Lottie Harold – Geography – University of California, Los Angeles – United States

If you’re coming to UCLA, California or just the USA in general, it’s likely you’ll head to LA to do some touristy things. I’ve lived here  for 8 months and I’m so happy to call this place home (at least for a little while)!

1. Griffith Observatory

You’ve all seen La La Land. Griffith Observatory sits on the Hollywood Hills and offers the best views in LA. With a space museum, planetarium, and telescopes you can look through, it’s my favourite place in all of LA.

2. Santa Monica

One of the most iconic beaches in the world, featuring the famous pier – the endpoint of Route 66, the outdoor gym and thousands of palm trees. One of my Geography fieldtrips this year was actually too this beach looking at coastal processes, which far beats standing on top of a hill in Wales in torrential rain.

3. Downtown 

With traffic in LA being as bad as they say it is, it can take over an hour to get to DTLA sometimes. But Downtown is home to the Microsoft Theater, where I watched the People’s Choice Awards, the Staples Center, where the Kings and Lakers play, and the Dodger Stadium for baseball. Among them is a number of quirky shops and restaurants, including The Last Bookstore and an ice cream store where customers churn their own deserts by bike!