Guide To A Girls' Weekend In LA: Travel Tuesday

Guide To A Girls' Weekend In LA: Travel Tuesday

It's been almost a month since I flew to Los Angeles to spend a long weekend celebrating my birthday (our birthday?) with my twin sister Anna and our friend Kate, whose birthday is just two days prior to ours.

We've traveled together before to Austin and Mexico City and approached this trip in a similar manner: 

1) pick an area to stay
2) book an airbnb
3) make a list of restaurants
4) make a list of cultural sites
5) come up with a hashtag for the trip (#TresAmigasLA)
6) text each other what to pack
7) enjoy

Thanks to my friend Mary, we booked an airbnb in the Echo Park neighborhood and absolutely loved it. Cute little house, tons of cacti, quiet, yet walking distance to many restaurants and not too expensive Uber or Lyft ride away from other points of interest.

Yes, after some back and forth, we decided not to rent a car and had no regrets about it.

Now on to food! Overall, 90% of the meals were absolutely fabulous. In no particular order, below are some of the highlights. 

SQIRL
Luckily my friend Esi got to Sqirl earlier than us and stood in line! This is such a cute, fast moving, delicious smelling place. You'll have a hard time deciding what to get, but cannot go wrong with  their famous Crispy Rice Salad with a side of bacon. I could eat this daily!

When traveling, it's fun to find places that weren't originally on your list, and even more fun when your travel companions are happy to get a random meal in because the food/drinks sound awesome. That's exactly what happened when we walked by SAWYER and saw that they had a $14 happy hour special for half a dozen oysters and a glass of rose! We ordered three of the specials and a few other dishes and enjoyed the stunning restaurant with high ceilings, beautiful flower arrangements, and a bathroom the size of my kitchen.

Another fun thing to do while traveling is setting up play dates with friends living in that city. One of Anna's friends came over for Rose and watermelon in the backyard of our airbnb and gave us two stellar recommendations for Venice Beach area: GJUSTA and DUNE. 

Below is my breakfast from Gjusta which consisted of toast, the juiciest tomatoes, soft boiled eggs, smoked white fish, labneh, pickled onions, capers, cucumbers, and radishes. It was so good, I tried recreating it at home. 

In Dune, I ordered sabich sandwich: fried eggplant in a pita with pickled vegetables, another egg, tahini dressing and shoestring potatoes. I felt transported to Israel.

Kate saw Chrissy Teigen's tweet about NIGHT & MARKET and we loved the creative food in this super loud, colorful, hectic, and party-for-your-taste-buds restaurant. We went to Song because it was closer to our airbnb. Below is their crispy rice dish. Dreamy!

In other-than-food things not to miss:
The Broad: get your free tickets in advance
The Getty: go for the art, or simply stroll through its gorgeous flower filled garden
Frank Lloyd Wright's Hollyhock House: take the tour
Art Deco Architectural Tour

Cannot wait for our next trip!!

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