Tourica 2016 - New York / Los Angeles

If you haven’t been following us recently, then you won’t know that we spent the past month in America - on a trip we decided to name Tourica, after seeing nearly too many concerts to remember (read our first tour diary here to catch up!).

After spending a week in the chilly San Francisco, we headed to warmer climates for the rest of the trip - in the form of New York City and Los Angeles.

We’ve teamed up with Glassons to showcase what we wore on our trip in a visual tour-diary (with some travel tips included from yours truly!) - check it all out below…

NEW YORK CITY

The city that never sleeps. It also is a crazy place to visit in Summer - the heat is almost unbearable at times, but thank goodness for good air-conditioned hotel rooms.

First things first, if you’re wanting the best view of the city, you’ve got a couple of choices. We chose to go up the Empire State Building as well as The Rock - and both give incredible views of the city:

Museum of Modern Art

Known more commonly as MoMa, the iconic museum is a must-see thing to tick off the New York bucket-list. It’s a huge place, so be prepared for lots of walking, you could really spend all day here if you wanted to! There's a stunning outdoor garden too, where you can stop to have a bite to eat, or to take photos.

Above and below:
Tortoise Cat Eye Sunglasses - click here to purchase.
Classic Bomber Jacket (Bayou) - click here to purchase.
Velvet Choker (Black) - click here to purchase.

In the immense heat, having a thin bomber jacket to drape around your shoulders is so practical - no sunburn! Shop the look below:

Metropolitan Museum of Art

If you’ve ever watched ‘Gossip Girl’, then you’ll remember The Met more fondly as the place where Blair Waldorf and her cronies would each lunch on the steps everyday. It’s another iconic historical building that you must visit (the largest art museum in all of NYC!), and it sits right on Central Park, making it convenient if you’re wanting to check out the park at the same time.

Welcome to my dream home (I wish)!

Above:
Drover Chelsea Boot (Mocha) - click here to purchase. Chelsea boots are ideal for wearing on long days of visiting museums, as your feet don't get sore - and they also don't expose your feet to the dirty New York sidewalk. Shop them below:

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

Worth heading to just for the building itself, the Guggenheim museum is a piece of stunning architecture. It’s worth checking out who’s exhibiting at the time of visit, as if it’s someone you’re not interested in then the museum isn’t as exciting.

Madison Square Garden

We were lucky enough to catch Halsey’s last instalment of her Badlands World Tour at Madison Square Garden, and it was a show to remember. You would’ve seen the show if you follow Glassons on Snapchat as we gave a sneak peek into the show (but follow them for future CDM Takeovers @glassons), or you can read our full review of the show here.

The Highline

An old rail-line turned park is a pretty strange concept, but anything goes in New York. It’s a nice walk to do if you get bored of walking on the scorching hot pavement, as the trees and plants galore give a little shade. There’s rad views of the city from up there too.

LOS ANGELES

We were fortunate enough to be staying in an incredible Air BnB when we went to Los Angeles, where we stayed with an adorable dog named Puck, who loved nothing more than to photobomb our photos.

Above:
Drover Chelsea Boot (Mocha) - click here to purchase.
Classic Bomber Jacket - click here to purchase.

Below:
Classic Bomber Jacket - click here to purchase.

If you wanna look exactly like Selena Gomez when she first rocked the ‘pyjama’ look in public, Glassons has got you covered. They’ve got satin silk bombers, as well as shirts - and they’re not only super comfy, but super cute too!

Above:
Silky Piped Blazer - click here to purchase.

Los Angeles Country Museum of Art

After visiting LACMA, it’s now one of my favourite museums of all time. If you want to go to a museum in LA, make it this one. There’s so much variety of art, and a mix of contemporary, interactive works (the James Turrell which you walk inside of will blow your mind), as well as huge collections (they’ve currently got a Guillermo Del Toro exhibition that has so many different props and original items).

There’s also this fun outdoor sculpture that you can walk through and feel like you’re in a huge bowl of noodles.

Above:
Retro Style Sunglasses - click here to purchase.

The Broad

We went to The Broad to see ex-Vampire Weekend member Rostam's solo show - which also included access to the galleries after hours. It's usually a super crowded gallery, so seeing it after the general public had left made it even better.

Above:
Classic Bomber Jacket - click here to purchase.
A-Line Button Skirt - click here to purchase.

Universal Studios Hollywood

The newly opened Harry Potter world at Universal Studios Hollywood is amazing - they've built their own Hogwarts school which you can explore before the ride. There's also themed food places within Hogsmeade, as well as too many gift-stores to count. You will most likely leave the area with some form of Harry Potter related trinket (I left with multiple Hufflepuff pins and a patch), but it's totally worth it.

Malibu

Less than a 40 minute drive from Los Angeles, Malibu is filled with stunning beaches - the below one was even used for a The Last Shadow Puppets music video:

There's plenty of cute cafes around too, if you need a break from pretending to be a character from 'The OC'.

Disneyland

It truly is the happiest place on earth. We spent two days at Disneyland - one at the main theme-park, and the other at California Adventure Park, and it was genuinely the best way to spend two days in America. There’s some old, kinda dinky rides, but some incredibly thrilling rides too - Space Mountain and Tower of Terror, I’m looking at you.