Things to Do in Los Angeles

A festive chaotic Mexican marketplace, Olvera Street is part of colorful and car-free El Pueblo de Los Angeles, the vibrant historic district near the spot where LA's Mexican colonists first settled. Gaudy decoration and souvenir stalls abound here, alongside dozens of little eateries serving tacos, tortas, and burritos. This is not a mere tourist trap: Olvera Street is a wonderful place to walk, eat and explore. It's a great add-on to a downtown LA visit.

On Olvera Street, you can shop for Chicano art, slurp thick Mexican-style hot chocolate, or pick up handmade candles and candy. Stop in Avila Adobe, the oldest surviving house in LA, which includes an exhibit on Christine Sterling who helped save the historic district.

Olvera Street spills into the Old Plaza, El Pueblo's central square with a pretty wrought-iron bandstand. Sleepy during the week, the square turns into a full-blown fiesta zone on Saturdays and Sundays, drawing crooning mariachis, costumed dancers, kissing couples, and strolling families. Historic buildings and statues surround the square.

A 160-acre park that sprawls along the Hollywood Hills, this is where Angelenos go to hike and be seen. Full of dogs and their spandex-clad owners, a walk here is a regular routine for both aspiring performers and famous celebrities, singles of every age and persuasion, and folks who are simply single-minded about their fitness.  

Devoid of shade and full of dirt-packed paths, Runyon’s various features allow you to customize your workout. The Fuller Avenue entrance requires one of two steep climbs, either up a winding series of high, uneven steps, or up a long hill with two switchbacks; these two climbs can be combined in a challenging loop. The Mulholland entrance enables you to either head up into the steepest hills for the most challenging terrain, or to take a mostly flat, 15-minute route straight out to a viewpoint; this second option leads to both the stairs and the long hill up from Fuller, so you can tack on either route – or neither.

Runyon looks and feels its best on L.A.’s clearest days, generally from late November to early May; throughout the summer and fall, it can get extremely hot up here anytime after 8 a.m. More often than not, though, the paths and lookout points here offer panoramic views of the city’s coastline, Westside, West Hollywood, Hollywood and Downtown.

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), as well as pop stars, infamous criminals and sports celebrities. Each hyper-detailed wax likeness here is assembled by a team of sculptors and requires approximately 100 hours to create; for instance, each strand of a figure's hair must be individually set by hand.

Stretching 21 miles along the eastern ridgeline of the Santa Monica Mountains and the Hollywood Hills, a drive on at least one portion of this iconic street should be a part of any first-time visit to Los Angeles. Built largely in 1924 as the scenic highway it remains today, Mulholland (as it’s locally known) offers unparalleled views of the L.A. Basin, San Fernando Valley, the Hollywood Sign and more.

If you only have time to drive one section of Mulholland, try either one of these routes:

Cahuenga Pass to Laurel Canyon, which winds up above downtown Hollywood and the Hollywood Bowl, past Runyon Canyon and above Universal City, where a significant turnout allows you to linger on views of the Santa Monica and San Gabriel Mountains.

Laurel Canyon to Beverly Glen Boulevard, which offers real-estate-heavy views of the Westside on one side (including West Hollywood, Beverly Hills and Bel-Air), and the wide, flat, mountain-rimmed San Fernando Valley on the other. There are several turnouts between Laurel Canyon and Coldwater Canyon, and again prior to Beverly Glen.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places  and often called merely  "Old Town", this graceful valley swath beside the San Gabriel Mountains was first developed in the 1880s by railroad barons and hoteliers intent on luring winter-weary, cultured Easterners out west. Their efforts were ultimately successful, and Old Town Pasadena remains full of museums, scholarly institutions and well-manicured public spaces created by wealthy tourists who simply never left.

Old Town Pasadena today includes a popular mixed-use commercial district known for a largely upscale mix of restaurants and chain stores, as well as inexpensive and plentiful public parking. Along the main shopping streets, Orange Grove and Fair Oaks Boulevards, the buildings are largely examples of Art Deco architecture from the 1920s, carefully restored during the district's urban revival in the 1980s.

Fanning out from the commercial center, area attractions include the Norton Simon Museum, home to the eclectic and fabulously expensive art collection of millionaire industrialist Norton Simon; the Pasadena Museum of California Art, a modern, spare and expertly-curated museum where each exhibition provides an in-depth history of a single facet of the state; the Pasadena Playhouse, a Spanish Colonial Revival-style theater with a mosaic-inlaid dome, perfect acoustics and a rotating stage; the Gamble House, a 1908 Arts & Crafts mansion that was joinery-built without a single traditional nail, designed for the co-founder of Procter & Gamble by famed architecture firm Greene & Greene and Vroman's, the largest and oldest independently-run bookstore in Southern California.

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.

You’ll rarely see a bigger collection of stuffed animals or a more opulent collection of pre-Columbian treasures. Try to avoid eye(s) contact with the tarantula in the Insect Zoo, but seek out a unique collection of Zuni fetishes; these tiny stone, bone and antler carvings found in a glass case by the ground floor stairs were made by the Zuni people, a Native American tribe from New Mexico.

Outside, take a wander through the Edible Garden to learn the names and leaves of common kitchen herbs, or to see what an artichoke looks like in full flower. Out in the Butterfly Pavilion (open May-October), the popular goal is getting these winged beauties to land on you – even if it’s just for a few seconds.

A 10-minute drive from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), this trendy, hill-sloping beach town spanning two miles worth of Pacific Ocean shoreline bears no resemblance to the Borough of Manhattan; back in 1902, it was named at the flip of a coin for the New York City home of its original real estate developer, Stewart Merrill. What Manhattan Beach does have is a wide ribbon of soft, white sand, tasty waves that attract local surfers, and a trendy commercial village of boutiques and restaurants.

The northernmost of L.A.’s three Beach Cities (along with Hermosa and Redondo), Manhattan was once merely a laid-back residential community, but is now home to some of L.A. County’s priciest real estate. To see some of the town’s loveliest/quirkiest homes, take a stroll along the ocean-side Strand, a pedestrian-friendly bike path that actually stretches 26 miles from Santa Monica to the far end of the Palos Verdes Peninsula. 

Manhattan Beach attracts almost 4 million visitors each year. Besides the Strand, it’s most popular for its shoreline, the historic Municipal Pier (which hosts a small aquarium with free admission), and two events held here every August, the Manhattan Beach Open volleyball tournament and the International Surf Festival.

Arguably located in both Beverly Hills and West Hollywood, this tony commercial street offers some of the most tourist-friendly shopping and dining in L.A. Street parking can be scarce, but there’s a public lot between West 3rd Street and Alden offering two free hours.

Most of the retail clothing shops are set between West 3rd and Beverly Boulevard, with outposts of European lines like Paul & Joe, Allsaints, Ted Baker and Moods of Norway rubbing elbows with home-grown boutiques like the trendsetting Kitson. One of Robertson’s mainstays, Les Habitudes, has custom-created wedding dresses and other finery for some of Hollywood’s biggest female stars; a wander through its racks is a true flight of fancy.

While paparazzi linger outside the flower-draped picket fence at The Ivy restaurant at every meal, waiting to snap photos of the rich and famous, celebrities can often be seen for a cheaper price at The Newsroom, a healthy eatery set just across the street.

Two blocks down and across Beverly Boulevard is Petrossian, a famous caviar café from Paris, while closer to Melrose Avenue is the modern glitz of Cecconi (where you can see Beverly Hills rich kids brunching in the wild) and Sur, the chandelier-draped Mediterranean creation of Beverly Hills Housewife Lisa Vanderpump.

Stretching along Santa Monica’s Ocean Avenue from Colorado Avenue to San Vicente Boulevard, this outdoor, cliff-edge promenade overlooking the Pacific Ocean is one of Santa Monica’s star attractions. A meander of paved paths, rose gardens, fenced overlooks and grassy expanses, this is a great spot for Westside people watching.

Home to a senior center, you’ll find lots of adorable elderly folk playing shuffleboard and walking tiny dogs, but this is also Ground Zero for outdoor yoga classes, vigorous trainer sessions and well-heeled trophy wives taking in the sea air. You’re bound to see artists behind their canvasses, capturing scenes of the nearby Santa Monica Pier and yawning ocean views.

Just a short lawn away from the bridge to the Santa Monica Pier, be sure to stop into the Visitors Center, which houses Santa Monica’s only Camera Obscura. There are picnic tables here, but as they tend to be magnets for (non-threatening) homeless people and runaway teenagers, you might be better off taking your lunch down to the beach itself.