day. This was the trend for just about every morning we were there. We had a busy day ahead of us so we took off right away! First stop was the Farmer’s Market in LA. Traffic getting there was no problem and I wanted to show it to mom. It was really lovely by the time we got there and we tried to get some late breakfast. The place we ate wasn’t great but the atmosphere of eating outside with all the little booths is really unique and a lot of fun. It’s interesting just to walk around and check out all the different offerings the vendors have. I’m glad I took mom there. We also spent some time shopping at the adjacent shopping center, The Grove. That is reallly nice too and by this time the weather was next to perfect. Mid-70s probably and just about the warmest day we had!

In the afternoon, we headed to the Warner Brothers Studio for the VIP tour. This is really interesting if you are into TV (or movies) at all. They give you a pretty detailed 2-hour tour of their facility in Burbank. We even toured a sound stage this time, for Three and a Half Men. It was really interesting to see how small that was. Everything is on hiatus so there wasn’t really any filming going on. They do a lot of TV shows and few movies there. The upcoming “Oceans 13″ was filmed there. Gilmore Girls and ER are a couple current TV shows that we also saw sets from. It gives a good overview into the behind the scenes of movies. It’s $42 but worth it I think.

From there, we took a quick tour of the Hollywood area, near the Grauman’s Theater. There is also a newish shopping mall attached to the Kodak Theater. This area was *very* busy and frankly not all that impressive. We could have taken a tour of Hollywood but I’ve done it before and it’s not great. And there are too many people here pushing whatever it is they want to sell. I think it’s something everybody should see but after an hour, we were ready to go.

We drove down the Sunset strip from Hollywood all the way down to the ocean. That is really cool drive and it really spans a lot of the LA area. Very pretty as you get closer to the Pacific. Once there, you can choose to take the Pacific Coast Highway, north or south. Right there is Gladstone’s, where we ate dinner. We got lucky and snagged a good table with a nice ocean view. There is just something special about eating with a view of the ocean!!

After a quick tour of Santa Monica, we were ready to call it a night! That was a long day!

Friday – May 25
Well, since we clearly didn’t get enough time there the night before, we had breakfast in Santa Monica. People in CA apparently don’t like eating inside. We sat outside on right on the promonade at a place called Barney’s Beanery. It was great and a really good breakfast on top of that. For whatever reason I really like having a nice breakfast when I’m on vacation.

Anyway, from there we drove up the coast, past Malibu. That section of coastline is really breathtaking and I wanted mom to see it. I wish we had more time to spend a little time at the beach. It was pretty quiet but the northbound traffic was really picking up. So we headed back south and towards Beverly Hills. We made a quick stop on Rodeo drive for some window shopping. Nothing there was even remotely in our price range!! Well, except parking spots — they were actually free!

Our next stop was the Getty museum. This is really a beautiful spot on the top of the mountains (Santa Monica mtns I guess). You can really see a long ways and they have it landscaped just beautifully. I really enjoy that you have to take this tram thingy to the top. They have various art exhibits as well which are pretty interesting. A lot of their exhibits are exhibitions so you will probably see different things when you are there. I think the highlight is the gardens though — they really are lovely with all the flowers. The architecture of the place is worth a trip. I really don’t think my words can do it justice so just look at the pictures!

From here, we made a quick stop in Sherman Oaks to have dinner with my friend, and then it was on to San Diego!! I must say that I wish we had more time in LA. I think it has to be one of the most underrated cities in this country and deserved more than 2 days!!

Reviews posted about this trip:
Westin LAX

Gladstone’s in Malibu

Barney’s Beanery – Santa Monica

To continue reading about San Diego, click here: San Diego Blog.