If you are staying at a hotel in LA they can organise for one of the many bus companies running shopping trips to Mexico to come and take you for the day. It's a long day out for the return trip to Tijuana, Mexico.

Cost?
Varies but allow USD$40-$50 return

Why go?
Tijuana is a paradise for bargain shoppers! Browse for leather goods, clothing, jewellery, pottery & more.

Note - a multiple-entry visa and passport are required for non-U.S. or non-Canadian citizens.

Tijuana Mexico - south of the border

I agreeI disagree

1.  
2. Send to friends

I love this store, it sells everything from electronic items to fashionable very reasonably priced clothes and shoes. I lived in Long Beach for 16 years and went here weekly as do the majority of americans!

I agreeI disagree

1.  
2. Send to friends

This is one of my compulsory stops in LA especially late nights. I understand that the breakfast is legendary - perhaps next trip - but this is one place where the t-bone is large and the coleslaw legendary. It claims that it has never shut since it opened its doors in 1924. Open 24 hours a day all year round.

Old fashioned cafe with minimal decor that looks like a cinema set for a b-grade movie. Even the cashier is behind a wired cage! Be warned - no credit cards.

Corner of 9th and Figueroa, in downtown L.A. (next to LA Convention Centre)
www.pantrycafe.com

I agreeI disagree

1.  
2. Send to friends

For $3 an MTA daily travel pass allows you to range as far and wide as you like via bus and metrorail train. Riding the bus is not only by far the cheapest way to get around (and out of) LA, it's also the best way to experience the city's fantastically complex social, racial and cultural mix. Passes can be bought from bus drivers or at Metrorail stations. Journeys can be planned in detail ahead of time by using the MTA's excellent website (www.mta.net).

www.mta.net/default.asp

I agreeI disagree

1.  
2. Send to friends

Although LA is known as the city of the car the whole area has got a well developed public transit system consisting of light and heavy rail, subway and buses. It's cheap too -- you'll pay a fraction of the cost of comprable journeys in England. It pays to plan in advance, though, because it can be quite confusing if you don't live there (the fare structuring is very different from the UK as well). Also, tourists seem to get pushed onto high cost transit - for example, there's a light rail station adjacent to LAX but you'd never know it from the signs at the airport, all which would much rather have you use a cab or shuttle bus.

(Sitting in a hire car in heavy traffic on a freeway rapidly loses its gloss. Think "M25 with poor quality concrete surface"!)

www.mta.net -- it links into other transit systems, also try web searches.

I agreeI disagree

1.  
2. Send to friends

A fish'n'chip joint par excellence! Situated on the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway), you sit at tables overlooking the ocean eating superb freshly-cooked fish and seafood from an extensive menu. Line up at the cooking shack, choose your food, and it is cooked to order. Those in the know bring their own plates and cutlery, wine etc. Watch the sun set over the Pacific, it's magical - or go anytime for a cheap delicious meal.

PCH (Highway 1), Malibu.

I agreeI disagree

1.  
2. Send to friends

Found this online today: for $199 (adult) the City Pass gives you entrance to five (5) amusement parks: Disneyland, Disney's California Adventure, SeaWorld in San Diego, Universal Studios Hollywood and San Diego Zoo or San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park. You have 14 days to use it. Saves a bundle if these parks are your funky thang.

Buy it online:
themeparks.universalstudios.com/hollywood/website/tic_sccp.html

I agreeI disagree

1.  
2. Send to friends

Perfect for Guardian readers, the Los Angeles Conservancy organises regular walking tours of the city's architectural delights and curiosities. Tours generally cost about $10, last for a couple of hours, and are informal affairs led by helpful and knowledgeable folk who don't press their obsessions too hard.

The downtown art deco and Broadway theater tours get you exclusive access into now privately owned and/or disused beacons of the city's gloriously ostentatious 1920s, 30s and 40s.

The Angeleno Heights tour is a relaxed stroll around the city's first middle class suburb, several streets of charming Victorian wood-framed houses perched above the freeways and steel monoliths of downtown. Other tours take in San Pedro, USC, and downtown at night. Book via the conservancy's website at www.laconservancy.org

www.laconservancy.org/tours/tours_main.php4

I agreeI disagree

1.  
2. Send to friends

A fabulous Mexican restaurant just off Santa Monica Boulevard. Mariachi waiters and fantastic (and reasonably priced) food. Recommended to us by a Swedish woman who ran a clog shop on La Cienega....

1113 N.Harper Ave
Tel: 213 654 1746

I agreeI disagree

1.  
2. Send to friends

Famous soul food restaurant featuring the unlikely but delicious combination of fried chicken and sweet waffles. It is a welcome respite in the land of organic/macrobiotic/fat-free everything.

www.roscoeschickenandwaffles.com

I agreeI disagree

1.  
2. Send to friends

A great people watching location and fine food recommend this Santa Monica restaurant (it's not a Deli in the old New York tradition) among their American classics is one of the best tuna melts you'll ever have the pleasure of eating.
Lovely own brew ale as well as great prices and very efficient service, but gets busy on weekends.

Corner of Broadway and 3rd St,Sant Monica,CA.

I agreeI disagree

1.  
2. Send to friends

Not unrelated to the original branch of Swinger's diner, the Beverly Laurel has a good location - which, of course, is everything in LA - funky rooms, a decidedly retro feel and offers good value.

Beverly Laurel Motor Hotel; 8018 Beverly Boulevard,
West Hollywood, California 90048; Tel: 323-651-2441

I agreeI disagree

1.  
2. Send to friends

A diner that serves alcohol and stays open late into the night? Sounds too good to be true. But on top of the quality food - solid breakfast fare and a standard array of Cali-Mex-Pacific Rim offerings - Swingers has a happening juke box and funky 70s decor. Dig those Warhol cows, cowboy!

Swingers; Lincoln Boulevard 802, Broadway,Santa Monica, California 90401; Tel: 310-393-9793; www.swingersdiner.com/

I agreeI disagree

1.  
2. Send to friends

An LA institution open to the early morning. If you can withstand the heat and the queue, a monster chilli dog awaits.

Pink's Hot Dogs; 709 N La Brea Avenue; Los Angeles, California 90038; Tel: 323-931-4223; www.pinkshollywood.com/

I agreeI disagree

1.  
2. Send to friends