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Los Angeles
Los Angeles has littered the world with its paraphernalia. Disneyland, movie stars, TV, fast-food and hype - it's all here in overdrive. LA may be a figment of its own imagination, but if you long to stand in the footsteps of stars and breathe their hallowed air, you've come to the right place.
Starlit and moonstruck, LA beguiles scores of curious tourists, hopeful starlets and wanna-be rock musicians each day. But LA is more than the sum total of its mass-produced fantasies. It's a thriving hybrid, a conglomeration of 88 independent cities sprawling over a vast urban maelstrom.
No other city studies itself with such narcissistic intensity. If you're not prepared to embrace the dream, you'll doubtless find it filthy, irritating, frightening or just plain dumb. In this town, game show hosts are household names and nobodies erect billboard shrines to themselves.
Area: 10,600 sq km
Population: 9.9 million
Country: USA
Time Zone: GMT/UTC -8 (Pacific Time)
Telephone Area Code: Downtown & Hollywood 213, 323; Beverly Hills & Santa Monica 310; Long Beach 562; Pasadena & San Marino 626; San Fernando Valley 818; Anaheim & Newport Beach 714
back to top Orientation Most first-time visitors to LA are instantly confused by its size and sprawl. Unlike other metropolises like New York or Paris, LA is a decentralized hodgepodge with no clearly defined hub. It helps to know that what is commonly referred to as 'LA' is really 'LA County', a conglomeration of 88 cities of which LA is just one. The heart of the city of Los Angeles is Downtown, about 19 kilometers (12 mi) east of the ocean and hemmed in by the I-10, I-5 and US 101.
East LA, a Latino-dominated area, edges against Downtown, as do the historically African-American neighbourhoods of South Central. Most areas of interest to visitors are west of Downtown LA, including Hollywood and the epicentre of gay and lesbian culture, West Hollywood. Farther west is lifestyles of the rich and famous territory: Bel Air, Brentwood and Beverly Hills. Hugging the northern country coast are the posh beachside areas of Malibu, Pacific Palisades and Santa Monica. Farther south along the coast is Venice, with the international airport farther again. The Hollywood Hills, a continuation of the Santa Monica Mountains, are a physical and (some might say) ideological separation between Los Angeles 'proper' and the San Fernando Valley, which forms the northern boundary of LA County. This quintessential suburbia is characterized by unsightly strip malls and major TV and movie studios. Orange County, home of Disneyland, extends along the coast to the southeast of Los Angeles County.
When to Go
Despite its desert climate, most of Los Angeles is protected from extremes of temperature and humidity by the mountain ranges to its north and east. August and September are the hottest months, January and February the coolest and wettest. Offshore breezes keep the beach communities cooler in summer and warmer in winter than those further inland, particularly the San Fernando Valley, which is the hottest area in summer and the coldest in winter. The average LA temperature is around 70°F (21°C), though smog-shrouded summer days can get well over 90°F (32°C), while winter temperatures around 55°F (12°C) are not uncommon.
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Events Public Holidays include:New Year's Day (1 January), Robert E. Lee's Birthday (19 January), Martin Luther King Jr. Day (third Monday in January), Presidents' Day (thirdMonday in February), Eastern, Confederate Memorial Day (26 April), Memorial Day (last Monday in May), Independence Day (4 July), Colorado Day (first Monday in August), Labor Day (first Monday in September), Columbus Day (second Monday in October), Veterans' Day (11 November), Thanksgiving (fourth Thursday in November) and Christmas Day.
Angelenos love to show off, and the city has no shortage of opportunities for them to do so. Every New Year's Day the Tournament of Roses Parade - marching bands, celebrities and flower-coated floats - makes its way down Pasadena's Colorado Blvd. The Rose Bowl college football championship is played later the same day. A parody of the Tournament of Roses - the Doo Dah Parade - makes its way down Colorado Blvd in November, on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
February is African American History Month, with films, lectures, exhibits and performances across the county. LA's night of nights, the Academy Awards, is held in March. Cinco de Mayo, marking Mexico's victory over the French army at the Battle of Puebla (1862), is celebrated on May 5 with plenty of south-of-the-border style festivities.
In June, the Gay & Lesbian Pride Celebration is marked with a flamboyant parade down Santa Monica Blvd. The Summer Pops Festival runs from July through September at the Hollywood Bowl, and the International Surf Festival hits the waves of Manhattan, Hermosa and Redondo Beaches in August.
Los Angeles County Fair, held in Pomona in September, is the largest county fair in the world, with music, sideshows, rides and other country-style delights. For those who prefer not to get their glad rags grubby, October's AFI-LA International Film Festival is one of the country's biggest, with more than 75 features from around the world. For a bit of contrast, check out the Hollywood Christmas Parade, where movie and TV stars join Santa in a typically flashy parade, then join in Las Posadas, candle-lit processions that relive Mary and Joseph's journey to Bethlehem and honor the Christ child.
back to top Public Holidays
25 Dec - Christmas Day
fourth Thursday in November - Thanksgiving
11 Nov - Veteran's Day
second Monday in October - Columbus Day
first Monday in September - Labor Day
4 Jul - Independence Day
last Monday in May - Memorial Day
Mar/Apr - Easter
third Monday in February - President's Day
third Monday in January - Martin Luther King Jr Day
1 Jan - New Year's Day
Attractions
Beverly Hills
No star-studded tour is complete without a visit to Beverly Hills, home of the rich and famous. Just west of Hollywood, this city-within-a-city flaunts its wealth with opulent manors on manicured grounds and streets overflowing with designer labels. For the latest on who lives where, grab a 'Star Home Map' from a street-corner vendor. The Hills' Golden Triangle is bisected by that locus of conspicuous consumption, Rodeo Drive, where retailers such as Tiffany, Armani and Vuitton flog their wares.
North Beverly Hills is the epicenter of luxury living, home to the likes of Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty and Harrison Ford.
If your desire to look over strangers' fences isn't sated by Beverly Hills, extend your trip to that other famous neighborhood, Bel Air, in western LA, or the slightly less lively (but nonetheless star-studded) Hollywood Forever Cemetery, final resting place of Rudolph Valentino, Jayne Mansfield and Cecil B. De Mille.
back to top Disneyland
Allegedly the happiest place on earth (it must be the hordes of screaming children and parents on the brink of insanity), crowd balance is the key to happiness; too busy (like in summer) and it's a psychosis-inducing hell, too quiet and it's a harrowing post-apocalyptic scenario. Try a mid-week evening visit when the kids' sugar fixes subside.
Does anyone go to Los Angeles and not visit Disneyland? Apparently the happiest place on earth (though the hordes of screaming children and parents at their wits' end may make you doubt it), Disneyland is a masterpiece of picture-perfect choreography - even the litter bins are themed. The park is divided into four different lands: Adventureland has a jungle theme and features Indiana Jones and the Forbidden Eye; Frontierland celebrates the myth of the Wild West; Fantasyland devotes itself to Disney's favourite characters; and Tomorrowland is (you guessed it) all about the future. In summer, you'll spend the better part of your visit to Disneyland queuing - one of the best ways to avoid this is to come in the evening when the kiddies are in bed. Uncle Walt's wonderland is in Anaheim, half an hour's drive south of downtown LA; you can get there by bus, hotel shuttle or by car on I-5.
On 55 acres (22 ha) next door, Disney's California Adventure, which opened in February 2001, is an idealized adventure ride of the Golden State.
back to top Downtown Los Angeles
Just as you'd imagine, LA's downtown area is framed by freeways rather than any particular geographic boundary. The Hollywood Fwy lies to the north, the Harbor Fwy to the west, the Santa Monica Fwy to the south and a bird's nest of other freeways intertwine beyond the Los Angeles River to the east. In the thick of all this concrete and congestion, however, intrepid urbanites will find a number of pockets worth exploring.
Extending eight blocks east to west, the city's Civic Center is America's largest complex of government buildings after Washington, DC. It contains the most important of LA's city, county, state and federal office buildings, including the Criminal Courts Building, where the infamous OJ Simpson murder trial took place in 1995, and the 1928 City Hall, which served as the Daily Planet building in the TV show Superman and the police station in Dragnet. North across Temple St from City Hall is the excellent LA Children's Museum.
A few blocks east of the Civic Center, El Pueblo de Los Angeles is a 44-acre (18ha) state historic park commemorating the site where the city was founded in 1781 and preserving many of its earliest buildings. Its central attraction for most visitors is Olvera Street, a narrow, block-long passageway that was restored as an open-air Mexican marketplace in 1930. In addition to its restaurants, Olvera St teems with the shops and stalls of vendors selling all manner of Mexican crafts, from leather belts and bags to handmade candles and colourful piñatas.
Directly across from El Pueblo is Union Station, one of LA's oft-overlooked architectural treasures. Built in 1939 in Spanish Mission style with Moorish and Moderne details, it's worth a stop even if you aren't hopping a train. A few blocks north of the station, the 16 square blocks of Chinatown comprise the social and cultural nucleus of LA's 200,000 Chinese residents. Here, the businesses of traditional acupuncturists and herbalists mingle with scores of restaurants and shops whose inventories vary from cheap kitsch to exquisite silk clothing, inlaid furniture, antique porcelain and intricate religious art.
Immediately southeast of the Civic Center is Little Tokyo. First settled by early Japanese immigrants in the 1880s and thriving by the 1920s, the neighbourhood was effectively decimated by the anti-Japanese hysteria of the WWII years. Thanks in part to an injection of investment from the 'old country,' Little Tokyo is again the locus for LA's Japanese population of nearly a quarter million. Among its streets and outdoor shopping centers, you'll find sushi bars, bento houses and traditional Japanese gardens. Housed in a historic Buddhist temple, the Japanese American National Museum exhibits objects and art history of Japanese emigration to, and life in, the USA.
Just southwest of the Civic Center is the Museum of Contemporary Art, designed by Japanese architect Arata Isozaki. It houses what is considered one of the world's most important collection of paintings, sculptures and photographs from the 1940s to the present. Just west of MOCA is The Westin Bonaventure hotel, a quintet of cylindrical glass towers that are instantly recognizable to any regular moviegoer.
South of the Civic Center, LA's Hispanic shopping district is a deliciously cluttery mix of cheap restaurants, frilly wedding dress shops and blaring Latin pop. For a shocking contrast to the bustling street scene, step inside the 1893 Bradbury Building, where a skylit, five-story atrium is surrounded by Belgian marble, Mexican tiles, ornate French wrought-iron railings, glazed brick walls, oak paneling and a pair of open-cage elevators. You've seen it in detail if you've seen the movies Blade Runner or Wolf. Across the street from the Bradbury, between Broadway and Hill St, Grand Central Market is LA's oldest (1917) and largest open-air food market.
back to top Getty Center
Contrary to popular belief, LA does have an intellectual, refined side. When you're shopped, glitzed, tanned and rollercoastered out, head for some of the best museums in the USA. Top of the list has to be the John Paul Getty collection of museums. The museum's European and photography and numerous other collections are now on display at the stunning 110-acre (45 hectare) Getty Center in the Santa Monica mountains, opened in 1998 following 14 years of planning and construction at a cost of a cool billion. Admission is free, making this one of the best bargains in town.
Hollywood
Los Angeles has built its reputation on the glamour of the movies, and most visitors want at least a little of its glitz to rub off on them. Hollywood itself (in northwestern LA) is no longer the movie mecca it once was, but it certainly holds plenty of historic interest. Take a walk down Hollywood Blvd and you'll pass by famous sights such as Mann's (née Grauman's) Chinese Theatre, where more than 150 of the glitterati have left their prints on the sidewalk out the front. Head east along the Boulevard, stepping on those famous bronze stars, and you'll find yourself at the Roosevelt Hotel. Soak up a bit of 1930s ambience: this is where the first Academy Awards were held in 1928 and where Errol Flynn, Salvador Dali and F Scott Fitzgerald often propped up the bar.
The corner of Hollywood and Vine was once the heart of off-screen action for the Industry, but you wouldn't know it now. If you want a memento of those golden days, the Collectors Book Store on the corner is a treasure trove of memorabilia. If you don't manage to spot a real star while you're in Hollywood, drop by the Hollywood Wax Museum or (for real stars' knickers) Frederick's of Hollywood Lingerie Museum.
back to top Malibu
Immortalized by the Beach Boys and Baywatch as miles of golden sand awash with babes of both sexes, in reality the city's beaches are often polluted and sparsely populated. Nonetheless, some of them are definitely worth a look. Malibu is the archetypal Southern California babe beach, and your best bet for sunning and swimming.
Malibu's beaches are backed by the rugged mountains of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. It can be quite difficult to find a stretch of sand, as much of the shoreline is privately owned, but there are some very pleasant state beaches.
Santa Monica
Santa Monica is one of the city's most appealing neighborhoods. Although the beach only comes to life on the hottest summer days, the surrounding area is a very pleasant place to spend an afternoon. The heart of Santa Monica is the 3rd St Promenade, a lively pedestrian mall packed with buskers, movie theaters, bars and cafes.
The Santa Monica pier, built between 1909 and 1916, is the oldest pleasure pier on the West Coast. It has plenty of old-world carnival attractions, including a 1920s carousel, and seafood restaurants. The neighborhood is also home to some excellent museums of modern art.
back to top Universal City
To lift your chances of running into a living, working actor, visit Universal City, home of the very-much functional Universal Studios and one of LA's biggest theme parks. Catch a tram on the Backlot Tour to see the locations of several famous movies and TV shows, or spend your bucks on one of the many movie-related rides.
The studios were built in 1912, and formal public tours have been running since 1964. Universal also features special effects displays, musical-comedy revues and an animal actors stage. The studio's eight restaurants are prime star-spotting territory. Universal is in the San Fernando Valley, north of the city.
Venice
Venice pretty much sums up the LA lifestyle. The beach's Ocean Front Walk is a human circus of jugglers and acrobats, tarot readers, jug-band musicians, pick-up basketballers, oiled-up fitness freaks and petition circulators. A hundred years ago, this place was just swampland, until an enterprising cigarette tycoon turned it into a network of gondola-poled canals and dubbed it the 'Playland of the Pacific.' Most of the canals have now been paved over, but the playland atmosphere is hanging in there. It's a great place to shop and an even better place to down a freshly-squeezed juice while the human tide washes over you.
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