- Ten things to know before
you go to Hollywood Boulevard. I'm Chris, this is Topher and today I'm joined by a special guest. - Ernest from Tripastube. Thank you Chris for
letting me join you today. - Absolutely, and so today
we're gonna tell you everything you need to know about
visiting Hollywood Boulevard and Ernest doesn't actually
live that far from here, so he's gonna give you
some local knowledge about Hollywood Boulevard. The first thing to know before you go to Hollywood
Boulevard is that it's really not as nice
as you think it is. I guarantee you, seeing Hollywood
Boulevard on the Oscars, in the movies, it looks glamorous, it looks glitzy, it is not. And you might be looking
at the video saying, "Chris it looks pretty nice". We are starting at the
nicest part of Hollywood. It's full of a lot of cheap,
tacky souvenir stores, low-budget restaurants,
street-performing entertainers. We'll talk more about them later and so just be prepared
for a little bit of grit when you come to Hollywood. - Absolutely and Hollywood
is just one of those places where it's so big and people just think "oh, Hollywood is just a small town" but it's huge and there's
so many little hidden gems all over the place. If you wanna see more of Hollywood, you gotta escape the main street here and actually look around. But, today we're gonna
focus on Hollywood Boulevard and we'll see where it takes us. So the second thing you
should know about Hollywood is that you should park at the
Hollywood Highland mall. This place has a ton of parking and you can get validation from most of the businesses in the area. Also, the maximum is $17 so you
won't end up spending an arm and a leg just for parking. - So you might be inclined
to think you're smarter than Ernest and say, "I'm
not gonna take his advice. "I'm gonna park at a parking meter, "there's tons of street
parking around Hollywood." You're right, there is
tons of street parking around Hollywood but don't do it because the signs around here and the parking instructions are crazy. I'm gonna show you this sign right here. This is right now in front
of the Dolby Theater. There's this sign, this is
no parking on Saturdays, no parking on Sundays, tour
bus parking from eight to 10 and something else that's
a five minute limit. I mean, you have to
decode all those things, just park in the parking
structure at Hollywood Highland and don't worry that your car is either gonna be towed or ticketed
when you get back. And they do tow cars here if you're really in a big no-parking zone. The third thing to know before you go to Hollywood
Boulevard is about the Subway. Yes, Los Angeles has a Subway and it's one of the best
ways to get to Hollywood, better than driving because
you won't sit in the traffic. Best of all, it's $1.75 per ride. And there's three stops
on Hollywood Boulevard, Ernest, what's the best ones to get here? - I think the best one is either Hollywood and Vine or
Hollywood and Highland. So, definitely check those two out. - Yeah, Hollywood and Vine, it'll bring you to the Pantages Theater, so if you're seeing a show, there. Or where we started that would
be Hollywood and Highland. - Absolutely - There's also Universal
Studios Hollywood stop on the red line that's
not Hollywood at all but, Ernest, do you recommend
Universal Studios Hollywood, do you like it? - I think it's a cool place. I mean it's definitely worth checking out if you haven't seen it before. It's definitely a big tourist
attraction here in LA, so-- - Yeah - definitely worth checking out. - Well we'll talk about Universal
Studios in another number. - The fourth thing to
know is to take a photo with a street performer. Unfortunately, these guys are not here out of the kindness of their hearts. They will expect some
compensation if you take a photo with them and they will
be a little bit forceful. - And so, we're not telling
you to not take photos with them, just so we're clear. They are here to make money and sometimes people will be happy to take a photo with Chewbacca
who's in the background. Just know they do expect some money after you take that photo. It's probably best to negotiate
the price upfront so then you're not caught shocked when
they say, "that'll be $10." Speaking of pictures and souvenir stores, I know earlier I said the souvenir stores here are pretty crappy. If you're gonna come into
one, come into this one, it's on the corner of
Hollywood and Orange Boulevard, right next to Madame Tussauds wax museum. It's really cool, it looks
neat and you can come in and take a picture here with the predator. - For free. - Good deal. The fifth thing to know before you go to Hollywood
Boulevard is about the food. Most of the food you're gonna stumble on in Hollywood Boulevard is
pretty mediocre and overpriced. (people chatting) but if you want some better
options that are also cheap, check out The Deck on top of the Hollywood and Highland mall. It's on the top floor, it's a food court with a few cheap eats options. Pokinometry, really good
and they do good poke bowls or go one block over to
Sunset, Sunset Boulevard, there's an In-n-Out Burger that is the busiest In-n-Out
Burger in all of the US. But what if you want higher
end, nicer options Ernest? - Well, yeah if you're looking
for something a little bit more fancy like a sit-down type place, I definitely recommend doing a Yelp search in advance just to make sure. You're probably not gonna stumble across something just by
walking down the street and you can always check
out our other video which is the Ten Things
to do in Hollywood. We cover a couple of the
restaurants in more detail. The sixth thing to know about
Hollywood is making movies. Ironically, they're not
made in Hollywood anymore, they're actually made in Burbank. - Yeah that's where most
of the major studios are and if you wanna see
Hollywood productions, you'll pretty much have
to do a studio tour. Warner Brothers, Paramount
Pictures, Universal Studios all do studio tours so
you can check those out. If you're in Hollywood, the closest thing you can do to experience motion pictures, is take a tour of the Dolby Theater. If you are planning to take
a tour of the Dolby Theater, buy those tickets when you get here first, because they're timed tickets and then plan your day around that. - And you can always go, I
guess, to Universal Studios from the Metro Station as well. - Yeah, that's a easy way to get there and then it goes right
here, on the Subway. One stop from, two stops from Hollywood and
Highland to Universal Studios. The seventh thing to know
is about the Hollywood Sign. You can see it behind us right there. You actually can't see it in many places on Hollywood Boulevard, we had to come in front of this vacant
lot to shoot this scene. We saw it 'cause a tour bus stopped and was taking pictures of
this lot, well, of the Sign. Another great place to see the Sign is at the Hollywood Highland mall
on the third or fourth floor, you can see it from there. But that Sign, it didn't
initially just say Hollywood, it said Hollywood Land and it was built to originally advertise a real estate area and then in the forties they changed it to just say Hollywood. It's been there ever since. - I think what's funny too is that if you try to get to the Hollywood Sign, and you put it in Google Maps, it's gonna take you to the Observatory. It's really hard to get there
and a lot of it has to do with the fact that the people there, they just don't want you driving
through their neighborhood. So actually, what we recommend, if you wanna go see the
Hollywood Sign, is to hike to the tree which is on
the left side of the Sign. There's this tree called the Wisdom Tree. If you hike up there,
you can actually hike across to the Hollywood Sign (sirens wailing)
and get a good look at it. The eighth thing to know
about Hollywood are the stars. The stars are actually known
as the Hollywood Walk of Fame and actually, in order to get a star, you can actually get it in
five different categories. - So let's take a look
at those categories. If you take a look at this
star, it shows all five of them. Here, we have movies. Stars can earn them in television, they can earn them in radio,
they can earn them in recording and the newest one, they can earn them in live
performance or theater. The ninth thing to know before you go to Hollywood Boulevard is a little more about the stars. These stars, they're like awards and they're given for somebody
receiving a certain amount of recognition but they're not free. Actually, these stars have to be paid for and they have to be maintained. Ernest, how much do you
think these things cost? - I have heard they cost
about 30 to $40,000. So, we should totally get one I think. - Yeah
- You and I we should totally get one.
- We totally should. And so somebody has to sponsor people and so, if you think Ernest and Chris and Topher should get a
star, put it to Hollywood, we could totally get that sixth
category done for YouTubers. - The tenth thing to
know about Hollywood is that celebrities can have multiple stars. For example, we talked about it earlier that some stars might have
one for a movie or for music. Actually, you can have multiple ones and there's some stars
that have the same name in different categories. For example, Michael Jackson appears twice on the Walk of Fame but it actually is a
different Michael Jackson. - And the most admirable star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Gene Autry. Gene has stars in all of the categories. Five stars for Gene Autry. And right here, we're at
Jennifer Lopez's star, which is the 2500th star on
the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Well hey, we hope you enjoyed this video and there's one more thing to know. We've got more videos, we
did a Things to Do video, you'll find the link in
the description below or if you wanna see more from Ernest, check out his channel over at Tripastube. Ernest, it's been great
doing this video with you. - Thank you Chris, I really appreciate it. - Yeah
- Great doing this with you.
