This week on I Want to Work In (#iwtwi), we are featuring the top five places to eat, sleep, work, play, and study in Los Angeles. This list will help you familiarize yourself with the city being featured in case you are interested in living and working there in the future!
TOP 5 PLACES TO…
LIVE
- Santa Monica – Beach town with great restaurants and bars. The pier is pretty touristy, but still a fun day excursion. I lived in Santa Monica throughout grad school and could walk everywhere. The weather is perfect, too, a lot cooler than some of the more inland areas.
- Venice – An even more laid-back beach town.
- Culver City – Has a great walkable downtown area with bars and restaurants.
- West Hollywood – Really has two areas – the height of ‘scene’ Los Angeles with top expensive housing and restaurants, but WeHo also has a thriving LGBTQIA+ community too.
- Westwood – UCLA’s college town
EAT
- Shin Sen Gumi – favorite ramen in LA.
- The Culver City Hotel – a date night kind of restaurant with live jazz and dancing on the weekends.
- The Misfit – great cocktails and walking distance to the Santa Monica Beach.
- Cassia– Southeast Asian cuisine with a raw fish bar.
- Upper West – whiskey bar with great food – must get ahi tuna tacos.
PLAY
- Will Rogers State Beach
- Hollywood Sign Hike– there are so many hikes in and around LA but this is a personal favorite.
- The Huntington Library – art museum and botanical garden.
- Museums – both the Getty and LACMA are great places to spend the day, there are often special events such as the Dapper Day at LACMA.
- Weekend Trips – LA is central to San Diego, Palm Springs, Big Bear, Mammoth, and Santa Barbara.
STUDY
- Bodega Wine Bar – open for snacks and coffee throughout the day, turns into bar and restaurant in the evening.
- 10 Speed Coffee – my favorite oat milk latte in LA and also has a great vibe for doing work or studying.
- Stoner Park – walking distance from my apartment and the perfect place to study outside
- Will Rogers State Beach – bring your notes or flashcards
- My Apartment – my apartment complex has a small pool area that is perfect to study next to, I’m so thankful to have this area during quarantine!
MEET PEOPLE
- Malibu Wines – wine tasting and picnicking in the Malibu hills, the perfect place to meet with friends and also make new ones
- Abbot Kinney – a street in Venice with restaurants, shops, and bars – ice cream from Salt & Straw is a MUST
- Runyon Canyon Hike – a short and very popular hike near West Hollywood
- Perch – a downtown rooftop bar, the perfect place to network after work
- The Grove – shopping mall central to everything with great food and people watching, visit the farmer’s market
FUN FACTS
- There are 841 museums and art galleries in Los Angeles County. Los Angeles has more museums per capita than any other city in the world.
- The Hollywood sign originally said, “Hollywoodland.” Hugh Hefner once donated $900,000 to preserve the 138 acres around the famous sign.
- The average traveler in Los Angeles experiences 72 hours of traffic delay per year.
This month, ‘I Want to Work In’ is sponsored by PPI, A Kaplan Company, the Preferred ARE Prep Provider of the AIAS.
Looking to venture to a new city after graduation? Stay tuned each month as we highlight a new city. Want to feature your city? Send an email to mailbox@aias.org.