Los Angeles is less a single city than a collection of districts strung between the Pacific and the San Gabriel Mountains: Hollywood and its studios, the beach communities of Santa Monica and Venice, museum-rich Mid-Wilshire, a revived Downtown and the hills in between. Distances are large — Santa Monica to Hollywood is about 22 km (14 miles) — and traffic decides how much you can see in a day.
The reward is variety. You can tour a working film studio in the morning, look out over the whole basin from Griffith Observatory at sunset and be on the sand next day. Disneyland is under an hour south, and Santa Barbara two hours up the coast.
Highlights
- The Hollywood Walk of Fame and views of the Hollywood Sign
- Sunset and the city lights from Griffith Observatory
- Santa Monica Pier and the Venice boardwalk
- Art, architecture and gardens at the Getty Center
- Universal Studios Hollywood
- The Warner Bros. Studio Tour in Burbank
Plan your time in Los Angeles
Give Los Angeles at least three days and group your sightseeing by area to avoid crossing the city at rush hour: one day for Hollywood and Griffith Park, one for a studio or theme park, one for the Westside — the Getty, Santa Monica and Venice. A fourth day allows Downtown’s museums or a second studio.
