I’m traveling so can’t respond at length now, but if you are going to be in LA in early October, this film series and wine tasting at Barnsdale Art Park/ Frank Lloyd’s Hollyhock House should be fun:
http://www.cinefamily.org/films/wine-a-movie/#fellini-satyricon-off-site-at-barnsdall-art-park
Have you given any thought of staying in Santa Monica? We stayed at The Shore and could see the pier from our hotel room. We went into LA to visit, but enjoyed coming back to the beach. Go to Nobu Malibu…pricey, but oh so swanky! Just 15 minutes down the road. But, not sure exactly what kind of vaca you want…so many options.
“If you like art AND gardens you can get both at Huntington Library & Gardens”
Yes, but it’s a lot more garden than art. They’ve got Blueboy and Pinkie, but the art thins out pretty quickly after that.
Re Huntington: They have a nice collection of 18th century portraits beyond that. And the holdings of the library are fantastic, with some wonderful things on view. Also it is close to the Norton Simon museum which has a great collection.
@trojanchick99 “Sawtelle does have amazing ramen although I’m partial to Daikokuya in Little Tokyo (near Downtown LA).”
There’s a Daikokuya on Sawtelle! Daikokuya and Tsujita are our two favorite ramen joints on Sawtelle. They have the added benefit of being close to Blockheads for desert. 
I’ve been to The Broad twice since it opened. The first time was the week after it opened and the second was in late spring. I was able to obtain walk-up tickets early in the day on a weekday both times. I was staying within walking distance so I wasn’t risking driving, parking, and then no entry. I would not try to get walk-up tickets on the weekend. It is spectacular. We love art museums, but are less in love with Contemporary Art. The Broad displays some of the top examples for a particular artist in this genre.
If you plan to stroll DTLA I would plan a route through Grand Central Market. Egg Slut is delicious, but always has a very long line. Across Hill Street from the market is the closed Angels Flight Funicular.
My favorite restaurants in DTLA are Bestia for dinner and Pitchoun Bakery for breakfast or lunch. You will need a reservation for Bestia.
Both Getty Museums are beautiful. You will need a car to reach them.
Norton Simon is also fantastic. If you have ever watched the Rose Bowl parade, you can see it when the floats turn the corner. If you want to include this museum I think you are looking at a trip of more than a couple of days.
Since I love to stay in DTLA I rarely rent a car. I take a shuttle to my hotel and use public transportation, Uber, car service and Zipcars. If you are more of a Santa Monica beach hotel type this probably isn’t suitable for you.
Another vote Tsujita! Get there early for lunch.
Take heed of post #10 and plan as much of the trip as possible using public transportation and Uber. The freeway traffic lately has been the worst in memory. You can easily waste several hours stuck in traffic. Be sure to download the app Waze which gives real time traffic info and tries to send you on the best route.
We like the Omni hotel near the performing arts/ MOCA area
We stayed at the Hilton in Old Town Pasadena and went to Huntington Library. We also enjoyed dim sum at Din Tai Fung in Arcadia. We wandered about Old Town Pasadena a little and shopped at Citadel outlet mall, which we drove to. We were there in June and didn’t find the traffic much worse than usual. We drove–with the iPhone and google maps, it was fine.
It’s always fun to go to a TV show taping. We’ve been to several over the years (dating back to the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson!) Here’s a good place to start: https://www.latourist.com/?page=tv-show-tickets
We did an Airbnb last time we had tickets in the Hollywood area. It was very nice, less expensive than hotels/motels in the area and included secure parking.
Thanks so much. Appreciate all the suggestions. Now just have to map things out and decide. That film and wind on oct 2 looks great, but timing is off. I didn’t realize there were two Gettys.
Not sure when Hollywood Bowl season ends but it’s a must if you can swing it!
C&O for Italian in Venice and Nickle Diner in downtown LA.
I vote Malibu Getty! It’s absolutely gorgeous! Not to be missed.
Contrary to the song some walk the streets in LA! Look up or get a book on walking tours through LA. Best is the one that takes you as close to the sign as possible up and down stairs built by Italian (Genoan?) stonemasons. Also great going up to the top of city hall and into the old town.
As a previous post stated staying in downtown LA helps with sightseeing, and we also recommend the Omni. Had an amazing time there during Christmas break.
If you do both Gettys in one day you pay only one $15 parking fee (at least when we visited.)
I love both Gettys equally. I was a Classics major so the Villa is incredible. The new Getty houses one of my all time favorite paintings, Irises.
If you’re going in September, the Getty Villa has an outdoor theatre where they do productions of ancient plays. This year it’s an adaptation of a Plautus comedy.
You’ve gotten a lot of great suggestions. LA is so big and spread out that you can’t possibly cover it all in a few days. I personally wouldn’t stay in downtown; I’d stay in Santa Monica or elsewhere on the Westside.
But there is definitely a lot to see downtown. To give you a sense of geography, and to provide a few of my downtown suggestions:
(1) The Disney concert hall (Frank Gehry building), new Broad Museum, and MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art) are all within 2 blocks of each other. (The Omni Hotel that someone mentioned is adjacent to MOCA.)
(2) Also close by are the Grand Central Market (historic old market, now full of trendy food places) and the Central Library. Both definitely worth a stop. Also, the cathedral is just up the street from the Disney Hall.
(3) If you are interested in walking tours of downtown, the best ones are thru the Los Angeles Conservancy.
(4) There are a lot of trendy art galleries in Chinatown downtown. Fun when there are exhibition openings.
(5) Just a little further East but still in downtown is Little Tokyo with lots of good restaurants and a branch of MOCA called the Geffen Contemporary (still fondly called the Temporary Contemporary by us old-timers from when it was supposedly a temporary space i the 1980’s). There’s a new exhibition opening of Doug Aitken’s work in the next few days that is getting a lot of buzz and should be pretty spectacular. He does large scale multi-media installations and the new exhibition is taking over the whole museum. It is a very cool space. I think the Doug Aitken show is going to be the hot contemporary art ticket this fall in LA.
(6) Very close by the Geffen is Grand Central Station, a beautiful old train station that’s worth a quick look-see. Also nearby is the historic but unbearably touristy and kitschy Olvera Street and original LA Plaza. Not worth going out of your way for.
If I have time later I will try to provide suggestions for other areas of town as well.
Actually, in thinking about it more, I should have made the point in my last post more strongly: the Doug Aitken exhibition at the Geffen in Little Tokyo should be at the top of the “can’t miss” list for art-loving visitors to LA this fall. (Based on expectations and pre-opening buzz).
We visited briefly in 2004 with family, offspring ages 16-24. Warner Bros studios were a great hit with everyone, as were the main Getty, Venice and Santa Monica. We missed the Hollywood sign, though none of us could work out how that happened!
Apologies for jumping in this thread. We oldies are planning to stop for a couple of days or so in transit, so are interested in all your suggestions. Is there public transport or something similar from LAX to non-luxury hotels? After our previous experience with LA traffic we have decided to avoid it at all costs! We will be there in either January or March, depending on our final plans.
Adding my thanks to everyone above. Many ideas. Vert helpful!
My H and I have done several walking tours through the LA Conservancy and they were all great. We did Union Station, the movie theatres on Broadway (we got to go into 3 of the restored theatres) and the art deco tour. The Last Book Store in DTLA is also a fun stop and look around for an hour or so.
If you want a funky place to grab lunch downtown we went to Clifton’s Cafeteria last winter. A good brunch place downtown is Bottegga Louie. Also check the FIDM website to see what free displays are on at their museum. Last year we saw all the costumes from Oscar nominated films there.
@4mummy - there is Metrolink which had just opened a beach line (to Santa Monica) when I was there this summer. But I don’t see an LAX stop.
I used Uber a lot there, Uber share in particular (much cheaper for long distances like I went to Hollywood from Brentwood one night to see a friend’s band play)