LA skyline. Photo / 123RF.com
The sprawling city of Los Angeles can be intimidating to a first timer - or even a repeat visitor. With so many neighbourhoods, how do you know where to begin? Those in the know should head to West Hollywood, or WeHo as it's affectionately known.
Just 300ha, WeHo borders the City of Beverly Hills and old town Hollywood, (where you can trace the stars on the footpath). It is framed by the best and most legendary parts of Sunset Strip. Within this chilled-out neighbourhood, which features a feast of 60s and 70s design architecture, you'll find a plethora of design stores. And between Sunset Strip and Melrose Ave, entertainment industry greats own investment properties and party at some of the best restaurants, bars and hotels Los Angeles has to offer.
Coming in from the airport, tell your driver to take you via La Cienega Boulevard, for the most direct route.
Choosing where to stay in WeHo is part of the fun. Many hotels offer areas where guests and VIPs freely mingle, so it's easy to have a "Hollywood moment". Try mixing it up and staying at a few hotels so you can be guaranteed myriad experiences.
The hotels in WeHo are as glossy as their cousins down the road in Beverly Hills, with the hottest spots including The London, The Mondrian, The Chateau Marmont, The Andaz and, just off Sunset Strip, Sunset Marquis, Petit Ermitage and Sunset Tower Hotel.
Just off Sunset Boulevard, The London is a sexy hotel, and a great place for celeb-spotting. Movie parties are often held there as there's a viewing theatre just off the lobby.
One of two parties held during our stay was for Kong: Skull Island; we spotted Taylor Swift's former flame Tom Hiddleston happily posing with fans. There's plenty of action outside the hotel too - the infamous nightclub Viper Room is on the doorstep. It's bound to be a good place to be single, too - dating app Tinder's headquarters are across the road.
For something with a more boutique vibe, try Petit Ermitage just two blocks down the road. It doesn't have the modernism of The London and The Mondrian - think more French salon-style rooms with incredible postmodern art decorating the hallways and French Baroque music playing. It feels like the kind of hotel where you're in on a very cool secret.
The average price per night for a WeHo hotel is about $US400 ($554), but for a truly A-list experience - with a truly A-list price tag - head to The London Penthouse Suite. This two-storey 1022sq m rooftop oasis is the largest and most luxurious suite in LA, featuring original, custom interiors by international designer Vivienne Westwood.
A master suite adjoins the living room, with its own cute corner bar . . . just be careful not to spill red wine on the custom-made Westwood rug.
The most impressive part of this penthouse is the deck. At more than 460sq m and bigger than the hotel's own rooftop pool area, this deck would comfortably host 100 of your closest friends. Depending on your negotiated length of stay, you'll be looking at paying up to $US20,000 a night here.
WeHo's most enigmatic address - the art deco Sunset Tower Hotel on Sunset Strip - boasts townhouse suites that have been a playground for celebs since the late 1920s, with semi-permanent residents having included Howard Hughes, Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor. These split-level apartments have 6m-high ceilings and are often the location for exclusive private parties.
Some of the poshest suites in WeHo can be found at Sunset Marquis, with the one-bedroom Grand De Luxe hospitality villa often occupied by celebrities preparing for award shows. At close to 140sq m, the villa is one of the largest in WeHo with dining room, full kitchen, living room, grand piano, fireplace, balcony and private lift.
One to add to the bucket list is The James, which is being constructed smack in the middle of the Sunset Strip. Due to open in April, this hotel is luxurious but still affordable, and is set to shake up the neighbourhood. It features two towers which link indoors at reception and an outdoor atrium with unobstructed views of Los Angeles. It is likely to be the place to rival current Oscar and Golden Globe after-party venues.
Posing by the pool is an easy way of being discovered, or getting invited to the coolest parties in town.
The exclusive pool bar scene at The Mondrian and its neighbour The Standard attracts young actors and reality-star wannabes, who hang out during the daytime hoping to turn heads. If you'd rather blend in than stand out, the Chateau Marmont gives the best of both worlds - head there for lunch overlooking the pool and enjoy some great Hollywood people-watching. Another option is The London - the hotel has so many rooftop areas that it's perfectly normal to be hanging out at the bar in lounge attire, while having a chat with swimsuit-wearing starlets.
For a more exclusive scene, Petit Ermitage's pool is available solely to hotel guests and the action around the pool, restaurant and lounge decks will take you seamlessly into dusk. Once the sun has gone down, a DJ session unfurls into a night-time all-inclusive party.
If you just want to swim, The Chamberlain and Grafton on Sunset are slightly more budget-friendly hotel options, but still have that "only in Hollywood" pool vibe.
The golden rule when dining out in LA is to book at least a month in advance to secure a table at that sought-after hotspot. If you need a last-minute reservation, ask your hotel concierge to book somewhere for you.
E.P. & L.P., on the corner of La Cienega and Melrose, is one of the area's top spots. It is split into a downstairs restaurant (E.P.) and a rooftop bar (L.P.) and Aussie co-owners David Combes and Grant Smillie provide a welcoming atmosphere for visiting Kiwis. The shared plates at E.P. will leave you feeling light enough to enjoy the vibe upstairs at L.P., where you can drink and mingle while enjoying great views back up towards the Hollywood Hills. When darkness falls, the lights of the neighbourhood make anything seem possible.
A few blocks south down La Cienega is classic Italian spot The Nice Guy. The comfy booths and dim lighting give a feeling of a bygone, Rat Pack era, but it also attracts more recent superstars like Kanye West and Selena Gomez. The place isn't big, so if you pick the right night you could find yourself in close quarters with the great untouchables.
Back on Melrose, several blocks to the West, is Catch - opened less than two months ago, it now sees paparazzi on duty round the clock. In its short time open, the seafood rooftop restaurant has already hosted models Alessandra Ambrosio and Taylor Hill, as well as Hollywood stars Gerard Butler and newly single Tobey Maguire. The outdoor deck, which wraps around the large restaurant and lounge, is open from 5pm to 2am and is the best place in WeHo for people watching. Although its all-star guest list has made it hard to get a booking, it's not impossible - you'll just need to book at least a month ahead and be flexible with your choice of days. This place is a must.
A block down the street on the corner of Robertson is Cecconi's, a modern Italian restaurant with decadent surroundings. The establishment has connections to famous private members' club Soho House. Give the right tip to the Cecconi's staff and they may just enable your entrance to the most exclusive spot in Hollywood.
A travelling companion said the staff at Cecconi's had been on point with their advice a few nights earlier.
On WeHo's fringes, the Doheny Room on Santa Monica Bvld is flanked by restaurant Dan Tanas, where the local sheriffs go to get a good steak, and the Troubadour, where Elton John played his first US gig in 1970. The room circling the main bar is a fine spot, but it's the VIP bar upstairs where you really want to be. Here, you pay for table service and money speaks all languages. Make friends with one of the heavily Botoxed young starlets - if you can persuade her to put down her phone - to help you get upstairs. Once you're there, it's a lot easier to get your friends up too.
If you'd rather buy your way in, a $US1500 minimum payment will get you past the queue and straight to a VIP table at Bootsy Bellows nightclub on Sunset, part-owned by David Arquette. Your payment gets you two bottles of $US750 vodka . . . and no doubt plenty of new friends to help you drink it.
The night we were there, Jason Derulo sang live in the middle of the dance floor, before getting involved in a brawl at closing time on the packed sidewalk . . . with TMZ cameras capturing every moment.
The key to being seen in LA is keeping yourself in tip-top, paparazzi-ready condition.
If you are really going to live like a local and get the ultimate LA Snapchat or Instagram selfie, you have to hike the Hollywood Hills. Famous Kiwi expats (and last week Julian and Fatima Savea) all do the Runyon Canyon route - where you are bound to see a sprinkling of stars and their pets getting fit on the steep slopes. Runyon is a little easier than the Griffith Park Hike Trail. Our start was made easier by being picked up by the lads from Bikes and Hikes LA, who set a nice path adventuring up to the Hollywood sign and Griffith Park Observatory. Aim for morning or late afternoon to beat the midday heat.
WeHo is home to some of the fittest people in the world, including former Wallaby Luke Milton, owner of Training Mate gym. Late nights enjoying VIP table service may not make you want to jump out of bed for an early-morning fitness session, but a class at Training Mate is totally worth it. At 9am on a Saturday, his class was full of beautiful people. Not surprising - Milton has become a much-loved fitness personality and is one of the celebrity trainers in Khloe Kardashian's new fitness show, Revenge Body.
His outrageous training session was refreshingly fun.
"Ricardo must have a bakery at home," he bellowed during our class. "His buns are SO hot."
Catching up with your fellow classmates afterwards is a better way of making new friends and in-the-know contacts than a Friday night trawling the bars.
Over on Sunset, SoulCycle is $20 well spent. The class is not easy - 45 minutes of intensive cycling early in the morning - but it's made to feel like a night club, with a motivator as the DJ. It would be perfectly understandable to stop pedalling for a while and just watch, especially if you're on a bike behind regular clients David Beckham and Lady Gaga.
Getting there
Air New Zealand flies direct from Auckland to Los Angeles with one-way Economy Class fares starting from $899.
The 'Southern Link' will directly connect Aotearoa to Argentina by year's end.