My First Experience In The City Of Dreams

Los Angeles is the entertainment capital of the world. It’s known for its year-round sunny weather, towering palm trees and glamorous Hollywood stars.

More than 46 million tourists traveled to the City of Dreams last year. Two-weeks ago, during a four-day stay, I joined the millions of 2023 travelers who visited the city.

But despite its fame, my expectations of LA were lower than most tourists’. My cousin, who visited there in February of 2020, gave me a scouting report after she had a brief stop in LA as she traveled to Hawaii for her honeymoon.

She described her visit as disappointing, imagining a beautiful, clean, movie-quality city, but it was the opposite.

From the moment she stepped out of the airplane at Los Angeles International Airport, she was greeted with a musty, sewer odor that intensified as she walked through the streets of LA that were  lined with homeless people.

With this awful description, I lowered my expectations. 

However, despite the “bad press,” I packed my bag and boarded a plane to LA with my girlfriend and her father for a Metallica concert.

We were picked up by a family friend who became our tour guide for most of the trip.

Our first stop was Manhattan Beach, a beautiful, clean and tranquil spot with various restaurants. We ate lunch there and took some pictures.

Later that day, we visited downtown LA, where I saw numerous homeless people, but to my surprise, they were not even close to the amount my cousin described.

In downtown, we visited El Pueblo (The Town), a vibrant, Mexican community that features authentic art pieces, clothing and dancing. People were clearly enjoying the culture in this distinct part of the city. 

The next day, we explored Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. It’s one of the most expensive streets in the world and we found exactly what you see in the movies: clean, smooth streets, lavish homes, expensive stores, tourists and emblematic buildings, such as the Beverly Wilshire Hotel where a good portion of Pretty Woman was filmed.

That night, we headed to SoFi Stadium in southwestern LA. It’s capable of holding more than 70,000 people per event. We enjoyed performances by Five Finger Death Punch—a Las Vegas-based heavy metal band—and Metallica, as we passionately sang songs such as Enter Sandman and One. 

After the concert, we planned to go back to our Airbnb to order food and rest, but our tour guide had other plans.

She decided that it was better to walk a couple blocks away from the stadium to be picked up by an Uber, but as we walked, she shifted gears and said her daughter could pick us up.

As we walked through dark alleys filled with homeless people. my frustration, fatigue and hunger intensified.

After half an hour of walking and more than six  hours without eating, we were picked up by our guide’s daughter. She offered to take us to a club. We replied with an emphatic “no!”

Despite seeing a less than glamorous part of LA, my point of view of the city continued to change for the better as we visited popular tourist spots such as Venice Beach, the Chinese Theater, the Wax Figure Museum, the Walk of Fame and the Believe it or Not Museum. 

Overall, my visit to LA was surprisingly pleasant. While there were pockets of poverty, city-sewer smells and dirtiness, these are characteristics commonly found in major cities around the world.

During the visit, I discovered a more realistic side of the City of Dreams, not the one people see in movies, nor the awful description my cousin gave. I witnessed  a mostly clean, diverse and enjoyable city.