Disneyland, the Hollywood sign and the Walk of Fame are SO cliché and overdone. Check out our guide to finding the chic, original and oh-so-authentic in the most plastic city in the States.


Los Angeles – the City of Angels. It’s the sort of place our parents took us when we were nine years old and desperate to visit Mickey, Minnie and friends. These days, a return trip to this city of bright lights and heavy pollution will leave many feeling a little dry and more than a little sour – it’s a place that’s drowning in tourist traps… and even worse, tourists. Sure, you’re a tourist, but you’re not that kind of tourist, are you? Back home you enjoy a nice organic espresso while you read your Penguin Classic novel, or a tasty organic cola while you ride your fixed gear bicycle to brunch. Don’t worry, hipsters – I’m one of them too, and I’ve found the best places for us to go.


Vintage clothing


Unless you’re ironically rocking the Disneyland t-shirt Mum bought you in 1993 (as a crop top), you’re going to need some new threads. If you can work your way through the Hollywood crowds, American Vintage and Iguana Vintage are two huge superstores west along Hollywood Boulevard. Here you’ll find floor upon floor of t-shirts, shorts and sought-after Letterman jackets, as well as a huge array of cowboy boots. If you can’t stomach Hollywood, take Highland Ave or Vine Street south to Melrose Ave. Here I found yet another American Vintage, alongside a number of other excellent spots. Melrose is the sort of place you can expect to find disinterested, disaffected youth behind the counter who leave you to browse to your heart’s content! 


Clothes… and an HIV test?


One of LA’s more peculiar one-stop shops is Out of the Closet, a thrift-store-cum-HIV-testing-centre. It sounds bizarre, but profits made in the bright pink buildings generate income that helps fund medical services provided by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation. Conscious clothing shopping? Righteous. If you’ve already had a few nights in LA and made a couple of particularly foolish decisions, check through to the centre for a free HIV test.


Bringing south of the border Stateside

There are a few “authentic” Mexican places opening up here in godzone, but from one hipster to another, you’re going to want to eat a whole host of Mexican food whilst in the states. That way, when you take your friends to restaurants back home, you can rave on about your experiences and point out just how inauthentic some of the New Zealand restaurants are. You’re so well travelled!
When on the lookout for your perfect mix of beef, cheese and beans, I recommend going cheap. We’re not talking dollar tacos out of a van here (be sensible!) – we’re talking a meal accompanied by a solid happy hour! I took a long walk along West Sunset Boulevard to Mission Cantina. Mission is a warm, inviting place with a long bar to prop you up as you plough through $4 Thursdays margaritas and complimentary chips ‘n’ salsa. Like most American portions, Mission Cantina doesn’t do things by halves – your meal is likely to be twice the size of the human stomach, but so delicious that you’ll inhale the lot. 
California Games
If there’s one thing hipsters love, it’s being able to bring back the ’80s and ’90s in its full, hypercolour glory. As kids, we played the likes of California Games – where your little pixelated self roller skated or surfed its way around an 8-bit Santa Monica Beach. If you’ve got a day to spend out at the beach, pack your neon bike shorts and wayfarers, because you can live your Atari dreams out for real! 
Family-owned Perry’s is your one-stop shop for all you’ll need to cruise the beach. I stopped in for a bite to eat at Perry’s café before renting an absolutely adorable vintage Schwinn bike – just like the cool kids ride at home! Rent yourself a bike or a set of skates – just make sure you pose good and ironically outside one of the lifeguard towers for proper jealousy effect when you get home!


Buy me a drink


The end of any hip day in LA has to end in the ever cool Silver Lake district, where the jeans are tight but after a few drinks, the people are loose. The place is littered with straight bars, but in amongst these are some quite decent GLBT spots that aren’t pumping out Gaga and Madonna every five seconds. A laundry list of the local gay spots you’ll love includes Akbar and MJs for the barely legal, The Other Side, for those of you who love a bit of Dot’s Bar-style kitsch, or for the more adventurous, pack your leathers and head to Eagle. Or if you’re simply too cool and edgy for the gay club scene, pack your dollar bills and whittle your wallet away at Cha Cha Lounge – it has the flirtiest bartenders on the strip and a retro photo booth that produces real photos that will help you instil some real hipster jealousy when you get home!