July 2018
As part of our honeymoon, Hollywood was the third destination on our trip.
Hotel Amarano is located at 322 North Pass Avenue in Burbank, perfect location for visiting Universal Studios, Warner Brothers Studio Tour and Hollywood central.
The hotel and rooms are elegant and accommodates all needs. There is an onsite restaurant, library lounge, pool and 24 hour room service.
We drove from Anaheim to Hollywood, so it was important that our hotel had parking. Ours didn’t – it had valet parking. However, pulling up at the the hotel to ask where is best to park, a friendly guy, who was a valet for the hotel, advised us to just park on the street in a local housing estate. Which meant it was free! We snapped up a great spot right near the side door into the hotel #winning.
I will only talk briefly about this, as it definitely requires its own blog.
Warner Brothers Studio Tour is brilliant. Its an actual working studio so you see the outdoor sets, soundstages, props etc. of productions like The Big Bang Theory, Pretty Little Liars, La La Land, Gilmore Girls, DC Universe, Harry Potter, Friends, The Ellen Show and so much more!
As it is a working studio, you are part of a guided tour of about 15 people max, and you are driven around on a golf cart – just like in the movies! It’s surreal.
If you have seen La La Land, you will know why we came here.
I had already heard of this. But, while we were on the Warner Brothers tour, our guide George, told us that George Clooney ate at The Smokehouse everyday when he was on the set of ER. George Clooney then went on to name his production company after it because it was his favourite. So for that reason, we thought we would take a visit, because why not, it was our honeymoon after all!
But back to La La Land, this restaurant features in the film – the moment Mia see’s Sebastian playing piano in the restaurant. And for that reason, we definitely HAD to go – being the massive La La Land fans that we are!
It’s located at 4420 W Lakeside Drive, right near Warner Brothers. In fact, you can see the back of it during your tour.
Rich ordered the Steak Sinatra, which was tender cuts of steak with garlic, mushroom and tomato over linguine pasta – he loved it! I ordered a chicken pie. No word of a lie, it was bigger than my head. I thought I would go hungry because there was no mention of fries and veg coming with it. It was just one big pie and it was delicious!
Obviously we came here. We already prebooked our meal and reservation through expedia – which was a three course meal each and a drink for £28 each!
Hard Rock is always in a great location – I usually choose my hotels depending on where Hard Rock Cafe is based, as I know it’s likely in a good area, close to the city centre etc.. This cafe is located on Hollywood Boulevard on the same complex as The Dolby Theatre – almost directly opposite to The Chinese Theatre.
The Chinese Theatre is a ‘movie palace’ on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, located at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard – you can’t miss it. Originally known as Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, it was then renamed to Mann’s Chinese Theatre, and then changed back to the TCL Chinese Theatre. But most still refer to it as Grauman’s so we will stick with that.
It’s big and it’s beautiful – and, of course, it’s a cinema. My favourite part of the theatre is the hand prints. There are around 200 celebrity hand prints, footprints and autographs at the theatre’s forecourt.
You can spend a while browsing, and trying to find the celebrities you love most. My favourites were Dick Van Dyke, the Harry Potter cast and La La Land cast prints and autographs.
The Hollywood Sign is something that doesn’t need an explanation. You will have seen it, somewhere. It sits on Mount Lee in the Hollywood Hills, overlooking Hollywood.
We didn’t get up close to the sign, as it is in the mountains and was out of the way from what we were doing, but we could see it in the distance while on Hollywood Boulevard.
We managed to get some pictures from the Chinese Theatre – it was a perfect spot.
The Hollywood Walk of Fame is the stars on the floor and it’s longer than you would think.
There is now more than 2,600 stars on the ‘sidewalks’ which span across 15 blocks on Hollywood Boulevard. It’s fun trying to spot your favourite entertainers, and it’s interesting to see what stars get the most attraction – Michael Jackson, Little Richard, Julie Andrews, Michael J Fox, Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse were a strong favourite for me. Interesting to see that Donald Trump’s star, yes the President of the United States, had people surrounding it and shouting obscenities at it.
The walk of fame is a great experience, although I would advise to be VERY careful of people trying to flog things to you. Tourists are an easy target.
Hollywood and Highland Shopping Mall
This shopping mall is also an entertainment complex at Hollywood Boulevard, which also includes the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and Dolby Theatre. It’s a perfect location for a little shop right along the Walk of Fame, and at the top you can even see the Hollywood Sign.
The mall is over three floors, with around 70 shops, including American Eagle Outfitters, Forever 21, Hot Topic and 25 restaurants, such as Hard Rock Café. We didn’t see it, but we heard that it also houses a bowling alley and nightclub. It’s deceiving how big it is.
Parking is available below ground of the mall, just make note of this – parking MUST be validated when parking for up to 2 hours. It can be validated at shops, restaurants and nightclubs in the mall. For $2 you can park up to 4 hours by having your ticket validated, and then it is $2 every 20 minutes afterwards. The Dolby Theatre and Ray Dolby Ballroom DO NOT validate tickets – other stores do. In fact, we just went to a tourist shop that sold keyrings etc. and they were able to validate it for us. Just ask whoever as at the checkout in the store.
The entrance into the car park is on Highland Avenue and Orange Driver and is open 24/7. Pricing is as follows: Up to 20 minutes $2; Each additional 20 minutes $2; Daily maximum $17; Evening special (flat rate) Thursday, Friday and Saturday $17 and valet parking is an additional $8. However, I believe the whole 20 minutes for $2 thing becomes irrelevant if you get your parking validated… Confusing hey!
As mentioned, The Dolby Theatre is located above the Hollywood and Highland shopping mall next door to the Chinese Theatre and is a live-performance auditorium.
I think the name also sounds a little spectacular don’t you think? It has hosted The Oscars in the past. Oo-er!
Try not confuse this with the ten-pin bowling chain.
We planned on making a visit, but their was an event on. After all, it is a world famous amphitheatre. So, we just drove passed it. Twice. Looking at it from the outside, the buildings are huge, so I can only imagine how small you’d feel when standing inside.
Again, we didn’t go in, but we drove by and took a quick snap of it! It was closed, and they don’t offer tours to the general public anymore.
Located near our hotel in Burbank, it is the head quarters for The Walt Disney Company. A tour around here would be incredible. The studios cover 51 acres with sound stages, back lots and facilities for productions.
You can have a tour around the studio if you are a member of the Disney D23 Fan Club, where tours are offered to you every couple of months.
Along with the Warner Brothers Studio Tour, Universal is going to have it’s own blog too!
So, for now, I will keep it brief…
Universal Studios is located in Universal City and is over two floors – how mad is that! I’m used to Universal Studios Florida, so I was not expecting this layout. Visiting this ridiculously cool theme park, you can see rides and attractions based around productions like Harry Potter (The BEST, obviously!), Fast and Furious, The Simpsons, Despicable Me (my least favourite), Jurassic Park/World, Transformers, The Mummy and more.
Just like Disney, there are also characters you can meet. We were fortunate enough to meet THEEE DOCTOR EMMETT BROWN, as well as Beetlejuice and Marilyn Monroe. We walked by the whole Simpsons cast too.
Next to Universal Studios is City Walk, which is a complex of shops, restaurants and Universal merchandise. If you get to Universal Studios for opening, you’ll find that hardly anything is open, apart from the likes of Starbucks. City Walks is more of an afternoon/evening kind of thing.
When the park has closed, and everyone heads to City Walk for food and drink, it does have a lovely atmosphere. It’s loud and big, but never the less a cool place to chill out at after a busy/hot day.
Hard Rock Cafe – Universal Studios
When you’re at City Walk, if you look to the other end, you see a massive light up guitar – that’s Hard Rock Café. Again, we had an Expedia voucher for a three course meal and drink, but we could not finish it. All our motivation to eat had been sapped out of us by the hot sun.
What we did eat was delicious, the Chicken Club Sandwich is always a winner. And our waiter, as per usual, was amazing. He was a Hard Rock staff member through and through – his energy and enthusiasm was exhausting to watch because we were so tired. Lol.
Overall
Hollywood is very busy. It’s beautiful and has lots to offer. But I definitely recommend stopping by for a day or so, rather than dedicating a whole holiday to it.
We drove around Hollywood, and all things considered, traffic wasn’t too bad and roads weren’t too complicated. The only thing we found a bit of a faff, at least at first, was the parking. But now we know, and so do you!
Make sure you check out our YouTube video here.
Your Own Set of Wings 
Forgot how good Hollywood is. Thanks for reminding me. Good useful information. So much too see and do.
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