The collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, or LACMA, are housed in a cluster of buildings, with a modern and contemporary-art-filled west campus that opened 2008 and a single-building redesign due to open in 2026 on the eastern half. The focal point is its grand entrance, which includes Chris Burden’s photogenic installation Urban Light. LACMA shares a park with the La Brea Tar Pits and sits just across the street from the Petersen Automotive Museum and Craft Contemporary, and next to the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures (an excellent celebration of cinema from the folks who hand out the Oscars). From the Space Shuttle Endeavour at the California Science Center to a trio of T. Along a three-block stretch known as Museum Row on Wilshire Boulevard, visitors can walk to four of these cultural institutions, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. After snapping an obligatory photo standing among the Urban Light exhibit’s 202 antique street lamps, take a step back in time by checking out Ice Age fossils and still-bubbling excavation sites at La Brea Tar Pits & Museum.
Top Ten Things You Must Do & Places To Visit In Los Angeles
Los Angeles has a diverse economy with a broad range of industries. Despite a steep exodus of film and television production since the COVID-19 pandemic,21 Los Angeles is still one of the largest hubs of American film production,2223 the world’s largest by revenue; the city is an important site in the history of film. Los Angeles hosted the Summer Olympics in 1932 and 1984, and will also host in 2028.
Art and literature
- The area that became Los Angeles was originally inhabited by the indigenous Tongva people and later claimed by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo for Spain in 1542.
- Attend a concert by the acclaimed LA Phil and experience classical music as it was meant to be heard.
- Located on Grand Avenue in Downtown L.A., Walt Disney Concert Hall is home to the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Master Chorale.
- Since the city and the county are interwoven geographically, culturally, and economically, any consideration of Los Angeles must, to some degree, involve both entities.
- There’s the popular Hall of the Sky and Hall of the Eye, a pair of complementary displays that examine the interplay between people and space.
- By 2009, the New York metropolitan area had a population of 22.2 million compared to the Greater Los Angeles Area’s 18.7 million, about a 3.56 million persons difference.58 Percentage growth, however, has been higher in Greater Los Angeles over the past few decades than in Greater New York.
Whether it’s visiting a quiet museum, or attending a boisterous ball game, there are always things to do, interesting attractions and exciting events and places to go in LA. Read on for ten iconic “must see” places in Los Angeles. If you’re in SoCal to take in as much culture as possible, you’ll be spoiled for choice at San Marino’s three-in-one attraction, the Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens. A truly one-of-a-kind destination, it’s home to an impressive art gallery, a substantially stocked library (with a Gutenberg Bible) and elaborately themed botanical gardens. The hilly Japanese garden, beautifully designed Chinese garden and cacti-filled desert garden are among our favorites.
Mexican rule
The Inland Empire, consisting of San Bernardino and Riverside Counties, contains fast-growing suburbs of the region, with a large to majority percentage of the working population commuting to either Los Angeles or Orange Counties for work. Originally an important center for citrus production, the region became an important industrial area by the early 20th century.444546 The Inland Empire also became a key transportation center following the completion of Route 66, and later Interstate 10. Despite being primarily suburban, the Inland Empire is also home to important warehousing, shipping, logistics and retail industries, centered on the subregion’s major cities of Riverside, San Bernardino and Ontario. The Greater Los Angeles CSA is the third-largest economic center in the world, after Greater Tokyo and the New York-Newark-Bridgeport CSA. Orange County is sometimes figuratively divided into “North County” and “South County”, with North Orange County including cities such as Anaheim, Fullerton, and Santa Ana, and is the older, more ethnically diverse and more densely built-up area both geographically and culturally closer to Los Angeles. South County, defined variously as beginning with either Costa Mesa42 or Irvine43 and includes cities to the east and south such aphrodite casino as Laguna Beach, Mission Viejo, Newport Beach, and San Clemente, is more residential, affluent, recently developed, and has a mostly white population.
Los Angeles County’s Craft Breweries
At Row DTLA, where you can find everything from vegan mushroom sandwiches at Champignon Eats to garlic noodz and truffle fries at Lobsterdamus. Critics refer to it either as a laid-back “la-la land” or, conversely, as a place reeling from earthquakes, fire, smog, gang warfare, and riots. The city’s defenders admire its mild climate and geographic variety. They claim that its major social problems are similar to those of all big cities and are perhaps even less severe there than elsewhere. In fact, some observers regard it as the most modern and quintessential American city.
Multicultural Enclaves in Los Angeles
Venice Beach has long made its case as the bohemian epicenter of California, and while the area gets plenty of mainstream tourists, it still boldly embraces its eccentric spirit—for better or worse. Abbot Kinney has transformed into a high-end ’hood over recent years, but the gritty boardwalk is still a, let’s say, unique place for people watching, with street “performers,” skateboarders and body builders all making their presence known (if you’re simply after a picturesque stretch of beach, we suggest venturing to Santa Monica or Malibu instead). Grab lunch at the Fig Tree before browsing the shelves at Small World Books. With so many world-famous sites and attractions to visit, deciding on the best things to do in Los Angeles can be a bewildering task. If it’s your first visit, you may be inclined to beeline it to Hollywood—but, in addition to probably walking away a bit disappointed, you’d be missing out on all of L.A.’s essential museums. Or you might have your heart set on getting star-struck in Beverly Hills—but, in addition to probably walking away a bit more broke, you’d be overlooking all of the remarkable restaurants farther to the east.
The stainless-steel landmark is part of The Music Center campus, one of the largest performing arts centers in the United States. Weekend excursions revisit L.A.’s storied past at landmarks such as the Bradbury Building and Angels Flight railway, both featured on the TV show Bosch, among others. If sports are more your speed, Dodger Stadium in the hilly Echo Park neighborhood overlooks downtown, and nearby hiking trails and bike paths offer an outdoor escape in adjacent Elysian Park.
- In fact, some observers regard it as the most modern and quintessential American city.
- Population density around the metropolitan area varies greatly—as low as one person per square mile in mountainous areas and as high as 50,000 per square mile near downtown Los Angeles.
- The architecture of Los Angeles is influenced by its Spanish, Mexican, and American roots.
- Asian restaurants, many immigrant-owned, exist throughout the city with hotspots in Chinatown,251 Koreatown,252 and Little Tokyo.253 Los Angeles also carries an outsized offering of vegan, vegetarian, and plant-based options.
- At Row DTLA, where you can find everything from vegan mushroom sandwiches at Champignon Eats to garlic noodz and truffle fries at Lobsterdamus.
- Mexican rule ended following the American Conquest of California, part of the larger Mexican-American War.
- The discovery of oil in the 1890s brought rapid growth to the city.20 The city was further expanded with the completion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913, which delivers water from Eastern California.
Nearby, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures is a must for learning about the artists who bring stories to life on the big screen. Sprawling across 32 acres downtown, the aforementioned Row DTLA is a century-old industrial warehouse complex turned creative mecca. Browse a collection of boutiques packed with home goods, under-the-radar apparel brands, and vintage treasures. For big-name designers, The Grove’s open-air shopping plaza offers clothing and beauty wares from Aritzia, Sandro, Charlotte Tilbury, Lululemon, and more. Take a free trolley ride on the 1950s-era streetcar to The Original Farmers Market, where there are more than 100 gourmet grocers, souvenir stands, bookstores, jewelry shops, and other businesses open seven days a week.
Los Angeles is filled with world-famous landmarks and attractions but for an off-the-beaten path treat, visit legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s creation, designed for client Aline Barnsdall in his self-described “California Romanza” style. The Hollyhock House has been recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site – only the third such site in the entire state of California – and the grounds offer an art gallery, free studio classes for kids, and lush gardens sprinkled with its namesake flower. Opened in September 2021, the spectacular Academy Museum of Motion Pictures houses more than 13 million objects in a 300,000 square-foot campus designed by Pritzker Prize winning architect Renzo Piano. Get up-close to iconic movie props like Dorothy’s ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz and “Rosebud” from Citizen Kane. The museum’s immersive Oscars Experience transports you to the Dolby Theatre stage – after the standing ovation, you give your “thank you” speech with an Academy Award in hand. Be sure to stop by the Academy Museum Store for exclusive merch and local collabs.
Other significant sectors include shipping/international trade – particularly at the adjacent Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach, together comprising the United States’ busiest seaport – logistics – the Inland Empire being the largest concentration of warehousing and intermodal facilities in the world – as well as aerospace, technology, petroleum, fashion and apparel, and tourism. The Los Angeles Metro and other regional agencies provide a comprehensive bus system that covers Los Angeles County. Los Angeles , city, seat of Los Angeles county, southern California, U.S. It is the second most populous city and metropolitan area (after New York City) in the United States. The city sprawls across a broad coastal plain situated between mountains and the Pacific Ocean; the much larger Los Angeles county, which encompasses the city, contains some 90 other incorporated cities, including Beverly Hills, Pasadena, and Long Beach. The county also encompasses two of the Channel Islands, Santa Catalina and San Clemente; Mount San Antonio, familiarly known as Mount Baldy or Old Baldy, 10,046 feet (3,062 metres) high; more than 900 square miles (2,330 square km) of desert; and 75 miles (120 km) of seacoast.
Anchored by the Japanese American National Museum, the Little Tokyo neighborhood is the largest of the three official Japantowns in the U.S. (the other two are in San Francsico and San Jose). For those arriving by train, Olvera Street is just steps from Union Station’s front doors. The marketplace is an essential part of the El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument—the birthplace of Los Angeles and home to the city’s oldest building, the Avila Adobe.