Thanks to Hollywood, most people on the planet have at least heard of L.A. Also known as The City of Angels, Tinseltown or, topically, thanks to the new film, “La-La Land”, it’s the home of the world’s movie and entertainment industry, the palaces of Beverly Hills, Sunset Strip, the original Disneyland, the Dodgers and the Lakers and a beach culture that inspired California’s modern surfing boom in the 1950s. However, as a first-time visitor, you will still have plenty of surprises in store.
The size of LA is hard to take in until you actually get there. Although it’s only America’s second biggest city in terms of population, LA is knitted together with an intricate network of freeways. In total, it covers an astonishing thousand square miles, made up of widely varying architecture, social strata and cultures. Rather than building upwards like New York, LA has evolved via the “doughnut effect” as a massive (mostly low height) sprawl, with a few skyscrapers in the central business district. Downtown LA actually has an historic Mexican heart which is sixteen traffic-clogged miles from the hip ocean enclaves of Santa Monica and Venice Beach. Thanks to high crime and gangster rap, South Central LA and Compton have become bywords for violence and gangs such as the Crips and the Bloods. West from downtown, Hollywood has streets imbued with movie myths and legends – and adjoining West LA is home to the city’s newest money, shown off in Beverly Hills and along the Sunset Strip.
To the south-east lies suburban Orange County. There’s not much of interest here, apart from Disneyland, a few museums and a handful of libertine beach towns. On the far side of the northern hills lie the San Gabriel and San Fernando valleys, or simply “the Valley”, where tract homes and strip malls are enlivened by occasional sights of interest, many of them in genteel Pasadena.
The Hollywood Hills
The canyons and slopes of the Hollywood Hills run from West Hollywood to the canyons above Beverly Hills, including the famous Laurel Canyon, home to many a rock star. They are best seen from the winding concourse of famous Mulholland Drive, following the crest of the mountains. With its striking panorama after dark of the illuminated city-grid stretching nearly to the horizon, the road is a prime axis for the LA good life, with mansions so commonplace that only the half-dozen fully blown castles really stand out. Throughout Hollywood you can see the “Hollywood” Sign, erected as a property advertisement in 1923 and illuminated with four thousand light bulbs. Nowadays, this blot on the landscape has infrared cameras and radar-activated zoom lenses to catch graffiti writers. The best views can be had from the Griffith Observatory.
Venice
Venice is the eccentric, loopy version of Los Angeles, home to outlandish skaters, brazen bodybuilders, panhandlers, streetballers, buskers and street-side comedians. It lies immediately south of Santa Monica and remains largely unchanged since the 1950s and 1960s, when the Beats and then bands like the Doors bummed around the beach. Although somewhat gentrified these days, Venice retains an edgy feel, with a gang culture that has never really been eradicated.
Originally, Venice was modelled on its Italian namesake, laid out in the marshlands of Ballona Creek in 1905 by developer Abbot Kinney. Unfortunately, his twenty-mile network of canals and waterfront homes never really caught on, although a later remodelling into a low-grade version of Coney Island postponed its demise for a few decades. Windward Avenue is Venice’s main route, running from the beach into the now paved-over Grand Circle of the canal system and the original Romanesque arcade, around the intersection with Pacific Avenue. This area is alive with health-food shops, trinket stores and rollerblade rental stands.
Nowhere does LA parade itself quite so brazenly as along the wide pathway of Venice Boardwalk. It’s packed year-round at weekends and every day in summer with musicians, street performers, street vendors and many others but, after dark, when shades of the creepy old Venice appear, it’s strictly to be avoided. Further south is Muscle Beach, a legendary outdoor weightlifting centre frequented by muscular men and women and budding basketballers.
Griffith Park and Observatory
The greenery and mountain slopes that make up Griffith Park, northeast of Hollywood, offer lush gardens, splendid views and many miles of fine trails – though hillside wildfires regularly menace the park in summer. Otherwise, it’s a great place for a long stroll, hike or bike ride. The one major sight here, the Los Angeles Zoo & Botanical Gardens, pales in comparison to its San Diego counterpart.
The landmark Art Deco Griffith Observatory has a twelve-inch Zeiss refracting telescope, solar telescopes for viewing sunspots and solar storms, and modern exhibits covering the history of astronomy and human observation. The observatory has been used as a backdrop in innumerable Hollywood films, most famously Rebel Without a Cause, and the site offers great views over the LA basin and out to sea (notwithstanding the smog).
Eating
Given its glamorous associations, it’s no surprise that LA is one of America’s culinary hotspots when it comes to gourmet dining. On a street level, Mexican food is the closest thing to an indigenous LA cuisine with a tacquería on every other block. Purveyors of East Asian food and gourmet street carts have also boomed in recent years. Many of the city’s higher-end restaurants serve French-styled food with fresh local ingredients.
Accommodation
LA is so big that where you stay is crucial to your travel plans. The historic heart of the downtown city has both the chic hotels and the basic, but getting to the coast from here can be a hassle; Hollywood, West LA and West Hollywood are safe, relatively central options for seeing the whole city. Santa Monica, Venice and Malibu are predominantly mid-to-upper-range, perfect for soaking up the beach culture but a long way from the cultural attractions inland. It’s only worth staying in Orange County if you’re aiming for Disneyland or are travelling along the coast.
Title Image Credit: Jeff Turner (Image Cropped)