Los Angeles

We had both never been to the west coast of the United States. It was a great chance so we seize it! We went a little off season. Summer was just about to be over but we did not worry: we knew the weather would be nice anyway :)

We've been told by friends living in Los Angeles that on average, the weather is 25°C pretty much every day of the year with little rain (so few that our friends told us that they almost started to miss the rain sometimes).

We've all heard about L.A. traffic but being there for only a couple of days, we decided that renting a car would be the easiest way to get around the city as we like. We had scheduled to visit the most well known places and wanted to be free to do so whenever.

During our stay, we didn't get stuck too much into traffic but could only notice that indeed, the car circus is real! No matter the time of the day, there were always many cars on the roads.

After getting our car near the airport, we headed to our Airbnb to settle down. You do need to know that housing in L.A. is quite expensive. Like in New York or London, many residents share their house to split costs. So it is quite common to live with roommates in these cities! 

Depending on your budget for a L.A. trip, you may decide that hotels may be too expensive so renting even for a couple of days might be cheaper. 

The United States is a pretty big country with different climates, type of landscapes and even different cultures within it depending on where you are! We all have heard about the Southern hospitality for instance and the Big Apple fast and busy life. In California, everything felt more laid back, maybe because of the nice weather and the fact that a beach is never too far. At the same time, compare to other American cities, we could felt this vibe from people being cautious about eating healthy as we saw many farmers' markets. There was an environmental consciousness too with all the recycle bins we came across: a contrast with the cliché about Americans not being too green. 

Another cliché one might have when thinking about California: people working out on the beach, fast walking for sport etc...it does happen to be true. We came across many people who was working out any time of the day!

As we are also into sport, we had to check on a few spots to work out.

Our first morning, as we were not feeling too jet-lagged, we decided to go for a morning run!

We found the closest big enough park not too far from where we stayed and decided to go there. It was a 10 minutes drive. We easily parked our car on 5610 Woodley Ave right after the Woodley Ave & Burbank Blvd Encino CA, intersection. We ran out to discover what seemed at first like a little dry land on that section of the park...

It was a nice weather, getting a little warmer as the sun was setting. The dryness of the plants around, the landscape we could see from afar: it almost looked like a desert! After 10 minutes while running around, we noticed a path that was not on a trail anymore but on concrete. We ended up in a greener part of Sepulveda Park and it was in fact quite huge! 

A cross country race was ending while we were passing through. It was interesting to see the tents, the small crowd…: you could feel the sense of community of putting the event together.

We passed near a cricket field, a golf course and encountered many joggers along the way. We ended up running almost 40 minutes sometimes on concrete and sometimes on grass too.

Back to our car, it was time to stretch a little and get ready for a day of adventure! 

It was a little unexpected to us: nowadays the new Muscle Beach out in Venice is the most famous one (we will talk about it right after). However, Santa Monica had it first! It became iconic in the 20th century and was the place to be to watch stuntmen practicing for movies, acrobats for shows too and later even bodybuilders.

More outdoor equipment has been added over time and it became the free place to work out outdoor for locals and tourists.

So we had to try it out!

We met our friend Andy there for dinner and then took the concrete beach path for a digestive walk. The path from Venice Beach leads directly to Santa Monica pier. We wouldn't have known and wouldn't have tried if it wasn't for Andy: knowing some locals is always nice to get tips on places to visit :) 

Our friend gave us some good advices and explained to us some of Los Angeles’ culture. 

Back to that little walk, it was on a very nice pace that took us around 20 minutes. 

This beautiful park is in a residential area of Los Angeles. With its fountains and small lake (where you can also paddle boat), it’s the perfect spot to relax, go for a walk, picnic...or improvise a training like we did!

We did a core strength workout, some abs and stretching on that day.

You can also do a small jog in this park. If you’d like to make it longer you can make several laps and even jog in the residential areas around, mostly the ones going uphill! You could also find some well-known houses there like the one that inspired the Halliwell sisters’ house in the TV show Charmed. You will also find nearby the house from Michael Jackson's Thriller music video.

If you're looking for a beach spot with more contact with nature and no sport's equipment, we found that at Malibu Beach!

It was our occasion for sightseeing, walking on the beach, bragging we've been there, and...have a little sport's fun along the way :)

We went on a week day, off season and in the morning so we pretty much had the beach for ourselves! Parking on the street was fairly easy. The Malibu Pier is nearby with its parking lot and several restaurants around.