Honestly a van tour of Hollywood and Beverly Hills was my wife's idea of a good time. Our family spent five days in LA. And I knew I would get talked into taking a movie star home tour, but wasn't looking forward to it. Then the lines at the amusement parks were long. The Dodgers beat my team. Things were not looking good for our May vacation. And then it's time for this damn driving tour of LA, and believe me, I had been doing all the driving on the vacation so being in a car was not my idea of fun.
How wrong I was. This movie star home tour turned out to be the highlight of our Los Angeles vacation. The weather, cool but sunny, was as if ordered up by the Gods as we drove in this open top van through the city. So comfortable. We went into the hills and got a stunning view of LA, including the blue Pacific in the distance! While in the hills, we saw homes of Katie Perry, Quentin Tarantino, Justin Timberlake, Sacha Baron Cohen and Drew Carey. In Beverly Hills, we saw Playboy Mansion, Beyonce and Jay Z's rental house, the house where Michael Jackson died and an Elvis house. We saw the house that was used for filming OJ's home in a TV show I lived, "The People vs. O.J. Simpson.
We even saw a celebrity. Strolling around a Beverly Hills park was none other than Brian Wilson, the genius behind all the great Beach Boy songs. The Beach Boys were a favorite band of mine in college and Wilson was kinda my idol. Seeing him was not only a highlight of the vacation, but a thrill of a lifetime. He waved to us after the entire bus yelled "Hello Brian!"
My youngest son is really into cars. We saw and got good pictures of a $3 million Bugatti in Rodeo Drive, the place where all the rich folks shop.
The only bad part was that it came to an end. After a two hour cruise in the beautiful LA weather I wanted, in the words of the Beach Boys, the "fun, fun, fun" to continue. Oh, and we also got to see all the rock music history of the Sunset Strip.
The tour we chose was sensational. And it was just damn luck 'cause we were walking the street in Hollywood, passed a couple of sales agents, and were charmed by a guy named Tony. The tour turned out to be every bit as good as he said it would be. And the price was decent - he gave us a discounted rate of $25 per person, and this turned out to be a deal compared to the price of beer at Dodger Stadium. Did I mention that those Dodgers beat my beloved Tampa Bay Rays?
If you go to LA, the lines will be long at the amusement parks, the beach kinda ordinary, the Dodgers might beat your team, but do not pass up a chance to really see the city with "Hollywood Sightseeing - Open Bus Tours.'