January isn’t typically thought of as a top month to vacation in Los Angeles (except perhaps for fans of the Rose Bowl Parade). This winter, though, there’s such a plethora of whales and dolphins off the coast of Los Angeles, that it’s worth the trip for marine mammal lovers. My friends at MomsLA have proof, in video form, of the amazing quantity of dolphins and whales cavorting right off shore. It’s a great season for dolphin and whale watching cruises in Los Angeles!

MomsLA, a local blogging group of which I’m a proud member, was invited by Aquarium of the Pacific to see those dolphins and fin whales. Skip to about 1:20 for the whales; that’s a special sighting. These are fin whales: they are the second largest mammals on earth, right after blue whales. This video captures some of the thrill of seeing whales right off a tour boat — the rocking of the camera even made me feel that little bit of queasiness I’m prone to while on the open water.

Also off the coast of Los Angeles area this winter are a large amount of orcas, commonly known as killer whales.  The Aquarium of the Pacific’s whale research biologist, Kera Mathes, says she has never seen this many killer whales off the coast of Southern California before. She told the LA Times, “There were so many it was hard to get a good count.” Other tour boats reported having seen between 20 and 40 at a time, swimming along the Long Beach/Dana Point coast. Dolphins, fin whales and California gray whales are also swimming along the coastal area around Los Angeles, making for the most exciting winter whale watch cruises Los Angeles has ever had. The last time orcas were seen right off the coast of Southern California was 2005.

A whale-watching trip is, needless to say, just one of the many fun things to do in Los Angeles.  Seeing whales flip their tails before a deep dive is an unparalleled thrill, and one that’s typically associated with travel to Alaska, Baja Mexico, or Hawaii. These whales aren’t going to stay here forever, though. Anyone planning to travel to Los Angeles in the winter is advised that the migratory patterns of gray whales is such that chartered whale watching cruises never guarantee a whale or dolphin sighting. However, this month, it seems to be as close to a guarantee as you can get.

Whale watching cruise companies in the Los Angeles area include the following:

• Cabrillo Whalewatch — Three locations for daily departure: Long Beach, Redondo Beach, and San Pedro. Departure times vary and the tours end at the end of march each year.  Cabrillo Whalewatch tours include a naturalist onboard and are sponsored by both the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium and the local chapter of the American Cetacean Society.
• Davey’s Locker — Newport Beach, one of Southern California’s swankier beach towns, is home to this whale watch cruise. One 65-foot boat leads the tours, while other boats are used for rentals and chartered fishing trips.
• Dolphin Safari — my family participated in one of Captain Dave’s Dolphin and Whale Safaris a couple of years ago, and we all loved it. His catamaran’s two underwater viewing pods make this a wonderfully unique way to see the marine mammals up close and underwater.
• Harbor Breeze Cruises — This is the whale watch cruise company associated with the Aquarium of the Pacific, and all cruises depart from Long Beach. There are two or three whale watch tours a day until April, annually.
• Newport Landing Whale Watching — Like Davey’s Locker, this is based in Newport Beach. However, there’s both general admission and private tours available, and nonrefundable deposits are required for group bookings.

Now, not everyone is comfortable on boats. Some people get nervous, others, seasick (though Bonine helps with the latter). The National Park Service states that the best onshore place to view whales is the Point Dume area of Malibu, due to its proximity and elevation. Over 200 California Gray Whales have been seen off the shores of Los Angeles this January alone. And the dolphins? Too numerous, and frisky, to count! Anyone traveling to Los Angeles this winter should consider taking advantage of this unexpected boon, and book a whale watching cruise. It will add a touch of adventure to a Southern California vacation.

Los Angeles

Last year, there was only one Travel & Adventure Show in Los Angeles. This year, the Los Angeles area gets two travel shows. The Los Angeles Travel & Adventure Show will be January 14-15 at the Long Beach Convention Center, and the Los Angeles Times Travel Show will be January 28-29 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Both will have a lot of destination exhibitors, several hands-on activities on the sidelines, and speakers and panels talking about travel.

Full disclosure; I own Los Angeles Online Travel, which is a media partner with Unicomm for the Los Angeles Travel & Adventure Show in Long Beach. I’ll also be moderating a panel on Saturday January 14th about some of the best travel apps. I’m planning on attending both travel shows.

Here is an excerpt of a blurb from the Los Angles Travel & Adventure Show:

• Southern California’s Largest Travel Show Returns to Long Beach for 2012—The Only Place You’ll Find Over 400 Destinations, Top Speakers & Travel Experts in One Great Location. Now in its seventh year – the Los Angeles Travel & Adventure Show is your ticket to discover authentic travel experiences, snap up the deals, win trips and giveaways, and be entertained and delighted at this amazing travel extravaganza. You’ll hear travel tips from the experts including travel legends Andrew Zimmern, Samantha Brown, Pauline Frommer, Peter Greenberg and Patricia Schultz. Experience ziplining, dive in the scuba pool, and see cultural performances. NEW for 2012! Test your taste buds at the Culinary Stage and International Fiery Foods Challenge. Whether you want to escape to the Caribbean, discover the thrill and beauty of Costa Rica, or see America like never before you’ll meet the experts who can help you plan and book your next trip. – Bon Voyage!

Now, it’s worth noting that several of the fun activities at the Los Angeles Travel 7 Adventure Show will also be available at the LA Times Travel Show, two weeks later and in downtown Los Angeles. Different speakers of equal stature will be there (including, curiously, Arthur Frommer. Note that his daughter Pauline is coming to the Show in Long Beach).

Here is an excerpt of the Los Angeles Times Travel Show’s press release blurb:

• Exhibitors representing destinations around the globe, from the warm waters of the Caribbean to Alaska’s glaciers, will present a wide variety of options to satisfy every traveler’s palate. The Travel Show will also feature activities designed to provide a mini-vacation in the heart of downtown L.A. Attendees will have the opportunity to hop on an exhilarating zip line presented by Ecuador Ministry of Tourism, “walk on water” inside bubble rollers, climb a rock wall and glide down a rappel tower. The show’s Culinary Stage, sponsored by Tourism Ireland, will serve samples of regional and exotic cuisine. Performers representing cultures from Africa to Japan will also add to the international atmosphere and The Times’ award-winning Photo staff will be shooting exclusive souvenir photos.

Tickets for both are $10. Coupon code LACOT will bring the ticket price down to $7 at the Los Angeles Travel & Adventure Show this weekend, and coupon code LATPR brings the LA Times Travel Show’s admission cost down to $8. Parking costs are additional at both as well. Only the powers-that-be know the real reasons why Unicomm and the LA Times have parted company, but it certainly makes for an interesting January. Any travel fan living in Southern California should consider attending both!

This has been a pretty big year in terms of theme park news. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios Orlando broke all kinds of attendance records, and added to the significant lift that Orlando as a whole saw in terms of family travel visits. Its west coast counterpart apparently took notice: Word is out that Universal Studios Hollywood is going to build its own Wizarding World of Harry Potter attraction. This, on top of the new King Kong 360 3-D ride and soon-to-open Transformers: The Ride, will make Universal Studios Hollywood even more of a contender for California theme park travel. And to think — Universal Studios Hollywood was a pretty big travel attraction before all these big movies-turned-theme-park-rides. Harry Potter is only going to make it a more popular tourist destination.

Here we see Tom Williams, Chairman and CEO of Universal Parks & Resorts, Ron Meyer, President and COO of Universal Studios, California Governor Jerry Brown, Barry Meyer, Chairman and CEO of Warner Bros, James and Oliver Phelps, who portrayed Fred and George Weasley in the Harry Potter films, and Zev Yaroslavsky of LA County's 3rd District

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios Hollywood hasn’t even broken ground, and won’t be open to Los Angeles area visitors until 2014.  But if it’s anything like the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando, it will be an absolutely huge, incredibly popular attraction. When Harry Potter opened in Universal Studios Orlando, the lines were intense to the point that the attraction made the US nationally televised news. Theme park tourists were so eager to experience the Wizarding World those first few months that park staff had to keep track of how many guests were exploring the area, and only let new guest in when others left. In other words: hold onto your sorting hats, Los Angeles denizens, the tourists are coming.

Now, I am not the biggest fan of the Harry Potter franchise, though I did read the first four books (at that point, my kids’ interest petered out so I went back to my adult fare…like The Hunger Games). But even I couldn’t help but get completely caught up in the magic and fantasy of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios Orlando. Everything, from the Hogwarts Express train to Hogsmeade Village, to the entertaining queue line for the Forbidden Journey simulator ride in Hogwarts Castle, is done perfectly, with imagination and attention to detail. I can’t wait for the attraction to open here in Los Angeles; it will be fun to taste butterbeer again!

Hogsmeade Village at Harry Potter Universal Studios in Orlando...and soon(ish), Hollywood!

There’s not a lot of information out there yet about the plans for Harry Potter at Universal Studios Hollywood, but I’d assume it won’t be an exact replica of the Orlando version. The Hollywood property isn’t nearly as sprawling as is Orlando’s, so another attraction may have to be replaced or reworked. Plenty of unexplored aspects of the books and movies could be represented; there’s a lot to work with in the universe author J.K. Rowling created, after all. Surely there will be the castle-based school, though, and Hogsmeade Village. Just speculating here, but perhaps Diagon Alley will be part of Universal Studios Hollywood’s version of the Harry Potterverse. Presuming that the architects in charge of designing the Southern California version of the attraction will focus on detailing other shops and stores, this could be the perfect opportunity for us Muggles to take a seat at the Leaky Cauldron.

Raise a pint (of butterbeer) for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter coming to Universal Studios Hollywood

J.K. Rowling has said, “I am delighted that The Wizarding World of Harry Potter has been so popular with fans since the opening of Orlando last year and I am sure that the teams at Universal and Warner Brothers will bring their expertise and attention to detail to Hollywood to make this new experience equally as exciting.” Good to know that Universal Studios Hollywood has her stamp of approval…although the theme park surely wouldn’t be able to create the new attraction without her explicit say-so in the first place. Nice, though. The poor gal probably needs the money.

The three best golf courses in Los Angeles are all on the west side, in private country clubs. The Bel-Air Country Club, Riviera Country Club, and the Los Angeles Country Club all speak to the upscale neighborhoods around them; Bel-Air, Pacific Palisades, and Holmby Hills are leafy, green neighborhoods far from the urban bustle of downtown Los Angeles. The naturally rolling hills, balmy climate and hint of ocean breezes all bring to mind the Scottish birthplace of golf, minus the driving rain and bitter winters. And ancient castles – but that’s another story. It’s no wonder that the best golf courses in Los Angeles are all on the west side; the typically upper middle class golfing residents don’t have to deal with Los Angeles traffic to get to their favorite courses.

There are other pristinely maintained, beautiful golf courses in Los Angeles, of course — the Beverly Hills Country Club’s comes to mind comes to mind — but it’s a shame for golf fans traveling in Los Angeles that the top-tier ones are in members-only clubs. Greens fees cost hundreds of dollars for guests! Integrating a few rounds of golf into a Los Angeles vacation isn’t hard, though; the top three public courses hold their own against the private golf clubs. Rancho Park Golf Course is probably the busiest and most popular municipal course, so reservations are strongly recommended. Industry Hills Golf Club at Pacific Palms was named the 2010 Gold Course of the Year by the National Golf Course Owners Association — not too shabby! Trump National Golf Club is also public, with ocean views and upscale amenities The Donald himself would appreciate. All have very reasonable green fees, and the collected fees are money well-spent. You can see where your money goes: The grounds maintenance is great at all properties, and the staff helpful and quick to respond.

Say you’re planning to travel around Los Angeles, and you’d like to play where the pros have. The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) runs an annual series of golf tournaments for women golfers from February to December. This past year, two of the international tours were played in California; the Kia Classic and the Kraft Nabisco Championship. Now, the Kraft Nabisco Championship was played  in Rancho Mirage, at the Dinah Shore Tournament Course (lots of those Palm Springs-area golf courses and streets are named after Rat Pack-era stars) in the Mission Hills Country Club. Stacy Lewis won that tourney. The full-field Kia Classic was played at Industry Hills Golf Club in the City of Industry. Sandra Gal took home the purse.

While Rancho Mirage in in the Palm Springs area (itself a mecca for luxury golf courses), the City of Industry is in Los Angeles, just east of downtown LA. Industry Hills Golf Club at Pacific Palms Resort, in the City of Industry, has two courses for a total of 36 holes: The “Babe” and “Ike” courses were named two of the “best Places to Play” in Southern California by Golf Digest. These sprawl out over 650 acres of smooth greens and challenging elevation changes in a gorgeous resort area. No wonder the Industry Hills Golf Club was voted Best Golf Course in the USA by the NGCOA and was a runner-up for Reader’s Choice 2010 Best Course & Best Resort.

The best golf courses in Los Angeles may be in members-only clubs, but the public courses here are pretty fantastic too. Remember that Southern California’s bar is high to begin with. Golf lovers hoping to knock out a few rounds while on vacation in the Los Angeles area shouldn’t hesitate to avail themselves of one of the top public golf courses. After all, if it’s good enough for the LPGA, it should be good enough for everyone. Suffice it to say, those women know their stuff. The top public golf courses in Los Angeles help stretch the travel budget of a golf lover’s vacation in Southern California.

This is a sponsored post. The Vacation Gals were hired to write this post about golf courses in Los Angeles and the LPGA.

One aspect of Los Angeles that tourists and locals have to contend with is the frequently miserable, road-rage inducing traffic. While some of the city’s bad reputation is unjustified (there’s plenty of culture here), there really is an unfortunate love affair with the car in LA. Public transportation exists but is underutilized, resulting in traffic jams galore. Fortunately, there are some pretty decent ways to avoid traffic in Los Angeles and improve the quality of your Southern California vacation. These tips won’t enable all travelers to avoid all traffic jams in Los Angeles, but they’ll help reduce your time on the road so you can get back to what you really want to do in LA — have a fun time.

You know you're doomed when this is the onramp

Tips to Avoid Traffic Jams in Los Angeles

1. Even La-La Land follows the same general rules of traffic as all large US cities: traffic’s at a peak during rush hour. If your travel plans allow you to avoid driving during rush hour, you’ll reduce the stress associated with sitting in your car waiting for your vacation to kick into high gear.  Also, some freeways are more jam-prone than others. The 101 freeway at the 405, the 10 freeway heading downtown, and the 5 freeway by the 10 are our worst offenders.
   

   Red means heavy traffic, green, easy-peasy. Ignore the Solvang, not sure how that got there.

2. Los Angeles is a huge sprawl, yes, but it’s really made up of many distinct neighborhoods. Is going on a freeway absolutely necessary? If you’re just traveling somewhere a couple of neighborhoods away, surface streets are your best bet. Planning alternate traffic routes is a good travel tip in general, but never more so than when driving in congestion-prone areas like Los Angeles.
3. For freeway traffic especially, use a live mapping feature like Google Maps’ traffic feature on your smartphone. Smartphones have good traffic features – the iPhone’s Google Maps traffic feature is fast and reliable, while my clunky old Blackberry takes longer to load updated traffic information. Rental cars can come with GPS devices with this feature as well. But remember; keep your eyes on the road in front of you, not the one on the screen.
4. Unless you’re a solo traveler, don’t be shy about those High Occupancy Vehicle (“carpool”) lanes. I can’t tell you the number of times that driving in the HOV lane has saved me around 30 minutes’ worth of driving. There’s a sort of grim satisfaction to be gleaned from whizzing by all the poor saps stewing in their own juices, sitting alone in their cars on the traffic-filled freeway.
5. Here are the local Los Angeles traffic update radio stations: KABC 790 AM, KFWB 980 AM, KFI 640 AM, and KNX 1070 AM. This last is a 24-hour news station with “traffic on the 5′s.” Program your rental car’s radio so that one of these is preset.

So those are some tips for avoiding traffic in Los Angeles, but hey, how’s this for a suggestion: Don’t get in your car unless you absolutely have to! Seriously, we here in LA may have some pathological need to drive even a few miles, but there is a subway (limited though it may be), and there are bikes. Don’t make our pathology, your pathology. Since Los Angeles is one of the top 4 most popular vacation destination cities in the US, some of that traffic isn’t entirely our fault. Although…yeah. Most of it is.

Rain AND a traffic jam; this'll take a while

Los Angeles

Star Wars in Concert sporadically tours the country, but nowhere is it better than at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. These photos of Star Wars in Concert at the Hollywood Bowl can capture only part of the enthusiasm and downright joy of the crowd. Really, for a Star Wars fan, it’s the best place to see and hear the concert.

The Hollywood Bowl is the largest outdoor amphitheatre in Los Angeles, with a maximum capacity of over 17,000 people. Star Ways in Concert played two consecutive nights at the Hollywood Bowl, to near-sell out performances. The fun started long before the concert started, with lots of little children running around “battling” with plastic light sabers and toy zap guns. Here’s a photo of a guy wearing my favorite T-shirt of the event.

Little kids weren’t the only people excited about Star Wars in Concert at the Hollywood Bowl. I overheard a group of giddy 20-something year olds talking about their road trip here from Flagstaff, Arizona — and a family a few rows ahead of us drove down from Reno, Nevada. The children who dressed up for the show were adorable, though some kids might argue that they were not adorable, but in fact, absolutely terrifying to behold.

The Hollywood Bowl hosts concert series by the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the summertime (the LA Phil most often performs in downtown Los Angeles’ Walt Disney Concert Hall), along with pop, rock, and country. It’s fun to have shows start at dusk, and as nightfall progresses, the shows generally intensify. Star Wars in Concert at the Hollywood Bowl made full use of the dark, with laser shows, three large projection screens, and a smoke machine.

Anthony Daniels, aka the Voice of C3PO, narrated the show. He certainly seemed to relish hamming it up, and the occasion when he quoted the uppity droid sent the audience into a frenzy of joyous screaming and applause. At one point he opened his suit’s jacket to reveal a shiny gold vest — huge reaction from the crowd.

After the intermission, the smoke machine’s puffs hit some projected lights, and visions of Star Wars spacecraft appeared. My 9-year old and her friend were so impressed by this (relatively simple) effect: It was great fun listening to them jabber excitedly about the special effects at the Hollywood Bowl.

Remember how I described the Star Wars in Concert as being best seen and heard at the Hollywood Bowl? Well, the laser show can be replicated anywhere and lots of people across the country share an affinity for the Star Wars music and saga — but Los Angeles is home to many of the people involved in the creation of Star Wars. After the Star Wars in Concert show appeared to be over, there was one more surprise in store for the audience: John Williams himself strode on stage (massive applause) to conduct an encore of the Imperial March. That’s colloquially known as Darth Vader’s theme. What an encore!  The crowd went nuts. Surprises like that are among the reasons that Star Wars in Concert is such a fantastic experience at the Hollywood Bowl.

Los Angeles

It’s kind of exciting news for the luxury travel market; a new Ritz-Carlton hotel opened in downtown Los Angeles. Downtown LA has undergone such a complete transformation from a few years ago that it’s almost unrecognizable as being the same place. The Walt Disney Concert Hall, home to the Los Angeles  Philharmonic, brings class to the downtown area, and the entertainment complex LA Live is a huge draw to live shows. The best indicator of downtown’s renaissance is the new Ritz-Carlton hotel near LA Live. After all, the Ritz-Carlton corporation would never build a new luxury hotel in an area that seemed tenuous.

I enjoyed strolling around the hotel, and having an incredibly dinner with another couple. We dined at the WP24 Restaurant & Lounge by Wolfgang Puck: It’s on the 24th floor. Wolfgang Puck, 24th floor…WP24 — get it? The four of us were treated impeccably — and it only turned out when the bill arrived that the waiter didn’t know we were there to review the joint! This speaks to the high level of service at the Ritz-Carlton (though of course the name is one you’d associate only with very high standards). I really appreciated knowing that we hadn’t been treated any differently than other guests of the restaurant or hotel; this meant that everyone was treated incredibly well. The entrees were primarily Asian, with an emphasis on dumplings for starters.

As the evening progressed and we worked our way through martinis and wine, the waiter impressed us with both his knowledge regarding what wines would go well with which items on the menu. He also matched our joviality while remaining professional. The other diners and people in general seemed to enjoy being there, as there’s a certain life to the WP24 that makes it a fun place to be. It was a delicious, terrific meal, and I recommend WP24 wholeheartedly for anyone wishing to class it up in sometimes crazy downtown Los Angeles.

The rest of the hotel is commendable as well. There are 123 guest rooms and suites here, along with a rooftop swimming pool (heated), a Ritz-Carlton Spa and Club Lounge, and babysitting and limousine services available upon request. While I was treated to a couple’s dinner at WP24, I didn’t experience other aspects of the hotel first-hand.

Keep in mind, this is a cosmopolitan hotel in an urban area, rather than one of the Ritz-Carlton luxury resort properties. Sprawling grounds are replaced with vertical architecture, and on-site golf exchanged for a deluxe spa, enhanced concierge recommendations and assistance with nearby Los Angeles activities, and quiet refined dining with a festive yet sophisticated ambiance at WP24.

Anyone seeking luxury lodging in the downtown area of Los Angeles, California should look into this Ritz-Carlton hotel. It’s so nice to be able to walk around this vibrant, thriving center of the city, and then relax in the splendor of a Ritz.

Los Angeles