30Traveler – Travel Podcast  

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Los Angeles Stopover Trip Report. What I did for one my 1 night, 2 day stopover in Los Angeles. Falling asleep on the beach, a farmers market and the most delicious Strawberries I ever ate. A fun couple of days in the summer California sun. Places mentioned: Vegan Glory (Inexpensive Thai Food and Vegan Fast Food, Beverly Hills) Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach, Wholefoods Market South Sepulveda Blvd, Manhattan Beach public library, Motel 6 LAX, Redondo Beach farmers market is Thursday mornings.

This is another one-take-wonder podcast episode – fun and tip-filled but lots of ums. Sorry! Travel Podcast, Budget Travel.

Subscribe to get new episodes by searching 30traveler in itunes.

Thanks for listening. Hope you enjoy!

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Hawaii Trip Report. My AWESOME beach holiday. Finally recorded another podcast episode after a long period of podcasting slackness. Had an amazing time! Have gorgeous beach pics and will put some on the blog at www.30traveler.com. (Pics to come soon. Promise!)

This is another one-take-wonder podcast episode – fun and tip-filled but lots of ums. Sorry! Hawaii Travel Podcast, Budget Travel.

Subscribe to get new episodes by searching 30traveler in itunes.

p.s. its a few months since I paid any attention to this site and I have 3000 spam comments and a similar number of spam emails, so if you left a non-spam comment or sent a non-spam email, big apologies that your message got lost. Please resend if you still want to contact. 30traveler (at) 30traveler .com

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I’m going to be spending the next few months in the US. I’ll be subletting an apartment in New York, but will be getting there via stopovers in L.A. and Boston.

This episode of the podcast is about how to see TV and Movie Filming in New York or Los Angeles. 10mins

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The podcast also contains info about how to see red carpet arrivals at movie premieres.

I wrote a blog post on this topic here – How to see TV and Movie Filming in New York or Los Angeles .

Websites mentioned in the podcast are

OnLocationVacations.com

Twitter search

Still lots of ums, sorry!
Happy travels.

Frugal Traveler Matt Gross writes a smart mix of international and US-centric articles for the New York Times.

Great source of tips for grown up budget travelers.

For example, on a recent trip to San Francisco with his one year old daughter in tow he stayed in a “gorgeous Victorian house for which we were paying $90 a night” that he found through “AirBnB.com, a Web site that lets people rent out their futons, spare rooms and entire apartments to travelers like myself; it’s a cross between Craigslist, CouchSurfing and VRBO.com.”

US citizens who want to tour the White House can arrange it through their Congressperson. However, international visitors who want to tour the White House can make a request through their embassy.

Tours are only for groups comprised of a minimum of 10 people but your embassy may be prepared to try to group you with other tourists from your country to make it possible.

This is the information I got from the New Zealand embassy in Washington in February 2010.

START:”The Embassy can submit tour requests for New Zealand nationals and their guests visiting Washington DC. The self-guided tours are available from 7.30am to 12.30pm, Tuesday through Saturday and are assigned on a first come first served basis. Please supply for each person wishing to visit the White House:
Full Name
Date of Birth
Citizenship:
Passport Number:
Required visit date:
Contact detail just prior to the requested tour date (email and telephone number as well as the name and telephone number of your hotel in Washington DC)
Unfortunately, submitting a request doesn’t mean a tour is guaranteed, as there are limited tours available. Tour approval can often be last minute so you may not hear until very close to the tour date.
The Embassy keeps a list and tries to make up a group of ten. If we can’t, then we are unable to put in the request. Just supply the details of your passport etc and we will notify you one way or the other nearer the time.”STOP

Non-US citizens can tour the US capitol building (free) without arranging it in advance.

Good luck!
30Traveler

Ok, so this is more of an under 30s tip – possibly more an under 20s tip!…

If you’re going to be in Los Angeles or New York and want to know the locations where movies and TV shows will be filming outdoor scenes, you can find the information on a website called onlocationvacations.com.

Where does the info come from?

Often its from parking permits i.e., signs that say there will be no parking on a particular day due to filming.

You can usually only find out the day and not the specific time prior to the day of the filming.

But, on the day, plenty of people will be commenting on the OLV website and twittering so you can get more detailed info.

Sometimes the filming is on location but inside buildings or in other closed off areas, so aim to see outdoor scenes.

I’ve done this, using info from OLV and Twitter, and it was a lot of fun. But I was on very long trips so didn’t mind waiting around until the action started.

Last year in NY I watched some filming for Eat, Pray, Love with Julia Roberts. The filming I saw was in Brooklyn, very close to my apartment.

Movie premieres are another option for seeing celebs. Often you can actually buy tickets to premieres or you can hang out at the red carpet and watch people arrive. Definitely a fun experience and premieres usually involve less waiting around than trying to watch filming since the red carpet arrivals will be shortly before the start time of the movie.

I saw Meryl Streep arrive for the Julie and Julia movie. Other celebs who were there and did the red carpet included Anthony Bourdain and Martha Stewart.

I also saw Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt a few years back at the premiere of one of Angelina’s movies.

Sometimes I’ve just stumbled on filming e.g. was in central park and walked into filming for the TV show Gossip Girl.

If you’re in NYC and see big white trucks, they’ll often be production company trucks and you’ll know that filming is happening. Or, you’ll see production company parking permit signs stuck up along the street (usually A4ish), often stuck near parking meters.

If you know a particular movie/TV show is filming in the city you’re in try using the Twitter search function to find additional info.