Los Angeles

Los Angeles Is the City Where the Freeway Is Both the Problem and the Experience

A car is not just convenient in Los Angeles; it is how the city was built. The freeway system connects a loose confederation of distinct neighbourhoods spread across roughly 500 square miles, and the experience of driving through them – through East LA’s taqueria corridors, past the Griffith Observatory on the Hollywood Hills above, down the Pacific Coast Highway toward Malibu – is genuinely different from what you get from any other mode of transport. This is a city designed for the car and worth experiencing on those terms, at least once.

The traffic is also real. Avoid 7 to 10am and 4 to 7pm if you have any choice. The freeways during those windows are not moving.

The Essential Sights

Griffith Observatory on the southern slope of Mount Hollywood is free to enter and gives one of the better views of Los Angeles, with the city spreading south to the coast, the Santa Monica mountains to the west, and the Hollywood Sign to the east. The Foucault Pendulum in the main rotunda demonstrates the Earth’s rotation. The rooftop telescope is open evenings for free public viewing when skies are clear.

The Getty Center in the hills above West Los Angeles (free admission, pay for parking or take the free shuttle from the bottom of the hill) has a world-class collection of European painting and sculpture, a garden worth an hour of its own, and views over the city and toward the Pacific.

Venice Beach boardwalk and the Santa Monica Pier are standard tourist circuits that are also genuinely worth doing: the street performers and muscle beach culture at Venice have been going since the 1970s, and the Santa Monica Pier’s historic carousel and Ferris wheel have been operating since 1916.

Food

LA’s taco scene is the argument for the city over any other American food claim. Street tacos – carne asada, al pastor, lengua – from trucks and small shops in East LA, Boyle Heights, and throughout the city are cheap, excellent, and specific to this place. Birria and ramen are both genuinely strong here. The Korean food in Koreatown (around Wilshire and Western) is among the best Korean food in North America outside Korea.

Neighbourhood by Neighbourhood

Silver Lake and Los Feliz are the most walkable neighbourhoods with independent shops and restaurants. Downtown LA has the best architecture (Art Deco Bradbury Building, Walt Disney Concert Hall by Frank Gehry) and the Grand Central Market for lunch. Malibu, an hour north by PCH, has beaches and the Getty Villa (antiquities in a reconstructed Roman villa, free admission but advance booking required).