The City of Angels Solo: Hidden History, a Haunted Surprise, and Unplugged Exploration.
When I took my first solo trip to Los Angeles back in 2016, smartphones were already glued to everyone's hands, and Instagram was dominating travel culture. But I didn't care about the feed or the filtered aesthetic. I wanted to truly explore. I wanted to see the iconic sights—the classic glamour of the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the ocean breeze on the Santa Monica Pier—but I wanted to experience them with my eyes, not through a screen.
Little did I know, my desire for an uncurated, authentic adventure would lead me straight into booking a room at one of the city's most famously haunted locations: The Cecil Hotel.
Checking Into "Hotel Death"
I’ll be completely honest with you: I didn’t choose the Cecil for the thrill. I thought I had just found a great, budget-friendly base in Downtown LA. At the time, the massive Netflix documentaries hadn't come out yet, but the hotel already held a heavy, unmistakable atmosphere.
Hollywood movies love to dramatize these places with flickering hallway lights and creaky, vintage cage elevators. The reality was much more mundane—the elevator was just a plain, modern replacement, and the hallways looked entirely ordinary. I didn't take any photos of the hotel during my stay; I was too busy staying present and taking in the city. But what happened inside my room at 1:00 AM didn't need Hollywood special effects to startle me.
1:00 AM: The Back-and-Forth
I was fast asleep when the sound of rushing water woke me up.
The Shower: My bathroom shower had turned itself on, completely full blast, out of nowhere.
The TV: I got out of bed, walked into the bathroom, and shut the water off. The second I stepped back into the bedroom, the television clicked on by itself, humming with static.
The Cycle: I walked over, turned the TV off, and right on cue, the shower started blasting water again.
Exhausted from a long day of exploring and realizing I was locked in a bizarre back-and-forth with something I couldn't see, I finally just stood there and said out loud to the empty room: "Look, I acknowledge you, but please just let me sleep."
Believe it or not, the room went quiet, and I managed to get through the rest of the night.
From Haunted Hallways to Coastal Sunsets
The beauty of solo exploration is the stark contrast you get to experience. After a night of light, jumpy sleep at the Cecil, escaping to the wide-open coast the next day felt like a total reset.
I spent my days walking past the historic movie palaces downtown, tracking down the stars on Hollywood Boulevard, and finally catching the sunset over the Pacific from the Santa Monica Pier. Experiencing LA completely solo forced me to pay attention to everything around me.
Even though my hotel choice turned out to be an accidental paranormal encounter, navigating the city on my own terms taught me to trust my intuition.
The Fine Line Between "Adventure" and "Anxiety"
Looking back, that 2016 trip really shaped how I view travel. It taught me to love the unexpected, but it also taught me a massive lesson about why checking out your accommodations beforehand matters.
While fighting with a ghost over the bathroom plumbing makes for a fantastic story at a dinner party years later, true relaxation shouldn't be a gamble. When you travel, you want to focus on the memories, the food, and the culture—not whether your hotel room is going to keep you up all night.