Insight Guides - Insight Guides Explore Los Angeles (Travel Guide eBook)

How To Use This E-Book

This Explore Guide has been produced by the editors of Insight Guides, whose books have set the standard for visual travel guides since 1970. With top-quality photography and authoritative recommendations, these guidebooks bring you the very best routes and itineraries in the worlds most exciting destinations.

Best Routes

The routes in this book provide something to suit all budgets, tastes and trip lengths. As well as covering the destinations many classic attractions, the itineraries track lesser-known sights, and there are also excursions for those who want to extend their visit outside the city. The routes embrace a range of interests, so whether you are an art fan, a gourmet, a history buff or have kids to entertain, you will find an option to suit.

We recommend reading the whole of a route before setting out. This should help you to familiarise yourself with it and enable you to plan where to stop for refreshments options are shown in the Food and Drink box at the end of each tour.

Introduction

The routes are set in context by this introductory section, giving an overview of the destination to set the scene, plus background information on food and drink, shopping and more, while a succinct history timeline highlights the key events over the centuries.

Directory

Also supporting the routes is a Directory chapter, with a clearly organised AZ of practical information, our pick of where to stay while you are there and select restaurant listings; these eateries complement the more low-key cafs and restaurants that feature within the routes and are intended to offer a wider choice for evening dining. Also included here are some nightlife listings, and our recommendations for books and films about the destination.

Getting around the e-book

In the Table of Contents and throughout this e-book you will see hyperlinked references. Just tap a hyperlink once to skip to the section you would like to read. Practical information and listings are also hyperlinked, so as long as you have an external connection to the internet, you can tap a link to go directly to the website for more information.

Maps

All key attractions and sights mentioned in the text are numbered and cross-referenced to high-quality maps. Wherever you see the reference [map] just tap this to go straight to the related map. You can also double-tap any map for a zoom view.

Images

Youll find hundreds of beautiful high-resolution images that capture the essence of the destination. Simply double-tap on an image to see it full-screen.

2018 Apa Digital (CH) AG and Apa Publications (UK) Ltd

Table of Contents

Recommended Routes For...

ART LOVERS

Artistic highlights include the Getty Center ().

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CHILDREN

Step into storybook worlds at Disneyland ().

California Travel and Tourism Commission

FOODIES

Munch your way around Asia in Chinatown ().

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HISTORY BUFFS

Los Angeles was established by Spanish and Mexican colonists at El Pueblo ().

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NATURE LOVERS

Go whale-watching off Long Beach ().

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NIGHT OWLS

Grab a drink at historic Musso & Frank Grill and trawl Hollywood Boulevard at night ().

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SHOPPING

Peruse the posh boutiques of Rodeo Drive () are also happy hunting grounds for shopaholics.

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TOP ARCHITECTURE

Downtown Los Angeles () are crammed with stately, historic buildings.

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Explore Los Angeles

The City of Angels, Tinseltown, or just La-La Land, Los Angeles is known the world over for year-round sunshine and palm trees, the movies of Hollywood, the glamor of Beverly Hills, and golden surf beaches.

Surfin USA

Alamy

Los Angeles is a relatively young city, and despite its Hispanic roots, is inexorably linked to modern pop culture and a health-conscious, laid-back SoCal lifestyle. The city inspired Californias modern surfing boom in the 1950s, the music of the Beach Boys and the Doors in the 1960s, the skateboarders of 1970s Dogtown, and the West Coast hip-hop scene in the late 1980s. Today, its home to world-class art museums, Universal Studios, Disneyland, the Sunset Strip, and major sports franchises the Lakers and the Dodgers.

Geography and layout

Los Angeles is truly vast, a fact hard to absorb until you actually get here. LA is only Americas second biggest city in terms of population, but its stitched together by an intricate network of freeways crossing 1,000 sq miles (2,590 sq km). The core of the city lies in a flat, arid basin between the Pacific Ocean and the Santa Monica and San Gabriel mountains, but its some 15 miles (24km) between Downtown and the coast. Major suburban communities lie across the mountains in the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys, while Malibu lies farther west along the coast. Long Beach, Pasadena, Burbank, and Anaheim are all independently administered cities, but fall squarely within LAs metropolitan sprawl.

The tours in this book begin with the key areas of interest Downtown, Hollywood, and so on then proceed geographically across the city. Most can be completed on foot, or with minimal use of public transportation, though some (Mulholland Drive, for example) require a car.

Contrary to popular belief, LA does have efficient public transportation, with Metro lines and buses now providing the best method of zipping around the city without your own wheels.

Traditionally, the most popular way to get around LA has been to drive; with nearly two vehicles per household, LA is one of the worlds highest per-capita car populations. However, traffic is bumper-to-bumper much of the day (its often described as stop-and-start by local media). Taxis are widely available but fairly expensive for long distances, and youll often have to call them by phone (or use Uber).