I had the “opportunity” to travel to LA for a couple of weeks, la few weeks ago. Very interesting experience, I must say.
First, just to give you some context, I actually spent my time at a client's location in Beverly Hills. I stayed in a neighboring area called Westwood, which is a college student hang out since it's adjacent to UCLA.
For starters, Beverly Hills did NOTHING for me. Sure, it was cool to see the “Beverly Hills” sign and the signs of and areas that are always seen on TV. I saw Trader Vics, Wilshire Blvd, Santa Monica Pier (more on that later), Rodeo, Merv Griffin Road, etc, but that's all there was too it. Even Rodeo wasn't that big of a deal. I went up and down it and it looked like every other nice-town shopping district...except with more expensive stuff in it that you could get cheaper somewhere else.
Traffic sucks. Everywhere. It's wild that the locals build their lives around this phenomonon. Most are AT THEIR DESKS by 7am. Come 3pm, no matter what they're doing - on the phone, in a meeting, in the bathroom - they'll drop everything and make for the door. Sure, the folks on our project didn't have the luxury mostly, but it was obvious by the rest of the offices being empty that that was the normal occurance.
The air sucks. I hated it and felt like crap the whole time I was there. From the time the plane de-pressurized at LAX to the time it de-pressurized in STL, I felt terrible. It's probably something about having air you could chew, if you elected to breathe through your mouth.
The food ROCKS! I didn't have a bad meal the whole time I was there. For sure, there are an abundance of places to go, and some were better than others, but given the “type” of food we choose to have, all of it was great. It'd be hard to put a high-class seafood place (The Lobster) in the same category as a slide-to-your-seat greasy college sandwich shop, but they were both excellent for their categories.
Since I mentioned The Lobster...if you're on the ocean, on Ocean Avenue in fact, just at the entrance to the Santa Monica Pier, you have GOT to get to this restaurant. It's a trip. I'm a big boy and I could hardly finish the 2.5lb spiney lobster they wheeled to my plate. ...and that was the small one. They apparently had these fellas up to 6lbs. Of course, the “shells” you'll lay out go up considerably as the fare gets larger.
Overall, LA is a nice place to visit, but I couldn't live there. However, even the locals don't live there. They all lived in surrounding 'burbs on average an hour away. Crazy.