What do you do in Los Angeles after you’ve spotted the stars, seen THE Sign, and brushed off the sand? How about a museum! With over 100 museums to choose from, you’ll get a dose of culture while giving yourself a break from all that sun.
Whatever your interests, art, architecture, entertainment, libraries, gardens, automobiles, or history I guarantee there is a museum in LA for you. I’m nowhere near making a dent, but I’ve checked off a few…
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The Peterson Automotive Museum
Museum Mile
LA is a large city and many of it’s museums are spread out, but the area known as Museum Row on Wilshire Boulevard’s Miracle Mile has five wonderful museums all within steps of one another. If you were motivated it would be entirely possible to get a taste of all of them within one day.
They are: The LA County Museum of Art (LACMA), the Craft & Folk Art Museum (CAFAM), The Labrea Tar Pits, The Peterson Automotive Museum, and the Wende Museum exhibition of the Berlin Wall.
LACMA
It would take multiple visits to see everything the largest art museum on the West Coast has to offer, but if you’re short on time you can enjoy some of LACMA’s outdoor exhibits, like Chris Burden’s Urban Lights, Levitating Mass, or choose just one of the Museum’s many buildings and focus on that.
There is definitely something magical about Urban lights. The solar powered installation is made from 202 restored cast iron street lamps from 1920s and 30s Los Angeles. This is an incredibly popular place to take photos and hang out, so expect crowds.
The boys loved Penetrable by artist Jesús Rafael Soto, an interactive art installation just outside the entrance to the Ahmanson Building. Made of simple yellow tubing hanging from a steel grid, this installation was meant to be touched!
My older son and I visited the temporary Guillermo del Toro exhibition last year and loved it. You’ll want to check the Museum’s website for information on current and upcoming exhibitions.
The Peterson Automotive Museum
Los Angeles is famous for many things, but one of them is not waking! In fact, “Nobody walks in LA”, or at least that’s how the song goes, so it makes perfect sense that there would be an automotive museum in the heart of Museum Row!
At the Peterson Automotive Museum, you’ll find cars and motorcycles representing the history of the automobile, including racecars, concept cars, movie cars and custom built cars. My favorite part was viewing the movie cars including, the bat cycle, Stephen King’s Christine, lightening McQueen and Herbie the Love Bug!
La Brea Tar Pits
Can you believe that at one time the bustling area that is now Museum Row was once the home of dire wolves, saber-tooth cats, and mammoths? It’s true! Of course that was 50,000 years ago, give or take a few thousand years…
The La Brea Tar Pits and the George C. Page Museum offer a glimpse into what life was like in the LA basin long before people came along. A few things to keep in mind: There is an entrance fee to the museum, but viewing the outside exhibits is free. You won’t see dinosaurs here, as they’d already been extinct for 65 million years when animals started becoming entrapped in the tar pits.
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Craft & Folk Art Museum (CAFAM)
The Craft and Folk Art Museum is housed in an adorable little building just opposite the Labrea Tar Pits. You can’t miss its cheerful black and yellow design. The exhibitions are revolving and feature current day artists with a unique twist or smaller exposure.
The museum offers crafting opportunities and we had the good fortune to visit during a Japanese paper making demonstration.
CAFAM is special because it is a place to both see art and make art.
The Berlin Wall
Did you know you can view part of the Berlin Wall in LA? The largest remaining stretch of the original Berlin Wall is located just across from LACMA on Wilshire Blvd.
The Wall is part of the Wende Museum collection. Street artists from around the world were invited to paint blank segments of the Wall to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Wall coming down.
Paley Center for Media
Located in the heart of Beverly Hills, just one block off of Rodeo Drive, the Paley Center for Media exhibits explore the connections between media and society.
During our visit we saw the Cartoon Network exhibition: 25 Years of Drawing On Creativity. We loved learning about the creation of some of our favorite cartoons! A visit to the Paley Center will give you access to their collection of over 160,000 programs covering almost 100 years of television and radio from around the world. The museum’s exhibits are revolving, so you’ll want to check the website to see what’s on.
The Broad
The Broad Museum located in DTLA is easily one of my favorite museums. Entry to the museum is free, and the collection of contemporary art is top notch! Not only that, the building itself is a work of art.
Advance reservations are required, however if you don’t have them there is a stand by line. Check the website for instructions on how best to visit and for information on current exhibitions.
The Getty Villa
Located on the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, the Getty Villa is dedicated to the antiquities, and features 7000 years of ancient art. Even if antiquities aren’t your thing, The Villa itself is a site to see.
Built in the early 1970s it was modeled after the Villa dei Papiri, a roman country home that was located in Herculaneum, Italy. Herculaneum, along with Pompeii, was buried in the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD.
The Getty Center
If you’ve been to LA you might have noticed the Getty Center, a large white building perched on the hillside above the 405.
While the Getty Villa features antiquities through the fall of the Roman Empire, the Getty Center features American and European art from medieval times to the present. Not only is it considered an architectural masterpiece, but it’s surrounded by beautiful gardens and on a clear day the view of Downtown Los Angeles and the Pacific Ocean are spectacular.
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Huntington Gardens
The Huntington Botanical Gardens has something for everyone! Museums, a library and acres of beautiful and unique gardens, including a fabulous children’s garden!
Entrance tickets are all inclusive, but because the Huntington has so much to offer it would be tough to see everything in one visit.
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The Neutra VDL House
Architecture lovers won’t want to miss a visit to the Neutra VDL House located on Silver Lake Boulevard.
Built by the famed Modernist architect Richard Neutra 75 years ago, the VDL house was named a National Historic Landmark in 2017. Tours of the home and garden are available, and are given by architecture students.
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Tips & Advice:
- Try to time your visit to LACMA for sundown and you’ll see Urban Lights in action.
- The Peterson Automotive Museum has a dedicated children’s area and parking lot.
- If you’re short on time skip the George C. Page Museum at the Tar Pits and just view the outdoor exhibitions.
- Be sure to check out CFAM’S calendar of crafting events for both children and adults.
- Walk all the way around the Berlin Wall, so you don’t miss the fabulous art painted on the backside.
- Entrance to The Paley Center for Media is free, as is parking in the building below.
- Visiting the Broad? Consider eating lunch at Otium. Easily one of the best lunches I’ve had in LA.
- Entry to both the Getty Villa and the Getty Center is free, but both charge a $15 parking fee. Entry to the Villa requires an advance reservation.
- The Huntington Gardens aren’t technically in LA, but it’s worth the trek!
- Admission to the Neutra House is $15 and tours are available on Saturdays from 11 am -3 pm.
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Take me with you!
Would you like directions to all these fabulous places? Why not take me with you! You can download this and other fun hilarystyle articles using the GPSmyCity app!
The Beverly Hills Hotel is located in the city of Beverly Hills on Sunset Boulevard (another one of those famous streets), and opened in 1912, before Beverly Hills was even a city! You can’t miss its iconic pink paint and famous sign.
Just like all the celebritites before you, upon arrival, you’ll walk the red carpet under the hotel’s trademark green and white awning with an obligatory photo op at the end! Definitely stop to have your photo taken! What no paprazzi, no matter, a friend will do! You’ll feel just like the celebs!
The decadance continues in the lobby with gorgeous art, and flower displays that had all of us whipping out our phones for a photo.
Starting our evening off outside overlooking the Beverly Hills Los Angeles iconic palm trees I mentioned earlier, we sipped our drinks and shared a heavenly dessert. Berry Pavlova is my new favorite dessert! I can’t stop thinking about it!
Okay, I live here and I feel this way, so I can only imagine how a visitor must feel. How do you decide, with limited time, which of LA’s amazing neighborhoods to visit, and what should you do while there? I can help with that!
In my humble opinion no trip to Los Angeles would be complete without a visit to the great and wonderful weird that is Venice, so it makes sense to start there! I’ve mentioned a few of these places in my recent post 
The place to be right now, Abbot Kinney is one of the hottest streets in town! Many of today’s most popular fashion brands have stores 
When I first moved to LA, 16 years ago, this area was still on its way up and had been for a while, but its safe to say it’s arrived, and then some! I like to spend time here on weekdays when it’s a little less crowded.
One of my favorite shopping spots, I love the fun, slightly eclectic casual style of 
The ice cream at 
This little street is Home to Menotti’s Coffee Shop, the Venice Sign, and the 
Get the Spanish Latte! I promise you won’t be disappointed when you taste this delicious coffee concoction! Seriously, what are you waiting for? Go there! Then take your coffee for a walk along the beach!
Originally hung across Windward Avenue at Pacific by Abbot Kinney himself, this current version was installed in 2007. Most often lit with traditional white marquee lights, the Sign changes throughout the year in support of various events. Currently the sign is lit for Venice Pride!
You’ll find the 
Venice’s 2.5 mile pedestrian only Ocean Front Walk is world famous for it’s eclectic mix of locals, tourists, performers, physics, and artists! Not to mention, the selection of sunglasses and t-shirts is world renowned. You never know who or what you’ll discover during your visit, but I can guarantee you’ll have an amazing time, and probably come away with at least one treasure!
Located just off Ocean Front Walk at Westminster, the Wee Chippy is a walk up fish and chips joint, owned by a Scottish fellow. The fish is great, but the chips are easily the best I’ve ever had. Anywhere! I’m serious! The opening hours are: Lunchtime to sunset… good luck!
The bike path in Venice is part of a larger
Why not give surfing a try?! After all you’re at the beach! No matter if you’ve never been on a board before, sign up for a 
I love art museums too, but there’s something so wonderful about a giant piece of art out there in the open for everyone to enjoy. You might just see it out of the corner of your eye as you walk or drive by, but if you do have the time or inclination, its there for you to admire at your leisure any time of day or night. Stay as long as you’d like, or take a 
I’ve been eating the same flavors of ice cream my entire life, at first it was chocolate chip mint. Every. Single. Time. At some point I switched to Pralines and Cream and that was my flavor. These days, I have been trying to branch out a bit more in the flavor department. My current favorite is salted malted cookie dough at Salt & Straw.
The Museum of Ice Cream is a temporary interactive art installation featuring not just ice cream, but all things ice cream related. The only real purpose, as far as I can tell, is to provide pure joy and happiness and they’re really good at it!
Along the way, you’ll see and experience a ton of silly fun from ice cream sandwich swings, to giant popsicles, and scratch and sniff wall paper! Along with all the silly fun, there will be endless photo opportunities! I loved that they incorporated some of LAs most famous icons into the installations.
The Museum of Ice Cream is located inside a converted warehouse in the DTLA Arts District! Everything including the outside of the building is Pink! Did I mention Everything!?
In a city as vast as Los Angeles, on any given day, there are countless opportunities for tourists and non tourists alike. So many, in fact, it wouldn’t really be reasonable to try and list them all, so for the purposes of this list I’m drawing the line at 50* places.
A
One of the most iconic signs in the world, 
