I went to LA & San Francisco last Sept with my sons for their 21st . LA is not quite as glamorus as it is portrayed on the screen. We stayed down in Aneheim about 30 miles from Hollywood, (LA is massive) everything is so spread out it is a pain in the arse to get anywhere due to the massive ammount of traffic. There are some really affluent areas that are truly gorgeous up near the Hollywood area but unless you are wadded forget it. The rest of it seemed a bit shitty to me to be honest. We walked round hollywood , allong the walk of fame etc & it was a bit like Blackpool, just as grubby only hotter! There were very few Bars to go in or none near where we were. Everyone is totally obsessed with being famous & are so self obsessed they really have no idea about anyone else or anything thats going on in the outside world. There were some nice bits , Newport Beach was great & Santa Monica. Venice was ok too, good bars.
San Francisco is totally different, probably one of the great citys of the world. Laid back with genuinly nice people Small enough to get around easily on the public transport. Great night life. No it is not all one big gay scene, infact we saw very few openly gay people there. We found a few great bars where we were welcomed by the locals. It is also no where near as hot as LA, which was really too hot even in September. The only bad thing abour SF are all the bloody hills!