WELCOME TO L.A.

Los Angeles is the largest city in California, stretching between the Santa Monica Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. Known for its beaches, film industry, palm lined streets and sprawling urban landscape, it is also a major stopover point for long haul travellers through LAX.

We landed in LA after flying from Sydney, with a few hours before our next flight to Mexico. Instead of staying at the airport, we decided to get out and see what we could fit in.

Those few hours gave us two very different sides of LA, from Cybertrucks, driverless cars and delivery robots to sunshine, palm trees, beaches and surfers along the Pacific coast.

After the long flight from Sydney, our first few hours in Los Angeles already felt like stepping into the future. We saw a Cybertruck for the first time, something we had never seen in real life before.

But the Cybertruck wasn’t the only thing that caught our attention. We saw cars driving around without anyone behind the wheel, which felt completely surreal to us. We also came across stores that seemed to have nobody working inside, with robots taking care of the shopping experience. Then there were delivery robots moving along the streets carrying groceries.

It was a pretty unexpected first impression of Los Angeles. We had imagined palm trees, beaches and Hollywood, but before getting anywhere near the coast, LA was already showing us a very different side of itself.

From the airport, we took the bus to Sepulveda and then continued by Metro towards Santa Monica. After spending so many hours on a plane, it felt good to finally be outside and moving again.

Our first proper stop was Santa Monica Pier. We walked around the pier and the surrounding park, enjoying the sunny weather and taking in the atmosphere.

There was a guy singing on the pier, people walking around and plenty happening around us. We wandered through the different parts of the pier, took some photos and enjoyed seeing one of those places we had seen so many times in pictures.

The famous Route 66 sign at the end of the pier was another little moment we wanted to see. Standing there, looking out towards the Pacific, it finally felt like we had arrived in California.

We didn’t stay for long because we still wanted to continue along the coast towards Malibu.

From Santa Monica, we jumped on a local bus and followed the coast towards Malibu. The journey itself became part of the experience, with the Pacific Ocean on one side and the hills and houses of the California coastline on the other.

As we got closer to Malibu, the scenery started to change. The busy atmosphere around Santa Monica gave way to a much more open coastline, with beaches stretching along the road.

We headed towards Malibu Pier, where we had a coffee overlooking the ocean. From there, we could see Malibu Surfrider Beach and Carbon Beach, with surfers in the water and the coastline stretching out around us.

Having a coffee there after arriving from Sydney felt like quite a strange combination of places and moments. Just a few hours earlier we had been on the other side of the Pacific, and now we were sitting by the ocean in Malibu watching people surf.

Eventually, though, we had to keep an eye on the time. Our flight to Mexico was still waiting for us.

We had spent only a handful of hours in Los Angeles and hadn’t booked anywhere to stay. Instead, we had managed to turn our long layover into a very quick road through some of the city’s coastal highlights.

From LAX, our journey continued south, with Mexico as our next stop.

It was definitely not enough time to properly explore Los Angeles, but it was enough to leave us curious about the city. We saw a surprisingly futuristic side of LA, followed by the sunny beaches and surfing culture we had expected to find.

A few hours, three stops and then back to the airport. LA was only a layover for us, but it became a little adventure of its own.

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