Low cost travel to Los Angeles. An arduous, if not almost impossible, undertaking. Once you have landed on your Star Alliance Round the World flight, the first thing to do is to get a cars. Forget visiting this city without it.
You have two options: an early rental or rent a van. It can cost you too 80 $ per night, but you can use it as a camper! To sleep instead try to see ads on craigslist.com: many students are willing to host you in exchange for a few dollars. Avoid low cost hotels and hostels, they are often disreputable and badly positioned. If you are looking for an upscale hotel without spending a fortune, find great deals with Avalon Beverly Hills.
Once you have found accommodation and means of transport what to do in LA? It is not a city where it is easy to find your way around: so better have some GPS app on your phone. Or a great road map. Two must steps to start are Venice Beach e Santa Monica, along the famous Los Angeles beach. Park 3-4 blocks from the waterfront (parking costs a madness in LA, even $ 40 a day), perhaps close to the excellent Cafè Inteligentsia. In this way, before you immerse yourself in the crowd that runs, skates, skates, walks along the ocean you can get lost in the flowery canals of Venice (so called not by chance).
Stroll along the ocean pausing to listen old hippies playing the blues, they sell necklaces and all kinds of tools for smoking marijuana (phantom doctors will offer you the opportunity to try Marjiuana Medica). To eat look for a chain like Le Pain Quotidien: good food at reasonable prices.
Next stop: Beverly Hills. And here anything becomes prohibitive. One solution to try some good local restaurants is to look for some good deals on Groupon: here the new restaurants offer super discounts to launch new businesses (4 new restaurants open every day in La!).
Much cheaper Hollywood, unfortunately it no longer offers the elegance and charm of the 20s. To look for the stardom you have to wander around TV studios like CBS (eat for $ 15 at Tart-Farmers Daughter, say I sent you to the GM and will give you an extra discount). If you want to see a movie set go to instead Downtown especially on Sunday mornings. When the city is very quiet and perfect for shooting any scene.
To visit DisneyLand (the new attraction of Star Wars is not to be missed!) and Universal Studios has no special offers. However, some hotels offer packages with discounted admission. Otherwise you have to be a journalist and request a free pass for the attraction.
Los Angeles is famous for its nightlifeas insane as it is impenetrable. Tourists usually end up in horrible nightclubs or Hard Rockcafè paying absurd prices ($ 20 just for parking, $ 15 for a cocktail). LA insiders know that though following twitter and some local fan page you can have a VIP admission for $ 5 or full VIP for $ 30. Try to follow the Avalon Club offers or the droidnights mailing list (for those who love EBM and techno) or the DnB fanzines. If you are looking for something more exclusive, look for some evenings dedicated to the Forbidden city. And watch out for private parties along Mulholland drive! Pretend you are an Italian lifestyle photographer and no one will stop you from entering.
