Trips and Attractions in Famous Neighborhoods and in Downtown Los Angeles
♦ Routes (free): Detailed travel itineraries in USA
Los Angeles, the largest city in California, consists of a collection of communities and suburbs that vary in character. Below is a description of attractions in the Downtown area of Los Angeles and in its famous neighborhoods: Hollywood, Beverly Hills.
Recommended hotels in a central location in Los Angeles:
Best Western PLUS Hollywood Hills – A 3-star hotel located a 4-minute drive from the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The hotel has 86 spacious and well-equipped rooms including a microwave and refrigerator. The hotel features a diner restaurant and a swimming pool. Free internet. Private parking for an additional fee.
Holiday Inn Express Hollywood Walk of Fame - A 3-star hotel located an 8-minute walk from the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The hotel has 94 spacious rooms with a small refrigerator in each room. The hotel has a swimming pool and a gym. Free internet and free breakfast. Private parking for an additional fee.
Residence Inn by Marriott Beverly Hills – A suite hotel in Beverly Hills at a distance of less than a kilometer from Rodeo Drive. The hotel has 186 suites ranging from double studios to two-bedroom suites with a living room designed for 5 people. Each suite has a neat and equipped kitchen. Free internet and free breakfast. The hotel has a jacuzzi and a gym. Private parking for an additional fee.
Hilton Los Angeles-Universal City – A quality 4-star hotel located a 2-minute walk from Universal Studios. The hotel has 495 rooms. The hotel features a restaurant, business center, gym, swimming pool, and jacuzzi. Each room has a small refrigerator. Hotel rooms offer views of the theme park or the city. Internet and parking for an additional fee.
Tickets for amusement parks and attractions in the Los Angeles area from Expedia
Downtown
Important tourist sites in this area include: the Civic Center, the Cultural Center, the Music Center, the El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Park, Chinatown, Little Tokyo, and the Mexican area on Olvera Street. A tour around Downtown involves a lot of walking and is quite tiring. It is not suitable for families with small children. A train called the Angeles Flight Railway, which is the shortest train in the world, travels between Hill Street and Grand Avenue. It is worth riding both to ease the walk and for the experience.
Visit Downtown during daylight hours only. It is not safe to wander there during the hours of darkness!
The number one attraction for families in Downtown is ascending a modern observation tower (opened in 2016) called OUE Skyspace LA with a 360-degree view of the city and its suburbs.
The observation decks are located on the 69th and 70th floors of the building at a height of about 300 meters. A unique attraction in the tower is a short but cool glass slide where you slide from the top of the tower into the external observation deck in a transparent slide from which you can see the entire view spread out below in the tower.
Also, there are plenty of interactive touch screens that teach about various buildings and sites in the city. Address: 633 West Fifth Street, Los Angeles, CA 90071. It is recommended to book tickets in advance to avoid queues. Sliding on the glass slide involves an additional fee.
A good vantage point of the city is from the City Hall tower, which has a pyramid-shaped top. Address: 200 Spring St. It is 27 stories high and offers a magnificent view of the city center out to the Pacific Ocean.
Chinatown is bordered by the streets: Caesar Chavez, Spring, Yale, and Bernard. It has shops with Chinese equipment, foods, and souvenirs and Chinese restaurants. At the visitor center of the El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Park, you can buy a walking tour map of the district for a dollar and a half. Those who have visited (or intend to visit) the Chinatown in San Francisco, Toronto, or Vancouver can skip the Chinatown in Los Angeles as it is less impressive.
Little Tokyo is bordered by the streets: First, Alameda, 3rd, and Los Angeles Street. It constitutes the social, cultural, and economic center of the population of Japanese origin in Southern California. The main buildings there are: the Japanese American National Museum and the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center. The district has four shopping centers with restaurants and shops. In the months of April and May, spring celebrations are held there.
The historical park "El Pueblo de Los Angeles" is bordered by the streets: Alameda, Arcadia, and Spring and Chavez Avenue. In its territory, the Spaniards founded the city in 1781. In the park, which is about 170 dunams in size, there are restorations of many historical buildings. Among them: a fire station, a theater, a hotel, and a church. The visitor center is located at 622 N. Main St. in a building named Sepulveda House.
Olvera Street is located in the north of the historical park. In 1930, a Mexican market was established there, and to this day, many Mexican shops and restaurants are concentrated there. A colorful and cheerful atmosphere of a main street in a Mexican town prevails in the place.
The Music Center, at 135 Grand Street, consists of three central buildings. In the morning hours, one-hour guided tours are held there free of charge.
♦ Guided tours in Los Angeles from Viator:
♦ Book guided tours in Los Angeles from GetYourGuide.com:
Hollywood
Hollywood, northwest of the city center, is considered the capital of cinema and glamour, even though most of the studios and star homes are not located there. The main avenue is Hollywood Blvd., where the visitor center is also located (see above). Part of this avenue (extending over several kilometers) is called the Walk of Fame, where stars are embedded in the sidewalk every few meters, and on each star is the name of a famous actor or singer.
The avenue is full of souvenir shops, clothes, and electrical goods. Many of the electronics stores sell products suitable for Israel (220V). Many homeless people and eccentrics wander the streets of the neighborhood, and it is highly recommended not to wander there during the hours of darkness.
The main attractions in Hollywood are:
Mann’s Chinese Theatre
The theater serves as one of the hallmarks of Hollywood and is a tourist attraction. In its front courtyard, the handprints and footprints of more than 200 movie industry stars are embedded in concrete. Address: 6925 Hollywood Blvd. Premieres of most new Hollywood films are screened there. You can join a guided tour behind the scenes of the theater (reservation required), telephone: 323-463-9576.
Hollywood Bowl
A huge amphitheater with 18,000 seats where concerts of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the amphitheater orchestra are held. The concert season takes place from late June to mid-September. You can also take a tour there throughout the year between the hours of 9:00-17:00. Adjacent to the amphitheater is a museum with a multimedia display of the history of the place since its establishment in 1922. Address: 2301 N. Highland Ave.
Hollywood Wax Museum
The museum is mainly suitable for cinema "addicts" and features life-size displays of many famous actors and singers. Among them: Marilyn Monroe, Paul Newman, Barbra Streisand, Gary Cooper, and more. Most children do not find interest in it as they do not know the figures presented there. Open daily between the hours: 10 AM until midnight.
Address: 6767 Hollywood Blvd.
Guinness World Records Museum
The museum has a pleasant display of many records appearing in the Guinness Book of Records. Such as: the tallest man in the world, the thinnest man in the world, etc. The display includes historical and statistical information from many fields, ranging from the field of light entertainment to interesting scientific phenomena. Many video clips are screened at the site. Children love to visit the place very much. Open daily from 10 AM until midnight. A combined ticket with the Hollywood Wax Museum can be purchased for: 13 dollars per adult and 9 dollars per child. Address: 6764 Hollywood Blvd.
RIPLEY’S Believe It Or Not! Museum
The museum displays about 300 strange and surprising phenomena collected from all over the world (see description in the Orlando chapter). Open daily between the hours: 10:00-23:00 Address: 6780 Hollywood Blvd.
Beverly Hills
A famous luxury residential area where many famous movie and television stars live. The most famous street in this elegant neighborhood is Rodeo Drive, where luxury shops are concentrated.
Upmarket stores of the best designers: Gucci, Giorgio Armani, Tiffany jewelry, etc. It is pleasant to wander among them, enjoy their design, and rub shoulders with the rich and famous (although you will mostly meet tourists like yourselves). Of course, the prices are sky-high. Among the shops are also beautiful galleries. In Beverly Hills, there is a visitor center for tourists, Beverly Hills Visitors Bureau, address: 239 S. Beverly Dr, where you can get plenty of information and maps for walking tours in the neighborhood.
A recommended (and non-tiring) way to tour among the celebrity homes is by a special open-air bus, a Trolley, which was built as a copy of the famous cable car (Cable Car) of San Francisco.
The tour departs every half hour from the corner of Rodeo Drive and Dayton Way, lasts about 40 minutes, and passes by homes of famous movie people, historical sites, and famous shops while providing explanations and spicy stories.
Beverly Hills is a green and well-kept city with more than 20,000 trees, where each street has a different type of tree!
The popular restaurant area in the neighborhood is on La Cienega Boulevard where there are cafes and good restaurants. You can easily find free parking for your vehicle in the center of the neighborhood, on the most famous streets, in ten buildings designated for that purpose.
Parks, Gardens and Museums
Los Angeles has a large variety of museums of all types and sizes. Some of the museums are located inside parks that also have additional attractions.
Exposition Park
Several museums are located in this park. The park borders the streets: Exposition Blvd, Figueroa, Menlo Ave, and Martin Luther King Blvd. The park serves as a civic, cultural, and entertainment center and contains, in addition to the museums, a rose garden and a large stadium.
Two museums in the park where it is recommended to visit are:
California Science Center
The center has displays on the topics of mathematics, environment, health, earthquakes, and a separate wing dedicated to space and aviation (The Air and Space Gallery). Most of the exhibits can be touched and operated to the delight of children. The place also has a 5-story high IMAX hall, where 3D movies are screened on the topics of space, distant lands, and more. Information on the names and times of the films at telephone: 213-744-7400 (viewing the film involves a separate fee). Highly recommended for family visits.
The museum is open daily between the hours of 10:00-17:00. Closed on Christmas, Thanksgiving, and January 1st. Admission to the museum is free, but several attractions are paid: riding a bicycle on a high wire cable, a simulator, and a climbing wall. Parking involves a fee. Museum address: 700 State Dr.
Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
The museum has a recommended display of mammal habitats from Africa, North America, and other exotic mammals. Additionally, a display of birds, insects, and sea creatures. As in any natural history museum that respects itself, the place of the dinosaurs is not absent here either. Additional displays: minerals and Native American culture. The place also has a discovery center with exhibits for operation and an insect zoo. Open Monday to Friday between the hours of 9:30-17:00 and on weekends between the hours of 10:00-17:00. Closed on American Independence Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and January 1st. Admission is for a fee. Free admission every first Tuesday of the month. Address: 900 Exposition Blvd.
The Page Museum
The museum is located at the Rancho La Brea Tar Pits in the center of Los Angeles. This area is considered one of the richest areas in the world for fossils, featuring an impressive variety of plant and animal remains from the Stone Age. Visitors learn what Los Angeles looked like 10,000 to 40,000 years ago, during the last ice age, when it was the place of residence of giant mammoths. Visitors can follow through laboratory windows how ancient fossil bones found in the field are cleaned and repaired. Outside the museum, in Hancock Park, life-size models of animals that lived during the ice age in the area are placed. Address: 5801 Wilshire Blvd.
Griffith Park
This is the largest urban park in the USA. It has museums, a zoo, a planetarium, a natural amphitheater, hiking trails, etc. You can rent bicycles there or ride pony horses. The park is open daily between the hours of 5:00-22:30. The walking trails close at sunset. Information on the many activities held there can be obtained at the park's visitor center. Address: 4730 Crystal Springs Dr.
Los Angeles Zoo
Located in Griffith Park, near the junction of roads I-5 and SR-134. More than 1,200 mammals, birds, and reptiles live there, including rare species and many types under threat of extinction. Most of the animals are kept in open areas similar to their natural environment. The park has a bus called the "Safari Shuttle" that circles the park (for an additional fee). Bird and sea lion shows are also held in the place, as well as a children's zoo, where animals can be approached and even touched and fed. This is a large and recommended zoo, but if you intend to visit San Diego as well, save the visit to the zoo for that city as it is larger and more impressive. The zoo is open daily between the hours of 10:00-17:00. Closed on Christmas. Admission is for a fee, parking is free.
Travel Town
A museum for historical transportation vehicles with a display of trains, horse-drawn carriages, old airplanes, etc. A miniature train circles the displays. Open daily except for Christmas. On Monday-Friday the museum is open between the hours of 10:00-16:00. On Saturdays and Sundays, the museum closes at 17:00.
Located in the northwest corner of Griffith Park. Address: 5200 Zoo Dr .
Griffith Observatory and Planetarium
A good place to watch the city lights and also the stars. The place has a science center with displays on our connections with the universe. Planetarium shows (for a separate fee), accompanied by special effects and laser shows, are also held in the museum. Open daily except for Mondays, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. On Tuesday-Friday the observatory is open from 12:00-22:00. On Saturdays and Sundays, the observatory opens at 10:00. The observatory is also located in Griffith Park, address: 2800 E. Observatory Rd.
Art Museums
Los Angeles has several art museums that most children will not find much interest in. However, it is recommended to go to one art museum: The Getty Center. This center was previously located in Malibu and was moved in 1997 to the summit of one of the Santa Monica mountains. Address: 1200 Getty Center Dr. and is reached from road number I-405, south of Beverly Hills. The museum has an impressive collection of works including paintings, photographs, sculptures, furniture, and decorative art objects collected by Paul Getty, who was one of the richest men in the world. Next to the museum are designed gardens and a research institution. A magnificent view of the city is seen from there. It is not recommended to visit the place with small children who will lose their patience quickly. Order is strictly kept in the place and art objects are zealously guarded. Using flash inside the building is prohibited. The museum is open every day except for Mondays, between the hours of 10:00-17:30. On Saturday it is open until 21:00. Closed on most American holidays. Admission to the museum is free, parking is for a fee.
Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific
An impressive and extensive aquarium located in Long Beach Harbor. Address: 100 Aquarium Way, at the exit from Shoreline Drive. This is one of the largest aquariums in the world, with over 12,000 marine animals of 550 different types. It has 17 displays including a giant 3-story tank for predators and thirty smaller aquariums. You can see mysterious sea creatures from the depths of the ocean. The most exciting attraction in the aquarium is the shark lagoon, with more than 150 sharks and stingrays, some of which you can even touch. Open daily between the hours of 10:00-18:00, except for Christmas and during the time of the Grand Prix race in Long Beach (in the spring, the exact date changes from year to year). Highly recommended for families!
A "Behind-the-Scenes" tour of the aquarium takes place (for an additional fee), during which you will reach fascinating places to which entry is not usually possible and discover fascinating facts about the marine animals in the place, including practical information, such as: how 12,000 animals are fed daily and you can also feed some of the aquarium animals with your own hands. You can also (in summer months only) join a 90-minute cruise in Long Beach Harbor on a research vessel named Conqueror, during which you will take an active part in the search for marine animals.
Descanso Gardens
Botanical gardens located in a northern suburb of Los Angeles, named: La Cañada Flintridge. The gardens have over 100,000 camellias, which bloom in the months of October to March. In the gardens, many types of roses bloom between April and December and lilacs bloom between March and April. In addition, irises, water flowers, and orchids bloom in the place. In the Japanese gardens, there is a nice tea house. Many events and festivals are held in the place. A tour in a small train (which travels around the park several times a day, except for Mondays) among the gardens can be conducted (for a modest additional fee). Open daily between the hours of 9:00-17:00 except for Christmas (entry to the gardens is possible until 16:30). Admission is for a fee. Parking is free.
Recommended hotels in the Universal/Six Flags area:
Hilton Los Angeles-Universal City
Or cheaper:
Best Western Media Center Inn & Suites
Alternatively, it is recommended to live in the prestigious Santa Monica area
Recommended hotels in Anaheim for visitors to Disney parks:
Apartment Hotels:
Springhill Suites by Marriott Anaheim Maingate Clementine Hotel & Suites Anaheim
Or the following hotels which are also suitable for families:
Staybridge Suites Anaheim At The Park
Suite and studio apartment hotel suitable for families.
Hotel with rooms suitable for families.