c1223

First time in LA. Going in a few weeks and looking to put together an itinerary. I've been reading a few other threads on the forum and would like everyon's opinions.

I've lined up a rental car already.

Firstly - hotel. I've got Hilton Gold and Marriott Gold with a healthy amount of points to use if necessary. I've been eyeing up staying in either Santa Monica, Belverly Hills or Hollywood. What are you favourite properties and which area do you prefer?

I haven't put together a day by day yet, but I'm planning on the following, so it'd be interesting to know what is worth it and what's worth missing:

Walk of fame
Hollywood Sign / Griffith Observatory
Chinese Theatre
Santa Monica & Venice
Universal Studios
Day trip to Joshua Tree national park? (quite far away)
Walt Disney Concert Hall
The Broad
Bradbury Building
Natural History Museum?
Getty Center

Would be great to hear of your favourite restaurants/places to eat? Also any other

guv1976

If you are interested in sampling Jewish deli food, here's a review of several deli restaurants in the Los Angeles area:

https://la.eater.com/maps/best-jewis...ch-los-angeles

(You should be able to find reviews of other cuisines at the same website.)

SWCPHX

Universal Studios is a A DAY
The Getty is A DAY
Joshua Tree is definitely A DAY

c1223

Sorry, I phrased my question badly. When I said "but I'm planning on the following" I should have rather said "these are some things that I think I might want to see - what is worth it and what isn't".

chrisl137

The Hollywood area is way overrated. People who live here tell that to all visitors, who then go anyway and return to say "Yeah, kind of a dump". If you're going to go to Hollywood, make it part of some other activity, like going to some live music at the Troubadour or the Roxy or something, or even the Bowl. But on its own it's totally not worth it.

Tar Pits/Page museum are some of the best couple hours of local tourism you can do, especially if it's a nice day. Hancock Park is very nice on a spring day.

Joshua Tree is definitely a nice visit and can be done in a day, but you really can't do anything else in the same day - it's a couple hours drive each direction, plus a lot of driving through the park, and ideally a little time hiking. Do not go off trail without maps/compass/water/GPS etc. Stop for dinner at Pappy and Harriets in Pioneertown if the schedule works for you.

Chinese food in the San Gabriel/Arcadia/Alhambra/Monterey Park area. Restaurants tend to be by region or food type (dumplings, noodles, etc) rather than being general "chinese" restaurants. It's a huge active Chinese community in the area, much more so than around the old LA Chinatown. But Chinatown and Little Tokyo can also be a good afternoon, and are within walking distance of each other. The Garment District also isn't far, but is mostly a thing during business hours - it basically rolls up at night.

Griffith Park/Observatory are definitely a nice visit, day or night. If you're into astronomy/science museums, Mt Wilson is also really cool. They have observatory tours on weekend days (at 1pm or something like that). It's a twisty drive up from La Canada or you can hike up from a few different trailheads (fire road from Altadena, narrow footpath from Sierra Madre) if you're up for a hike with 5000' elevation gain. The 100" telescope was actively doing science until recently (and may still be) and both the view and the tours are excellent - rather than visiting a science museum you're visiting a real, high end observatory.

dlaue

The Peterson car museum is one of the best in the world. If you go, be sure to purchase the "vault tour."

If traveling with kids, Santa Monica pier is the best. And I agree with 8:25 - the Hollywood area is a total tourist trap. If going there, see a play at the Pantages theatre.

Staying in Hollywood is not advised. Beverly Hills is a nice location if you want luxury shopping and expensive meals. Instead, I would look at accommodations in
our beach communities: Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach. Don't stay in downtown, unless you are on business.

flamingos

Grand Central Market is a popular food hall near the Bradbury Building. There’s a good variety of different food options.

I love the Getty and highly recommend it. You can totally do Getty and Venice the same day. Abbot Kinney is a walkable street in Venice with lots of shops and restaurants. It’s very close to the beach as well.

Markus 9643

Santa Monica Downtown has a massive homeless problem ,the 3rd street promenade as well the santa Monica place are currently not worth a visit.
Better visit the Westfield Beverly Hills

Don't spend so much money on hotels in Beverly Hills or Santa Monica when you are making trips every day,it is not worth the money spent.
Stay at LAX Area ,so you can use the blue bus or can pick up a rental.

I can recommend the panda express in 804 Montana Ave ,cheap meals ,good quality and a supermarket is behind it.
The shopping for food and beverage is a nightmare,the prices gone through the roof.
Ralph's is OK as well.
A day ticket for the blue bus cost 4 Usd per day,to avoid expensive parking costs at the hotel(sometimes more then 40 Usd per night).

RandomNobody

That would be a good part of a "Museum day." Petersen, LACMA, AMPAS, and La Brea are all on the same "long block". An additional museum half-day would be across the street from USC at the Science Museum, Natural History museum, and California African American Museum.

dlaue

I would recommend spending the most time in the Peterson automotive museum and admiring its iconic building. You may never see a better collection of cars.

#2 priority would be LA County Art Museum, although it is undergoing a major rebuild and this is impacting its exhibits. Also, there are many better art collections in the world, maybe even one in your city.

#3 the LA Brea tar pit museum. You won't see this anywhere else. Notice that petroleum is still oozing onto the surrounding sidewalks.

#4 is the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. This is a work in progress and, in my experience, is not worth the time. Plan to visit this museum in, perhaps, 10 years - when it is completed.

As for the USC museums, I would skip the African American museum if time is tight. It is no where near the quality of the one in DC.

corky

When will you be here? No way would I drive all the way to Joshua Tree on a 4 day visit.
I vote for Getty Center both for the museum aspect and the location/views. I don't think I would try to hit other museums---too time consuming. Maybe the Broad if you can get a convenient entrance time.
LA is a BIG place and you don't want to spend all your time driving so try to plan your days by location.....things on the West side all together or Downtown together etc. I would skip Hollywood other than if it is a burning desire to see the Walk of Fame. Hollywood is a tacky, seedy area but I know that some people like to say they have been there. If you really want, make it a short visit---walk around and see some of the stars or see the footprints at Chinese Theater.
Are you interested in seeing the beach/ Pacific ocean?
Universal studios would take a whole day or more as would Disneyland.
Drive through Beverly Hills maybe?
I think restaurants will depend on your itinerary. You should for sure try some Mexican food while in town which can range from a food truck, taco stand to a nice sit down restaurant.
Have you made hotel reservations?

SPN Lifer

I concur. For a first-time, four-day visit to Los Angeles, driving out to Joshua Tree National Park would use up an inordinate amount of your stay.

Need

For Hollywood, you kind of have to go if you are visiting LA for the first time. I took everyone visiting LA there and I don't remember anyone thinks it is overrated. Tourists trap yes, but a tourist trap that you have to visit at least once if you visit LA (especially if from out of USA). I usually just park at Hollywood and Highland. Show them the Oscar (Kodak?) Theatre, Chinese Theatre, the hand and foot prints, take pictures. Then walk next door to the bridge that can see the Hollywood Sign. That's about it. Now they have been to Hollywood and never had to come back. And then I drove to park near Cheesecake factory at Rodeo Drive. Walk around there, take pictures, window shops. When they are back home, people would ask them did you see Hollywood Sign, walk of fame, Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive....they can show them the pictures. And it only takes about half a day.

BakerLifterTraveler

If you have been to top art museums in the world such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Prado, etc., I think you will find the Broad's collection to be underwhelming. If you are unable to obtain a reservation to visit the Infinity Room, I would suggest removing this from your itinerary. If you decide to visit, you could combine a few things together with the order shuffled around depending on timing of admission and events.

1) Broad Museum
2) Disney Concert Hall
3) Concert at the Colburn Conservatory
4) Grand Central Market for a meal or snack

If you were planning on heading into Malibu, I would also visit the Getty Villa.

Howlin' Rays - some of the best fried chicken you will find anywhere, with locations in Chinatown and Pasadena
Lunasia - my go-to for dim sum, with multiple locations
Pizzeria Sei - specializes in excellent Japanese-style Neopolitan pizza, particular favorites of mine are the Margherita and Funghi
Republique - from casual breakfast, brunch, and lunch to fancy dinners at night, particularly excellent selection of pastries
Tar and Roses - American cuisine merged with international flavors (Asian, Middle Eastern, etc) located in Santa Monica

c1223

So I realise in my post I wrote "in a few weeks" but actually I have just finished my stay. I meant "in a week". We ended up arriving a day late so the itinerary turned into 3 days. Also the weather was (even by my British standards) absolutely crap. A load of rain.

I chose to stay in West Hollywood, because I felt it was relatively central and also out of the way. I had many points to burn through on Marriott so we stayed in the West Hollywood Edition which was pretty good.

Day 1

- Breakfast in an "influencer/Instagram" spot - The Butcher, The Baker & The Cappuccino Maker Cafe
- Drove past Hollywood Walk of Fame and Chinese theatre (this was enough for us)
- Drive up to the Griffith Observatory to have a walk around, explore the observatory and see the Hollywood sign
- Head over to Santa Monica for lunch, a walk around and some shopping down Third Street Promenade. Didn't notice a particular problem with homeless people and it was perfectly pleasant
- Drove over to Venice to explore the beach and the canals
- Dinner in Jon & Vinny's which was quite a nice but basic Italian

Day 2 (very wet)

- Headed to the Peterson Museum first - really enjoyed this one. Spent quite a while exploring here
- Drove into DTLA for lunch in Grand Central Market - great choices and really enjoyable atmosphere
- Wary of time, we drove over to the Natural History Museum where we spent the whole afternoon.
- We returned to DTLA to do a "drive by" of the Bradbury Building (closed that day due to filming), LA City Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall and The Broad Museum. If it hadn't have been pouring with rain we would have got out to walk and explore
- Having never tried In-And-Out, that's where we went for dinner

Day 3

- Universal Studios. I've been to the one in Florida which is slightly better, however player 2 hadn't been to either. I particularly enjoyed the studio tour, which I don't believe they have in Orlando.
- We had about 2hrs to spare, so on the way back to the hotel to collect our bags we stopped by UCLA to have a walk around (first time for us immersing oursevles in a West Coast campus university) and then the Greystone Mansion (as it was very close to the hotel). Both spots felt slightly "off the tourist track" and really enjoyable.

Thanks all for the recommendations and tips.