Overview to Los Angeles: Travel Guide and Tourist Information
- Los Angeles Information
- Eating & drinking in Los Angeles
- Night life in Los Angeles
- Getting around in Los Angeles
- Things to do in Los Angeles
- Where to stay in Los Angeles
- Los Angeles street map
From hungry gold prospectors to young hopefuls with dreams of making it big on the silver screen, Los Angeles has always exerted a mighty pull over people. And these days, aspiring starlets still flock to LA every year, convinced they’re going to make it big in the shadow of the iconic Hollywood sign.
So much of what we think about Los Angeles is wrapped up in the myth (and peculiar reality) of Hollywood and all its associated glitz, glamour and superficiality. But the truth is actually rather different; it's also a city of world-class museums and galleries, beaches, color, life - and frenzied cultural and human activity.
A huge metropolis of distinct neighborhoods, it can be quite hard to get a handle on the city’s geography. At its heart, however, is the Downtown area. Here, the Museum of Contemporary Art (surrounded by the intriguing Little Tokyo) sits next to tatty Broadway and the Grand Central Market.
Out to the northwest of the city, Hollywood is, of course, central to most traveler's perception of Los Angeles. The central Hollywood Boulevard boasts a roll call of big sights for the movie-lover, including the legendary ‘Walk of Fame’ and a host of big-name cinemas like the Egyptian Theater.
The Hollywood Hills, Brentford, Bel Air, Beverly Hills and West Hollywood are where the real rich and famous live, and play. And West Hollywood – WeHo to those that know – stands out as LA's liberal playground.
There’s impossibly glamorous shopping on Melrose Avenue, a vibrant gay and lesbian scene and agonizingly chic bars and eateries on the Sunset Strip. On the other side of the Hollywood Hills, ‘the Valley’ of San Fernando and San Gabriel stretches away, home to an excellent art collection in the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena.
Out on the coast, Venice and Santa Monica provide the picture-postcard image of beaches and swaying palm trees. A little further down lie the South Bay beaches of Manhattan, Hermosa and Redondo while, in the other direction, exclusive Malibu sits handsomely between the sea and the stunning Santa Monica Mountains.
To the southeast of the city in Orange County, Disneyland’s cheerily saccharine world can be a pleasant respite from the more gritty reality of LA. Beyond here, city streets give way to a suburbia littered with faceless strip malls and freeway flyovers.
Los Angeles is built around money and conspicuous consumption. Not necessarily the city for your average backpacker, you might think. But for travelers looking to gain a real understanding of America, LA is an essential destination.