Avoiding Valet & A Nice Stroll On Rodeo Drive
By Kevin Wilkerson, PubClub.com Travel Blogger
Beverly Hills threw me a curveball the other day.
I had to reach low, almost into the dirt, to get my hit, and it took taking a few pitches to find my spot.
But find my spot I did and was safely on base, all to use baseball analogies.
It used to be that there was free parking in Beverly Hills. This was one of my PubClub.com Los Angeles “secrets.” So when I went to a travel blogger’s mixer at the Montage hotel, I planned to roll up a couple blocks away and slide into a free spot.
I confess I did not fully read the invitation to the event, so I could not recall whether or not it involved parking. Probably not at this place, I figured, and I did not want to pay the valet fee ($20?) plus a tip. Hey, I’m on a PubClub budget – and that’s a lot of beer money!
Anyway, it used to be that you could park for free in the residential areas. Great spots for this were always just south of Wilshire Blvd. There’s ample parking, the streets are wide, they have very little traffic and they are safe. In a way, they are an oasis from the clogged and busy scene just a block or two away on Wilshire and up to Santa Monica Blvd.
Yet when I rolled up on a back street and started looking for parking, I was confronted with all kinds of anti-parking signs. “You Are Entering A Permit Parking Zone” one read and I know Los Angeles well enough to know that where parking permits are involved, you had better not park there or risk a huge fine and perhaps even a tow.
Avoid those places like the 405 at rush hour.
This caught me by surprise so I began analyzing the situation. I turned on a couple of streets that appeared to offer parking after 6 p.m., (and it was about 6:05) but that was a tease. Many places were just one-hour parking until 6 a.m.
Twice, I parked and walked up and down the block to read all the signs and twice, I had to go look elsewhere for parking. I eventually did find a spot; apparently most of the evening free spots are west of Rodeo Drive.
This made it a six to seven block walk to the Montage but that’s okay. I got to stroll by the ultra-plush Beverly Wilshire – the Pretty Woman hotel – at Rodeo and Wilshire where I saw super-rich people sitting on a patio nibbling on small plates and walked past a Rolls Royce and Lamborghini parked prominently at the entrance.
When I pulled up to the valet at the Montage – on foot, not in a car – I cruised past people waiting and getting in and out of their cars and cooly walked into the hotel.
After the event, I returned to the car and it was in the same place, with no ticket, validating my decision to park in that spot.
So back to the baseball analogy, I hit a home run when it came to parking for free in Beverly Hills. I guess it wasn’t a curveball they threw at me but maybe more like a hanging slider. Still, I adjusted and knocked it out of the park.
Cheers!
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