<p>Going to Los Angeles–unexpected invitation. Will be there for 3 days. Have been to the city a few times with my kids–did Universal Studios, Disney, bus tour–homes of the stars, Beverly Hills, etc. Also went to the Getty Museum when it first opened. Would love to hear suggestions for “must see” places.</p>
<p>I love the Griffith Park observatory, if it’s a nice day the views are spectacular. I’d also recommend the Getty Villa in Malibu, it’s gorgeous. Olvera Street is another fun option. Depending on when your trip is, a night at the Hollywood Bowl is another great thing to do. I’ve always been a fan of walking around the Venice Beach area, including ocean front walk and the canals.</p>
<p>The beach! </p>
<p>You could do a day trip to Catalina Island if you have enough time.</p>
<p>Hmmm… I live in San Diego now and haven’t lived in the LA area since the '80s. So some of my recommendations are a little dated.</p>
<p>The Getty Villa in Malibu is fabulous, especially if you love antiquities and all things ancient as I do.</p>
<p>A day trip to Santa Catalina is fun. You take an excursion boat over and back and spend the day touring around Avalon in little golf carts you can rent, or taking glass-bottom boat tours, or going kayaking or other water sports.</p>
<p>If you can get tickets and the Philharmonic is in town, seeing a concert at the new Disney concert hall is impressive.</p>
<p>The La Brea tar pits museum is pretty good. They are still digging up plenty of mastodon and saber-toothed cat skeletons right there in the middle of LA. Do not confuse La Brea, which is in LA, with the town of Brea, which is in Orange County. (FYI, “brea” is Spanish for “tar.” So when you say “The La Brea Tar Pits” you are actually saying “The The Tar Tar Pits.”)</p>
<p>Which LA-area beach to go to depends on what you want to see. Go to Malibu if you want/hope to bump into a celebrity (but you probably won’t see any). Go to Huntington Beach if you want to watch a lot of surfers. Go to Venice Beach if you want to see a lot of uh…“colorful characters.” Go to Laguna Beach if you want a nice little artsy beach town.</p>
<p>But most of all, enjoy yourself!</p>
<p>Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley? H dragged me to see it. I’d recommend it–even if you’re not a Reagan fan. Very interesting and well-done exhibits.</p>
<p>I’d definitely make another trip to the Getty.</p>
<p>Watts Towers.
Randy’s Donuts.
La Brea Tar Pits (already mentioned, plus it’s right next door to LA county museum of art and the Peterson Automotive Museum.)
Bradbury building and other downtown landmarks. [Los</a> Angeles Conservancy | Tours](<a href=“http://www.laconservancy.org/tours/tours_main.php4#tours]Los”>http://www.laconservancy.org/tours/tours_main.php4#tours)
<strong><em>I hope you are not here July 15-16-17 when the 405 freeway is closed</em></strong>*</p>
<p>If you wanted to venture out to Pasadena, the Norton Simon Museum is a very manageable size with a nice permanent collection, and Old Town has a lot of nice restaurants and could be fun to explore. There are also two excellent museums with Jewish content, the Simon Weisenthal Holocaust Museum on Pico, and the Skirball Center (which is up near the Getty.) With Skirball, check to make sure they have exhibits of interest. </p>
<p>If you’re downtown, the Japanese-American Museum is vey well-done and beautifully documents the fate of California’s Japanese-American population during WWII, and there are two modern art museums not far away, one within walking distance. Also lots of good food in Little Tokyo. </p>
<p>LA has a ton of interesting food, particularly if you’re looking for ethnic food, and Zagat is pretty reliable in its assessments of LA restaurants, ranging from ritzy to holes in the wall. If you’re from a part of the country that doesn’t have great Mexican or Central American food, you must have some! If you like outdoor eating and people watching, there are restaurants where you can do this all over the place, including Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade (a few blocks from the beach, and very good walking), Beverly Hills, Sunset Plaza along Sunset, or, if you do go to the Griffith Observatory, which is wonderful, Griffith Park is great for walking and you can eat in Los Feliz, just south of the Park. </p>
<p>For evenings, there’s a lot of little theater, so you might want to look at listings in advance. For discounted tickets to all sorts of entertainment, theater, concerts, take a look at goldstar.com. Also, if you’re here when the season is going, and if you’ve never been, get yourself to the Hollywood Bowl. For a smaller Bowl venue, but some very interesting events (located very near the Hollywood Bowl), check out what’s playing at the John Anson Ford. </p>
<p>If you’re in the mid-City area, the Farmers Market next to the Grove outdoor mall is a venerable old institution with a lot of terrific food stalls and outdoor dining at picnic tables for lunch. (Very crowded on weekends, pretty easy to negotiate on weekdays.) Also mid-city, if you happen to be a car nut, there is a very cool automotive museum with a bunch of classic vehicles on Wilshire right near the Farmer’s Market. Have fun!</p>
<p>La Brea Tar Pits and Peterson Automotive Museum were the first things that came to my mind. Our family loved them both.</p>
<p>One thing that’s very nice & indulgent is tea with scones & fruit w/clotted cream in Huntington Library (quite near Norton Simon Museum as well). There are also very nice gardens around the Huntington Library & the community of San Marino has lovely homes & mansions (you may recognize some from movies & TV shows).</p>
<p>Huntington Library, Venice Beach…the Grove does a live broadcast with Mario Lopez everyday…just a few extra suggestions to add to the excellent ones above.</p>
<p>Tea with scones and fruit and clotted cream at Huntington Library? Who knew? I’m jumping in the car. (And the gardens are, indeed, gorgeous.)</p>
<p>Venice Beach (Venice)
3rd Street Promenade (Santa Monica)
Santa Monica Pier (Santa Monica)
Drive up PCH (Santa Monica -> Oxnard)
Getty Villa (Malibu/Pacific Palisades)
Reagan Library (Simi Valley)</p>
<p>California Science Center (Los Angeles)
Huntington Library/Gardens (Pasadena)
Universal Studios/City Walk (Hollywood)
Getty Museum (Westwood)
Skirball Museum (Westwood) - less than a 2 minute drive from Getty Museum</p>
<p>Also one of my personal favorites is a secretive trail that takes you very close to the Hollywood sign.</p>
<p>Pink’s hotdogs. <a href=“http://www.pinkshollywood.com/http://www.pinkshollywood.com/[/url]”>http://www.pinkshollywood.com/http://www.pinkshollywood.com/</a></p>
<p>Also second the Farmer’s Market reccomendation.</p>
<p>Must see from a college pespective: USC and UCLA. The Pepperdine campus is on the top of a hill in Malibu overlooking the ocean. One of the best college “views”.</p>
<p>Another idea - you could go be an audience member at a TV show. My kid went to a taping of Craig Ferguson’s show. I think it was free.</p>
<p>It is free to see the television shows tape. But they do oversell seats, so after waiting it may all be for naught. Contact the shows NOW…Chelsea Handler is another good one.</p>
<p>I’m never quite clear on what peoples expectations are when they come to visit my home town. But whenever I have a client who might be a movie fan visit So Cal, I take them on the Warner Bros. VIP tour. It’s more of an actual “working studio” tour and people seem to really enjoy it. [Warner</a> Bros. VIP Tours | Official Site | Studio Tour Attraction | Film and TV Backlot Tour](<a href=“Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood | Los Angeles, California”>http://vipstudiotour.warnerbros.com/)
be sure and book in advance
(you can book tickets for TV shows being filmed on the lot as well)</p>
<p>I would recommend Santa Monica too - Third Street Promenade, the Pier, the beach. Rent a bicycle down by the pier & ride the bike trail down to Venice Beach.</p>
<p>^^^ The walk from S.M. to Venice is easy too. It’s so interesting how quickly the landscape changes from S.M. to Venice and from Venice to Marina del Rey.</p>
<p>For the WB - Lopez, Conan and Ellen tapings.</p>
<p>12rmh18 - I have to second your advice about Santa Monica. We live a couple hours south, but decided to go there yesterday for D’s birthday (17). We had a great day at the Third Street Promenade, the Pier, and the beach. We had a really nice late lunch and walked around the shops then the sun came out later in the afternoon so we walked the beach for awhile and ended up at the Pier where both Ds rode the roller coaster.</p>