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Los Angeles Scenic Drives II

Part II-b: Experiencing Los Angeles at night

Exploring Beverly Hills, Westwood Village, & Santa Monica

Start your Los Angeles scenic night drive with Hollywood and the Sunset Strip, described in Part II-a, and then return here.

In this section, you'll continue through Beverly Hills and Westwood Village to the Santa Monica shoreline. You end with the lights of Southern California magically twinkling on the ocean before you.

As before, you'll have the chance to spot celebrities and to bring back memories that will last a lifetime.

Your drive ends with —

• the celebrity-favored hotel in Pretty Woman,
• Rodeo Drive aka "Gucci Gulch,"
• the supermarket of the stars,
• Wilshire Boulevard,
• Century City,
• Westwood Village fun area,
• UCLA,
• Santa Monica,
• the southern California coastline, and
• Brentwood, former home of O.J. Simpson.

Other sections include

Part II-a: Melrose, Hollywood, and Sunset Strip

Part II-c: Directions to the start of this scenic drive

Part I: Malibu Beach, Zuma, & Santa Monica Mountains scenic drive

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Beverly Hills

When last seen, you were heading eastbound on Sunset Boulevard in the Sunset Strip area, just east of the Beverly Hills city limit.

Where Sunset Boulevard Boulevard begins to turn toward the left, stay in the right lane, and continue straight ahead.

You're now on Holloway Drive.

When you reach La Cienega Boulevard, turn right. This is the first major intersection.

(La Cienega was apparently named for an early ranch in the area, which used a misspelling of the Spanish word "cienaga" meaning swamp.)

Drive southbound on La Cienega.

You're heading toward the business district of Beverly Hills.

Angelinos call this street "Restaurant Row" for the popular dining spots that line La Cienega, including Lawry's, The Prime Rib, the most well known, the folks who created the popular seasoning salt.

At Wilshire—turn right—and travel through the Beverly Hills town center.

Though quiet at night, you can still sniff money in the air.

Although top celebrities are more likely to live in places like Bel-Air, Malibu, and the Hollywood Hills these days, new money has taken their place in Beverly Hills, and Beverly Hills—well, remains Beverly Hills.

House and lot sizes in Beverly Hills tend to be smaller than celebrities of this generation prefer, but 90210 continues to be one of the most prestigious addresses in the U.S.

Rodeo Drive

Serious celebrity groupies will want to check out the comings and goings at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel on the south side of Wilshire, where it meets Rodeo Drive.

The Beverly Wilshire was the venue of choice in the movie "Pretty Woman" staring Julia Roberts and Richard Gere. This hotel attracts a high profile jet set clientele.

You may spot top celebrities here, but as always we ask that you maintain "California cool" and leave these people alone.

Rodeo Drive—directly off Wilshire to your right—is worth a short walk day or night. Gucci gulch has become its apt nickname. Perhaps only Worth Avenue in Palm Beach matches this "luxe" environment, and that is true for only part of the year.

This area of Beverly Hills draws wealthy shoppers from throughout southern California and the world. Rodeo Drive was named after the original Spanish land grant that included what is now Beverly Hills.

If you return for a day visit, also walk along several of the small lanes that lead off of Rodeo.

Continue westbound on Wilshire, past its junction with Santa Monica Boulevard.

On this corner, the Beverly Hilton always hosts one of the premier post-Academy Awards parties.

Century City

Coming up on the left, you'll notice the high rises of Century City.

Century City hosts one of two main shopping malls for Beverly Hills. The Beverly Center is the other. It also draws shoppers from incredibly wealthy Bel-Air.

There's a super cinema complex (as can be expected when the audience includes the film industry), production centers for the ABC and Fox television networks, and the luxury Century Plaza Hotel.

United States presidents and foreign leaders stay at the Century Plaza when they visit Los Angeles. (The Secret Service goes gaga over the security advantages of the helicopter pad on the roof.)

The Century City, Mann's Chinese Multiplex, Westwood Village, and Universal City (next to Universal Studios) theatres are great places to upgrade your film experience, if you have grown tried of the Octoplex 30's with their tiny screens and disrespectful audiences.

Gelson's, the truly gourmet super market in the mall, offers excellent star sighting opportunities during the day and evening. Even if you don't see anyone, the food looks great—really great.

Century City sits atop what was once a large part of the Twentieth Century Fox studios.

With so much filming done on location or outsourced these days, Twentieth Century and the Fox Network are able to utilize just a small portion of the original studio in the rear portion of Century City, a leaner and meaner environment that befits the film industry of today.

Turn left at the Avenue of the Stars if you wish to visit Century City. Otherwise, continue on Wilshire, past a deluxe apartment and condo area, to Westwood Village.

Westwood Village

When you reach the high rises of Westwood Village, turn right on Westwood Boulevard, if you're not running out of time.

This is the main drag leading to the entrance of the University of California at Los Angeles several blocks ahead, one of the largest universities in the United States.

We won't visit UCLA tonight, but you'll see it—especially the renowned UCLA Medical Center—in the distance.

If you're going to have a heart problem, have it here. That's a specialty of the Center.

Because its formally garden-like campus became packed with new buildings during the baby boom era, UCLA is not nearly as pleasant as it used to be. However, there still are nice sections, such as around Royce Hall, which are much used in films.

UCLA has an office that recruits movies to be filmed on campus, but strangely the "Hunchback of UCLA" was filmed at crosstown rival USC—what an insult! Even in film locales, the "Bruins" and "Trojans" vigorously compete. These campuses host two of the three leading film schools in the country.

Westwood Boulevard—both north and south of Wilshire—has turned into one of the leading entertainment centers of Los Angeles.

Not only UCLA students, but high school students from all over Los Angeles pack the area at night.

Due to the decay of Hollywood, Westwood Village has become the primary venue of first run films in southern California. The fine and venerable Bruin Theatre, near the UCLA entrance often hosted premiers in recent years. However, the new Highland & Highland complex you visited earlier has taken many of these back.

Brentwood Village

Go back to Wilshire Boulevard and turn right.

Soon, you'll pass the Veterans Administration Hospital and the Sawtell National Veterans Cemetery. These combine for a somber interlude during your scenic drive.

Just past the cemetery, you'll enter Brentwood Village. a largely residential area of upwardly mobile celebrities and professionals.

Brentwood's most infamous resident ever was O.J. Simpson. This former football player and actor stared in the two most publicized murder trials in history.

O.J. now lives in Miami. His former home at 360 Rockingham has been torn down—one way to deal with all the gawkers who made this neighborhood miserable.

Santa Monica Beach

Continue on Wilshire through Santa Monica to the end of Wilshire. This is its junction with Ocean Avenue.

Find parking—this may not be easy—and lock your car. (This area is reasonably safe, but not entirely so.)

The promenade in the park on the palisades overlooking the Pacific shoreline along Ocean Avenue provides great views of

• Santa Monica beach below,
• Santa Monica Pier below and to your left,
• Malibu in the distance to your right, and
• the coastline of Los Angeles to your far left.

To your left, on clear nights, you'll see planes taking off and landing at LAX airport adjacent to the Pacific.

The views make this quite a romantic location and a much prized one for films and television. We discuss this in greater detail in LA scenic drives I.

Santa Monica Pier

You can continue on to the Santa Monica Pier just below the park, which also has great views. It also has been used in almost countless films and television shows, including Ruthless People and numerous episodes of Baywatch.

To get the the pier, turn left onto Ocean from Wilshire and then drive pass Santa Monica Boulevard.

The junction of Santa Monica Boulevard and Ocean Avenue used to be the western end of U.S. Highway 66.

Two blocks beyond Santa Monica Boulevard, turn right.

Or, walk along the park, and then take the walkway to the pier.

Hopefully, Bette Midler and Danny DeVito are still not fighting there. (Ruthless People, 1986)

Pacific Coast Highway

You can also drive along the Southern California coastline—an exhilarating portion not obstructed by buildings.

If you park, stay with other people on these beaches at night.

From Wilshire, turn right onto Ocean Avenue. Go one block. Turn left onto California Incline, which leads down the steep cliff to Pacific Coast Highway.

Turn right onto Pacific Coast Highway, which is also California's famous Highway One.

This is part of BidonTravel's scenic drive to Malibu and the Santa Monica Mountains, in LA scenic drives I.

Drive several miles to Sunset Boulevard, turn right, and then turn around where you can, and return to Pacific Coast Highway.

The views are even better on the way back.

Santa Monica offers a variety of fun streets to explore, if you haven't run out of time by now.

Main Street has numerous cafes and clubs aimed toward a younger crowd. This street runs east toward Venice. Avoid entering Venice itself at night, as it is simply not safe.

Montana, which runs parallel with and to the west of Wilshire, has small cafes heading toward Brentwood. On Wilshire Boulevard between Brentwood and Santa Monica, you passed numerous restaurants and cafes. Again, we have specific restaurant recommendations in LA scenic drives I.

Enjoy the rest of your time in Los Angeles!

Go to LA scenic drives I - Malibu, Zuma Beach, and the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.

Or, go back to the first part of this drive, Melrose, Hollywood, and Sunset Strip.

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