Visit Los Angeles and take a trip to Tinsletown

Glamour, glitz and great ice cream.

If you fancy a city break with sun, sea and loads of glamour thrown in, head for Hollywood. You’ve heard about it for years, and when you finally get there, it is every bit as exciting as it looks on the silver screen.

LA is the movie capital of the world, as if you didn’t know. You even fly past the huge white letters of the Hollywood sign set in the hills as you come into LAX airport.

Learn all about its early days at the Hollywood Studio Museum where the first silent film was shot in 1913.

To be honest, Hollywood has faded a bit since the glamorous ‘40s and ‘50s when Frank Sinatra and his Rat Pack hung out in the bars, but you still get some of the buzz as you sit at a pavement cafe, star-spotting.

If you have no luck seeing any A-listers in the flesh then head for the Walk of Fame on Hollywood Boulevard.

Follow it to Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, an imposing pagoda-style cinema opened in 1927 (directly opposite the Roosevelt Hotel), where celebs have left their hand and footprints in the concrete on the forecourt.

Trigger, Roy Rogers’s horse, even has a hoofprint there, and comedian Jimmy Durante left an imprint of his famous hooter.

A tour of star homes in nearby Beverly Hills is a must and there are countless to choose from.

You are quite likely to spot a star after dark on Sunset Boulevard’s famous Sunset Strip. This mile-long stretch is packed with chic shops, restaurants and clubs.

Eateries range from the very upmarket Ivy, where you may wait two weeks for a reservation, to McDonald’s.

I found an absolutely brilliant burger bar where the waiting staff, in typical Hollywood fashion, perform for the benefit of the clientele. Treat the kids to a trip to Disneyland at nearby Anaheim.

This is Walt’s first Magic Kingdom and is much smaller than its rivals in Florida and France, but still worth seeing.

Also on your Must See List should be Universal Studios in the San Fernando Valley. The famous studio backlot tour takes you past familiar film sets including the Bates Motel from Psycho and the lagoon from Jaws.

If you need some space and just want to chill out for a while, head for the seaside resort of Santa Monica, up the coast from Malibu.

This is where Baywatch was filmed. You might not catch the babes but you will enjoy the pier with its rollercoaster, ferris wheel and arcade games.

Hire a bike from one of the many waterfront kiosks for just £15 a day and cycle 20 minutes along the beach path to Venice Beach.

It’s a more Bohemian area, where hippies offering every kind of psychic and spiritual service imaginable set up stalls next to the beachside cafes, craft markets, art displays and boutiques.

Downtown LA has had a huge resurgence lately and here are my highlights:

Popular New York City ice cream shop Big Gay Ice Cream will be opening their first California brick and mortar location in Downtown Los Angeles this spring following two successful LA pop-ups in the Big Gay Ice Cream truck.

This will be owners Douglas Quint and Bryan Petroff’s first ice cream parlour outside of New York.

Flavours have stand-out names such as Salty Pimp (vanilla ice cream, dulche de leche, sea salt and dipped in chocolate) Gobbler (pumpkin butter & maple syrup or apple butter & bourbon butterscotch, pie pieces, whipped cream) the Mermaid (vanilla ice cream, key lime curd, crushed Graham crackers, whipped cream).

There are more details at biggayicecream.com.

Downtown LA’s South Broadway is being lauded as LA’s next big shopping stretch. Some new and forthcoming store openings in the area include fashion label Acne Studios which opened in December with Aesop and Tanner Goods following suit.

In Grand Central Market (the “Gateway” to Downtown which opened in 1917 and has echoed the changing population of the neighbourhood for more than 100 years), Belcampo Meat Co. has opened a station of the boutique butcher shop.

The shop offers a wide array of free-range grass-fed meats. Dishes for the Downtown location include a twice-cooked duck bun, a signature cheeseburger with dry-aged beef and a Marrakesh Cheesesteak with seared goat leg, harissa aioli and feta cheese.

For more, visit belcampomeatco.com/restaurant/los-angeles.

The Arts District of Downtown Los Angeles has welcomed EightyTwo, an arcade for those aged 21 and over.

EightyTwo offers a modern spin on the classic arcade and features a rotating collection of 40 restored, playable arcade and pinball machines from the 1970s to the ’90s.

The venue is complete with a tree-covered outdoor patio, nightly DJs and innovative cocktails served in jam jars. For more details, go to eightytwo.la.

The Broad Museum on Grand Avenue, showcasing the contemporary art collections of philanthropists Eli and Edyth Broad will launch in 2015. www.thebroad.org. Oh, where to stop? You just need to get there yourselves and experience that glitz and glam.

British Airways Glasgow to Los Angeles via Heathrow. World Traveller £664.51. See ba.com. Also, discoverLosAngeles.com has some superb neighbourhood guides and tips on what to see and do, where to stay and the latest LA events.