Los Angeles

Los Angeles - city of dreams and dreamers, where fame and fortune is won and lost in the roll of a casting agent's dice. Here, in the entertainment capital of the world, make-believe is king, and the line between fantasy and reality is fine indeed.

Under an unbelievably blue Californian sky in year-round balmy sunshine, film sets, flawless tans, glitz and glamour are as much a part of the LA lifestyle as call-backs, burger bars and the criss-cross of freeways carrying a stream of cars to every corner of the city.

In fact, the territory that is often referred to as LA, is Los Angeles County, and Los Angeles 'proper' is just one of the 88 cities within it. Beverly Hills, West Hollywood and Malibu are all separate cities, and other major attractions such as Disneyland are not even in LA, but next door in Orange County.

Still, it's easy to get around on the metro system - not yet 15 years old - and renting a car will get you everywhere else.

In true Tinseltown proportions, there's no end of things to see and do. For star spotting, take a tour of Universal Studios, snoop around Bel Air with your copy of the 'Star Home Map', or make do with peering at their hand- and footprints immortalised in cement outside Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood.

Not to be missed is the recently opened Walt Disney Concert Hall. This stainless-steel clad architectural feat is now home to the city's philharmonic orchestra.

For upmarket shopping, there's nothing quite like Rodeo Drive, and for earthier produce head downtown for Little Tokyo, Chinatown, the Mexican marketplace on Olvera Street, and the city's largest outdoor foodie haven, Grand Central Market.

To flex your pecs and top up your tans with the best of them head to Venice Beach, and for decadent nightlife, it's got to be Sunset Strip. Who knows, you might even be 'discovered'.