Smart Traveller

In the next in our series of posts about visiting Los Angeles, we’re looking at another attraction that you can see in Hollywood Boulevard: The Walk of Fame.

The Hollywood Walk of Fame is another extremely popular and world-famous tourist attraction. It stretches from Gower Street to La Brea Avenue on both sides of Hollywood Boulevard, and from Sunset Boulevard to Yucca Street on both sides of Vine Street. If you are visiting Grauman’s Chinese Theater, you’ll notice the stars on the pavement outside.

It consists of more 2,300 pink and bronze stars, each of which is embedded in a charcoal and pink terazzo square on the pavement. Each star contains the name of a person, a band, a character, or a radio or TV show.

As well as the name of the person being honoured, each star includes a symbol, representing the category in which they are being honoured: a movie camera for those being honoured for their contribution to the motion picture industry; a television set for the TV industry; a record for the recording industry; a radio microphone for the radio industry; and comedy and tragedy masks for live theatre.

Work began on the Walk of Fame in 1960 and during the sixteen months after the official groundbreaking ceremony, 1,558 stars were put in place. The first person to have a star on the Walk of Fame was the actress Joanne Woodward. More stars have been added every year since then, at a rate of about 20 per year.

If you are visiting the Hollywood Walk of Fame, here are just some of the stars that you can look out for: Charlie Chaplin (6751 Hollywood Boulevard); Elvis Presley (6777 Hollywood Boulevard); Michael Jackson (6927 Hollywood Boulevard); Johnny Depp (7018 Hollywood Boulevard); Marilyn Monroe (6774 Hollywood Boulevard); James Dean (1719 Vine Street); The Doors (6901 Hollywood Boulevard); Britney Spears (6801 Hollywood Boulevard); David Bowie (7021 Hollywood Boulevard); and John Lennon (1750 Vine Street).

Some people have more than one star on the Walk of Fame, as they have been honoured for their work in more than one category. Walt Disney, for example, has two stars - one for his contribution to the motion picture industry (at 7021 Hollywood Boulevard) and one for his contribution to television (6747 Hollywood Boulevard). Gene Autry has the most stars on the Walk of Fame, with stars in each of the five categories.

The desicion about which celebrities will appear on the Walk of Fame is made annually, in June, and ceremonies are then held throughout the year. If you are visiting Los Angeles, it’s worth checking to see whether or not any ceremonies will be taking place whilst you are there, as they are open to the public.

The new stars to appear on the Walk of Fame in 2010 will honour the following (the categories for which they were nominated appear in brackets):

James Cameron (Motion Pictures); Russell Crowe (Motion Pictures); John Cusack (Motion Pictures); Colin Firth (Motion Pictures); Gale Ann Hurd (Motion Pictures); Alan Menken (Motion Pictures); Randy Newman (Motion Pictures); Adam Sandler (Motion Pictures); Emma Thompson (Motion Pictures); Mark Wahlberg (Motion Pictures); Chris Berman (Television); Jon Cryer (Television); Peter Graves (Television); Jimmy Kimmel (Television); Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Television); Bill Maher (Television); Sam Waterston (Television); Bryan Adams (Recording); The Funk Brothers (Recording); Alan Jackson (Recording); Chaka Khan (Recording); Van Morrison (Recording); Marco Antonio Solis (Recording); Ringo Starr (Recording); ZZ Top (Recording); Roy Orbison (Recording); Andrea Bocelli (Live Performance/Theater); and Cirque du Soleil/Guy Laliberte (Live Performance/Theater).

Lucozade is offering you and three friends the opportunity to win a trip to a cattle ranch in Wyoming, where you’ll be able to take part in a number of different activities. The competition is being run as part of the company’s Lucozade Challenge.

The prize includes four return economy flights from London to Wyoming, four nights’ accommodation at a working cattle ranch in the stunning Shell Valley and three nights’ accommodation in a remote mountain cabin. The winner and his or friends will receive intensive riding training as well as learning rope-work, cattle-reading, survival skills and fishing, and will take part in a real cattle drive across country.

The holiday dates are set (18th July 2009 - 25th July 2009), and you and the friends that you choose to accompany you must be aged between 18 and 64 and weigh less than 16 stone, due to the nature of the activities included on the trip.

You can enter the competition via the Lucozade Challenge website - you will need to confirm the details of the friends that you want to travel with, and will need their permission before supplying these details. Entries must be received by midnight on 9 July 2009.

Full terms and conditions, together with an itinerary, can be found on the Lucozade Challenge website.

Nice Côte d’Azur Airport (NCE) is situated about 7km to the west of the city of Nice, on the French Riviera. It’s within driving distance of resorts such as Cannes and St. Tropez, and is also the nearest airport to Monaco, so it’s an extremely busy airport. In 2008, more than 10 million people passed through Nice Côte d’Azur Airport.

Both domestic and international flights arrive at and depart from Nice Airport, which has two terminals. You can check which terminal you need by looking at the airlines list on the airport’s website. The terminals open at 4 a.m. each day and close half an hour after the final flight has arrived.

Each terminal has an information desk, as well as shops, a restaurant and a service centre. There are several internet areas within the terminals andthe airport has its own business centre. Terminal 1 also has play areas for children.

There are bus services from the airport to a number of destinations, including Cannes, Monte Carlo and Saint Tropez, and the town’s main train station, Nice St. Augustin,  is about 15 minutes’ walk from Terminal 1. There are also taxi ranks outside of both terminals.

One of the easiest methods of getting to and from Nice Airport, however, is by hire car. If you book your rental car online, you can pick it up when you land, and simply drop it off at the Nice Airport car hire office before returning home.