Also known as the City of Angels, Los Angeles is the largest city in the state of California.
Although the destinations seem close and there is public transportation, you have to take into account the fact that the metropolitan area of Los Angeles has an area of approx. 88,000 km².
We drove from one objective to another. Parking is generally decently priced, and you can find free parking on weekends. If you are driving, be very careful where you park, because you will more than likely get a fine or your car will be towed.
As the second largest city in the United States after New York City, you need at least a week to fully enjoy all that Los Angeles has to offer.
We had two days to visit some of the top tourist attractions, but we will definitely be back to check off the rest of the sights.
1. Griffith Park and Observatory
We started our first day in Los Angeles with a hike through Griffith Park and up to the Griffith Observatory, which is located on the highest hill in the park.
The observatory is one of LA‘s most popular attractions and the most visited public observatory in the world. From here you can see the Hollywood sign and a great view of the city. The most important exhibit in the Griffith Observatory is the Tesla coil which, with its huge sparks and disturbing noise, impresses millions of people.
Entrance to the Observatory is free, but it can only be visited on certain days: Friday (12:00 – 22:00), Saturday and Sunday (10:00 – 22:00). We were there during the week and didn’t have the opportunity to see it inside.
2. Lake Hollywood Park and the Hollywood Sign
There are many places to see the Hollywood Sign, and although we saw it from Griffith Park, we made a short stop at Lake Hollywood Park to take a few pictures.
Created in 1923 and originally spelled “Hollywoodland“, the unmistakable Hollywood sign was only to be kept for 18 months. The arrival of the Golden Age of Hollywood changed everything , and the sign has remained in Griffith Park to this day.
3. The Magic Castle
The Magic Castle is a club for magicians and magic enthusiasts. Located in Hollywood, it bills itself as “the world’s most unusual private club”, where only members and their guests are allowed to enter.
4. Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive Walk of Style
Beverly Hills is surrounded by the cities of Los Angeles and West Hollywood and hosts the homes of many celebrities, luxury hotels, and the well-known shopping center Rodeo Drive. If you have seen the series “Beverly Hills, 90210” you already know that the title of the series represents the zip code of Beverly Hills.
If you arrive in LA, give at least an hour to a tour among the streets with houses and gardens arranged to the smallest detail in this small town. It is an extremely beautiful and peaceful area.
Rodeo Drive is one of the world’s most exclusive luxury destinations and is popular with wealthy shoppers and celebrities, and some stores require appointments to enter and are generally off limits to tourists.
5. Angels Flight funicular
Angels Flight is a historic railroad in the Bunker Hill neighborhood and has two funicular cars, Olivet and Sinai, that run in opposite directions on a common cable.
Although the trip takes only thirty seconds, Angels Flight is believed to have carried more passengers per mile than any other railroad in the world, making it not only the shortest in length, but also the most “traveled”. A one-way ride costs $1, and if you have the Metro TAP card you ‘ll pay just 50 cents.
6. The Getty Center
The Getty Center is one of the most impressive architectural achievements in the United States and contains some of the most beautiful works of art in the world. The center is renowned for its permanent collection which includes pre-20th century European paintings, drawings, manuscripts, sculptures and photographs. The exhibits belong to J. Paul Getty, who was a passionate collector of art and antiques.
Jean Paul Getty founded the Getty Oil Company in 1942 and in 1957 Fortune magazine named him the richest living American, while the World Record Book named him the richest private citizen in the world in 1966, with an estimated fortune of $1.2 billion.
Although he had an impressive fortune, Getty was famous for his stinginess, best known for negotiating the ransom for his kidnapped nephew in 1973.
These facts and the drama that Getty‘s grandson went through were the basis of the movie “All the Money in the World” and the series ” Trust“.
7. TCL Chinese Theatre
The TCL Chinese Theater is located on the Walk of Fame and is a cinema opened in 1927, one of the most beautiful and best preserved from the Golden Age of Hollywood.
The biggest attraction is the theater courtyard, where hundreds of movie stars and singers have left their hand and foot prints alongside their cement signatures.
8. Hollywood Walk of Fame
The well-known boulevard of celebrities, the Hollywood Walk of Fame, where you can admire more than 2,700 star-shaped plaques inscribed with the names of famous actors, musicians, directors, musical groups, celebrities from the world of radio and theater.
If you want to find the stars of certain celebrities faster, you can download the Official Walk of Fame app.
9. California Science Center
The California Science Center is a museum located in Exposition Park and billed as the largest science center on the American West Coast.
Permanent exhibits include areas showing animal exposure and adaptation in different ecosystems, another area with hands-on activities and exhibits exploring innovation and invention, with themes involving construction, energy and transportation, or the exhibition of historic aircraft, vehicles and space equipment.
In October 2012, the space shuttle Endeavour , which participated in 25 NASA missions from 1992 to 2011, traversed the streets of Los Angeles, from the airport to the California Science Center.
It now resides in the Samuel Oschin Pavilion along with other authentic artifacts.
On display outside the museum is an A-12 Blackbird – the first aircraft made largely of titanium. In the late 1960s, A-12s flew 29 reconnaissance missions over North Vietnam and North Korea as part of “Operation Black Shield“. They flew so fast that it took just over 12 minutes to cover the nearly 800 km over North Vietnam, moving at three times the speed of sound at altitudes over 25,000 m.
Entrance to the museum is free, but you have to pay extra if you want to visit the temporary exhibitions or other activities inside.
10. Walt Disney Concert Hall
The Walt Disney Concert Hall was opened in 2003 and is located in the city center. Funded in large part by the Walt Disney Company, the concert hall is a tribute to Disney’s contribution to LA culture, and is the “home” of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
11. Santa Monica Pier and Pacific Park
Pacific Park is the only amusement park built on a pier on the West Coast of the United States and the terminus of historic Route 66. Admission to the park is free and fees are charged individually for each attraction.
Pacific Park and the Santa Monica Pier have appeared in hundreds of movies and TV shows, as have countless other Los Angeles locations.
The Pacific Wheel offers visitors a panoramic view of the Southern California coastline from more than 40 meters above the Santa Monica Pier and is the only solar-powered wheel in the world.
12. Venice Canals
In the early 20th century, developer Abbot Kinney designed a miniature version of the canals of Venice. Filled from the Pacific Ocean, these waterways were built in 1905, but became obsolete in the late 1920s and over the next few decades were to fall into disrepair.
The canals were finally restored in the 1990s and today form a very nice residential neighborhood just a stone’s throw from Venice Beach. The Venice Canals were made famous in the horror film A Nightmare on Elm Street.
13. Marina Del Rey
Marina Del Rey is the largest artificial harbor for small boats in North America and accommodates approximately 5,000 boats. A charming area with yachts, beaches and cycle paths, which you should not miss.
14. Sunset Blvd
Sunset Boulevard is one of the most famous in Los Angeles. With a length of 35 km, it stretches from Pacific Coast Highway to Figueroa Street in downtown Los Angeles. It is a major thoroughfare in the cities of Beverly Hills and West Hollywood, as well as several districts in Los Angeles. West Hollywood ‘s Sunset Strip has been famous for its active nightlife since the 1950s.
This was our list of attractions visited in Los Angeles and our last day in California. The next day we would drive several hundred kilometers to the Grand Canyon.
(Los Angeles – August 2021)
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