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    Insight Guides Explore Los Angeles (Travel Guide eBook)
    Insight Guides Explore Los Angeles (Travel Guide eBook)
    Insight Guides Explore Los Angeles (Travel Guide eBook)
    Ebook459 pages2 hours

    Insight Guides Explore Los Angeles (Travel Guide eBook)

    By Insight Guides

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    About this ebook

    Insight Explore Guides: books to inspire your on-foot exploration of top international destinations.



    Experience the best of Los Angeles with this indispensably practical Insight Explore Guide. From making sure you don't miss out on must-see attractions like Disneyland and Hollywood, to discovering hidden gems, the easy-to-follow, ready-made walking routes will help you plan your trip, save you time, and enhance your exploration of this thrilling city.



    - Practical and packed with inspirational insider information, this will make the ideal on-the-move companion to your trip to Los Angeles

    - Enjoy over 15 irresistible Best Routes to walk, from Downtown LA, Little Tokyo and the Arts District to Beverley Hills and Santa Monica

    - Features concise insider information about landscape, history, food and drink, and entertainment options

    - Invaluable maps: each Best Route is accompanied by a detailed full-colour map

    - Discover your destination's must-see sights and hand-picked hidden gems

    - Directory section provides invaluable insight into top accommodation, restaurant and nightlife options by area, along with an overview of language, books and films

    - Inspirational colour photography throughout



    About Insight Guides: Insight Guides is a pioneer of full-colour guide books, with almost 50 years' experience of publishing high-quality, visual travel guides with user-friendly, modern design. We produce around 400 full-colour print guide books and maps as well as phrasebooks, picture-packed eBooks and apps to meet different travellers' needs. Insight Guides' unique combination of beautiful travel photography and focus on history and culture create a unique visual reference and planning tool to inspire your next adventure.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherInsight Guides
    Release dateNov 1, 2018
    ISBN9781789192896
    Insight Guides Explore Los Angeles (Travel Guide eBook)
    Author

    Insight Guides

    Pictorial travel guide to Arizona & the Grand Canyon with a free eBook provides all you need for every step of your journey. With in-depth features on culture and history, stunning colour photography and handy maps, it’s perfect for inspiration and finding out when to go to Arizona & the Grand Canyon and what to see in Arizona & the Grand Canyon. 

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      Book preview

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

      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 world’s 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 destination’s 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 A–Z of practical information, our pick of where to stay while you are there and select restaurant listings; these eateries complement the more low-key cafés 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

      You’ll 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

      Children

      Foodies

      History buffs

      Nature lovers

      Night owls

      Shopping

      Top architecture

      Explore Los Angeles

      Geography and layout

      History

      Climate

      Population

      Local customs

      Politics and economics

      Food and Drink

      Local cuisine

      South of the border (Mexican)

      Modern Californian

      Go east (Asian)

      Where to eat

      Chain restaurants

      Celebrity chefs

      Diners

      Food trucks

      Drinks

      Beer

      Wine and cocktails

      Coffee and tea

      Shopping

      Shopping areas

      Rodeo Drive (Beverly Hills)

      Melrose Avenue

      Beverly Grove and Fairfax District

      Santa Monica and Venice

      Los Feliz

      Silver Lake

      Fashion District (Downtown LA)

      Malls and shopping centers

      Outdoor markets

      Books

      Music stores

      Entertainment

      Nightlife

      Live Music

      Classical Music and Dance

      Theater

      Comedy

      Activities

      Spectacular sports

      Outdoo activities

      Water sports

      History: Key Dates

      Early history

      Colonial times

      American state

      20th century

      21st century

      Downtown Los Angeles

      El Pueblo de Los Angeles

      The Civic Center & Broadway

      Bunker Hill and the Financial District

      The Broad

      The Museum of Contemporary Art

      OUE Skyspace LA

      LA Live

      Hollywood

      Hollywood & Highland Center

      TCL Chinese Theatre

      Madame Tussauds Hollywood

      El Capitan Theatre

      Hollywood Museum

      Hollywood Boulevard

      Egyptian Theatre

      Hollywood & Vine

      Hollywood Forever Cemetery

      Side Trip: Paramount Studios

      Venice, Santa Monica, and Malibu

      Venice Beach

      Muscle Beach Venice

      Windward Avenue

      Santa Monica

      Santa Monica Pier

      The Getty Villa

      Malibu

      Malibu Lagoon State Beach

      Beverly Hills

      Rodeo Drive

      Retail heaven

      Paley Center for Media

      Beverly Gardens Park

      Beverly Hills Hotel

      Greystone Mansion and Park

      Burbank Studios

      Warner Bros. Studios

      Universal Studios Hollywood

      WaterWorld

      Wizarding World of Harry Potter

      Studio Tour

      The Simpsons Ride

      The Lower Lot

      Special Effects Show

      Universal’s Animal Actors

      Despicable Me action

      The Walking Dead Attraction

      Universal CityWalk

      Disneyland

      Main Street, USA

      Sleeping Beauty’s Castle

      Adventureland

      Jungle Cruise

      Indiana Jones Adventure

      New Orleans Square

      Pirates of the Caribbean

      Haunted Mansion

      Critter Country

      Splash Mountain

      Frontierland

      Pirate’s Lair on Tom Sawyer Island

      Mark Twain Riverboat

      Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

      Fantasyland

      Peter Pan’s Flight

      ‘it’s a small world’

      Mickey’s Toontown

      Tomorrowland

      Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage

      Space Mountain

      Star Tours – The Adventures Continue

      Miracle Mile

      Petersen Automotive Museum

      LACMA

      Modern art

      Pavilion for Japanese Art

      Art of the Americas

      La Brea Tar Pits & Museum

      Craft & Folk Art Museum

      El Pueblo and Chinatown

      La Plaza

      La Plaza de Cultura y Artes

      Chinese American Museum

      Olvera Street

      Avila Adobe

      América Tropical Interpretive Center

      Italian American Museum of Los Angeles

      Chinatown

      Old Chinatown Central Plaza

      Thien Hau Temple

      Little Tokyo and the Arts District

      Little Tokyo

      Japanese American Cultural & Community Center

      Higashi Honganji Buddhist Temple

      Japanese American National Museum

      The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA

      The Arts District

      The Institute of Contemporary Art

      USC and Exposition Park

      University of Southern California

      Fisher Museum of Art

      Exposition Park

      Natural History Museum

      California Science Center

      California African American Museum

      Griffith Park

      Griffith Observatory

      Griffith Park North

      Autry Museum of the American West

      Los Angeles Zoo

      Miniature railroads

      Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills

      Hollywood Hills and Mulholland Drive

      Hollywood Hills

      Mulholland Drive

      Skirball Cultural Center

      The Getty Center

      Melrose, West Hollywood, and the Sunset Strip

      Melrose Avenue

      Melrose Place

      West Hollywood

      Sunset Strip

      Westwood and UCLA

      Westwood

      UCLA

      The Fowler Museum at UCLA

      Long Beach and San Pedro

      Long Beach

      Downtown Long Beach

      Aquarium of the Pacific

      The Queen Mary

      San Pedro

      Accommodations

      Downtown LA

      Hollywood

      Venice, Santa Monica, and Malibu

      Beverly Hills

      Burbank

      Little Ethiopia, Koreatown, and The Grove

      Pasadena

      Melrose, West Hollywood, and the Sunset Strip

      Long Beach

      Restaurants

      Downtown LA

      Silver Lake

      Hollywood

      Venice, Santa Monica, and Malibu

      Beverly Hills

      Burbank

      Koreatown and The Grove

      El Pueblo and Chinatown

      Pasadena

      Little Tokyo and the Arts District

      Los Feliz, Thai Town, and Little Armenia

      Melrose, West Hollywood, and the Sunset Strip

      Long Beach

      LAX (Inglewood)

      Nightlife

      Bars

      Nightclubs

      Live music venues

      Comedy clubs

      A-Z

      A

      Age restrictions

      B

      Budgeting

      C

      Children

      Clothing

      Consulates

      Crime and safety

      Customs regulations

      D

      Disabled travelers

      E

      Electricity

      Emergencies

      F

      Festivals

      H

      Health

      Clinics and hospitals

      Insurance

      Pharmacies

      Hours and holidays

      Public holidays

      I

      Internet

      L

      LGBTQ travelers

      M

      Media

      Television and radio

      Newspapers and magazines.

      Money

      Currency

      Banks and currency exchange

      ATMs

      Credit cards

      Tipping

      Taxes

      P

      Postal service

      S

      Smoking

      T

      Telephones

      Cell (mobile) phones

      International calls

      Time zones

      Tourist information

      Transportation

      Arrival

      Airports

      Transportation within Los Angeles

      Driving in LA

      V

      Visas and passports

      W

      Weights and measures

      Books and Film

      Books

      Fiction

      Non-fiction

      Film

      Recommended Routes For...

      ART LOVERS

      Artistic highlights include the Getty Center (route 12), Los Angeles County Museum of Art (route 7), and The Broad (route 1). Fans of ancient Greece and Rome should check out the Getty Villa (route 13).

      iStock

      CHILDREN

      Step into storybook worlds at Disneyland (route 6) and visit all your movie favorites at Universal Studios (route 5). Learn while playing at the California Science Center (route 10), or just enjoy a day at Venice Beach or Santa Monica Pier (both route 3).

      California Travel and Tourism Commission

      FOODIES

      Munch your way around Asia in Chinatown (route 8), Little Tokyo (route 9) and Koreatown (route 7). Visit some of the city’s best restaurants in Hollywood (route 3), Beverly Hills (route 4) and West Hollywood (route 13).

      iStock

      HISTORY BUFFS

      Los Angeles was established by Spanish and Mexican colonists at El Pueblo (route 8); the movie industry got started in Hollywood in the early 20th century (route 2). Natural history and African American history are on show at Exposition Park (route 10).

      iStock

      NATURE LOVERS

      Go whale-watching off Long Beach (route 15), stroll the strands of Will Rogers State Beach (route 3), or hike the rolling hills of Griffith Park (route 11). For a view to remember, Mulholland Drive takes you high above the city (route 12).

      iStock

      NIGHT OWLS

      Grab a drink at historic Musso & Frank Grill and trawl Hollywood Boulevard at night (route 2), take in a live band at Sunset Strip venues like Whisky-a-Go-Go (route 13), or sample the student nightlife in Westwood (route 14).

      iStock

      SHOPPING

      Peruse the posh boutiques of Rodeo Drive (route 4), the hip stores along Melrose Avenue (route 13), and the markets of Chinatown (route 8). Santa Monica (route 3) and Westwood (route 14) are also happy hunting grounds for shopaholics.

      iStock

      TOP ARCHITECTURE

      Downtown Los Angeles (route 1) features everything from soaring skyscrapers to Art Deco gems like LA Library. Both USC (route 10) and UCLA campuses (route 14) are crammed with stately, historic buildings.

      Shutterstock

      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 California’s 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, it’s 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 America’s second biggest city in terms of population, but it’s 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 it’s 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 LA’s 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 world’s highest per-capita car populations. However, traffic is bumper-to-bumper much of the day (it’s often described as ‘stop-and-start’ by local media). Taxis are widely available but fairly expensive for long distances, and you’ll often have to call them by phone (or use Uber).

      LA traffic

      iStock

      History

      The Los Angeles region was settled by Chumash and Tongva peoples thousands of years before the arrival of Spanish settlers on September 4, 1781 (a date commemorated by the LA County Fair each year). The settlers named it Los Angeles after the Spanish phrase for ‘Our Lady Queen of the Angels’ (ie Mary, the mother of Jesus). In 1821, a still tiny Los Angeles became part of newly independent Mexico. Even after being swallowed up by the US after the Mexican–American War in 1846, Los Angeles remained largely insignificant, a small town of less than 5,000, comprising white American immigrants, poor Chinese laborers, and wealthy Mexican ranchers. The arrival of the transcontinental railroad gave the city a massive boost in 1876, and LA’s population exploded – by 1920 it was over half a million.

      By 1912, movie companies such as Paramount, Warner Bros, RKO, and Columbia were setting up production in LA, and by the 1920s Hollywood was entering its golden age. In 1932, Los Angeles hosted the Summer Olympics, confirming its arrival on the world stage (Los Angeles hosted the Olympics again in 1984, and will host the Games for a third time in 2028). More boom years followed World War II – LA eclipsed Chicago as the nation’s second-largest metropolis in 1980. But as workers flocked to LA to find jobs, overcrowding, prejudice, and social ranking would continue to cause great tensions. Racial unrest has come to a head more than once here: in 1965, the Watts Riots lasted six days and

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