A Trip to the Famous Neighborhoods of Los Angeles
♦ Routes (free): Detailed travel itineraries in USA
Hollywood, northwest of downtown Los Angeles, is considered the capital of cinema and glamour, although most studios and celebrity homes are not located there. The main avenue is Hollywood Blvd. and where the visitor center is also located.
Part of this avenue (stretching over several kilometers) is called the Walk of Fame, where stars are embedded in the sidewalk every few meters, each with the name of a famous actor or singer.
The best way to take a photo with the Hollywood sign is at the Hollywood & Highland shopping center, located on Hollywood Boulevard. Address:
6801, HOLLYWOOD BLVD, HOLLYWOOD, CA 90028
The gateway built in the shopping center's courtyard will lead you to the best viewpoint of the sign.
♦ 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, each with a small refrigerator. 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 less than a kilometer from Rodeo Drive. The hotel has 186 suites ranging from double studio apartments to two-bedroom suites with a living room 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 high-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. Rooms overlook the theme park or the city. Internet and parking for an additional fee.
Booking guided tours in Los Angeles from GetYourGuide.com:
The Main Attractions in Hollywood
Tickets for amusement parks and attractions in Los Angeles from Expedia:
Mann’s Chinese Theatre
The theater serves as one of Hollywood's landmarks and is a tourist attraction. In its forecourt, the handprints and footprints of more than 200 movie stars are embedded in concrete. Address: 6925 Hollywood Blvd. It hosts the premieres of most new Hollywood films. You can join a guided tour behind the scenes of the theater.
Hollywood Bowl
A giant amphitheater with 18,000 seats where concerts of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra are held. The concert season takes place from late June to mid-September. 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. Address: 6767 Hollywood Blvd.
Guinness World Records Museum
The museum has a nice display of many records appearing in the Guinness Book of Records. Such as: the world's tallest man, the world's thinnest man, etc. The display includes historical and statistical information from many fields, ranging from light entertainment to interesting scientific phenomena. Many videos are shown. Children love visiting the place. Address: 6764 Hollywood Blvd.
RIPLEY’S Believe It Or Not! Museum
The museum presents about 300 strange and surprising phenomena gathered from all over the world.
Open daily between: 10:00-23:00. Address: 6780 Hollywood Blvd.
Beverly Hills
A famous luxury residential area where many movie and television stars reside. The most famous street in this elegant neighborhood is Rodeo Drive, where luxury shops are concentrated.
Upscale stores of top designers: Gucci, Giorgio Armani, Tiffany jewelry, etc. It's pleasant to walk between them, enjoy their design, and rub shoulders with the rich and famous (though you will mostly meet tourists like yourselves). Of course, prices are sky-high. Among the shops are also beautiful galleries. Beverly Hills has a tourist visitor center, Beverly Hills Visitors Bureau, located at: 239 S. Beverly Dr.
Phone: 310-248-1000. Here you can get a lot of information and maps for walking tours in the neighborhood.
A recommended (and non-tiring) way to tour the celebrity homes is by a special trolley bus, open to the air, which was built as a replica of San Francisco's famous Cable Car.
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-maintained city with more than 20,000 trees, with each street having a different type of tree!
The popular restaurant area in the neighborhood is on La Cienega Boulevard, which has good cafes and restaurants. Free parking for your car can be easily found in the center of the neighborhood, on the most famous streets, in ten buildings designated for it.
Downtown
Important tourist sites in this area include: the Civic Center, the Cultural Center, the Music Center, El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historic Park, Chinatown, Little Tokyo, and the Mexican area on Olvera Street.
Touring throughout Downtown involves a lot of walking and is quite tiring. It is not suitable for families with small children. A train called Angels Flight Railway, which is the shortest railway in the world, runs between Hill Street and Grand Avenue. It's worth riding both to ease the walking and for the experience.
Visit Downtown during daylight hours only. It is not safe to tour after dark!
City Tower Viewpoints
A good viewpoint of the city is from the City Hall tower, whose top is shaped like a pyramid. Address: 200 Spring St. It is 27 stories high and offers a magnificent view of downtown to the Pacific Ocean.
Another excellent viewpoint is from a new observation tower in Los Angeles with a glass slide at its top: OUE Skyspace LA
Chinatown
Chinatown is bordered by Ceasar Chavez, Spring, Yale, and Bernard streets. It has shops with Chinese equipment, foods, and souvenirs and Chinese restaurants. At the visitor center of El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historic Park, you can buy a walking tour map of the district. Anyone who has visited (or intends to visit) Chinatown in San Francisco, Toronto, or Vancouver can skip Chinatown in Los Angeles as it is less impressive.
Little Tokyo
Little Tokyo is bordered by First, Alameda, 3rd, and Los Angeles streets. It constitutes the social, cultural, and economic center of the Japanese population in Southern California. The central 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. Spring celebrations are held there in April and May.
El Pueblo Historic Park
The Historic Monument El Pueblo de Los Angeles is bordered by Alameda, Arcadia, and Spring streets and Chavez Avenue. On its grounds, the Spanish founded the city in 1781. The park, covering about 170 dunams, features restorations of many historical buildings. Among them: a fire station, a theater, a hotel, and a church. The visitor center is at 622 N. Main St. in a building named Sepulveda House.
Olvera Street is located in the north of the historic park. In 1930, a Mexican market was established there, and to this day, many Mexican shops and restaurants are concentrated there. The place has a colorful and cheerful atmosphere of a main street in a Mexican town.
The Music Center
The Music Center, at 135 Grand Street, consists of three central buildings. Free one-hour guided tours are held there in the morning.
A recommended discount card for theme parks and attractions in Southern California:
Disneyland, California Adventure Park, SeaWorld, Legoland, San Diego Zoo:
Southern California's best attractions