Things to Do in Los Angeles

Universal CityWalk is a 3-block-long stretch is filled with restaurants, shops, bars, and entertainment venues, all glittering and glossy. It is an unabashedly commercial fantasy promenade. It's also the place to go before or after your visit to nearby Universal Studios.

Start with the flashy name-brand stores, such as Billabong, Fossil, Abercrombie & Fitch, or take in a film at the six-story 3-D IMAX theater or the the 18-screen CityWalk Cinemas. There’s even NASCAR virtual racing and an indoor sky-diving wind tunnel. Restaurants include the Hard Rock Café, Daily Grill, and Saddle Ranch. And if you’re staying late, check out the nightclubs including Howl at the Moon, the dueling piano bar or Rumba Room Latin dance club. And if you’d just rather relax, stop in at the Zen Zone to indulge in a 20-minute "aqua massage,” where you lay down fully clothed atop a rubber sheet and feel strong rotating jets of water massage your backside from neck to toe.

Renamed in 2012 when sponsor Eastman Kodak filed for bankruptcy, this 180,000-square-foot, 3,400-seat theater now showcases Dolby Laboratories' state-of-the-art sound technologies. Situated in the popular Hollywood & Highland mall complex, the elegant Dolby Theatre hosts both the Academy Awards and Cirque du Soleil's Iris, a resident stage show which celebrates the history of film.

Periodically, the Dolby also plays host to charity benefits, movie premieres, special events and other televised award shows. The theater's soaring stage, one of the largest in the United States, has featured the national premiere of Pixar's Brave, the American Idol finals, the Daytime Emmys, the American Ballet Theatre and even President Barack Obama, while out on the campaign trail.

A historic Los Angeles landmark, the Los Angeles Farmers Market is a bustling market of food stalls, eateries, prepared food vendors, produce markets, and much more. You can easily spend a morning or afternoon here browsing the more than 100 restaurants, grocers and tourist shops.

Opened in 1934, the Farmers Market is a popular destination for foodies in search of the market’s wide assortment of flavors and cuisines. The market started when a dozen nearby farmers would park their trucks on a field to sell their fresh produce to local residents. It quickly grew in popularity, especially when CBS Television City opened next door and began providing those working or visiting that television studio a convenient place to shop or eat.

Los Angeles is full of shopping and entertainment diversions, but one of the most famous areas is Melrose Avenue. Even before the popular 1990s show Melrose Place was set in the area, at least part of the avenue was already a shopping and hangout destination for the burgeoning new wave crowd. The neighborhood remains an excellent spot for shopping, with more than 300 boutiques lining the street, as well as trendy restaurants and bars.

Unlike in the TV show, the actual Melrose Place doesn't have apartment buildings – it has yet more shops. In addition to the places to shop and eat, Melrose Avenue is also home to some of LA's best-known street art. Artists whose work you can see along the corridor include Annie Preece, Sebastien Walker, Ivan Preciado, and Jules Muck.

Centered on Pershing Square, this condensed collection of city blocks once comprised the most glamorous commercial area in Los Angeles; after a decade’s worth of rejuvenation efforts, it has once again become a desirable destination. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it encompasses the Broadway Theater District, the Old Spring Street Financial District and Bunker Hill.

Crowned by the gilded Art Deco splendor of the Biltmore Hotel, buildings like the Los Angeles Central Library (a columnar fusion of Art Deco and ancient Egypt), Grand Central Market (the oldest food market in the city); and the Bradbury Building (built in 1893 and famed for its Victorian interior) make this one of the most architecturally significant swaths of L.A.

Located in the Little Tokyo area of Los Angeles, the Japanese American National Museum tells the story of Japanese Americans. Opened in 1992, it is the first museum in the United States dedicated to the topic.

The Japanese American National Museum hosts many changing exhibits, but Common Ground: The Heart of Community is its ongoing central exhibition. Using an assortment of objects, documents and photographs, the exhibition covers 130 years of Japanese American history. It begins with the early days of the Issei pioneers, and continues through the World War II incarceration to present day. The museum’s calendar of events is loaded with all sorts of events and programs, so be sure to check the schedule when you visit.

In 1905, tobacco millionaire and real estate developer Abbot Kinney sought to simulate the romantic feel of Venice, Italy in America by creating the beach resort town of Venice just south-west of Santa Monica. Kinney wrangled the area's marshland into a series of canals that, initially, were traversed by ornate gondolas piloted by gondoliers in traditional Italian garb.

The first incarnation of Venice also had an elaborate amusement pier, a miniature railroad, and a block-long street of faux-Venetian buildings, all sloping towards a wide swath of Pacific Ocean shoreline. Its commercial success inspired competition from neighboring piers in Santa Monica, but Kinney's Venice held onto its popularity even after 1920 when its founder died and his original pier burned down.

In its billion-dollar in-the-clouds perch high above the city, the Getty Center presents triple delights: a stellar art collection (Renaissance to David Hockney); Richard Meier's cutting-edge architecture; and the visual splendor of seasonally changing gardens. On clear days, you can add breathtaking views of the city and ocean to the list.

Even getting up to the museum aboard the computer-operated tram is fun. From the sprawling arrival plaza, a natural flow of walkways, stairs, fountains, and courtyards encourages a leisurely wander between galleries, gardens, and outdoor cafes. Must-sees include Van Gogh's Irises, Monet's Wheatstacks, and Rembrandt's The Abduction of Europa.

When not wandering the galleries, take time to visit the lovely Cactus Garden for those amazing Los Angeles city views. Sunsets create a remarkable alchemy of light and shadow and are especially magical in winter, when the orange orb drops straight into the Pacific.

The Golden-Age glamor image of Hollywood may not be as evident as it once was, however, its very name is synonymous with the entire movie industry. For this is the shrine to the movie industry: stars in the sidewalks, the sign, glorious old theaters, the places where the movie industry grew up.

Most of the sights line up neatly along a 1-mile (1.6 km) stretch of Hollywood Boulevard between La Brea Avenue and Vine Street. Find your favorite stars along Hollywood Walk of Fame, the celestial sidewalk gallery on Hollywood Boulevard.

At the grand entryway to Grauman's Chinese Theater, you can actually match your handprints and footprints of stars who've have had theirs embedded in cement. Other famous theaters include the Eyptian and El Capitan, all flamboyant icons from Hollywood's glitzy past.

One of L.A.'s most visited tourist attractions, this 387,000 square-foot shopping mall and entertainment center makes an enormous, colorful splash on the sometimes scruffy Hollywood Walk of Fame. The complex includes the Dolby Theatre (formerly known as the Kodak Theatre) which hosts both the Oscars and Cirque du Soleil's Iris, a resident stage show which celebrates the history of film.

The core of Hollywood & Highland is arranged around a three-story courtyard, where soaring, elephant-topped columns evoke the Babylon set of D.W. Griffith's 1916 epic, Intolerance. Fanning out from here, you'll find over a dozen restaurants ranging from food-court outposts to destination dining, two night clubs, a bowling alley and 75+ retail shops, including large national chains like Gap, Build-A-Bear and Sephora. Adjacent to the main mall is the famous Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, an ornate movie palace festooned with Far East flourishes and featuring a cement-paved forecourt.

Unlike her lifelike figures, Madame Tussaud was a real human being, a wax sculptor in 1770s Paris who became an art tutor at the Palace of Versailles. During the French Revolution, she was forced to prove her allegiance to King Louis IVX by making death masks of executed aristocrats; lauded for her work, she eventually left for Britain with many of her works in tow. In the early 19th century, a showcase for her wax likenesses of famous -- and infamous -- contemporary figures was built in London; the Madame Tussauds brand has since become a popular global franchise, spreading across Europe, Asia, Australia and several American cities.

One of the most-visited Madame Tussauds sits on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue. The wax figures featured here depict famous Hollywood icons, contemporary movie stars and TV actors, auteur film directors (such as Alfred Hitchcock) and movie-franchise characters (like E.T. and the X Men).

As the main hall of the Los Angeles Music Center, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion is home to some of the best musical performances in the LA area. It was built utilizing a “total design” aesthetic, meaning that every detail from the carpeting to the engineering was coordinated for uniformity of design. Historically its halls and stage have been home to everything from the LA Philharmonic to the Academy Awards, though these days it’s the site of the LA Opera and Glorya Kaufman dance performances (which often brings in traveling dance troupes.)

Excellent acoustics create resonating sounds across its four-tiers of seating, while crystal chandeliers and wide stairways add to the ambiance of elegance. The Los Angeles Music Center that it is part of it is one of the three largest centers for performing arts in the United States, and some of classical music’s greatest performers have graced its stage.