Besides Hollywood and the theme parks, what are the must do’s on my trip that isn’t a tourist trap? I already have a Lakers game planned since I’m a fan, but what else is there to do that screams out this is LA!

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  3. A lot of the stuff I like there doesn’t scream “This is LA.” Maybe visiting historic movie star homes would fit the bill? You can tour Will Rogers’ house. And the William S Hart museum is currently closed due to ownership being transferred, but if it’s reopened when you visit I’d recommend it.

    You should also check out shops in neighborhoods like Los Feliz.

  4. Night time drive on Mulholland Drive

    Hollywood Forever Cemetary

    Griffith Park Observatory

    Hollywood Sign

    USS Iowa museum ship

    Queen Mary museum ship

    Angels Flight railway

  5. The two Getty museums have amazing collections and interesting buildings.

    Driving down sunset Blvd.

    Target eating all varieties of ethnic food.

    Griffith Observatory and the park

  7. Walk the boardwalk/beach at Venice and Santa Monica. Griffith Observatory. Get tacos.

  8. Hollywood Walk of Fame , Warner Bros, Griffith Observatory , Santa Monica Beach, Getty Cente, Griffith Park Zoo

  9. Rent a car and Dirve the 405, go to empty Chavez Ravine, pretty sure some event is happening there, and downtown LA, looks like every other downtown except sunnier.

  10. I’d be hitting up all the wonderful cemeteries and visiting who I want to see.

    Hollywood Forever, Rose Hills, Westwood Village, Forest Lawn Glendale/Hollywood Hills, Mount Sinai Memorial Park.

  11. Can we back up for a second? Why are you spending 10 days in LA in the first place? Is it entirely by choice just for an American vacation?

  12. Rodeo Drive; you don’t need to buy anything, just walk around.

    Studio lots like Sony Pictures and Warner Brothers offer guided tours for a fee and advanced booking.

    Unless you’re attending a premiere or something, Hollywood is NOT the place for celebrity sightseeing. You would probably have better luck in the boutiques on Robertson Boulevard or even the Grove shopping center.

  13. You might want to do some research on sites that have been used as locations for your favorite movies. Many of them are bound to be in the LA area. Being a Ghostbuster fan, for example, would merit a visit to the Millennium Biltmore Hotel (the “Sedgwick”).

  14. Here’s some of the things I did with a week in LA this past summer:

    * La Brea Tar Pit
    * LA County Museum of Art (right next door to the tar pit)
    * Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Lots of famous dead people here, plus peacocks and feral cats. Its really cool having this kind of nice, green refuge in the middle of an area that is full of strip malls and auto repair shops.
    * Just walking along the beaches in Santa Monica and Venice, the Venice Boardwalk and the Santa Monica Pier were to me a ton of fun.
    * Amoeba Music is 100% worth the visit. Prices for video games and music are very reasonable, especially considering the location
    * Getty Villa was a good visit and free.
    * Went to the 6th Street Viaduct Bridge a week after it opened and saw LAPD pull over a street racer. cool stuff
    * walked around Little Tokyo and the neighborhood around Union Station. Lots of festivals seem to happen around here.
    * The walk up to the Griffith Observatory is very rewarding and hardly anyone does it.
    * Griffith Observatory and the tesla coil thing is very cool
    * omg food so much good and amazing food

    ​

    Some things I didn’t do because we did all this without a car and it was just too far of a drive or we simply ran out of time:

    * San Bernadino National Forest
    * Joshua Tree National Park
    * Drive or bike along Route 1.
    * Bike in general. There’s a lot of relatively new paths and bike infrastructure in much of LA. Now you shouldn’t do this if you’re used to like…the Netherlands, but if you do urban cycling in much of the US you can probably hack it in LA with some common sense safety

    ​

    General LA advice:

    * Theme parks and studios aren’t necessarily clustered together so you really gotta take distances into account
    * in fact distance and travel times in LA are a real thing and really need to be considered. Try to avoid traveling during peak commute times like 7:30-9am and again around 4-6. Weekends all bets are off because a lot of people from elsewhere in California and the Southwest come for weekend trips.
    * Public transit IMO wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected it to be. I generally found it to be reliable, frequent enough, and an integrated app meant you can easily pay for all forms of transit across most of the various services.
    * And because of the terrible traffic sometimes oublic transit and driving aren’t that much different lol
    * In general try to stay near where most of your activities will be. 10 days you may even want to shift locations halfway through.
    * Keep some cash on you. Lots of businesses, especially more affordable ones, may be cash only or offer a cash discount
    * brush up on your Spanish
    * I wish I had a car for like…one or two days to do Greater LA things but driving in the actual urban core of LA is not something I’d want to do. Besides the safety aspect of break ins, its just expensive to drive. High gas prices, high rental rates. expensive parking rates, sometimes you’re forced to valet park, very aggressive ticketing for street-side parking if you are even a second over your meter or you park during a designated street sweeping time. Unless you really need a car for a specific activity like a day trip, you can probably make it work walking, biking/scooter, public transit, and rideshare.
    * Bring good shoes. I walked 10+ miles some days while there.
    * Don’t expect to do a lot of swimming at the beach. The water tends to be cold in most of California.
    * A sweatshirt or a lighter jacket may be nice for the evening when it cools down.

    Some people are saying “lol 10 days is too much” but I think if you’re looking at LA the entire metro area rather than LA the city, there’s plenty to do for 10 days. Greater LA is nearly the size of Portugal. And yeah you could go visit another area in California, but there’s tons to do in LA for 10 days if that’s where you wanna spend your time.

  15. Be warned that Hollywood is extremely disappointing for tourists. I get still wanting to go there anyway to say that you’ve been there, but temper your expectations.

  16. My favorite beach in the whole area is Westward Beach, in Malibu. Chances are high that you’ll recognize the place from movies. Do yourself a favor and check it out. Don’t forget to see Pirate’s Cove!

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