The best things to do in Los Angeles that you should know
If we could write the rules of living in Los Angeles this would be our No. 1, always at the top of our list: When you live in this city, there’s no excuse for boredom just because it’s a weeknight. There are hundreds of things to do in Los Angeles each week, whether you hit the beach at sunset or go for a morning bike ride, or catch a drive-in concert or see a virtual comedy show—and that’s really only scratching the surface. Well, we don’t make the rules, but we will provide you with plenty of ideas for your next free weeknight right here. Now go out (or, you know, stay in) and tackle these things to do in Los Angeles.
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Spend Time With Your Selfie at the Museum of Selfies
Now a permanent fixture in Hollywood, visitors can turn their Instagram influencer dreams into reality at the Museum of Selfies. Become the envy of your Instagram followers as you melt your brain in the optical illusion bathroom, hang from one of the tallest buildings in Los Angeles (danger-free), accept the award for Best Selfie, bathe in gold, relax in the emojis pool, and much more. In addition, you can learn a little about the history of the selfie, like when the first selfie was taken and the first time the term “selfie” was used.
Kidspace Children’s Museum
With 3.5 acres of interactive exhibits including an indoor imagination workshop, an ant colony climbing structure, and an interactive greenhouse, the Kidspace Children’s Museum is one of the top destinations for LA kiddos.
Don’t miss the outdoor Arroyo Adventure area, where children can learn about ecosytems by climbing a giant hawk’s nest, building dams, and exploring a mud kitchen.
Pro tip: Bring a change of clothes, towel, and water shoes; things can get messy.
Hollywood Sign
Put up in 1923 and originally spelling “Hollywoodland”, a real estate development, the unmistakeable Hollywood Sign was only supposed to last for 18 months.
The arrival of the Golden Age of Hollywood changed all that, and the sign has remained on Mount Lee in Griffith Park ever since, and dropping “land” in 1949. This landmark was rebuilt in steel in 1978 and was last repainted in 2005. One of the easiest vantage points in the basin is the raised patio on the north-east corner of the Hollywood & Highland Center Mall, and there’s another atop the Home Depot parking garage on Sunset Boulevard.
You can go in for an up-close look on a hike at Griffith Park, or park up at Lake Hollywood Park and admire the sign across the canyon.
The Getty Center
The main branch of the J. Paul Getty Museum is in Brentwood, surveying Los Angeles from its hilltop roost.
The museum’s founder was petro-industrialist Jean Paul Getty, who left another $661m to the institution when he passed away in 1976. This went towards a spectacular and labyrinthine new complex, the Getty Center, which opened in 1997 after almost two decades of planning and construction.
Linked to its lower car park by a hovertrain, the Getty Center is a multifaceted attraction.
You’ll fall in love with architecture by Pritzker Prize-winner Richard Meier, the ever-changing Central Garden, the Cactus Garden, the outdoor sculpture and the knockout views, not to mention the astonishing art collection within (Medieval times to the present). Allow as long as possible to bask in the illuminated manuscripts, Italian, Flemish and Dutch painting from the 17th to the 19th century, the huge assortment of Impressionist painting and exquisite decorative arts.
Griffith Observatory
In a second “Christmas present” in 1912 Griffith J. Griffith put up the funds for the park’s Greek Theatre and the Griffith Observatory, which wouldn’t be completed until 1935. Of all the many enduring landmarks in Los Angeles, this three-domed Art Deco monument holds a certain mystique.
The Griffith Observatory is posted on the south face of Mount Hollywood, the highest peak in the park, and the sight of the city rippling in the sun or twinkling at night from Observatory’s terraces are the stuff of dreams.
We can’t begin to list the movies and TV shows that have made the most of this location, but James Dean’s Rebel Without a Cause(1955) is the one that put the observatory’s in the world’s gaze.
The 25-metre, copper clad central dome houses the Samuel Oschin Planetarium, which screens Centered in the Universe, a hi-res trip through time, via discoveries by Ptolemy and Galileo, and space, through the Milky Way, and landing back on the Griffith Observatory’s front lawn.
You can also peer through telescopes and explore more than 60 space-oriented exhibits.
