Los Angeles came into its own as an economic and cultural leader for the United States during the 1950s and ever since the city has fascinated people here and around the world. This region of southern California offers an incredible array of attractions, landmarks and museums that will provide unique and inspiring experiences for visitors.

A Frontier Town Becomes an Entertainment Capital and Economic Powerhouse

Like other places in California, the Los Angeles area was occupied by small groups of Native Americans until the late 1700s when the Spanish established two Franciscan missions and a military fort in the region. The first settlement, located near a small river called the El pueblo de la Reina de loss Angeles, followed in 1781. However, neither the Spanish nor the subsequent Mexican government effectively governed the distant town, so after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the Mexican War the entire province of California became a state of the United States in 1850. With only a few thousand residents, the frontier town had few prospects and ranchers, bandits and Mexicans fought for control of local affairs and public safety. Few people would have predicted a bright future for the city. It lacked any of the basic infrastructure required for economic growth such as a water supply, a source of fuel, skilled labor, a railroad or port, or products needed by other American cities.

Remarkably the next hundred years would see all these problems solved by local business leaders and determined politicians. By the end of World War II, the city’s population grew to almost two million people. Los Angeles developed a port to serve destinations all around the Pacific, created a local oil industry and extensive rail connections, built the Los Angeles Aqueduct and connected it to inland mountains and rivers, and tapped into the state’s huge agricultural base. Complimenting these efforts was an unprecedented land boom which attracted affluent visitors and people seeking a better life to settle in the city. Two other factors which turned Los Angeles into an economic powerhouse were the growth of the local motion picture industry and the creation of modern manufacturing plants producing aircraft and high technology products.

Modern Los Angeles has evolved into a central city with 3.8 million people and a metropolitan statistical area including Los Angeles County, Long Beach, and Anaheim where thirteen million people live. This makes it the second largest metropolitan area in the country. In a world obsessed with wealth and social position, Los Angeles sometimes embodies the glitz and glamour aspects of American culture. However, visitors willing to look behind the surface will find that the people and attractions of this city are more interesting and diverse. The city has a strong commitment to nature and to the many different cultures of its residents. Almost half of LA’s residents have a Hispanic or Latino heritage, and large segments of the population are white, Asian American, or black.

MAJOR ATTRACTIONS AND THINGS TO DO:

There are dozens of attractions and destinations worth exploring in Los Angeles. Some of the most popular and interesting things to do there are the following:

Rodeo Drive- Shopping trends come and go but for more than fifty years Rodeo Drive has been known as the “shopping street of the rich and famous” featuring luxury brands and expensive accessories. The street and its famous palm trees begin at the intersection of Wilshire Boulevard and Rodeo Drive where the Beverly Hills Wilshire Hotel is located and runs north for three blocks towards the hills for about a half mile. Along the way, there are more than one hundred boutiques and single brand stores by leading international fashion companies like Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Gucci, Versace, Hugo Boss, and Ralph Lauren, along with specialty goods companies like Prada, Jimmy Choo, and Tiffany. Not surprisingly, there are also plastic surgeons, day spas, chocolatiers, caviar suppliers, and other luxury items for sale on Rodeo Drive and the adjoining streets. Most stores feature a greeter designed to assist each customer with their shopping and a security guard. While Rodeo Drive is reportedly the fourth most visited attraction in the city, window shoppers outnumber buyers at this expensive destination.

La Brea Tar Pits Museum- A few miles away from Rodeo Drive on Wilshire Boulevard is one of Los Angeles most unusual attractions, the La Brea Tar Pits Museum. Originally uncovered by oil prospectors late in the 19th century, the Tar Pits turned out to be a time capsule into the Ice Age because of the amazing fossils and bones uncovered there of extinct creatures from the Pleistocene Era when the Earth experienced repeated periods of glaciations in the northern hemisphere. Touring the modern museum building is a good place to start. The museum has an interesting 25-minute 3D film called “Titans of the Ice Age” which shows how creatures such as wooly mammoths, saber tooth tigers, giant sloths and dire wolves struggled with early humans in a world covered by thick ice to survive the cold and sometimes dangerous environment in which they lived. After the movie, the museum exhibits restored skeletons of these beasts and other creatures exhumed from the Tar Pits as well as recreations of what they looked like intact. A special laboratory with glass walls allows visitors to watch docents and trained volunteers work on bones taken from the Tar Pits. Outside of the museum, the grounds and walkways of Hancock Park allow visitors to see and smell a large Lake Pit of thick tar that once swallowed carnivorous creatures large and small including dozens of woolly mammoths. Other parts of the park feature active dig sites and pits that have been explored which are full of crates of bones yet to be cleaned of tar.

Venice Beach- Several miles north from the Los Angeles International Airport and west of Culver City is the unique beach and residential community of Venice Beach founded by a developer named Albert Kinney in 1905. He envisioned the community as a combination of Venice, Italy and Coney Island, New York. It included a canal system with boats and gondolas, a fishing and amusement pier, and a small railroad. Venice initially had a reputation for cultural activities and attracted some of Los Angeles's rich and famous. By the late 1950s, however, Venice had become a run-down area inhabited mostly by artists, poets, and surfers taking advantage of the waves generated around the pier and breakwater. That decline has been reversed in recent years as the side streets and shops of the area have been improved and some canals that were not turned into paved roads have been reclaimed for chic housing.

Venice Beach can still be a little rough around the edges but the daytime experience of walking along the concrete pedestrian boardwalk which runs for about 1.5 miles along the edge of the beach is a special one. There are all kinds of people recreating there by walking, jogging, or whizzing by on skateboards and bikes. Rows of boutique shops, restaurants and residences run along the boardwalk but the beach and its accoutrements are principally designed for active enjoyment by people. The activity options available along the beach included a $2 million skate park and a recreation center where serious basketball, tennis, volleyball, and handball competitions take place. You can also observe street performers doing everything from gymnastic feats to musical performances. One of the more interesting areas where people like to gawk is the famous Muscle Beach area where bronzed weightlifters display their skills in the hot sun.

Amusement Parks- Except for Orlando, Florida, the Los Angeles area is the leading place in the world for visiting theme parks. The original Disneyland known as Magic Kingdom was opened in 1955 by Walt Disney in Anaheim. It features a wide variety of classic attractions based on Disney characters from the company’s movies and television shows. These range from the original Mickey Mouse to Buzz Lightyear, from Snow White to Peter Pan, and from Jack Sparrow to the dancing dolls of It’s a Small World. Families enjoy the parades, fireworks, souvenirs, and themed eateries there as well. Disneyland added a second amusement park in 2001 called California Adventure that offers newer attractions like the popular Soaring’ ride, the Tower of Terror, and Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. The two Disneylands attract twenty-seven million visitors each year.

Universal Studios Hollywood also built a strong following by featuring rides based on blockbuster movies and more targeted at teenagers and adults such as Transformers: The Ride 3D, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, the Mummy, Fast and Furious, and Jurassic World. Universal keeps the focus on movie making through its Hollywood Tour which is combination of a behind the scenes look at the world of film and a theme park ride. It draws about nine million visitors each year to the park. Another strong competitor located close to Disneyland is the Knotts Berry Farm amusement park. Originally started as Mrs. Knotts Chicken Dinner Restaurant in 1934, Knotts Berry Farm then added a western themed ghost town later along with a train ride and music shows. Ninety years later, this 160-acre facility has a supplemental water park and very intense roller coaster and tower rides. The shops, eateries, and arcade games there are presented in four themed areas called Ghost Town, Fiesta Village, The Boardwalk and Camp Snoopy. Knotts Berry Farm draws over four million visitors each year.

Getty Museum and Villa- The philanthropic legacy of billionaire J. Paul Getty lives on in several institutions in Los Angles including the Getty Center, an art museum featuring important paintings, manuscripts, photographs and other important pieces of pre-20th century art from all over the world, and the Getty Foundation which provides grants to institutions and individuals to promote the understanding and conservation of visual arts.

The most spectacular product of his philanthropy was the recreation of a grand Roman villa known as the Villa die Papiri which was buried by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius on the Bay of Naples in 79 AD. Having seen a portion of the ruins in Italy as a young man, Getty decided to build a replica on his property overlooking the Pacific Ocean and fill it with Roman furnishings and art, as well as other relics of antiquity. For people fascinated with the history and culture of Rome, it is a must-see destination. For other visitors, it is an opportunity to learn more about the Roman world and civilizations that existed in Ancient Egypt, Greece, Persia and other lands. The two-story villa is full of display rooms with sculptures of emperors and unknown Romans, coins, Greek pottery, Egyptian mummies, elaborate mosaic tiles, and fountains. Some of the most impressive parts of the villa are the large formal garden and pool designed as a place for the villas’ residents and guests to relax and contemplate, a full-sized theater built into the hillside, the open atrium surrounded by the villas’ public quarters, and a small temple dedicated to Hercules. Even the driveway of the villa has been built in the same manner as the many Roman roads uncovered throughout Europe. A pleasant café and gift shop allow visitors to relax and take in the scenery as the Romans once did in the shadow Vesuvius.

Hollywood Walk of Fame and Chinese Theater- Ever since movies began to capture the attention of the American public, tourists have come to Hollywood to take bus tours around the city to see the homes of the stars and visit the places where they are memorialized. That usually involves a photo stop at the Gruman’s Chinese Theater where some movie premieres take place and first run pictures can still be seen, or a walk around the Hollywood Walk of Fame where individual stars of television, movies, music, and theater are recognized with a gold star embedded into the black sidewalk. Depending on your tastes, you can see the places where Elvis and Marilyn Monroe were recognized, where Willam Shatner and John Travolta received their stars, or where Lady Gaga and Glen Campbell were honored. Despite the crowded sidewalks and souvenir shops, it is a fun way to spend an hour when seeing the sites in Los Angeles.

Dodger Stadium- With a large metropolitan population, the Los Angeles area is the home of two baseball teams, two NFL teams, two NBA teams, two NHL hockey teams, two MLS professional soccer teams, and one WNBA team. The history and championships won by the Los Angeles Dodgers make them the most popular teams in the region along with the NBA Lakers. In addition, the Dodgers have been the top drawing team in baseball for over a decade. People who enjoy baseball will like attending a game at Doger Stadium. The perception that LA fans arrive late and are indifferent to the game is incorrect. While Dodger Stadium is retro in design and is not the most modern facility, it is a great place to see a game. The crowd is full of young people and games are widely attended by Asian and Hispanic fans. People have a real passion for the team. Expect traffic though and plan accordingly as most people drive to the stadium located in the large Elysian Park section of the city.

Griffith Observatory- The Grifith Observatory, often featured in movies, has been one of the top attractions in the city since it was completed in 1935 by Griffith J. Griffith. His goal was to create a public observatory and educational center for astronomy in Griffith Park. One reason for its popularity is that the Observatory site provides spectacular views of more than just the heavens. From the grounds on the south slope of Mount Hollywood, you can look up at the nearby Hollywood sign or look out across a large portion of the city skyline to the Pacific Ocean.

Inside the iconic domed building are two telescopes which allow people to look at the sky when the weather is clear, and the line is not too long. Most people enjoy the 290 seat Oskin Planetarium where a projector displays our solar system, the stars, constellations, and galaxies of the universe. A 35-minute show features a storyteller who explains some of the mysteries and new discoveries about the universe that have confounded humans and how scientific principles have increased our understanding of them. Other presentations offered at the Observatory are a film called “The Once and Future Griffith Observatory” and a monthly presentation by the curators of current topics in astronomy, space science and exploration. The ground floor of the Observatory includes a large exhibit called the Gunther Depths of Space which has models of the planets in our solar system and displays information about the characteristics of each planet and their different environments. Other exhibits around the building look at critical issues such as comets and the important interrelationship of the sun, the earth, and the moon. When you are done with learning about these phenomena, there are viewing platforms on the roof to look out on the city and a café to relax and contemplate the universe.