Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
7
What to See & Do
in Los Angeles
You'll need to make a lot of tough
decisions if you're touring L.A. for the first
time: surfing lessons or a jogging tour? Join
the live studio audience at the
Tonight Show
or
Jeopardy!?
Go to Disneyland or Universal
Studios H ollywood? You get the point; it
would take you months to do
all
the things
listed in this chapter. For some help in nar-
rowing do wn the options, r ead chapter 1,
“The Best of Los Angeles, ” and chapter 4,
“Suggested Los Angeles Itineraries.”
To find out what's going on while you're
in to wn, pick up a copy of the fr
Weekly,
the monthly magazine
Los Angeles,
or the S unday
Los A ngeles Times
“Calen-
dar” section; each has detailed listings
covering events and entertainment around
town, often accompanied by helpful com-
mentary on which activities might be
worth your while.
Also, note that you usually have to drive
everywhere in L.A. Be sure you have a map
handy and tr y to plan y our itinerary with
as little time on the fr eeways as possible,
especially
during rush hour.
ee
L.A.
1
L.A.'S TOP ATTRACTIONS
SUNSET BOULEVARD & THE SUNSET STRIP
Unless you were raised in a cav e, you've undoubtedly heard of L.A.'s Sunset Boulevard.
The most famous of the city's many legendary boulevards, it winds dozens of miles over
prime real estate as it trav els from Downtown to the beach, taking its trav elers on both
an historical and microcosmic journey that defines Los Angeles as a whole—fr om tacky
strip malls and historic mo vie studios to infamous strip clubs and some of the most
coveted zip codes on ear th. In fact, driving the str etch from Hollywood to the P acific
should be r equired for all first-time visitors because it is such a good example of what
L.A. is all about: instant gratification.
Bam! From the start, you'll see the
Saharan Motor Hotel,
of many a movie shoot; the
Guitar Center's
Hollywood RockWalk,
where superstars like Chuck Berry, Little Rich-
ard, Santana, and the Van Halen brothers left handprints or signatur es; and
Chateau
Marmont,
where Greta Garbo lived and John Belushi died.
Phew! And y ou've barely even started. Once you pass the Chateau M armont, you're
officially cruising the
Sunset Strip
—a 1
3
/
4
-mile stretch of Sunset Boulevard from Cres-
cent Heights Boulevard to Doheny Drive. The tour continues with the
Comedy
Store,
where Roseanne Barr, Robin Williams, and David Letterman rose to stardom; Dan Ayk-
royd's ramshackle
House of Blues,
where the rock stars still show up for an impromptu
show; the
Sunset Tower Hotel,
where Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, and John Wayne
once lived; the ultraexclusive
Skybar
within the M ondrian hotel; Johnny Depp's
Viper
Room,
where River Phoenix overdosed in 1993;
Whisky A G o-Go,
where the D oors
were once a house band; and the
Rainbow Bar & G rill,
wher e Jimi Hendrix, B ruce
Springsteen, and Bob Marley became legends.
