When giving tours or talking to prospective students, we like to talk about how safe our campus is (because it really, really is).  One of the phrases we like to use is “UCLA is surrounded by the 3 Historic B’s: Bel Air, Beverly Hills, and Brentwood”.  The more time I spend in LA, the more time I have spent discovering these three areas.

Bel Air: A very nice/expensive neighborhood.  Now, I have no personal experience in this neck of the woods, but I have heard it is very nice to go running in!  I may not know much about this area, but I hear it has a pretty ‘Fresh Prince’.  It is right across the street from UCLA’s residential area.

Beverly Hills: When you think of things like Rodeo Drive, you are thinking of Beverly Hills.  My friends’ dad got to be best man in Rob Schieder’s wedding (the actor in “The Hot Chick” and “Benchwarmers”).  The wedding took place at the Beverly Hills Hotel.  This is a very fun area to explore and do some window shopping (because everything is out of my budget!).  There are some great finds here, such as Sprinkle’s Cupcakes, Crumbs Cupcakes, Urrth Caffe, and just a bit further away is Millions of Milkshakes!

 

Brentwood: Typical “Westside” vibe.  Brentwood is easily my favorite of the three B’s.  Everything is extremely accessible via the Big Blue Bus.  There is a great Farmer’s market, good restaurants, and cafes.  One UCLA student hot spot is “Coral Tree”, a cafe that also has great breakfast and paninis.  They once even made an elephant out of the foam for my mocha!  Another gem is “Sweet Rose Ice Cream”.  They make their own organic ice cream in some crazy flavors! Today I sampled some Earl Gray ice cream and ordered a waffle cone with caramel apple with granola ice cream! It was so good!

Exploring the nearby area has been great!  From the Getty (which I went to for the third weekend in a row) to cafes, there is always something to do just a bus ride (or bike ride) away!