Los Angeles (LA), California - Los Angeles Travel Guide

Los Angeles, California

Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles, California (cc)

Los Angeles Travel Guide

Introduction

Los Angeles, or simply LA, is a city of angels, dreams, more cars than you can imagine, and Hollywood endings. It's the largest city in California, with millions of wannabes pounding the pavement for a slice of stardom. And why not? There's a gigantic "Hollywood" sign on a hillside above the city egging them on, together with handprints set in cement on the Stars Walk of Fame on Hollywood Boulevard outside Grauman's Chinese Theatre, multi-storied posters pitching the loudest brands from the city's high-rises, shops selling designer this and designer that for a king's ransom on Rodeo Drive, electric bulls and live bands revving it up at the clubs on Sunset Boulevard, and those gorgeous stars and starlets from the movies living large in gated mansions in Malibu and Beverly Hills. This is LA! – a mad mix of haves and wanna-haves, where the "Spaghetti Junction" can fairly be described as a metaphor for life in LA. And if you've ever watched, live or on replay, LA Lakers' Robert Horry shoot that 3-pointer on the buzzer to snatch the game in the 2002 NBA Finals before a sold-out crowd, with Jack Nicholson pumping his fists courtside, or Los Angeles Dodgers' pinch-hitter Kirk Gibson slam one out of the ballpark at the bottom of the ninth innings in the 1988 World Series, with two outs and two strikes, to win the game and bring 50,000 fans to their feet, you know what a Hollywood ending is – when fantasy sublimates into reality in the blink of an eye. This is LA!

Location

Los Angeles is situated (or shall we say sprawled?) on the Southern California coast, approximately 420 miles south-southeast of San Francisco, at the intersection of Interstate 5 and highways 101, 105, 110, 10, and several other highways and state routes.

How to Get There

Sightseeing

Neighborhoods

How to Get Around

Where to Stay

Where to Eat

Where to Party

Essential Information

Nearby Destinations

How to Get There

Los Angeles can be reached on Highway 101 south from San Francisco or north from San Diego, or on the north-south Interstate 5. The city also has three major airports: Ontario International Airport in Ontario, Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, and the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), one of the busiest airports in the nation, in Los Angeles.

Sightseeing

Main Neighborhoods