So Day 1- I discovered I had 51 people to meet and interact with on my tour, and 12 days to do it- easy peasy!
One thing you should know about me is that I love Australians- to the point that I’ve actually changed the voice on my iPhone Google Maps to the Aussie bloke! Their fun-loving; yet chilled out; yet crazy; yet totally accepting of all things wonderful and weird nature- it vibes with me. So, lucky me that I got Bianca the Aussie babe as a roomie 🙌 We clicked straight away and she is one of the life-long friends I have made- thanks to Contiki (soppy, I know). Not only that- i’d say that 70-80% of the people on my trip were of Australian nationality.. winner winner chicken dinner! PS. not hating on any other Nationality okkkk.
To start the day, it was off to Venice Beach 🌴 Thanks to a friends recommendation, I had a breakfast goal in mind- Eggslut (yes that is the real name, and if you click the link, have a tissue ready because you’re going to drool).

Going to be honest, I don’t remember what I had because I was that desperate to just stuff my face.. BUT just ask for whatever their most popular order is and you won’t be disappointed.
Venice Beach is pretty cool- you can feast your eyes on the gym-goers of Muscle Beach 👀💪, witness some cool tricks going down at the Skate Park or if you’re English like me, and not used to sunshine- just enjoy that!
Our coach pick-up point was in Santa Monica, so what better way to work off all the Eggslut Calories than to grab a Metro Bike and cycle along the beachfront over there?
Myself and another Aussie darling of mine- Bridget even featured on the official LA Metro Bike Instagram page with the below photo 🚴♀️ Tip: Rent the bike on Tuesdays for the $2 deal!

Enjoying the cool breeze, palm trees and sunshine on our backs- we made it to Santa Monica Pier. This is well worth doing!
Only thing I would suggest is downloading the Metro Bike App first so that you can see where the station to put the bikes back is… we made the mistake of riding around for a good half an hour once we reached Santa Monica Pier as we thought there would be one pretty close!
Santa Monica Pier; did you even really experience it if you didn’t go on the iconic Ferris Wheel? We didn’t think so, hence why we did it 😊 Relax after your bike ride and take in the views of the beach.

After a chill ride on the ferris wheel, we took a slightly wilder ride on the Rollercoaster! You can get a ticket to cover both for $17 💵
If you fancy a cheeky bevvy afterwards Big Dean’s Ocean Front Cafe is a nice spot! If you get served by the Grey’s Anatomy ‘Dr Mark Sloane’ lookalike barman- even better, right? 😉
Next onto the Hollywood Walk of Fame- unfortunately the only celeb I saw was waxwork Zac Efron… I mean, it’ll do!

Also tried my hands against Marilyn Monroe’s handprints at the Chinese Mann’s Theatre.

Our evening meal in LA was at Far Bar, located in Little Tokyo. They have a gorgeous outside terrace with pretty fairy lights where we all sat and tucked into Tacos. Realistically they were probably trying to keep the noise from a 51 strong group away from their other customers, but hey ho! Thoroughly enjoyed 😊

One day down, 11 to go!