Explore Los Angeles

Scenic Landmarks

Formally named the Marvin Braude Bike Path (after a long-serving L.A. City Council member who championed the preservation of open space in the Santa Monica Mountains), but most locals call this epic ribbon of seaside concrete the Santa Monica Bike Path or The Strand. This skating-, jogging-, biking- and pedestrian-friendly thoroughfare stretches 26 miles alongside the Pacific Ocean from Will Rogers State Beach in Pacific Palisades to the far end of the Palos Verdes Peninsula, in Torrance.The journey is almost entirely flat and passes by numerous public restrooms and eateries, especially at Venice Beach and Manhattan Beach. By any means, traveling the path is an ideal activity for families and couples, or anyone who wants to find a bit of quiet time and fresh air while visiting this enormous city renowned for its traffic.The Santa Monica Pier makes an excellent starting point for a bike-path journey, and offers several places to rent bicycles.

Wildlife & Zoos

Cleverly designed habitats give visits the chance to experience the wild! The chimpanzees of the Mahale Mountains has plenty of playtime, while orangutans wonder about in the Red Ape RainForest. The Campo Gorilla Reserve provides a habitat for six African lowland gorillas that closely resembles their native West African homeland, and at the Pachyderm Forest, elephants and hippos relish in a climate-controlled environment, complete with an underwater viewing area. Children love Adventure Island with its petting zoo and hands-on play stations as well as the Children's Discovery Center.

Water & Amusement Parks

You'll instantly recognize it from film and TV: the neon-lit arch of the Santa Monica Pier. Feel the ocean breeze as you stroll past snack shacks, a game arcade, lively entertainers, and anglers to the far tip where the entire arc of the Santa Monica Bay, from Malibu to Palos Verdes unfolds before you. Kids get their kicks at Pacific Park, with its solar-powered Ferris wheel, kiddy rides, and midway games. Near the pier entrance, nostalgic souls and their offspring can ride the colorfully hand-painted horses on the vintage merry-go-round. Just below the carousel is Santa Monica Pier Aquarium, where sea stars and sea urchins can be scooped up and petted. And then there's the wide and long sandy expanse that is Santa Monica Beach. Here you’ll find sunbathers, families, volleyball players, and roller skaters.

Gardens & Parks

One of the largest urban green spaces in the country, Griffith Park is a wonderful playground for all ages and interests. The park embraces an outdoor theater, the city zoo, and observatory, two museums, golf courses, tennis courts, playgrounds, bridle paths, hiking trails, Batman's caves, and even the Hollywood sign.For astronomy buffs, the landmark Griffith Observatory opens a window on the universe in its planetarium with the world's most advanced star projector; the Big Picture, a floor-to-ceiling digital image of the universe bursting with galaxies and stars; and rooftop telescopes. At the Los Angeles Zoo, you can wander among some 1,200 finned, feathered and furry friends, which promises to enthrall the kids.Also here is the delightful Travel Town Museum, with its displays of dozens of vintage railcars and locomotives; the Bronson Caves, where scenes from Batman and Star Trek were filmed; the Museum of the American West.

Sights & Landmarks

In 1901, Angeles Flight began its run as a funicular called the Los Angeles Incline Railway, offering a one-cent, one-minute ride up or down steep Bunker Hill in Downtown Los Angeles. Closed in 1969 when the then-decaying district around it underwent a full-scale renovation, the Angels Flight signature black-and-orange cars (named Sinai and Olivet) stayed in municipal storage for 27 years.After a long battle by city conservationists for its return, Angels Flight was re-opened in 1996, just a half-block from its original site, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2000. Despite its completely modernized and re-designed operating system, Angels Flight experienced a tragic accident in 2001, when Sinai reversed without warning and plummeted downhill into Olivet, killing one passenger and injuring several others.

Water & Amusement Parks

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Water & Amusement Parks

Who can resist the siren call of a rollercoaster theme park? Six Flags Magic Mountain is all things a roller coaster park should be – dozens of white-knuckle rides, a pleasant ambiance, great food, and friendly staff. Though the lines may be long, Six Flags Magic Mountain earns its reputation as one of the best rollercoaster parks in the country with a great mix of traditional wooden roller coasters (like the APOCALYPSE) and modern cutting edge twisters like “X” and “The Goliath.” Complete with a Kids Rides section that keeps fun at a maximum, Six Flags Magic Mountain is a true theme park for the whole family. Grab the kids, wear close-toed shoes, and get ready to have a ball.

Wildlife & Zoos

Meet the colorful residents of Southern California’s underwater world at the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium in San Pedro. The Frank Gehry-designed aquarium boasts the largest collection of Southern California marine life anywhere. Opened in 1935, approximately 300,000 people visit the aquarium's exhibits and programs every year.The Cabrillo Marine Aquarium runs a variety of programs for individuals and families. Visitors can go on guided walks, whale watching trips and even take art classes, so check the schedule when you are in town. Cabrillo Coastal Park is also just outside the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium. You could spend hours tidepooling, birdwatching, fishing, boating or swimming. With tables, bathrooms and a fishing pier, it’s a nice place for a picnic.

Museums & Exhibitions

The most popular outpost of this unique educational center, the Museum of the American West, was created in 1988 by Western movie star and country recording artist Gene Autry with his friend and fellow Western actor/country singer, Monte Hale, and their wives. Located in Griffith Park just across from the Los Angeles Zoo, the museum, generally referred to as the Autry, is dedicated to preserving and sharing the complex history and cultural significance of the 19th-century American diaspora and the subsequent boom-growth of the West.Permanent exhibitions include over 100,000 objects and artifacts from the pioneer and Gold Rush eras (including a full-scale stagecoach and saloon); depictions of the West as a fabled land of opportunity alongside an often grittier reality; and screenings of classic Western films, many of which star Autry and Hale themselves.

Museums & Exhibitions

Car lovers don’t just plan a visit to the Petersen Automotive Museum, they race to get to it when they arrive in Los Angeles.The Petersen is dedicated to cars and how they’ve changed the way we live. Focusing on Los Angeles, exhibits showcase more than 150 rare and classic cars, trucks and motorcycles. But the beauty of The Petersen is that you don’t need to be an expert on cars and their numerous moving parts to enjoy what you’ll see. Some of the cars here come loaded with options and memories. The flaming red Ferrari Magnum P.I. used to cruise around Hawaii in, now calls The Petersen home. If red isn’t your color, you might take a liking to the 24-karat gold-plated DeLorean. The Petersen has more cars than museum space, so what you see from one trip to the next can change. To keep some of the especially valuable automobiles safe and sound, there’s the Vault. It’s essentially an extremely large garage-sized safe used to store cars.

Museums & Exhibitions

Opened in 2008 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Grammy Awards, the music industry's biggest accolade, this major attraction at Downtown L.A.'s blockbuster entertainment complex, L.A. Live, celebrates all aspects of the music industry. With four stories and over 30,000 square feet of space, this is the largest music-themed museum in Los Angeles, which is itself the center of the American music industry.Permanent exhibits at the Grammy Museum include elaborate outfits worn by past Grammy winners like Kanye West and Beyoncé, as well as sound booths where you can record a song and remix it in different musical styles. Rotating exhibits have included tributes to deceased stars Whitney Houston, Roy Orbison and John Lennon, as well as retrospectives of Muzak, hip-hop, heavy metal and more.

Cultural/Heritage Places

One of LA's most distinguishing icons, the famous HOLLYWOOD sign proudly stands on the hillside of the Hollywood Hills, overlooking its namesake city and the movie industry it has come to symbolize.LA's most famous landmark first appeared on its hillside perch in 1923, as a advertising gimmick for a real-estate development called Hollywoodland. Each letter stands 50 feet (15 m) tall and is made of sheet metal painted white.Once aglow with 4,000 light bulbs, the sign even had its own caretaker, who lived behind the letter L until 1939. The last four letters were lopped off in the 1940s as the sign started to crumble along with the rest of Hollywood. In the late 1970s, Alice Cooper and Hugh Hefner joined forces with fans and other celebrities to save the famous symbol.

Museums & Exhibitions

While it’s best known for its movie stars, one of the City of Angels’ most elegant attractions is this gorgeous 1913 Beaux Arts palace. Like a smaller, west coast version of New York’s American Museum of Natural History, the NMHLA contains a microcosm of the whole world, both indoors and out in the Southern California sunshine.Highlights of the museum are an enormous Dinosaur Hall full of sea monster fossils and T. Rex skeletons, three halls’ worth of amazingly realistic wildlife habitat dioramas (the African hall is like a safari that stands still), and a 150,000-specimen Gem and Mineral Hall full of gold, diamonds and other sparkly distractions. But be sure not to miss the soaring Rotunda at the center of the building, with its intricate stained glass dome, graceful bronze statues, and colorful paintings by artist Charles R. Knight, which illustrate mid-20th-century scientists’ findings about the prehistoric world.

Museums & Exhibitions

The Museum of Tolerance (MOT) is a Simon Wiesenthal Center Museum. Since it opened its doors in 1993, more than five million have visited, most middle and high school students. Interactive exhibits and special programs are designed to help visitors develop a better understanding of the Holocaust and inspire tolerance of all people regardless of race or religion.The museum features an exhibit on Anne Frank. Along with rare artifacts, documents and photographs, you can read a facsimile of her diary. Little known facts about the time she spent in hiding and her arrest are highlighted throughout the exhibit. Admission for the Anne exhibit is not included with general museum admission and advanced reservations are recommended.

Museums & Exhibitions

Set beside the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) in Mid-City's Hancock Park, these are real live cesspools in the heart of Tinseltown. While the asphalt here was first excavated back in 1915 (when this spot was home to the city’s natural history museum), the pits themselves were discovered as many as 40,000 years ago by hapless saber-toothed tigers, dire wolves and ground sloths who fell in and drowned. The misfortune of these bygone beasts is symbolized by life-size statues of imperiled woolly mammoths caught in a still-bubbling pool of tar.Preserved for an aeon or so, the Pits' amazing Ice Age fossils are tagged in various excavation sites around the park. Work is generally slow, however, as the ground here is constantly evolving; around the park and out on Wilshire Boulevard you can still see black, sticky asphalt oozing up from cracks in the road and sidewalk.

Museums & Exhibitions

Unlike her lifelike figures, Madame Tussaud was a real human being, a wax sculptor in 1770s Paris who became an art tutor at the Palace of Versailles. During the French Revolution, she was forced to prove her allegiance to King Louis IVX by making death masks of executed aristocrats; lauded for her work, she eventually left for Britain with many of her works in tow. In the early 19th century, a showcase for her wax likenesses of famous -- and infamous -- contemporary figures was built in London; the Madame Tussauds brand has since become a popular global franchise, spreading across Europe, Asia, Australia and several American cities.One of the most-visited Madame Tussauds sits on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue. The wax figures featured here depict famous Hollywood icons, contemporary movie stars and TV actors, auteur film directors (such as Alfred Hitchcock) and movie-franchise characters (like E.T. and the X Men).

Museums & Exhibitions

Housed in the 1935 Art Deco, pink-and-green marble Max Factor Building, this former museum of make-up (which has been partially preserved here) now hosts the largest collection of Hollywood memorabilia in the world. In addition to movie props, sets and costumes, the archives here include over 1,000 vintage photographs from Tinseltown history.Arranged chronologically from the silent film era to modern entertainment production, temporary exhibits have included career retrospectives of stars like Lucille Ball and Michael Jackson, and permanent exhibits include an entire floor of horror-themed set pieces and props from frightening movies like Silence of the Lambs and Nightmare on Elm Street, as well as gory TV shows like Dexter and The Walking Dead. One of the museum's most prestigious features is a large, permanent exhibition of historian-authenticated Marilyn Monroe memorabilia.

Art Galleries

The Museum of Contemporary Art or MOCA, is one museum with the bonus of three locations. MOCA is devoted to contemporary art. Founded in 1979, its collection includes more than 6,800 works.The museum calls three facilities home: MOCA Grand Avenue, The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA in Little Tokyo, and MOCA Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood. What’s on view at MOCA Grand Avenue is constantly changing, so be sure to check the schedule when you are in Los Angeles. Writing and sketching are allowed in the galleries in pencil, but photography is not permitted.

Art Galleries

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), set within L.A.'s Hancock Park beside the La Brea Tar Pits, is an exciting place to explore both the world of art and the art world. Here you can purchase a ticket to the latest big-budget show (like lily-pad-loving Monet or local anti-hero Tim Burton), take a comfy seat in the busy lecture/movie hall, or immerse yourself in rare and varied collections.Much of LACMA's art represents the area’s diverse citizenry. Mayan sculptures honor the city's huge Mexican community; the spiral-path Asian wing reflect three of L.A.’s most influential populations — Japanese, Korean and Chinese; Persian tile-works and intricate paintings allude to the city’s thriving Beverly Hills community of Iranian expats; and mysterious carvings and totems from Tonga, Papua New Guinea and more are a nod to L.A.’s often-direct-flight proximity to the islands of the Pacific Rim.

Museums & Exhibitions

Located in the Little Tokyo area of Los Angeles, the Japanese American National Museum tells the story of Japanese Americans. Opened in 1992, it is the first museum in the United States dedicated to the topic.The Japanese American National Museum hosts many changing exhibits, but Common Ground: The Heart of Community is its ongoing central exhibition. Using an assortment of objects, documents and photographs, the exhibition covers 130 years of Japanese American history. It begins with the early days of the Issei pioneers, and continues through the World War II incarceration to present day. The museum’s calendar of events is loaded with all sorts of events and programs, so be sure to check the schedule when you visit.

Museums & Exhibitions

A joint project between the State of California and the California Science Center Foundation, this is the largest interactive science center on the West Coast. Home to an IMAX theater, the Space Shuttle Endeavour and much more, the Center is a comprehensive tour through the world of science.Permanent exhibits here include explorations of ecosystems and how they work (or don’t); the survival processes of all living things; feats of engineering, technology and other inventions; and air and space exhibits (where you’ll find the Endeavour). Outside, you’ll find an outdoor sculpture garden with several interactive details like mosaic tiles that impart scientific knowledge, and high above the Center’s entrance, visitors can ride a bicycle that’s been carefully balanced on a high wire.

Gardens & Parks

Get your dose of European art and international botany in California with this impressive display of art, rare books, and plants. The collections, gifted from entrepreneur Henry E. Huntington, contain the most 18th century art from around the world outside of London.Stroll through the gardens admiring hundreds of species of colorful plants and flowers, or lose yourself in a book or a painting. The art collection houses both European and American pieces in its galleries, with sections dedicated to ceramics and decorative arts. The library holds more than six million items, including historic first edition Shakespeare manuscripts and a Gutenberg Bible, though the main section is available only to researchers. As for the gardens, you’ll find much variety — from Japanese and Chinese gardens, to herbs, roses, a desert garden and a children’s garden. All in all there are more than 120 acres of garden open to the public to explore.

Sights & Landmarks

In Los Angeles, the heart of the entertainment world, the Paley Center for Media houses a collection of more than 160,000 television and radio programs. The center works to preserve the artistic and cultural contributions of these programs, operating as a sort of database and forum for continued discussion. Radio programs date back to the 1920s, while television shows go back to 1939.The archives function almost like a library of media. Most are available to watch or listen to in screening rooms or on individual consoles. In addition to original materials, there are also recorded seminars from prominent television and radio figures ranging from hosts and creators to actors. The archives serve both as a resource for media professionals and as a catalog for the public to engage with. The center is expanding into emerging media, including Internet video and mobile content. There’s also a branch of the center located in New York City.

Sights & Landmarks

Whether it’s hiking or horseback riding, biking or busing, there are plenty of ways to explore the well-heeled neighborhood of Hollywood Hills. Its famous bright white Hollywood sign has become an iconic California image and its panoramic views of downtown Los Angeles, Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley have made it worth venturing outside the city for tourists hoping to capture the perfect sunset picture.Travelers can climb to the top of Mt. Hollywood or wander through scenic Griffith Park. John Anson Ford Theater, the Hollywood Bowl, the Hollywood Reservoir and Forest Lawn Memorial Park are also popular sites on a visit to this famed high-rent neighborhood, but visitors would do just as well to drive around the quiet streets taking in some of the most classic (and impressive) residential architecture in California.

Buildings & Structure

Rising 13 round stories above Hollywood Boulevard and the Walk of Fame, this city landmark, built in the mid-1950s to house the first West Coast outpost of a major record label, has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Famed for being the site of recordings by Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra and many other big artists, the distinctive tower, designed by Louis Naidorf and Welton Becket (the latter, architect of the nearby Cinerama Dome and other prominent L.A. buildings) was purportedly meant to symbolize a stack of record albums on a turntable.The building houses a series of working recording, mixing and mastering studios, including a unique echo chamber designed by guitarist and inventor Les Paul. Though the building has made a handful of appearances in popular entertainment, it was most dramatically featured in the 2004 disaster movie The Day After Tomorrow, being smashed to the ground by a giant tornado (and computer-generated effects).

Stadiums & Arenas

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Wilt Chamberlain, Dennis Rodman and Shaquille O’Neal are just five of the celebrated basketball players who have worn the purple and gold of a Los Angeles Lakers jersey. Today’s lauded star, Kobe Bryant, led the Lakers to three national championships in a row from 2000 to 2002, and again in 2009 and 2010.Needless to say, the NBA team is one of the country’s most worshipped, and catching a game at the Staples Center is an LA must-do. If you’re not a sports fan, keep your eyes open for the A-list stars who frequent the floor seats – particularly Jack Nicholson, who has had season tickets since the 1970s. You may also see Tom Cruise, Snoop Dog, Jack Black, Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens, Leonardo DiCaprio and Cameron Diaz.

Theatres & Cinemas

As the main hall of the Los Angeles Music Center, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion is home to some of the best musical performances in the LA area. It was built utilizing a “total design” aesthetic, meaning that every detail from the carpeting to the engineering was coordinated for uniformity of design. Historically its halls and stage have been home to everything from the LA Philharmonic to the Academy Awards, though these days it’s the site of the LA Opera and Glorya Kaufman dance performances (which often brings in traveling dance troupes.)Excellent acoustics create resonating sounds across its four-tiers of seating, while crystal chandeliers and wide stairways add to the ambiance of elegance. The Los Angeles Music Center that it is part of it is one of the three largest centers for performing arts in the United States, and some of classical music’s greatest performers have graced its stage.

Land Activities & Tours

This graceful symbol of the movie industry's Golden Age, open for business since 1926, is the only major film studio still operating in Hollywood's commercial district. The sprawling 65-acre lot features huge iron-scrollwork gates and Spanish-style architecture, as well as realistic replicas of vintage city streets.Paramount was created in 1912 by movie theater owner Adolph Zukor, who took a stylistic departure from the era's short nickelodeon films of that time, which were popular with working class immigrants, and produced long-form film versions of stage plays in the hopes of engaging America's middle class. Zukor's plan worked and Paramount eventually launched brilliant careers for long-form movie stars like Rudolph Valentino, Gloria Swanson, director Cecil B. DeMille, Marlene Dietrich, Mae West, the Marx Brothers, Bob Hope and many more.

Land Activities & Tours

Southern California’s quintessential bohemian playground, Venice Beach is a haven for artists, New Agers, homeless people, and free spirits of all stripes. This is where Jim Morrison and the Doors lit their fire, where Arnold Schwarzenegger pumped himself to stardom, and where Julia Roberts and Dennis Hopper make their homes today. Life on Venice Beach moves to a different rhythm and nowhere more so than on the famous Venice Boardwalk, officially known as Ocean Front Walk. It’s a nonstop Mardi Gras of fortune tellers, street musicians, and characters of all colors, shapes, and sizes. This is where to get your hair braided, your karma corrected, and your back massaged qigong–style. Encounters with hoop dreamers, a Speedo-clad snake charmer and a roller-skating Sikh minstrel are pretty much guaranteed, especially on hot summer days. The Sunday-afternoon drum circle draws hundreds of revelers for tribal playing and spontaneous dancing.

Fun & Games

One of L.A.'s most visited tourist attractions, this 387,000 square-foot shopping mall and entertainment center makes an enormous, colorful splash on the sometimes scruffy Hollywood Walk of Fame. The complex includes the Dolby Theatre (formerly known as the Kodak Theatre) which hosts both the Oscars and Cirque du Soleil's Iris, a resident stage show which celebrates the history of film. The core of Hollywood & Highland is arranged around a three-story courtyard, where soaring, elephant-topped columns evoke the Babylon set of D.W. Griffith's 1916 epic, Intolerance. Fanning out from here, you'll find over a dozen restaurants ranging from food-court outposts to destination dining, two night clubs, a bowling alley and 75+ retail shops, including large national chains like Gap, Build-A-Bear and Sephora. Adjacent to the main mall is the famous Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, an ornate movie palace festooned with Far East flourishes and featuring a cement-paved forecourt.

Dance & Night Clubs

Founded in 1964 as the third outpost of an American chain based on a Paris disco, this Whisky-a-Go-Go was the first U.S. club to popularize the use of go-go dancers in suspended cages. The Doors were briefly the house band in the mid-1960s, and ever since, musical acts have included up-and-coming bands that have gone on to be enormously popular in a variety of genres – hard rock, metal, reggae, New Wave, grunge and more.The Whisky, as it’s locally known, is easy to spot along the Sunset Strip, as there is always a line of patrons out front waiting to get into a show. Remaining true to its roots, the club continues to feature emerging bands rather than headliners. However, as many famous acts can claim the Whisky’s stage as the site of their first gig, it remains a historical landmark on the L.A. rock’n’roll scene. An all-ages venue not known for its food, The Whisky offers a limited menu including burgers, fries and bar snacks.

Theatres & Cinemas

On the Sunset Strip site of a club formerly known at various times as Filthy McNasty’s or The Central, this rock, punk, metal and indie music club and dive bar was originally opened by actor Johnny Depp in 1993. Later that same year, it achieved a sad brand of fame when actor (and Depp’s friend) River Phoenix died of a drug overdose just outside its doors. Depp relinquished his partnership in the club in 2004, and today it’s partially owned by Harry Morton, founder of Southern California’s Pink Taco chain of Mexican restaurants and the son of Hard Rock Café founder Peter Morton. Not as much of a star attraction now as it was in the 1990s, the Viper Room is still known for picky bouncers and a killer sound system; if you’re a true music fan who wants to catch an emerging act or a locally-popular DJ, this is the club for you. Food isn’t served, but drinks at the full bar are reasonably priced ($7-11) for a West Hollywood club.

Theatres & Cinemas

On a busy Downtown street corner a half-block from the main plaza of L.A.'s Performing Arts Center and across from the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), the Walt Disney Concert Hall's twisted-metal landmark building bursts forth like a strange silver flower. Designed by Frank Gehry, the city's most famous contemporary architect, and acoustician Yasuhisa Toyota, the walls and ceiling of the interior are finished with Douglas fir and the floor with oak. Attending a performance in this soaring, swirling sanctum of perfect pitch is a treat for all of your senses. Founded by Lillian Disney to honor her husband Walt's commitment to arts and culture in L.A., the Concert Hall is home to the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Master Chorale. The 2,265-seat performance space also hosts an impressive, eclectic array of musicians and singers from around the world. Acts range from the Soweto Gospel Choir to composer Philip Glass and indie rockers Death Cab for Cutie.

Theatres & Cinemas

Renamed in 2012 when sponsor Eastman Kodak filed for bankruptcy, this 180,000-square-foot, 3,400-seat theater now showcases Dolby Laboratories' state-of-the-art sound technologies. Situated in the popular Hollywood & Highland mall complex, the elegant Dolby Theatre hosts both the Academy Awards and Cirque du Soleil's Iris, a resident stage show which celebrates the history of film. Periodically, the Dolby also plays host to charity benefits, movie premieres, special events and other televised award shows. The theater's soaring stage, one of the largest in the United States, has featured the national premiere of Pixar's Brave, the American Idol finals, the Daytime Emmys, the American Ballet Theatre and even President Barack Obama, while out on the campaign trail.

Hotel

Once the most elegant ocean-going vessel in the Cunard Line, this Art Deco-era cruise ship was designed to travel back and forth between England; however, it briefly served as a World War II troopship in the early 1940s, resuming its leisure passenger service from 1947-1965. Docked ever since in Long Beach Harbor, the Queen Mary now serves as a floating hotel, special event venue, and tourist attraction. The ship’s 346 suites and staterooms start at around $130 for the night (AAA discounts are available), but even if you’re not an overnight guest, you can have a romantic dinner, cocktails, afternoon tea and weekend brunch in the ship’s restaurants and bars. One-hour ghost-themed tours of the ship are the Queen Mary’s most popular draw; held daily at 12, 2, 4 and 6 p.m., they’re $29.95 for adults and $13.95 for kids.

Scenic Landmarks

Spread out along a particularly scenic stretch of coastline is Southern California's artsiest resort town, Laguna Niguel and Laguna Beach. It has been a popular tourist town since the early 1900s, thanks to seven flawless miles of golden crescent beaches, caressed with a perfect climate in the stunning coastal foothills.The privileged spot has famously attracted bohemian types since the 1920s, and remains best known for its major arts festival, Pageant of the Masters. Since 1932, locals have used elaborate costumes and settings to recreate the world's most famous paintings, remaining perfectly still for 90 minutes while a soaring orchestra plays. Other arts fairs, including the Sawdust Art Festival and Art-a-Fair (also held in July and August, to coincide with the Pageant of the Masters), Plein Air Painting Invitational, Festival of Arts, and other art shows draw crowds.

Theatres & Cinemas

Owned and operated by the Walt Disney Company, this ornately restored 1926 movie palace was part of real estate developer Charles E. Toberman and showman Sid Grauman's original Hollywood theater district (along with the neighboring Chinese and Egyptian theaters). Now used primarily to host premieres and special runs of Disney films, the El Capitan is bordered by a Disney store and soda fountain, the latter of which features ice cream flavors named for the theater's current feature. After a couple of decades of the theater changed ownership as Disney finally purchased it in 1989. At this time it was thoroughly restored it to its initial Spanish Colonial Revival splendor and re-opened in 1991 with its original name. The El Capitan today includes a vintage Wurlitzer organ and a museum room beneath the main theater which exhibits artwork and set pieces from the movie of the moment.

Places of Natural Beauty

Catalina Island is a rocky island getaway, whose 22-mile (35-kilometer) distance from the coast of LA often feels like 22,000. The ferry ride from Long Beach, Dana Point, San Pedro or Newport Beach takes about an hour, and the minute you step off the boat in the island’s only incorporated town, Avalon, you’ll feel like you’ve left the country. The Mediterranean-esque island offers a blissful breather from LA’s constant flurry. Stay for a day or a week – your goal is to slow down and take advantage of the island’s tranquil pace. Shopping in Avalon’s small boutiques, dining in a seaside restaurant and admiring the harbor, dotted with shiny white yachts, can fill up a morning or afternoon. Then, throw on your swimsuit for some snorkeling, rent a bike to see more of the island or try your luck with a fishing pole. Golf, Segway-rental, scuba diving, kayaking, camping, hiking and parasailing are also available.

Theatres & Cinemas

The largest natural amphitheater in the United States, this Art Deco-era band shell tucked into the Hollywood Hills seats 18,000 and hosts some of the biggest musical acts in the world. Just as when it first opened in 1922, the Bowl serves as the summer home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic; since 1991, it's also been the home of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. The outdoor Bowl's performance season generally runs from early June to October, featuring acts from every major musical genre; continuing into the winter, lease events are put on by acts who lease the stage here for a limited time. During the main season, an enormous movie screen allows for popular events like movie-musical sing-a-longs (The Sound of Music is a perennial favorite) and orchestral accompaniment in place of movie soundtracks. Every year on July 4th, the holiday show culminates in a spectacular display of fireworks.

Fun & Games

Located on the I-5 Freeway, 10 minutes south of Downtown L.A., this fortress-like, faux-Mesopotamian complex houses the city’s only shopping outlets. (The outlet malls in Camarillo and Ontario both lie outside of Los Angeles County). With 115 outlet stores, including Banana Republic, Calvin Klein and Old Navy, the Citadel can be a multi-hour diversion. Several casual/fast food restaurants provide a sense of true Southern California cuisine, with outposts of Ruby’s Diner and Hot Dog on a Stick, as well as Maui Style Hawaiian BBQ and Nibi Pho Bistro; the latter reflects the influence of Orange County’s Vietnamese population, which is the largest in the country.

Fun & Games

Encompassing an entire city block at the intersection of Beverly Hills and West Hollywood, this eight-story shopping mall has been a popular attraction since its opening in 1982. With over 100 individual shops ranging from chain to high-end, the mall is also home to three department stores, a food court and several restaurants. Once the site of a locally beloved amusement park, the mall's valuable property still encompasses a working oil field. Considered by many Angelenos to be an architectural eyesore studded with external escalators and a poorly-designed, $1-an-hour parking lot, the Beverly Center's iconic status with tourists has been fueled by its appearances in movies like Scenes from a Mall and Less Than Zero. Resident stores include Henri Bendel, True Religion, Yves Saint Laurent, Jimmy Choo and H&M and restaurants include L.A.'s only outposts of The Capital Grille and Grand Lux Cafe.

Fun & Games

L.A. Live is at the heart of the action in downtown Los Angeles. It is the sports, music, and entertainment hub surrounding venues like the Staples Center and Los Angeles Convention Center. The energetic collection of nightclubs, restaurants, venues, movie theaters, and even museums truly has something for everyone. A few highlights include the iconic Conga Room, the Nokia Theater, and Lucky Strikes and Lounge bowling center. L.A. Live is also home to the GRAMMY Museum and its decades of music industry history. With more than twenty restaurants there plenty of dining options. Some of Los Angeles’s best luxury hotels can be in surrounding skyscrapers. Live entertainment and special events are frequent, and award shows and red carpets can also be seen here on a regular basis. The ever-modern structures and lights of L.A. Live are set to continue to expand, so we can expect much more entertainment to come out of this cultural center in years to come.

Fun & Games

Universal CityWalk is a 3-block-long stretch is filled with restaurants, shops, bars, and entertainment venues, all glittering and glossy. It is an unabashedly commercial fantasy promenade. It's also the place to go before or after your visit to nearby Universal Studios. Start with the flashy name-brand stores, such as Billabong, Fossil, Abercrombie & Fitch, or take in a film at the six-story 3-D IMAX theater or the the 18-screen CityWalk Cinemas. There’s even NASCAR virtual racing and an indoor sky-diving wind tunnel. Restaurants include the Hard Rock Café, Daily Grill, and Saddle Ranch. And if you’re staying late, check out the nightclubs including Howl at the Moon, the dueling piano bar or Rumba Room Latin dance club. And if you’d just rather relax, stop in at the Zen Zone to indulge in a 20-minute aqua massage,” where you lay down fully clothed atop a rubber sheet and feel strong rotating jets of water massage your backside from neck to toe.

Theatres & Cinemas

Developed by L.A. real estate giants Charles E. Toberman and Sid Grauman, the vaudeville showman and movie-palace mogul behind the nearby Chinese Theatre, this 1922 Egyptian-themed landmark capitalized on the national fervor of British archeologists' early 1920s discoveries of ancient Egyptian tombs and artifacts. The Egyptian Theatre's dramatic entrance courtyard bears huge columns and mock hieroglyphics, similar in feel (if not scale) to the Babylonian design details of its neighbor, the Hollywood & Highland mall complex. The first Hollywood theater to host a national movie premiere (The Ten Commandments, 1922), the Egyptian became famous for its pre-screening live performances staged by Grauman himself; eventually, the theater became best known for long-term engagements of big box office films like My Fair Lady and Ben-Hur.

Fun & Games

This 57,000 square-foot outdoor mall in L.A.'s condensed Mid-City neighborhood draws crowds of tourists and locals every day of the year. Opened in 2002 and designed to look like a city within a city, its meandering layout features faux-Art Deco facades, stone-paved pathways, several restaurants and cafes, a shiny double-decker streetcar, and a whimsically animated fountain beside a grassy park. Since 2010, the entertainment tabloid show Extra has been filmed here, providing visitors a chance to see both a TV production and host Mario Lopez in action. Surrounded by a shopping district full of independent boutiques and restaurants, and only about a mile from the famous Beverly Center, The Grove's popularity can be ironically attributed to its location. The mall sprawls adjacent to two other major attractions, CBS Television City (where visitors line up to see tapings of TV shows like Dancing With the Stars and American Idol) and the Original Farmer's Market.

Fun & Games

Los Angeles is one of the cities closely tied to the fashion world, and although the area in the city known as the Fashion District is largely catering to the industry it's also a tourist attraction that's partly open to the public. LA's Fashion District is a hive of design activity – more than 100 blocks where fabric makers and wholesale clothing distributors occupying huge warehouses. These places don't sell to the general public, but there are some retail businesses in the neighborhood – and even some that are typically only open to the industry have special sale days once each month during which they sell off samples. Inside the boundaries of the Fashion District are two popular tourist areas. The Los Angeles Flower District, where you'll find hundreds of wholesale flower shops (even if you're not shopping, it's gorgeous scenery); and Santee Alley, a bustling pedestrian street lined with shops that's known for its bargains.

Land Activities & Tours

The original Warner brothers were Harry, Albert, Sam and Jack, who began their careers in the early 1900s as movie theatre and film distribution entrepreneurs. They moved their rapidly-expanding operations to the studio's present site in 1928, and eventually built one of the largest and most profitable entertainment companies in the world. Today, the Warner Bros. empire encompasses live-action film, animation, comic books, radio, TV, video games and amusement parks, as well as music recording and distribution.Behind-the-scenes studio tours via golf carts (either 2-hours and 15-minutes or 5 hours in length) provide glimpses into back lot streets, sound stages and set- and prop-crafting shops. No two tours are alike, and stars sometimes wander into view or make deliberate appearances. Children 8 years and over are permitted and tours are given Monday to Friday.

Farms

A historic Los Angeles landmark, the Los Angeles Farmers Market is a bustling market of food stalls, eateries, prepared food vendors, produce markets, and much more. You can easily spend a morning or afternoon here browsing the more than 100 restaurants, grocers and tourist shops. Opened in 1934, the Farmers Market is a popular destination for foodies in search of the market’s wide assortment of flavors and cuisines. The market started when a dozen nearby farmers would park their trucks on a field to sell their fresh produce to local residents. It quickly grew in popularity, especially when CBS Television City opened next door and began providing those working or visiting that television studio a convenient place to shop or eat.

Cafe

The Hard Rock Cafe has become a center of international pop music and nostalgia, presenting some of the industry’s best memorabilia alongside service of classic American meals. What began in London in 1979 has since grown to be present in over 60 countries, each presenting its own unique style. This location in particular has quite a rock star heritage — in fact, it’s right beside the Hollywood Walk of Fame. As such it routinely has access to some of music’s best memorabilia across all genres, including The Doors, Metallica, and Ray Charles (to name a few!) At 20,000 square feet in size, the Hard Rock Cafe Hollywood is one of the largest as well. There is a live music area regularly featuring fantastic performers, with a bar, retail store, and interactive touchscreens which allow visitors to experience the other Hard Rock locations worldwide.