Get L.A. advice on Travelin’ Local

Travelin’ Local welcomes tourists to the Southland and gives a guided tour complete with good-quality photos, walking maps and budget-conscious attractions for families as well as independent travelers.

What’s hot: Hyperlocal blogs are all the rage, so I’ve had my eye on Travelin’ Local for a while now. It’s written by Lisa Newton, a relatively recent East Coast transplant to Los Angeles, and she shows off her new city as if she’s been here longer than just a few years. Tourists will find the “Where to Go” and “Metro” sections most helpful for getting to know the different neighborhoods and how to get around. Those more familiar with the City of Angels will appreciate the “Play” section for such posts as “Los Angeles’ 59 Swimming Pools” or a local’s escape at Coldwater Canyon Park, which Los Angeles magazine called “one of the 300 best reasons to stay in Los Angeles.”

Two areas of this site not to miss: Travelin’ Local’s upcoming free event calendar in the right-hand sidebar and the “Walk My World” feature for Google maps of selected walks, peppered with the author’s photos.

What’s not: The subtitle of the site says, “Los Angeles to San Diego and everything in between,” but I struggled to find much content on San Diego or destinations an hour or so south of L.A. There are categories for destinations in the “Where to Go” section but none for San Diego or north Los Angeles County as there were for other greater L.A. subsets such as Malibu, Pasadena and Marina del Rey.

-- Jen Leo