what are fun things to do in los angeles california

How could you begin to sum up a city that is incommunicable to define? Whether you're talking about the limitless sprawl of districts and suburbs or the jolting dissimilarity betwixt sunday-baked hills and soft beaches, the high culture of its art institutions or the rip-roaring fun of its theme parks, Los Angeles is not easy categorized.

You could spend days cached in superior museums without always seeing Hollywood, or devote a whole trip to cipher but studio tours and pilgrimages to share-worthy places from Television set and movies.

Or you might want to go deeper, and chase down the all-time taco truck or discover the next large comedy talent to come out of Silver Lake or Repeat Park.

"Walkable" isn't a word that comes to listen when you think of Los Angeles, but at that place's ample opportunity for exercise on scenic hikes in the Hollywood Hills or leisurely cycle rides along that string of sandy beaches.

1. Hollywood Sign

Put upward in 1923 and originally spelling "Hollywoodland", a real manor evolution, the unmistakeable Hollywood Sign was only supposed to last for 18 months.

The arrival of the Golden Historic period of Hollywood inverse all that, and the sign has remained on Mount Lee in Griffith Park ever since, and dropping "state" in 1949. This landmark was rebuilt in steel in 1978 and was last repainted in 2005. One of the easiest vantage points in the basin is the raised patio on the north-due east corner of the Hollywood & Highland Center Mall, and there'southward another atop the Abode Depot parking garage on Dusk Boulevard.

You can become in for an up-close look on a hike at Griffith Park, or park upward at Lake Hollywood Park and admire the sign across the coulee.

Suggested tour: Hollywood Sign Small-scale Group Tour in Luxury Van

2. The Getty Eye

The Getty Center, L.A. — The Getty Heart, L.A.

The main branch of the J. Paul Getty Museum is in Brentwood, surveying Los Angeles from its hilltop roost.

The museum's founder was petro-industrialist Jean Paul Getty, who left another $661m to the institution when he passed away in 1976. This went towards a spectacular and labyrinthine new complex, the Getty Center, which opened in 1997 after almost ii decades of planning and construction.

Linked to its lower car park by a hovertrain, the Getty Center is a multifaceted attraction.

You'll fall in beloved with architecture past Pritzker Prize-winner Richard Meier, the e'er-changing Central Garden, the Cactus Garden, the outdoor sculpture and the knockout views, non to mention the amazing art drove inside (Medieval times to the present). Allow every bit long equally possible to bask in the illuminated manuscripts, Italian, Flemish and Dutch painting from the 17th to the 19th century, the huge assortment of Impressionist painting and exquisite decorative arts.

Irises past van Gogh (1889) and Rembrandt Laughing (self-portrait, 1628) are not to exist missed.

Recommended bout: Individual Getty Museum Tour with Expert Guide

3. Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens

Among the globe's swell research libraries, the Huntington in San Marino, Los Angeles County, holds more than 9 million items, from the 1000s to the 21st century.

For an everyday visitor, the Library Exhibition Hall draws from these enormous reserves, showing a captivating miscellany, from Medieval manuscripts to documents from Abraham Lincoln'south life.

The library is in 120 acres of lush botanical gardens, with magnificent living collections of orchids, bonsai, cycads and camellias.

You lot tin can saunter past lily ponds, and through a subtropical garden, desert garden, Japanese garden and Chinese garden.

Don't ignore the trove of painting, sculpture and decorative arts at the Huntington Fine art Gallery, with works by Rogier van der Weyden, Gainsborough and American artists like Mary Cassatt, Edward Hopper and Andy Warhol.

4. Griffith Park

In 1896 the Welsh mining magnate Griffith J. Griffith presented over three,000 acres of Rancho Los Feliz to the City of Los Angeles as a "Christmas present". Since then the park has added another i,000 acres, making it one of the largest urban parks in the United States.

Griffith Park is a rough-hewn wilderness, incorporating a chunk of the Santa Monica Mountains and streaked with trails for walking and horseback riding.

The Los Angeles Zoo is here, and there are two public golf courses (Harding and Wilson), railroad train and pony rides for youngsters, tennis courts, lots of concession stands and picnic grounds.

The Hollywood Sign is in the park's boundaries, and can exist reached on a tough hike.

Just above is a majestic but unmarked 360° viewpoint, taking in both Hollywood and Burbank backside.

On GetYourGuide.com, the Hollywood Sign and Griffith Park 2-Hour Hiking Tour is a guided take chances through the park, stopping every and then oft to let you appreciate the Los Angeles cityscape and requite you titbits about the park, the sign and Hollywood's riveting history.

five. Griffith Observatory

In a second "Christmas present" in 1912 Griffith J. Griffith put up the funds for the park'due south Greek Theatre and the Griffith Observatory, which wouldn't be completed until 1935. Of all the many enduring landmarks in Los Angeles, this 3-domed Art Deco monument holds a certain mystique.

The Griffith Observatory is posted on the south face of Mount Hollywood, the highest superlative in the park, and the sight of the urban center rippling in the lord's day or twinkling at night from Observatory's terraces are the stuff of dreams.

We can't begin to list the movies and Television receiver shows that accept fabricated the most of this location, only James Dean's Rebel Without a Cause(1955) is the 1 that put the observatory'due south in the earth's gaze.

The 25-metre, copper clad fundamental dome houses the Samuel Oschin Planetarium, which screens Centered in the Universe, a hi-res trip through time, via discoveries by Ptolemy and Galileo, and space, through the Milky Way, and landing dorsum on the Griffith Observatory'south front backyard.

You can too peer through telescopes and explore more than than sixty space-oriented exhibits.

half-dozen. Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)

The largest art museum in the western United States, and one of the largest museums of whatever description in the country, LACMA on Wilshire Boulevard'due south Miracle Mile is in a mishmash of seven buildings on a 20-acre site.

The collections are listen-bendingly vast, covering all ends of the globe and from the ancient times to the nowadays.

For the smallest summary there are inventories of Greek, Roman And Etruscan art, American and Latin American art, modern and gimmicky art, Islamic art, Asian art, decorative arts, photography and film as well as heart-communicable permanent fine art installations.

If all this leaves you overwhelmed at that place are some works that you lot tin can't get out without seeing, like Diego Rivera's Portrait of Frida Kahlo (1939), Mulholland Drive: The Route to the Studio by David Hockney (1980), Titian'due south Portrait of Jacopo (1532), The Swineherd by Paul Gauguin (1888) and Chris Burden Urban Lite installation at the Wilshire Boulevard entrance.

Every bit of 2019 there were plans to give the campus a bit more uniformity with a massive building designed past Peter Zumthor, with an opening date slated for 2024.

7. Venice

An eccentric neighbourhood and seaside resort, the world-famous Venice is Los Angeles at its almost cosmopolitan and independent.

Although gentrification has crept in, the ii.five-mile Venice Beach Boardwalk is nonetheless prowled by outlandish characters, and teems with tattoo parlours, cannabis shops, international cuisine, countless street vendors and a big cast of street performers.

The skate plaza and Venice Muscle Beach are two world-famous signatures, as is the snaking Strand trail on the cusp of the massive sandy embankment with its constant stream of cyclists and skaters.

Seek out the historic arcaded buildings, harking back to the original development at the start of the 20th century when the tobacco millionaire Abbot Kinney created his own version of Italy's Venice.

The boardwalk is the 2d most-visited place in Southern California, but volition never feel oppressive thanks to the wide-open expanse of sandy beach and the grassy foreshore tufted with palms.

Suggested tour: Santa Monica and Venice 3-60 minutes Electric Bike Tour

8. Getty Villa

Before the Getty Center there was the Getty Villa, commissioned past J. Paul Getty in the 1970s later the previous gallery on his property in Pacific Palisades ran out of infinite.

The Getty Villa is downwards the hill on the same land, looking out onto the Pacific.

The building, completed in 1974, is a reproduction of a lavish 1st-century CE Roman villa: The Villa of the Papyri in Herculaneum to be precise.

Reopened in 2006 after a long-term renovation, the Getty Villa holds the Getty Museum's collections for Greek, Roman and Etruscan antiquities, spanning half dozen,000 years up to 400 CE.

The exhibition picks from a gigantic reserve of 44,000 pieces and over the last couple of years has been rearranged in a loose chronological social club.

The must-sees are plentiful, and amid them are the "The Beauty of Palmyra" funerary relief (190-210 CE), Statue of a Victorious Youth (300-100 BC), the Caeretan Hydria (525 BC) and the ensemble of frescoes from the Villa Numerius Popidius Florus at Boscoreale (1-79 CE).

Book online: Individual Getty Villa Tour with Skilful Guide

ix. California Science Center

In October 2012 the Space Shuttle Endeavour, which took part in 25 NASA missions from 1992 to 2011, rolled through the Los Angeles streets from LAX to the California Science Centre.

At the time of writing in 2019 the shuttle was yet in a temporary pavilion, and the exhibition, available with a Special Exhibit or IMAX Theater pass, shows off this staggering piece of hardware, forth with some of its fittings like the Space Potty, galley, tyres from its last mission and the SPACEHAB Logistics Module, a kind of workshop for astronauts.

Though undoubtedly impressive, Endeavour is only ane exhibit at a museum brimming with interactivity, relating ecosystems, world-changing inventions, air and space, how our organs and cells work and showing off a Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird outside.

There's always a choice of well-curated special exhibitions and of grade the IMAX Theater, seven storeys high.

Included in: Become Los Angeles Card: Save upwards to l% on Summit Attractions

10. Warner Bros. Studio Bout

As opposed to the action-packed Universal Studio Bout, a visit to Warner Bros. close by in Burbank is less about razzle-dazzle and more well-nigh the craft of making films and TV shows.

The standard tour lasts between two and three hours and packs in a visit to the Sound stage where the Large Bang Theory is shot, also as the Archive and Prop House, bursting with props and costume from endless movies including the Harry Potter series and the DC Universe.

The Backlot has jungle, Midwest town, New York and Western sets that will ring a bell directly away, while the Pic Car Vault holds a armada of cars from Warner Bros. productions, counting several Batmobiles.

A newer attraction is Stage 48: Script to Screen, a self-guided walk through an interactive sound phase, ushering yous through the production process and displaying the set from Central Perk in Friends.

Book online: Warner Bros. Studios Hollywood Tour

11. La Brea Tar Pits and Folio Museum

Over tens of thousands of years until Los Angeles was developed, animals would exist trapped and preserved in the tar at what is now Hancock Park by LACMA.

Heavy oil from the Table salt Lake Oil Field would seep to the surface, condign viscous natural tar every bit its lighter fractions evaporated.

The tar would exist covered with a layer of h2o or dead leaves, waiting to lure unsuspecting mammoths, sabre-toothed cats, bison, horses and dire wolves and preserve them intact.

The pits have yielded some 400 animals and are an ongoing excavation site (there's a viewing area at Pit 91). The many discoveries are documented at the side by side George C. Folio Museum, which opened in 1977 merely has a history going dorsum to 1913. Here you tin run across some of the remarkable specimens given upwardly by the pits and get to know the science backside the process, while in the grounds are life-sized models of the animals claimed by the tar.

Get tickets: La Brea Tar Pits and Folio Museum Ticket

12. Venice Canals

At the plow of the 20th century the developer Abbot Kinney conceived a miniature version of Venice'south canals, marketed as the Venice of America.

Replenished by the Pacific through sea gates at the Marina Del Rey Breakwater, these cute waterways were built in 1905 just had become outmoded past the late-1920s and over the next few decades were allowed to fall into disrepair.

The canals were finally revitalised in the 1990s and form a highly desirable and pedestrian-friendly residential neighbourhood, roughly a quarter of the size of the original development.

But a stone's throw from Venice Beach you can go for peaceful waterside strolls, cross charming little footbridges and spot ducklings in the water in summer.

As always, y'all'll surely know these waterways from movies, in this example A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984).

13. Disneyland Resort

An obligatory twenty-four hour period trip whatever your age, Disneyland Resort is 2 theme parks, Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure, linked by the outdoor shopping area, Downtown Disney.

Information technology all began in 1955 with Disneyland Park, overseen by Walt Disney himself.

Fair to say that Disneyland Park is the original modern theme park, divided into "lands" and crammed with rides that have passed into legend, like Space Mount, Pirates of the Caribbean and Big Thunder Mount Railroad.

A new state, Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge, designed in collaboration with Lucasfilm, opened in 2019. And, naturally, the Master Street parades are a large part of the fun, peculiarly for smaller visitors.

The newer Disneyland California Adventure opened in 2001 and channels the excitement and run a risk of the Golden State.

This park is steeped in the glamour of old Hollywood, and the thrill of Disney'southward Marvel and Pixar movies.

Guardians of the Milky way Mission: BREAKOUT! is a new arrival, featuring the cast from the movies and music paw-picked by manager James Gunn.

14. Hollywood Walk of Fame

In that location are things in every city that locals avoid like the plague, but visitors can't afford to pass up.

The Hollywood Walk of Fame is in that vein, commending actors, musicians, directors, musical and theatrical groups and even xvi fictional characters with stars in the pavement.

A little less than half of all the stars are dedicated to someone in the film industry.

In case you didn't know, the stars are made of brass and terrazzo and in spring 2019 there were more than 2,600. The Walk of Fame, begun in 1958 with an initial one,588 honourees, is on 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street.

Some 24 new stars are laid each twelvemonth, at a cost of $40,000 (payable past the nominee or sponsor), and honourees are obliged to testify upward to their unveiling ceremony.

The Barrymore acting dynasty is the all-time-represented single family, with a full of six stars.

15. Grauman's Chinese Theatre

Hollywood history permeates the exquisitely decorated Grauman's Chinese Theatre on the Walk of Fame.

This monument, designed to resemble a Chinese pagoda and guarded past a pair of Ming Dynasty lions, has hosted more than its off-white share of premieres since it opened for Cecil B.

DeMille'due south The King of Kings in 1927. To commemorate the Star Wars premiere in 1977, the prints of Darth Vader, C-3PO and R2D2 were taken in the concrete forecourt.

This tradition is claimed to become back to 1927, when player Norma Talmadge slipped in wet concrete here, and over the concluding 90+ years whatever hundreds of icons of the silverish screen accept left their signature and some sort of print.

Every bit with the Walk of Fame you can download a map to help you locate your favourites.

Now officially known as the TCL Chinese Theatre, the cinema seats 932 and in 2013 was fitted with a custom IMAX screen, 1 of the largest in North America.

Philharmonic Tour: Chinese Theater VIP Tour & 24-hour Hop-On-Hop-Off Bus

16. Universal Studios Hollywood

In 1964 Universal Studios started offering tours of its studio lot to see sets and props that had already been inscribed in movie and television set history at Universal Urban center.

Before long this developed into a fully-fledged theme park.

Almost everything is based on Universal Studios productions, and updated every few years to stay current.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter opened in 2016 and has the Flight of the Hippogriff rollercoaster and the Forbidden Journey, a dark ride through Hogwarts.

A new arrival in 2019 was the epic Jurassic World: The Ride, a "shoot the chute" in the Lower Lot, replacing its Jurassic Park predecessor.

On the Upper Lot, the Studio Tour is still going strong, and entails an hr-long tram ride through sets like Courthouse Square (To Kill a Mockingbird, Dorsum to the Hereafter, Gremlins) and the house from Psycho (1960). On the way you'll be in famous movies and encounter a couple of mishaps, like a flash overflowing and an earthquake.

Come up on weekdays outside the school holidays to avert the crowds.

Be sure to book online: Universal Studios Hollywood Tickets

17. Pacific Park

The only amusement park on a pier on the West Coast of the The states, Pacific Park is costless to enter and has 12 rides.

Inevitably, the Pacific Park and the Santa Monica Pier have appeared in hundreds of movies and Tv set shows, and like innumerable locations effectually Los Angeles was rendered in startling detail for the 2013 videogame GTA 5.

Beginning taking shape in the 1910s and revived in the 1990s, Pacific Park bills itself as the just admission-free amusement park in LA.

You pay for the individual attractions, among which is the steel Due west Coaster and the Pacific Bike, which featured in Steven Spielberg'due south 1941 (1979) is the world's just solar-powered Ferris bike.

A give-and-take on the pier, which is actually two structures joined together: The long and narrow Santa Monica Municipal Pier is from 1909 and was built to carry sewage pipes across the breakers, while the Pleasure Pier was started in 1916 past Charles I.D. Looff, responsible for Coney Island's commencement carousel.

18. Rodeo Drive

Every major western metropolis has a street enriched with flagship luxury emporia by brands like Gucci, Cartier and Louis Vuitton.

Only Rodeo Drive, namely the 3 blocks north of Wilshire and South of Piddling Santa Monica Boulevard is special.

This palm-lined street takes conspicuous wealth to a whole new place, and has also been immortalised by movies, well-nigh famously Pretty Woman (1990) when Julia Roberts goes on the mother of all sprees.

For all merely the extremely wealthy, Rodeo Bulldoze is more of a visual experience, for window shopping, gawping at Bugattis and Ferraris and wandering the "European-manner" cobblestone alley.

Rodeo Drive got its starting time luxury boutique with Giorgio Beverly Hills in 1967 and in 2003 was given a multimillion dollar makeover with the Rodeo Drive Walk of Style.

At the intersection with Dayton Way this is heralded by the shining sculpture "Torso" by Robert Graham.

Suggested bout: Beverly Hills and West Hollywood: Glory Wheel Bout

19. Mulholland Drive

View from Mulholland Drive — View from Mulholland Bulldoze

Plotted in 1924 and named for the civil engineer who helped build LA's water infrastructure, Mulholland Drive is a winding ii-lane road along the ridgeline of the eastern Santa Monica Mountains.

Memories of countless movies will come flooding back on the way, non least from David Lynch's namesake film (2002). Lynch believed that you could "feel the history of Hollywood" on Mulholland Drive, and it resonates in the plush homes (some of the nigh expensive in the earth), hairpin bends recalling famous machine chases and, of form, the many stunning lookouts.

Mulholland Bulldoze is a thrill to negotiate by car, but you'll need to go boring to deal with the many bullheaded turns.

Be ready to cease every few minutes and step out to capeesh far-off views of the Los Angeles Bowl, the Hollywood Sign, the San Fernando Valley, Burbank, Universal Metropolis and the San Gabriel, Verdugo and Santa Susana Mountains.

The most inspiring vistas of Downtown Los Angeles await at the eastern cease merely higher up the Hollywood Basin.

20. The Broad

Bringing added cultural bite to Downtown Los Angeles, the Wide opened next to the Walt Disney Concert Hall in 2015 and was financed by philanthropist Eli Broad.

The cube-shaped edifice is a caput-turning architectural statement by the Diller Scofidio + Renfro firm, with a peel comprising 2,500 rhomboidal physical panels reinforced by fibreglass.

On three levels, The Broad is vast and covers modern and contemporary painting, photography and sculpture from the mid-20th century to the present.

Wide has put together a reserve of more 2,000 works past 200 artists, and his foundation makes new acquisitions by the week.

Amid the many luminaries are Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Cy Twombly, Ed Ruscha and Jeff Koons, while the museum holds the largest collection of Cindy Sherman works in the earth, with 129 pieces as of 2019. In spring 2019 Yayoi Kusama'due south roaming Infinity Mirror Rooms installation had a stint at The Wide.

21. Hollywood Bowl

An abiding landmark and wonderful place to watch live music, the Hollywood Bowl is a 17,500-seater amphitheatre resting in the Hollywood Hills with views of the Hollywood Sign to the north-east.

Fred Astaire, Louis Armstrong and the Beatles take all performed here… in fact it would exist easier to make a listing of the cultural giants who haven't.

The venue is the summer dwelling house of the Los Angeles Combo, equally well as the seat of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra (formed in 1990). The electric current shell is actually the fifth to have been built at the Hollywood Bowl.

The 2d and 3rd shells were designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, only only stood for a flavor each in the 1920s.

The fourth beat out, by the Allied Architects group lasted from 1929 to 2003, but was often criticised for its acoustics and replaced for the 2004 season.

The Hollywood Basin'due south gratuitous museum is in the former Tea Room and is the start edifice yous come to if you lot enter the site via Highland Avenue, with a permanent exhibition displaying programs and photographs of the venue since its birth in 1922.

22. Greystone Mansion and Park

The oil tycoon Edward L. Doheny ordered this Beverly Hills Tudor Revival mansion, completed in 1928, every bit a lavish gift for his son, Ned.

At the time the 55-room Greystone Mansion was the most expensive residence in California, costing more than $4m and housing a bowling aisle.

Ned Doheny died in a guest room in a murder-suicide with his secretary in February 1929, but four months afterward moving in.

Ninety years afterward it is still unclear who killed whom.

The house and its precise formal gardens take belonged to the City of Beverly Hills since 1965, becoming a public park a few years afterwards.

This is a prime number shooting location, appearing in a wealth of Television shows and movies, like The Large Lebowski (1998), Ghostbusters 2 (1989), Spider-Man (2002) and Eraserhead (1977), while the bowling alley was restored for the grim finish to There Volition Be Blood (2007). The mansion is closed to the public but the gardens and their cypress avenue, balustrades, fountains and clipped hedges are a delight, and open daily from 10:00 to 17:00 with extended hours in the summertime.

23. Live One-act

Being the uppercase of the motion-picture show and television industries, Los Angeles has a hugely productive one-act community, and this has given rise to an absurd amount of live one-act venues.

On a typical night there might be a stand-upwards showcase hosted past someone you love, or a live recording of a one-act podcast y'all're into, or hilarious sketch and improv comedy past people you know from the screen just couldn't name.

For the briefest overview there's the Comedy Store (8433 Dusk Blvd), Hollywood Improv Comedy Club (8162 Melrose Ave), the Express mirth Mill (8001 Sunset Blvd), The Virgil (4519 Santa Monica Blvd), Largo at the Coronet (366 N La Cienega Blvd) and UCB Franklin (5919) and Dusk (5419). Every Saturday at UCB Franklin and Dominicus at UCB Sunset yous tin catch "Asssscat", an improv show with a rotating cast of performers from television and movies (Sundays are completely free but you'll need to bear witness upwardly early on and queue).

24. Runyon Canyon Park

You lot may have gathered by now that the Hollywood Hills are ripe for hiking.

And the place where Hollywood's stars take their walks is the 160-acre Runyon Canyon Park.

If you're on Instagram and follow more than a couple of celebrities you may already know this spot and its vistas like the back of your hand.

Hitting out from the gate at the park's southern entrance on N Fuller Avenue there'south a choice of three trails with varying degrees of difficulty: The Hero Trail (difficult), the Star Trail (medium) and the paved Runyon Coulee Route, which curls upwards the slope on a shallow gradient to the panoramic lookout at Clouds Rest, and down on the railway sleeper steps on the Star Trail to another overlook at Inspiration Signal.

Pay a visit in winter and spring when the sky is clearer.

Too bring a hat, because in that location'due south but occasional tree cover beneath the palms on the canyon floor.

25. Zuma Embankment

Zuma Beach, Malibu, California — Zuma Beach

In places between Santa Monica and Malibu the beaches can taper to just a few metres across.

Beyond Betoken Dume and backed past the Santa Monica Mountains, Malibu'south Zuma Beach bucks that trend as an archetypal Southern California beach.

Zuma Beach adored for its broad and long (ane.8 miles) strip of soft, pale sand and abundant facilities.

Far from the built-up parts of Los Angeles the water quality is as good every bit information technology gets, while the bouncy surf attracts torso surfers, even if information technology can get a trivial crude at times.

From January to Apr this Zuma Embankment is also a prime number place to watch the grayness whales making the long migration with their calves from the warmer waters off Baja California to their feeding grounds in the Bering Strait.

Related tour: Malibu Beach: Surf Tour in a Vintage VW Van

26. Los Angeles Conservancy Walking Tour

Visiting the storied parts of Downtown Los Angeles, you lot may feel like yous're missing out on a bit of groundwork, not to mention all the intriguing anecdotes these streets have to tell.

The skillful news is that the Los Angeles Conservancy organises regular guided tours of fascinating locations like the Celebrated Downtown (every Sabbatum), the Millennium Biltmore Hotel (every Dominicus) and the Commercial District (every Saturday), to proper name a few.

Also on Saturday you can immerse yourself in the Golden Age glamour of Downtown LA'southward Art Deco wonders from the 20s and 30s.

These tours are in loftier demand and fill up quickly.

27. Petersen Automotive Museum

On Museum Row, this museum was founded by publisher Robert E. Petersen in 1994 and has recently come up though a makeover.

This has left the edifice with a spectacular vanquish composed of 100 tons of stainless steel in an aerodynamic ribbon formation.

Even more exciting is what's in store in the museum's 25 galleries where you'll exist greeted by hundreds of awe-inspiring automobiles, displayed with evocative backdrops.

Some of our picks are the 1915 Detroit Electric Model 61 Brougham, 1958 Plymouth Fury "Christine" and the solar-powered 1987 Mana La.

In summer 2019, the exhibition, Hollywood Dream Machines, brought famous vehicles from Batman (1989), Back to the Futurity (1985), Bract Runner (1982), Black Panther (2017) and Mad Max: Fury Route (2015) together for i unforgettable show.

Pay a piddling extra and y'all can go down to The Vault, containing 250+ vehicles spanning 120 years from all corners of the globe, some owned by movie and music heroes like Steve McQueen and Elvis Presley.

Go tickets: Petersen Automotive Museum Admission Ticket

28. Los Angeles City Hall

Since 1940 an epitome of the Los Angeles City Hall has been embossed on badges for the Los Angeles Police Department.

This landmark, dating to 1928, has had a lot of screen-time downwardly the years, in the original Dragnet serial in the 50s and in 1997'due south Fifty.A. Confidential to proper name a couple.

The Metropolis Hall complex has a Neoclassical base surmounted by that unmistakeable Fine art Deco tower.

Thanks to a city charter that remained in force until the end of the 1950s, the 138-metre tower was the tallest building in Los Angeles up to 1964. Mon to Friday, 08:00 to 17:00, you can become in for gratis and catch the elevator to the 27th floor to contemplate LA's skyline (bring a valid I.D. with you).

29. Autry Museum of the American Westward

The actor and singer Factor Autry (The Singing Cowboy) founded this museum dedicated to the history and culture of the American Due west in 1988. The attraction is in a mission-mode building in Griffith Park, with a permanent exhibition in seven large galleries on the ground and lower flooring.

This presents a loose timeline, starting with prehistoric hunter gatherers and leading you through the time of the Spanish conquistadors and Franciscan missionaries, up to 20th-century depiction of the due west in books, television and movies.

In the museum's big and growing collections are firearms and personal effects of Old Due west icons like Billy the Kid, Belle Starr and Wyatt Earp, also as a manus-fatigued diagram by Earp of his gunfight at the OK Corral in Tombstone.

The Journeys Gallery shows the developments in transport that changed the Due west in the second half of the 19th century, while the Colt Gallery explores the touch on of Samuel Filly's revolutionary revolver with scores of rare models, some beautifully engraved.

30. Walt Disney Concert Hall

Walt Disney Concert Hall, Music Center, LA

Frank Gehry'south spellbinding concert hall at the Los Angeles Music Center has get a treasured fixture of the cityscape in Downtown Los Angeles since it opened in 2003. Mostly funded by the Disney family, the venue is a tribute to Disney's contribution to LA's culture and is the base of operations for the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Master Chorale.

This swirling stainless steel structure has Douglas fir and oak cladding in its 2,265-chapters auditorium for pinnacle acoustics, and a giant concert organ that looks similar no organ y'all've ever seen.

The Los Angeles Philharmonic'south main flavor hither is from October to June, earlier they move to the Hollywood Bowl for the summer.

Y'all can also visit Mon to Saturday for an hour-long audioguided tour, narrated past John Lithgow and with intriguing contributions by Frank Gehry.

The tour also encompasses an interactive exhibition at the Ira Gershwin Gallery.

31. OUE Skyspace

Completed in 1989, the 310-metre U.S. Bank Belfry is the 2nd-tallest in Los Angeles, and the fifteenth tallest in the United States.

When the existent estate company OUE took over the tower in 2013 it went to piece of work on an observation deck.

OUE Skyspace opened in 2016 on the 69th and 70th floors, with a eatery above on the 71st.

This is the highest skyscraper observation deck in California, with mesmerising 360° views including downtown LA'due south skyscrapers, Dodger Stadium, the Hollywood Hills and the Pacific and San Gabriel Mountains in the distance.

What sets OUE Skyspace apart is the Skyslide between the 70th and 69th floors.

This vertigo inducing attraction is 13 metres long and made completely from crystal-clear drinking glass, promising a few seconds of exhilaration or abject terror, depending on your disposition.

32. Dodger Stadium

The third-oldest stadium in MLB, and the oldest west of the Mississippi, Dodger Stadium opened in 1962 and has the largest seating capacity (56,000) of any baseball stadium in the earth.

The most recent of the Dodgers' six Earth Series titles came in 1988, but in the 2010s they take been perennial contenders.

Led by star pitcher Clayton Kershaw, the franchise has taken seven West Division titles in the decade upward to 2018, but fell just curt of the biggest prize in 2017 and 2018. You lot tin get tickets in person at Lot 2 on game days, and sample some of the indulgent food that Dodger Stadium is famous for, like esquites, tacos of all descriptions and the sixteen-inch "Going Yard" hot domestic dog.

For an inside look at Dodger Stadium, have one of the ninety-infinitesimal tours (10:00, eleven:30 and 13:00), heading downward to the field, into the Dodger Dugout and into the Lexus Dugout Club to view the team's World Serial trophies and various individual awards.

33. Grand Cardinal Market

Grand Central Market, LA — Grand Cardinal Marketplace

As skillful a place as any to brainstorm an hazard in Downtown Los Angeles, the cavernous M Central Market has occupied the basis floor of the landmark Homer Laughlin Edifice since 1917. This is hands-down the largest and oldest public market in the city.

In the 2010s the market has turned itself into a trendy dining destination with a revitalisation project, and by welcoming a cosmopolitan line-up of new vendors.

Hither to tempt y'all there's falafel, Nashville got chicken, forest-fired pizza, an oyster bar, ramen, Salvadorian streetfood, tacos, tortas, tostadas, currywurst, burritos, bento and BBQ, along with speciality nutrient vendors for fresh bread, cheese, spices, Latin dry out goods, herbs, fruit and vegetables.

Included in: L.A. Downtown Food Bout

34. The Original Farmers Market

Farmers Market, Los Angeles — Farmers Marketplace

Linked to the posh Grove Mall in the Fairfax District is the permanent Farmers Market, trading vii days a calendar week.

You can utilize the marketplace equally a vibrant shopping amenity, calling in for groceries at the various butchers, bakers, fruit and vegetable stalls, and at speciality food stores for goodies like cheese, charcuterie, wine, olive oil and hard-to-find spices (Dragunara Spice Bazaar). Lite My Fire has an array of hot sauces from all over the earth, while "T" stocks every tea diversity you could think of.

And when it comes to casual dining y'all'll have to make the impossible choice between sushi, build your own salad, gumbo, pizza, loaded subs, Philly-style deli, churrasco, gyros, barbecue and a whole lot more.

Practise the tour: Original Farmers Market Food and History Bout

35. Pacific Coast Highway

Fabricated famous by decades of popular civilization, north-s highway hugs California's coastline for more than than 660 miles and tin be joined at Santa Monica for a breathtaking drive to Malibu.

On one side the meandering road is walled by high scrubby cliffs, and on the other is the Pacific in all its unrestrained beauty.

You'll run into sleek residences posted high on the cliffs, surf communities and dozens of beaches, traced by elegant homes and, and many with just a slender ribbon of pale sand at high tide.

When you become peckish at that place'southward an endless choice of seafood-oriented places to stop for a meal paired with those amazing views.

Malibu Seafood is a combined fish market and patio cafe, while Neptune'southward Internet is an iconic seafood spot, gazing out to the ocean since 1956 and favoured by bikers.

Available tour: California Highlights Express: 3-Day Tour from Los Angeles

36. Sunset Boulevard

Twenty-two miles long, from Downtown Los Angeles to opulent Malibu, Sunset Boulevard is a great cross-section of the city.

In W Hollywood, Dusk Boulevard encompasses the neon glare of the Sunset Strip, famed for its bright billboards, and a place to dine, drink and grab some live music.

In the 60s, 70s and 80s, every stone scene, from folk rock through punk to hair metallic had its time in the limelight on Dusk Strip.

This patch has moved upmarket a picayune, and the alternative rock scene has migrated towards the Arts District, Los Feliz, Silverish Lake and Echo Park.

Sunset Boulevard takes in classic monuments like the palatial Chateau Marmont Hotel.

Here F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dorothy Parker, Billy Wilder and Hunter S. Thompson all spent time producing work at the hotel, while John Belushi died at the Chateau Marmont from an overdose in 1982. Climbing west the route dusts itself off as it bends past the film stars' mansions and gated estates of Beverly Hills and Bel Air.

Recommended bout: The Sunset Strip Experience

37. Paramount Pictures Studio Tour

With roots going back to 1912, the corporation that became Paramount Pictures moved to this 26-acre site at 5555 Melrose Avenue in 1926. The stages where Dusk Boulevard, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Rear Window and Sabrina were shot are still used today.

Yous tin can discover them on a 2-hour studio bout in a limousine golf cart, in the company of a guide well-versed in the history of the studio.

You'll see the Prop Warehouse, a new Tour Middle and the New York Backlot (several New York neighbourhoods in i place). Tours take place seven days a week and need to be booked in accelerate.

The best time to choose is betwixt 11:00 and 15:00 when shooting may exist happening, and in that location will exist a better chance of spotting someone famous, fifty-fifty if more areas volition be shut downward for filming.

On weekdays there's a 4.5-hr VIP Tour, for more than of an insider feel when yous'll get to run across archivists and backlot tradesmen.

38. Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

Founded in 1913, the largest natural history museum in the Western Us was given a spectacular overhaul in the early 2000s.

Strictly speaking the museum has three locations, including the La Brea Tar Pits, but we're talking hither about the anchor at Exposition Park, a Renaissance Revival building with fine terra cotta moulding and a colonnaded rotunda.

The oversupply-pleasers are Becoming Los Angles, showing yous how a pocket-sized pueblo became an endless city, and a Dinosaur Hall that reopened at double chapters in 2013, displaying the but T. king growth fossil series, showing a babe, juvenile and full-grown T. king.

This adult is one of the ten most complete specimens for this dinosaur in the world.

Kids will also be spellbound past the hands-on Discovery Center, while the Butterfly Pavilion, with species from around the United states of america, is a seasonal treat from March to September.

Volume online: Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County Tickets

39. Arts District

To the east of Downtown Los Angles, the Arts District is a once decaying neighbourhood of early-20th century warehouses, railroad sheds and factories.

The district was commencement colonised by artists in the 1970s, and is at present a youthful creative hub.

Different a lot of Los Angeles the Art District is mostly walkable, and has some of the best street fine art around, counting more than than 100 murals, many that will finish you in your tracks.

Graffiti is illegal in the City of Los Angeles, only property owners in the Arts District encourage artists to become to work on their buildings.

Come with your camera ready to explore this revived cityscape brindled with independent galleries, upstanding boutiques, loft brewhouses and ultra-hip coffee shops.

40. Santa Monica Land Beach

North and south of the Santa Monica Pier, is a gorgeous 3.v-mile sandy beach, recognisable from TV and movies of course, and a blissful identify to idle on a sunny twenty-four hours.

Due north of the pier, the Santa Monica State Beach is tracked past the Pacific Coast Highway and Santa Monica's famous sandstone cliffs.

From here yous tin get down to the ocean via the footbridges from the lush Ocean Park and Palisades Park atop the bluffs.

The beach is spotless, in a manner that seems impossible in a metropolis, and the water quality is high everywhere except below the pier, even if the ocean is surprisingly chilly.

Dining isn't a problem either, whether you lot head for the Ocean Front Walk backside the pier, or back up the bluffs in Santa Monica.

41. Hollywood Forever Cemetery

Hollywood's answer to Père Lachaise or Highgate is off Santa Monica Boulevard, backside Paramount Studios.

At Hollywood Forever Cemetery you can pay your respects to the leading lights of the Golden Age of Hollywood, and catch a glimpse of the Hollywood Sign.

Amongst the household names here are John Huston, Judy Garland, Rudolph Valentino, Cecil B. DeMille, Douglas Fairbanks, Jayne Mansfield and Mickey Rooney.

The cemetery is free to enter (as you'd guess, proper decorum is required), and yous can get agree of a map at the entrance.

The caretakers will be happy to requite you tips and a bit of background, while the grounds are as scrupulously maintained as you'd hope and roamed by peacocks.

What you might not await is that Hollywood Forever Cemetery has a busy cultural agenda, with summer outdoor flick screenings, concerts, live podcast recordings, literature events and, on November 2d, the biggest Dia de Los Muertos event in the Us.

42. The Strand

Officially known as the Marvin Braude Bicycle Trail, The Strand is a cycle path extending for 22 miles from Volition Rogers Land Beach at Pacific Palisades to Torrance Canton Beach.

If you lot fancy riding this smoothen, serpentine physical trail at that place's no lack of places to rent a bicycle, e-bike or electric scooter around Santa Monica, Venice and Playa del Rey.

The path passes forth the beach for almost the entirety of the route, apart from a diversion along Washington Boulevard after the Venice Angling Pier.

The Strand was completed in 1989, despite opposition from beachfront homeowners in Santa Monica, and is the ultimate manner to encounter the beaches of Los Angeles.

Yous'll share the route with walkers and skaters, so information technology's a ride for gentle coasting letting yous capeesh the beaches, ocean and sights equally you lot go.

For the perspective of a local you can volume the Santa Monica and Venice 3-Hour Electric Bicycle Tour with GetYourGuide.com.

43. Taco Trucks

In a metropolis about 50% Latino and Hispanic, information technology'due south a given that Los Angeles should have a spectrum of cuisines from across the Americas.

Naturally, Mexican nutrient stands out in detail, and near agree that Los Angeles puts other American cities in the shade for tacos.

You tin can hit the city'south staggering choice of Mexican-fashion chains, like Poquito Mas, Guisados, Del Taco and Qdoba, or smaller enterprises like Tacomiendo (Culver City, West Los Angeles, Montebello). Just in the same way that the Chinese food in New York comes from holes in the wall, LA locals know that the best tacos are taco truck tacos.

Rails downward Leo'due south Tacos Truck, Ricky'southward Fish Tacos, Mariscos Jalisco, Guerrilla Tacos, Taco Zone, El Chato and Jorge's Tacos.

Each truck has its ain speciality, be it mesquite-grilled carne asada, rib meat, fried taco shells, chorizo, pastor (kebab-mode seasoned pork) or taquitos (deep-fried tacos), and so you take no choice just to try equally many every bit possible.

44. In-Due north-Out Burger

Part of the scenery in Los Angeles for over 70 years, In-N-Out Burger today has more than 340 locations in six states.

There are a few reasons why this fast food restaurant deserves your business over other chains.

Perchance the best is that In-N-Out Burger pays all its employees above minimum wage, which is surprising as the restaurant has such a reasonable price bespeak.

That menu is too unusually simple: There's non much more than than a hamburger, cheeseburger, Double-Double, fries and shakes.

But you can get creative using the "non-so-hugger-mugger-card", adding extra patties and cheese, removing the bun for the depression-carb Protein Style, or going for Animate being Mode, which has grilled onions and a patty cooked in mustard.

These choices aren't advertised at any locations, just there are details on the chain'south website.

45. ArcLight Hollywood

It'southward merely right that Los Angeles should be one of the best places in the globe to watch a movie.

ArcLight is a small movie theater chain, with a few locations cropping up all over Los Angeles, and cities like Chicago and Boston in the terminal 15 years.

Arclight Hollywood was the first to open in 2002 and is the make'southward flagship, incorporating the infinite historic period Cinerama Dome that dates back to 1963. The reason this 15-screen cinema makes the list is for the endeavor ArcLight goes to providing the ultimate movie-going feel.

Along with superlative sound (THX) and pic quality, comfy, pre-assigned seats, the screenings in the dome begin with a picayune talk past a member of staff with lots of picture trivia to unload.

46. Third Street Promenade

A couple of streets in from the Santa Monica Pier and y'all'll be on Third Street Promenade in the middle of Santa Monica's shopping zone.

The promenade is 3 open-air car-free blocks, flanked by palms and jacarandas, and with a real diverseness of upmarket and mid-market stores, restaurants, bars and moving-picture show theatres.

For shopping think Sephora, Abercrombie and Fitch, Urban Outfitters, LUSH, H&M, Apple Store and Assistant Commonwealth, with a lot more than waiting on the neighbouring streets or at the foot of the promenade on Santa Monica Place.

The development goes back to 1965 and has picked upwardly a reputation for its many street performers.

You'll come up across musicians of every genre and style, besides equally dancers, magicians, living statues and clowns, all at neat intervals down the street.

Recently little touches like clusters of Adirondack chairs have started cropping up on the promenade, while Downtown Santa Monica Station on the new-ish Expo Line, connecting this urban center with Downtown Los Angeles.

47. Universal CityWalk

Universal CityWalk, Los Angeles — Universal CityWalk

A carve up attraction at Universal Studios, CityWalk is a neon-lit, high-free energy promenade for shopping, entertainment and dining.

CityWalk'south linchpin is the v Towers, an outdoor concert venue, with regular live music, while street performers are out in force near nights.

Entrance is gratis, and CityWalk is often thronged on weekends for its AMC Universal Cineplex, and the wide fast food and coincidental dining options, from Bubba Gump Shrimp Company to Tony Roma'southward, Buca di Beppo, Panda Express, KFC, Taco Bong and Subway.

If you're peckish for a snack in that location'south Wetzels' Pretzels, Cinnabon and Ben and Jerry's, to name a few.

48. Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook

A California State Park, this viewpoint is to the s-west of downtown, at Culver City.

Parking up on Jefferson Boulevard, there are ii routes to the summit: You tin navigate the switchbacks on a winding dirt runway, or cut direct to the acme on the Culver City Stairs.

In that location are 282 steps in all, and so the most direct route to the overlook is as well the nearly gruelling.

The best bet is to use the trail on the manner upwardly, enjoying the popcorn flowers and Californian aster in mid-summer, and return on the steps.

At the summit you lot tin can contemplate sweeping panoramas of Los Angeles, the Pacific, the Hollywood Hills and the San Gabriel Mountains to the due north-w, capped with snowfall in wintertime.

49. LA Grand Tour

The public transport system in Los Angeles is far amend than its reputation, merely is still growing.

Then if you're here without a car an extended autobus tour is a slap-up style to pack in as much as of the city as possible.

The LA Grand Bout with GetYourGuide.com is a seven-hour narrated tour of the metropolis on an open bus, for a almost-complete introduction to Los Angeles.

The trip begins at Sunset Boulevard, before setting a course for the Santa Monica Pier for a ane-60 minutes stop.

You'll visit the Third Street Promenade, the Farmers Market (one-hour lunch stop) and the Grove.

Afterwards the charabanc makes the trip up to the Griffith Observatory for a cyclone visit and to gaze at the Hollywood Sign, earlier descending to the Walk of Fame, Grauman'south Chinese Theatre and the Dolby Theatre, home of the Oscars.

l. Descanso Gardens

This joyful botanical garden in La Cañada Flintridge was once office of a 36,000-acre rancho gifted past the Governor of California to Corporal José María Verdugo in 1784. E.

Manchester Boddy, the owner of the Los Angeles Illustrated Daily News, took over the property in 1937 and built himself a mansion, the 22-room Boddy House.

After gaining access to mountain streams on the north side, Boddy started planting ornamental gardens.

In 1942 he enriched these with some 100,000 camellia plants to support two Japanese nurseries in the San Gabriel Valley during internment, and called on experts to develop rose and lilac collections.

The 150-acre gardens are run by a non-turn a profit organisation alongside Los Angeles County, and shines for its 600 varieties of camellias, a v-acre rosarium, woodland streams, meandering paths, Japanese Garden and Tea Firm, and "Enchanted Railroad" for little ones.

The color is glorious in bound when the azaleas, tulips, daffodils and lilacs take turns to bloom.

51. Japanese American National Museum

In Lilliputian Tokyo is the largest museum in the United States devoted to Japanese-American history, preserving textiles, photography, footage, oral histories and a wealth of art and artefacts.

The Japanese American National Museum was founded in 1992 and in 1999 moved into the sleek Pavilion, designed by Gyo Obata.

The permanent exhibition, Common Ground: The Heart of Community, relates the Japanese-American experience since the earliest immigrants in the 1880s, via hundreds of documents and objects, going into item on internment during the Second World War.

One moving exhibit is Sadako'southward Crane, one of a 1,000 origami cranes folded by Sadako Sasaki, who died from leukaemia aged 12, x years after the Hiroshima bombing.

In bound 2019 there was a sensational interactive exhibition for vintage Japanese toys, Kaiju vs Heroes.

52. One-Hour Flight for 2 Persons

When the best panoramas in Los Angeles require a stiff hike or a drive along a circuitous mountain route y'all may prefer to come across the Metropolis of Angles in a manner fitting for a Hollywood star, from the comfort of a plane.

Offered via GetYourGuide.com, this experience is an exhilarating and intimate style to view the Pacific beaches, the skyscrapers of Downtown Los Angeles, the Hollywood Hills, the iconic Hollywood Sign, the Griffith Observatory and Dodger Stadium.

One passenger volition be costless to soak upwards the views from the back seat, while the other will even be invited to take the controls and try a plow far higher up this famous cityscape.

53. Lake Hollywood Park

Getting to Lake Hollywood Park, above the Hollywood Reservoir at the due west side of Griffith Park is an adventure on Hollywoodland's tight, zigzagging roads.

But your patience volition be paid back with one of the cleanest views of the Hollywood Sign, just past the route on Mulholland Highway.

Peradventure because the drive can be tricky, Lake Hollywood Park feels more than like a tranquillity suburban oasis than a major sightseeing location, with a children'due south playground, grassy field, picnic benches shaded by foliage and a regular stream of local dog-walkers .

54. Celebrity Homes Tour

Hollywood Celebrity Homes Tour — Hollywood Glory Homes Tour

Anybody is at to the lowest degree a little curious well-nigh where and how Hollywood's biggest stars live.

If you can't resist finding out more than you can either get concord of a map and conduct your ain investigation, or permit someone else exercise all the work and take a passenger vehicle tour.

GetYourGuide.com lists a multifariousness of glory home tours, through Westward Hollywood, Beverly Hills and Malibu.

Typically, a Hollywood and Beverly Hills tour will take you lot up close to effectually 60 homes occupied or previously occupied by A-listers, while your guide lays on some juicy gossip.

Near tours also involve a few landmarks similar the Dolby Theatre, the Playboy Mansion and enduring spots on the Dusk Strip like Chateau Marmont, the Viper Room and the Roxy.

55. Watts Towers

West Coast rap fans will have heard the name "Watts" in enough of songs, and so may know that this neighbourhood has a bit of an edge and is off the tourist trail.

But that shouldn't deter you from visiting one of the city's well-nigh distinctive landmarks.

The Watt Towers are an incredible piece of work of outsider art, by one Simon Rodia, an Italian immigrant and construction worker.

Between 1921 and 1954, and without a plan to speak of, Rodia synthetic these strange openwork towers using just his hands, decorating them with ceramic tiles, bottles, mirrors and figurines.

It is thought that the project was an human activity of atonement, as Rodia had led a pretty dissolute life.

Charles Mingus grew up abreast the towers and linked their improvised style to his own piece of work, while the Beatles placed Rodia amid the many faces on the comprehend of Lonely Hearts Club Band.

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Source: https://www.thecrazytourist.com/top-25-things-to-do-in-los-angeles/