The best things to do in Los Angeles are Griffith Observatory at dusk, the Getty Center, the Hollywood Walk of Fame and Chinese Theatre, Santa Monica Pier and a Grand Central Market lunch. Give the city 4 to 5 days, visit in March, April or October for mild weather and clear skies, and rent a car unless you can plan around Metro's rail lines.
Los Angeles is a set of neighborhoods a car apart, not a single downtown. Below are the ten experiences worth the drive (each mapped, with a Wimup video guide) plus a car-free plan for the days you would rather not rent one. This is LA the way locals actually spend a weekend.
The city's best free view: LA fanned out below the Hollywood sign, downtown on the horizon, the Pacific catching the last light. Admission to the building and public telescopes is free; time it for the last hour before sunset and stay for the planetarium show if the sky is clear.
Richard Meier's travertine campus above the 405 is worth the tram ride even before the art. Free admission with a timed reservation, European painting from Van Gogh to Turner, and a Robert Irwin garden that reads as a permanent installation.
The Walk of Fame between Highland and Vine is the classic LA hour, ending at the TCL Chinese Theatre's celebrity handprints in the forecourt. Come in the morning before the crowds and the costumed characters, then walk down to the Roosevelt for coffee.
The Marvin Braude bike path runs 22 miles of coast, and the flat two-mile stretch from Santa Monica Pier down to the Venice boardwalk is the reason most people learn to love LA. Rent at the pier, stop for tacos on Rose, come back for the sunset.
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art anchors Miracle Mile, best paired with a walk past Chris Burden's Urban Light lampposts out front and the La Brea Tar Pits next door. LA County residents get free entry after 3pm on weekdays; everyone else pays for a permanent-collection ticket.
Eli and Edythe Broad's contemporary collection is free with a timed reservation, and the Kusama Infinity Mirrored Room is the fastest-booked ticket in the city. Walk-ups get in on the standby line; reserved slots for each month go on the first of the month before at 10am.
The Studio Tour tram, an hour of Hollywood back-lot with sets you have seen for forty years, is the reason to come. Everything else is a theme park; the tour is the LA experience. Ticket prices are dynamic, so buying online a week ahead saves the most.
Abbot Kinney's 1905 canal town became LA's oddest promenade: two miles of street performers, Muscle Beach lifters, murals and skate bowls. Bookend it with a coffee on Abbot Kinney Boulevard and dinner at Gjelina.
The 1917 downtown food hall is the shortest route to LA's food culture in one meal: Eggslut on the corner, tacos at Villa Moreliana, ramen at Ramen Hood, a chocolate horchata from Chiles Secos. Entry is free; you pay each vendor.
The third-oldest ballpark in Major League Baseball sits in a bowl above Elysian Park, and the seventh-inning view of downtown at dusk is the reason to buy an upper-deck seat. Take the free Dodger Stadium Express from Union Station and skip the parking.
Hipster LA's original neighborhood: cafes on Sunset, mid-century houses on the reservoir, and an evening in the Sunset Junction bars.
The canal town that became LA's oddest beach neighborhood: boardwalk to the west, Abbot Kinney to the east, Rose Avenue the connector. Best paired with a rented bike.
The old warehouse quarter east of Little Tokyo, now murals, breweries and Bestia. Walk from Little Tokyo Metro; skip on Sundays when half the rooms are closed.
Sunset Strip's mile of music history, plus Melrose shopping and the design blocks around Beverly. The place to stay if you want to walk.
The Northeast LA neighborhood the Gold Line reached first, and the reason Figueroa is still one of the city's most interesting streets to eat and drink on.
The 136-year Pasadena parade of flower-covered floats down Colorado Boulevard, then the college football classic.
Hollywood's own night at the Dolby Theatre. Red carpet from Highland; go the morning after for the closed-street calm.
Two hours east in Indio, but LA empties out. Book hotels months ahead if you plan to go.
The parade along Hollywood Boulevard and events across the city all weekend. Fifty-plus years running.
AmericaFest at the Rose Bowl, the West Coast's flagship Fourth of July show. Every neighborhood has its own smaller display.
Television's night at the Peacock Theater downtown, and the closest most locals get to a red carpet.
The largest Day of the Dead celebration outside Mexico, with altars, live music and Aztec dancers among the graves.
Music's night at Crypto.com Arena downtown, plus the Grammy Museum programming that runs all week.
The main airport, 18 miles southwest of downtown. FlyAway bus to Union Station runs every 15 min from 5am to 11pm for $12.75, or the Metro C/K line via the LAX/Metro Transit Center from 2025.
Union Station is downtown's rail hub: Amtrak's Pacific Surfliner runs the coast to San Diego, Metrolink covers commuter routes across the region, and every Metro line stops here.
Seven lines run downtown to Long Beach, Santa Monica, Hollywood and East LA. Fare is $1.75 per ride with 2 hours of free transfers, capped at $5 a day and $18 a week on a TAP card.
The car is still LA's default: budget for parking, add half an hour for traffic on the 405 and the 101. Uber and Lyft are ubiquitous and are the honest option for a bar night.
The trompo-spun pork taco on a corn tortilla, the LA street-food benchmark.
Roast beef on a French roll dipped in au jus, invented downtown in 1908.
The upside-down avocado-and-crab roll a Little Tokyo chef invented in the 1960s. Sushi went mainstream here.
Table-grill short rib, pork belly and bulgogi, with a wall of banchan.
The Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles standard, born in Hollywood in 1975.
Roy Choi's Korean-Mexican fusion, the truck that reset LA food in 2008 and still runs a schedule most nights.
The Baldwin Park burger the whole state defends. Order animal-style, and the fries extra crisp.
The bacon-wrapped hot dog with pinto beans, tomato and jalapeño mayo, from carts after dark.
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