Los Angeles guides
Los Angeles spreads beaches, film history and museums across a huge basin. LAX sits close to the coast, so Manhattan Beach, Venice and Santa Monica are the easiest escapes, while downtown and Hollywood suit a hotel stay.
Layover guides for Los Angeles
Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) layovers
8 hoursHow to Spend an 8 Hour Layover in Los Angeles: LAX to the Venice Canals
Eight hours gives you a proper taste of Venice. Cross the footbridges over its quiet canals, eat wood fired pizza on Abbot Kinney, then walk the boardwalk to the skatepark and the outdoor weight pen.
10 hoursHow to Spend a 10 Hour Layover in Los Angeles: LAX to Santa Monica Pier
Ten hours makes Santa Monica comfortable by bus. Pick up a famous Italian sub, picnic on the bluff above the ocean, then walk the 1909 pier and finish at the beach gym where acrobats have trained since the 1930s.
12 hoursHow to Spend a 12 Hour Layover in Los Angeles: LAX to LACMA and Museum Row
Twelve hours is enough for Museum Row on Wilshire Boulevard. See the new LACMA galleries and the forest of streetlamps outside, then movie history at the Academy Museum and hot rods at the Petersen. End with dinner at the 1934 Farmers Market.
Short trip guides for Los Angeles
Hollywood
3 hoursHow to Spend 3 Hours in Los Angeles: Hollywood Boulevard by Night
Three hours on an evening is ideal for classic Hollywood. Ride the subway to the Walk of Fame, find celebrity handprints in the cement outside the Chinese Theatre and take a red leather booth at Hollywood's oldest restaurant.
4 hoursHow to Spend 4 Hours in Los Angeles: Frank Lloyd Wright and Los Feliz
Four hours gives you a quieter side of Hollywood. Climb the olive grove to Frank Lloyd Wright's first Los Angeles house, browse an independent bookstore with a tree inside and settle into a neighborhood trattoria.
6 hoursHow to Spend 6 Hours in Los Angeles: Griffith Observatory and Fern Dell
Six hours is the right amount for Griffith Park. Ride a small city bus up to the observatory, look out over the basin and the Hollywood Sign, then hike down through chaparral to the ferns and stream of Fern Dell.
8 hoursHow to Spend 8 Hours in Los Angeles: Paramount Studio Tour and Hollywood
Eight hours makes room for a working film studio. Fuel up on chicken and waffles, tour Paramount's backlot, visit the graves of silent film stars next door, then see the round Capitol Records tower and Amoeba's vinyl aisles.
Downtown
3 hoursHow to Spend 3 Hours in Los Angeles: Historic Core and Angels Flight
Three hours is plenty for the historic core of downtown. Browse a bookshop inside an old bank, step into the atrium from Blade Runner, eat your way through a 1917 food hall and ride a tiny funicular up Bunker Hill.
4 hoursHow to Spend 4 Hours in Los Angeles: Union Station and Olvera Street
Four hours lets you explore where Los Angeles began. Take the subway to Union Station's grand hall, shop the stalls of Olvera Street, tour the oldest house in town and finish with a dipped beef sandwich.
6 hoursHow to Spend 6 Hours in Los Angeles: Disney Concert Hall to City Hall
Six hours covers a civic walk from Bunker Hill down to Little Tokyo. Tour Gehry's shining concert hall, step into an alabaster lit cathedral, cross Grand Park, ride to the top of City Hall and end with a bowl of ramen.
8 hoursHow to Spend 8 Hours in Los Angeles: The Broad and the Arts District
Eight hours lets you move from Bunker Hill's art museum east through Little Tokyo to the warehouse streets of the Arts District. Finish with the arches of the new Sixth Street Viaduct glowing over the river.
Fitness guides for Los Angeles
About Los Angeles
Los Angeles is a collection of very different places joined by freeways, and the trick on a short visit is to pick one area and stay in it. LAX sits a few miles from the ocean, which puts the South Bay beaches, the Venice canals and the Santa Monica Pier within easy reach of a layover. Downtown holds the old Broadway theaters, Union Station and the Gehry concert hall, and the B Line subway runs from there to Hollywood. Traffic is the main hazard: a drive that takes twenty minutes at dawn can take an hour by late afternoon, so plan around the rush.