LA at night
LA is a great place to visit, but it is so massive that it may be hard to decide just where to start your trip and what to incorporate into your schedule. There are tons of inexpensive, fun things to do and see in LA and you'll want to make sure to include some unique stops and tourist traps in your trip so you can tell people about them when you get home. Here's your chance to do both.
Visit the Musuems
LA has tons of great museums and art galleries. A great stop is the La Brea Tar Pits and the LA County Museum of Art. These two stops are right beside one another and surrounded with a lovely park with fascinating bubbling pools of tar scattered about.
While you may be tempted to avoid paying for the tar pit museum admission, thinking you'll get a great tour just by walking in the park, don't miss out on the museum experience. There is an amazing collection of extinct species' skeletons, a stunning atrium filled with prehistoric plants and a working laboratory for the cleaning and inspection of fossils discovered on the grounds.
If you visit the art museum after 5 p.m., admission is done on a pay-what-you-want system, so people on a low budget may view the many amazing galleries for as little as a dollar. Of course, those with a little extra to spare are urged to pay at least the full admission to help support the museum and its collections.
Go Window Shopping
Rodeo Drive may be the best known area for shopping in LA, but Melrose Avenue has a wide selection of unique and off-the-wall shops certain to get you talking. There are goth shops specializing in skeletal remains and taxidermy, Japanese stores filled with all the strange and cute toys you can imagine, art galleries with all types of collections, and funky boutiques loaded with the hippest duds money can buy.
While you're there, be sure to check out some of the amazing graffiti murals that are hard to find in other cities. Also be sure to stop by Pink's Hot Dog stand, a famous hot dog-grill known for bringing celebrities and nobodies together for the past 70 or so years.
Stop by the Studio
Most of the production studios in town offer a tour around the grounds, but Universal Studios is not only a classic--it's also the best out there. While other studios bring you around the filming studio, only Universal built a theme park around the studio tour. There are great shows, thrilling coasters, a beefed-up studio tour and more. This attraction offers LA visitors a glimpse of "Hollywood magic" that isn't to be missed.
Get Into Filming
Being part of a live studio audience is a fun way to interact with some of your favorite shows. Most shows require registration in advance and a wait in a long line, but it can be worth it for the experience of seeing a live filming.
Popular live shows include "Jeopardy," "Wheel of Fortune," "The Price is Right" and "The Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien."
Check out the Beach
Southern California is famous for its many pristine and stunning beaches. But don't miss out on one of the most famous, albeit not-so pristine, beaches in the world, Venice Beach. This wild beach scene is loaded with street entertainers, hot bodies, roller-bladers and all-around weirdos.
Best of all, because it's Southern California, you can stop by the beach pretty much any time of the year.
Go to the Park
Griffith Park is the largest municipal park with urban wilderness area in all of America. It's perhaps best known for hosting the iconic "Hollywood" sign. The park offers stunning views of both nature and industry and its beautiful trails are just the place to relax and enjoy nature in an otherwise car-infested, overcrowded metropolis.
Walk the Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame and Grauman's Chinese Theatre, filled with the famous handprints of the stars, are right beside each other. These are two celebrity relic destinations that aren't to be missed on any LA vacation.
