5 Days in Los Angeles

More than 2,800 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars run along 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three of Vine Street. The first stars were unveiled in 1958 and the first permanent ones went in around 1960. Each honors someone from film, television, music, radio or live performance, and each is paid for by whoever sponsors the nomination.

Be honest with yourself: this is the most ordinary stretch of the trip. Superhero costumes, souvenir shops and tour touts line the pavement, and the street is grubby in places. Take the Metro B Line to Hollywood/Highland, look at the stars for 30 minutes, find a name you like and move on. For a more real Hollywood, walk east along the boulevard to Musso & Frank Grill, open since 1919 and the oldest restaurant in Hollywood, for a martini or lunch, or see Hollywood Forever Cemetery, where summer evenings bring movie screenings.

Sid Grauman built this pagoda-style movie palace in 18 months and opened it on May 18, 1927, with the premiere of The King of Kings. It was renamed Mann's Chinese Theatre in 1973, got its original name back in 2001, and has carried the TCL sponsor's name since 2013. The forecourt is paved with the hand and foot prints of film stars, and the Star Wars premiere of 1977 was held here.

The courtyard is crowded with tourists, but the building is the best-looking thing on the boulevard. Five minutes in the forecourt, a walk through the red-carpet lobby of the Dolby Theatre next door, and you're done. The theater is still a working IMAX cinema if you want to see a film.

The Hollywood Sign went up in 1923 as an advertisement for a housing development and read HOLLYWOODLAND. It was meant to be temporary, but it stayed, the last four letters came down in 1949, and the whole sign was replaced with a steel one in 1978. The letters are 45 feet tall, fenced off and watched by security cameras around the clock.

The easiest legal view is from Lake Hollywood Park, a small park at the foot of the hills. The Beachwood Drive gate to the trail has been closed to the public since 2017, and residents on the neighborhood streets are strict about parking, so use a ride-hail drop-off. If you want the sign without the detour, the east terrace of the Observatory has the same view and you'll be there in an hour anyway.

Griffith J. Griffith left money in his will for an observatory that would be free to the public, and since Griffith Observatory opened in 1935 admission has never been charged. It sits on the south slope of Mount Hollywood inside Griffith Park, which is one of the largest city parks in the country, and from its terrace you see Downtown, Hollywood, the Hollywood Sign and, on a clear day, the Pacific. The 12-inch Zeiss telescope has had more eyes at the eyepiece than any other in the world.

Go for the building and the view, not only the science. Park early or take a ride-hail, because the road to the top backs up on clear evenings. Stay for sunset: the light turns the basin gold, and the lights come on one grid at a time. Closed on Mondays, open from noon Tuesday to Friday and from 10am at the weekend.

Griffith Park is 4,310 acres of mountain, trail and canyon. The easiest way in is the trail from the Observatory up to the summit of Mount Hollywood, an easy walk with the Hollywood Sign, Downtown and the Valley in view from the top.

Do it late in the afternoon with the light behind you, and carry water, as the upper part has no shade. Don't walk it after dark without a light, and watch for rattlesnakes in warm months.

Los Angeles voted in October 1999 to name this stretch of East Hollywood Thai Town, the first place in the country to carry that name. Along Hollywood Boulevard and Sunset around Western Avenue you find family restaurants, noodle shops and dessert counters that cook for the Thai community first and visitors second.

Look for places with long menus in Thai and spicy southern dishes, not only pad thai. Order several dishes to share: a curry, a salad such as som tam, a grilled meat and sticky rice. Jitlada on Sunset is the best known and often busy, so expect a wait or book ahead.

Los Angeles Union Station opened in May 1939 and was the last of the great American railway stations built. Its mix of Art Deco, Mission Revival and Streamline Moderne style is worth walking through, with a high waiting hall and tiled floors. It's also the city's transit hub: the Metro B and D lines start here, and Amtrak and the Pacific Surfliner arrive.

Across the street is Olvera Street, the oldest part of the city, where the Spanish pueblo of 1781 stood. Today it's a pedestrian market with Mexican crafts, stalls and restaurants, a touristy but genuine place. Look at the old plaza and the Avila Adobe, built in 1818 and the oldest standing residence in the city, then have a coffee. The street is livelier on a weekday morning than you'd think.

Philippe's opened in 1908 and has been at 1001 North Alameda Street since 1951, when the freeway forced it to move. It claims to have invented the French dip, a roast beef sandwich on a roll dipped in the meat juice, and the claim is disputed. Philippe Mathieu is said to have dropped a roll in the pan juices by accident (a police officer ate it anyway), or dipped one for a fireman who complained about a stale roll. Cole's, a mile or so away on 6th Street, claimed the same invention in the same year, with its own story of a customer with sore teeth. Cole's closed in March 2026, and new owners have talked of reopening it, so check.

Order a beef dip, ask for it double dipped, add a dollop of the hot mustard (it's fierce), and sit at the long tables with wood shavings on the floor. The coffee is famously cheap. Don't go for atmosphere alone: the sandwich is the point.

Little Tokyo is the cultural center of Japanese America. It grew from 1880s boarding houses on First Street, was declared a National Historic Landmark District in 1995, and is the largest of the three official Japantowns in the country, all in California. The area is only a few blocks, but the Japanese American National Museum tells the story of the incarceration of Japanese Americans in World War II in a way no guide can. Part of it has been under renovation, so check what's open; the neighborhood itself is the visit.

Walk First Street, look into the Japanese Village Plaza, and try a mochi, a rice cake sweet. Fugetsu-do, a shop on First Street, is the place usually named for it. A bowl of ramen is the other obvious lunch order. The museum sits across the street.

Grand Central Market opened in October 1917 on the ground floor of the Homer Laughlin Building and was once the biggest and finest public market on the Pacific Coast. It has been through poor years and a revival, and now mixes old stalls selling produce, nuts and pupusas with newer food counters. Open around 8am to 9pm; every stall keeps its own hours.

Eat something small at two or three stalls, taco, pupusa, a plate of something Thai or Mexican, rather than a full meal, because the building is the draw. At the Hill Street side, the funicular Angels Flight takes a minute to climb 96 feet up Bunker Hill. It's billed as the world's shortest railway, dates from 1901 (moved half a block in 1996) and costs 1.50 USD (1.35 EUR). A fine ride even if you walk the other way.

Frank Gehry's hall for the Los Angeles Philharmonic opened on October 23, 2003. Lillian Disney gave the first 50 million dollars in 1987 to build a concert hall for the city, and it took 16 years to finish. The stainless-steel curves are the thing to see, and the acoustics, designed by Minoru Nagata, are famous.

The free audio tour, which you do on your own phone or a borrowed device, runs daily from 10am to 3pm (last start 2pm, about an hour) unless there's a performance. The Blue Ribbon Garden is also free. On concert days the inside can be closed, so check the day before.

The museum opened on September 20, 2015, with the contemporary art collection of Eli and Edythe Broad. It's across the street from the Concert Hall, wrapped in a white lattice shell that lets light into the galleries, and general admission is free. Expect big names of postwar and contemporary art, such as Warhol, Lichtenstein, Koons and Basquiat.

Timed tickets are recommended in advance, and walk-up visitors are admitted daily; the Infinity Mirrored Room by Yayoi Kusama needs a separate advance reservation. Hours: Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday 11 to 5, Thursday 11 to 8, weekends 10 to 6, closed Mondays.

East of Little Tokyo, the Arts District is a strip of old warehouses that artists took over in the 1970s, and that cafes, galleries, breweries and murals have since turned into the neighborhood Downtown people actually go out in. The first vineyard of the pueblo grew here, planted by Jean-Louis Vignes in the 1830s, and the street he left his name to is Vignes Street.

It's an evening of walking and picking: look at the murals on the walls, have a beer at one of the breweries, and eat dinner at a counter. Arts District Brewing Company on Traction Avenue, open since 2015, is a good first stop. Stay on the lit blocks and take a ride-hail back at night.

The 1.3 billion dollar Getty Center opened on December 16, 1997, and Richard Meier's travertine-clad buildings sit on a hill above the 405 freeway in Brentwood. A tram carries you up from the parking garage. The setting matters as much as the art: terraces, gardens by Robert Irwin and a view from the mountains to the sea.

Pre-20th-century European paintings are the core, with Van Gogh's Irises the best-known work, plus drawings, manuscripts and photographs. Some galleries are closed for renovation, so check what's on view. Plan two hours for the art and one for the garden. Open 10 to 6:30 Tuesday to Friday and Sunday, 10 to 9 on Saturday, closed Mondays.

The Center is due to close to the public on 15 March 2027 and reopen in spring 2028. If you travel in that window, spend the morning at the Getty Villa instead: a re-created Roman country house above the ocean in Pacific Palisades, with Greek and Roman antiquities, gardens and sea air. It's free with a timed reservation, open Wednesday to Monday 10 to 5, closed Tuesdays, parking 25 USD, 15 USD after 3pm. Allow 2 to 3 hours, then carry on to Beverly Hills.

Rodeo Drive is two miles long, but the name usually means the three blocks between Wilshire Boulevard and Little Santa Monica, one of the most expensive shopping streets in the world. Burton Green and other investors bought the land in 1906, and the street went from bean fields to luxury brands over the next decades.

You don't need to buy anything. Walk the three blocks, see the pedestrian passage of Via Rodeo and the Beverly Hills sign in Beverly Gardens Park, then go. It's a particular kind of Los Angeles, and half an hour is plenty.

The Original Farmers Market at Third Street and Fairfax first opened in 1934 and is now a landmark of more than 100 stalls, grocers and sit-down counters. It works more as a lunch spot than a market, and Du-par's, a diner founded in 1938, still keeps its original branch here.

It's a good place to cover several things at once: a gumbo or a po'boy from a Louisiana-style counter for a taste of Cajun and Creole cooking, a slice of pie at Du-par's, and a coffee. Everything is within a few steps of each other.

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is one of the biggest art museums in the western United States. The photo everyone takes is Urban Light, Chris Burden's 2008 grid of 202 restored street lamps from the 1920s and 1930s at the entrance on Wilshire Boulevard, free to see at any time. Inside you'll find European painting, Latin American art and a large Asian collection.

LACMA's new building, the David Geffen Galleries by Peter Zumthor, opened in spring 2026, so the collection is now shown in a new building. Open 11 to 6 Thursday, Monday and Tuesday, later on Fridays and weekends, closed on Wednesdays. Next door, the Petersen Automotive Museum is a good stop if cars interest you. The Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits is closed for a long renovation, but Hancock Park and the active excavation sites stay open.

Koreatown is not a quaint enclave. It's one of the densest and most mixed neighborhoods in the city, centered near Sixth and Alexandria, where Korean immigrants who arrived in numbers in the 1960s opened businesses in old Art Deco buildings. Half of the residents are Latino. The main street at night is lit with signs for barbecue, karaoke rooms, bakeries and soft tofu stew.

For Korean barbecue, grill at your table: marinated short ribs (galbi), pork belly, beef brisket and plenty of side dishes. Soot Bull Jeep on 8th Street is known as one of the places that still use charcoal, and it smells of it. Go with at least two, since portions are for sharing. For a non-Korean dinner in the same area, Guelaguetza on Olympic Boulevard has served Oaxacan food since 1994.

Malibu has a 21-mile strip of beaches along the Pacific Coast Highway. Zuma Beach is the wide, easy one, with parking and room. El Matador is the pretty one: sea stacks and coves below the cliff, reached on foot, with few services nearby. In October the average water temperature is around 66 F (19 C), which is cool, so it's a walking and photo day for most people, not a swimming one.

The 2025 Palisades Fire destroyed almost all of the beachfront homes in the east of Malibu, so expect to see the burned lots along parts of the highway. PCH itself reopened in May 2025. The El Matador lot is small (8am to sunset) and fills early, so arrive in the morning, and the beach is reached by paths and stairs down the bluff.

The pier is the landmark of Malibu, next to Surfrider Beach, a well-known surf break. The end of the pier has been closed for structural damage since January 2025 and State Parks has been planning repairs, so check the state parks page before you count on walking out.

If it's still closed you can't walk to the end. The restaurant at the entrance, the beach rentals and the fishing areas stay open, and the view from the sand is the real payoff anyway. Then drive east to Santa Monica along the Pacific Coast Highway.

The Santa Monica Pier is made of two piers. The Municipal Pier opened on September 9, 1909, mostly to carry sewer pipes out past the waves; the Pleasure Pier next to it was built in 1916 by Charles Looff and his son. Today it holds Pacific Park, a small amusement park with a solar-powered Ferris wheel, a carousel hippodrome from the 1920s, an aquarium run by Heal the Bay, and stalls at the west end where people fish.

It's touristy and a little tacky, and good for it. The best thing to do here is walk to the end, look back at the curve of the bay and the mountains, and then walk down to the sand. The E Line from Downtown ends a few blocks away.

Venice was founded by Abbot Kinney in 1905 as a seaside resort called Venice of America, was an independent city until 1926 and is now a neighborhood of Los Angeles. The Ocean Front Walk is a promenade about two and a half miles long, with street performers, fortune tellers, skaters, vendors and the open-air weight area known as Muscle Beach.

You can walk or rent a bike or scooter from Santa Monica Pier to Venice in about 45 minutes. It's loud and crowded, and a bit scruffy: that is the point. Keep your phone in your pocket, and say no to anyone handing you a free CD.

Kinney built canals in 1905 to give his Venice of America the look of the Italian city. Most were filled in later, but a small network survived and is now the Venice Canal Historic District, a quiet area of footbridges and houses a few blocks from the boardwalk.

Walk around the Grand, Venus and Carroll canals in the late afternoon, a good break between the boardwalk and dinner.

The main shopping and dining street of Venice is named after the founder, and runs inland from the beach. Its cafes, boutiques, restaurants and galleries have long been a popular local evening out.

It's mostly dinner and window shopping, so go as the light fades. Catch the sunset from the beach first if you can, then eat somewhere with a table.

Henry Huntington moved to Southern California in 1902 and made a fortune in railroads and land. His 1903 estate in San Marino became a library, an art museum and a botanical garden of about 120 acres, with Japanese, desert and Chinese gardens. The art collection is centered on 18th and 19th century European and American work, and the library holds rare books and manuscripts.

Walk the gardens first, while the morning is cool: the Desert Garden, the Japanese Garden, the Chinese Garden with its lake. Then go indoors, though some library and gallery spaces have been closed for construction, which makes the gardens the main event. Open 10 to 5, Wednesday to Monday; reservations are required Friday to Sunday.

Pasadena was incorporated in 1886 and is the cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is its original commercial district, a few blocks of red-brick buildings around Colorado Boulevard that were restored in the 1980s and 1990s and now house restaurants, shops and small galleries.

It's easy to walk and a good place for lunch after the Huntington. The Metro A Line runs from Memorial Park station in Old Pasadena through Union Station and Downtown (since 2023 it continues to Long Beach), so the way back is one train.

The Gamble House is an Arts and Crafts masterpiece and a National Historic Landmark: heavy wood, careful joinery and a house meant to look handmade.

It is open Tuesday and Thursday to Sunday (closed Monday and Wednesday), by guided tour only. The outside and the garden can be seen on their own.

Pasadena hosts the Rose Bowl football game and the Tournament of Roses Parade every New Year's Day. The stadium sits in a park in the Arroyo Seco, and you can walk or jog around it on a loop path.

It's a quiet end to the day, with the San Gabriel Mountains in view. Then return before the evening rush.