Los Angeles Travel Guide

The world’s first movie-themed Universal park, nestled at the foot of the Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles. It opens with the Studio Tour — a tram ride through the still-working Universal backlot with Jaws, earthquake and flood effects — while the upper lot packs immersive lands like Harry Potter, Minion Land, Transformers and Jurassic World. Equal parts theme park and real movie studio.

The Hollywood Walk of Fame is Los Angeles's best-known landmark, but it is not a building - it is 2.1 kilometres (1.3 miles) of public sidewalk running along 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard from Gower Street to La Brea Avenue, plus three blocks of Vine Street. Embedded in the pavement are more than 2,800 coral-pink five-pointed terrazzo-and-brass stars, each about 0.9 metres across with 5 cm brass letters and a 15 cm brass emblem below naming the honoree's category. The six categories are motion pictures, television, recording, radio, live performance and sports, with a seventh special category, Awards of Excellence, for organisations and corporations; those entries use a different font and are set into walls rather than the pavement. Stars were first unveiled in 1958 and permanently installed in 1960, the earliest eight including Olive Borden, Ronald Colman and Burt Lancaster. New stars are now added almost monthly - Molly Shannon took the 2,850th in June 2026. The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce selects honorees, and each inductee pays for their own star, which is why the count keeps rising. The core stretch holds three landmarks: the TCL Chinese Theatre, opened 1927 and clad in Chinese palace styling, whose forecourt holds about 200 celebrity handprints in cement starting in 1927 after Norma Talmadge stepped into wet concrete during construction; the 3,300-seat Dolby Theatre, opened 2001 and home of the Academy Awards; and the Ovation Hollywood complex that contains them. Note you cannot properly see the Hollywood Sign from the boulevard itself - it sits about 3 km north in the Santa Monica Mountains, so aim for Griffith Observatory or the park trails instead.

The Getty Center stands on a hilltop in Brentwood on the west side of Los Angeles. It was built from the bequest of oil executive J. Paul Getty, who died in 1976, and opened on December 16, 1997 on a 24-acre campus that welcomed more than 20 million visitors in its first 25 years. Pritzker Prize winner Richard Meier designed it, cladding the complex in travertine quarried at Bagni di Tivoli near Rome - about 16,000 tons of stone. Visitors park at the base and ride a free driverless electric tram uphill, and that approach is part of the experience: the white complex only comes into view as you emerge from the trees. The collection spans European painting, drawings, sculpture, decorative arts, manuscripts and photography from the 8th century to the late 20th, with Van Gogh's Irises - painted in part alongside Theo - and Monet's Impression, Sunrise among the headline works. At the heart of the site is the Central Garden, created by artist Robert Irwin in 1999, whom the Getty describes as conceiving it as a sculpture; its plantings and colour change with the seasons. Upper terraces look out over the Los Angeles basin to the Pacific and the Santa Monica Mountains. One important caveat: a major modernization programme is under way, with all East and North Pavilion galleries plus several South and West Pavilion galleries currently closed, so parts of the permanent collection are off view - check current displays before travelling for a specific work. Classical art lovers can also book the Getty Villa by the coast, 20-45 minutes away by car.

Santa Monica Beach is the most representative sunshine beach on Los Angeles' west side; broad golden sand, rows of palms and the classic wooden pier form a postcard Californian scene. On the wooden pier sits the small Pacific Park amusement area with its Ferris wheel, and at the entrance stands the Route 66 "End of the Trail" sign, marking where this legendary cross-country highway meets the Pacific. A coastal bike path links to Venice Beach—a pleasant spot for cycling, skating and sunsets.

Perched on Mount Hollywood in Griffith Park, the Griffith Observatory has been one of Southern California's most iconic cultural landmarks since its opening in 1935. This beautiful white-and-green building is not only a temple of astronomical education but also an unparalleled viewing platform overlooking the Los Angeles basin and the Hollywood Sign. The observatory houses the Samuel Oschin Planetarium, the Leonard Nimoy Event Horizon Theater, and exhibition spaces covering the cosmos, solar system, and telescope history. The famous Foucault Pendulum demonstrates Earth's rotation in the main hall, while the exterior plaza is a popular spot for photographing the Hollywood Sign and LA nightscape. Admission remains free, honoring founder Griffith J. Griffith's vision of making knowledge accessible to all.

The Hollywood Sign is the symbol of Los Angeles and global film culture — nine white letters about 14 m tall on the south slope of Mount Lee in the Santa Monica Mountains, first erected in 1923 as a real-estate ad. Today it stands for Hollywood itself; the best viewpoints are Griffith Observatory, Lake Hollywood Park and the Hollywood Lake overlook, and you can hike to its base.