What to do in LA in April?

January 8, 2009 4:57 AM

I'm planning a week-long visit to Los Angeles at the end of April, but I have no idea what there is to do or see there. Naturally I'll do my own research (thanks Google!) but I also want to pick up some more general info from the locals.

I will be travelling alone and don't know a soul in LA. I'll be watching my pennies but want to enjoy myself too so can splash out on important things.

My main questions are: Which neighbourhood should I stay in for easy access to public transport/all the action? (I won't be driving while there) Any tips for nice non-Starbucks hangouts where I can spend an afternoon with my laptop? Any nice places to walk? (I love walking but have heard that LA isn't really the place). What cool local places can I go to to check out art and writing/literature-related events and exhibitions?

In other words, where does an anti-corporate-culture person go when in LA? Do tell!

posted by different to travel & transportation (20 comments total)

I lived in Los Angeles for 20 years, and if I were to return there for a week, I'd stay beachside in Santa Monica. It's a colorful, eclectic, busy neighborhood that encourages walking and exploring. If you need to venture out of Santa Monica, you can travel via its Big Blue Bus line, which is quite a bit cleaner, faster, and cheaper than LA's Metro bus line.

For art, visit Venice, Santa Monica's neighboring community. And check out MOCA, LACMA, and the Getty, all of which feature art lectures and tours.

Fun streets to walk are Melrose Avenue, Montana Avenue, Santa Monica Place/Third Street Promenade, and Venice's Main Street and Boardwalk.

Enjoy your trip!
posted by terranova at 6:40 AM on January 8

Hollywood is overrated, and not worth the trip...

Pasadena (Old Town) is a nice place to hang out for a couple of hours if you're into shopping... The Asia Pacific Museum is neat, as is the Norton Simon Art Museum, also, the Green and Green designed Gamble house is a neat place to tour...

A day trip out to Catalina Island is sort of fun, do the bus tour, see the bison...

have fun!
posted by HuronBob at 6:53 AM on January 8

Getting around without a car is doable, but not pleasant and often not easy. LA is so big that there is no one central "neighborhood" that has everything you want.

I'm seconding the Santa Monica & environs recommendations, but keep in mind that it's not technically "LA" - it's a small city that works really well and thus is not reflective of Los Angeles - a big city with a lot of problems - at all. It has a decent balance of independent vs. corporate (but still, LOTS of corporate) and is a great place to walk around. Urth Caffe seems to be the non-Starbucks coffee place of choice - I don't know if they have free wifi though.

If you want to see LA proper, hop on the #4 bus on Santa Monica Blvd in Santa Monica and head east. You can check out other neighborhoods along the bus line, such as West Hollywood ad Silver Lake, and then head downtown. Downtown LA isn't like other urban downtowns - it's not where people go to shop or congregate, but where business gets done. However, that's been changing a bit as old buildings are being converted to residential lofts, and there are some interesting restaurants and bars and such.

For food, check out Chowhound for reco's - it's pretty anti-chain and most of the recommendations are solid. For ideas about what to see and do, read up on LA Metroblogging, LAist, ad LA Weekly before your trip.

As for walking, LA really isn't the place, but I do it anyway. Expect to see lots of homeless people and other down and out types during your walk, but few others on foot. I highly recommend just picking a major thoroughfare and seeing where it takes you - some years ago, I walked Wilshire Boulevard from downtown LA to Westwood (something like 16 miles) and it was a good way to see a bit of old LA architecture and to notice things one wouldn't see by car.
posted by chez shoes at 7:08 AM on January 8

For art, visit Venice, Santa Monica's neighboring community. And check out MOCA, LACMA, and the Getty, all of which feature art lectures and tours.

LACMA and the Getty (and to a lesser extent MOCA in my personal opinion) are great, but I want to make it clear that they aren't anywhere near Santa Monica or Venice. Bergamot Station is though, and that may be good.

If you do get up to Pasadena, I second Norton Simon. That's my favorite museum in the area.

An anti-corporate-culture person is probably going to want to be in Venice or Silver Lake.
posted by willnot at 7:40 AM on January 8

Los Angeles is public transport unfriendly, you would be better off with a cheap rental. LA is simply too spread out to walk effectively.

A few sites to read up on LA: LA Weekly, Blogging.la, LAist

A few nice places to visit:

Venice Beach
Melrose
A small band show in Hollywood on a weeknight
The top of Runyon Canyon
La Brea Tar Pits
The Getty Museum
Past opening day, a Dodger game in Chavez Ravine
Olvera Street in Downtown LA then walking over to Chinatown
And of course, Disneyland!

BTW, Metro is LA's public transport system
posted by Argyle at 7:44 AM on January 8

If you like mind games, I can't recommend the (free! brilliant! funny!) Museum of Jurassic Technology, in Culver City, enough. The creator got a MacArthur, I believe. If you take the recommendations to stay in Santa Monica, the #12 bus will get you there.
posted by amelioration at 8:14 AM on January 8 [1 favorite has favorites]

Little Tokyo is on the subway line, and it's one of my favorite parts of Los Angeles. Squid heads and tasty candy! Lopsided knockoff Hello Kitty merch! Bookstores full of art books and mind-boggling amounts of comics you can't read! The most intense DDR players you've ever seen in any arcade! Mr. Ramen! MR. RAMEN!

I swear I'm not one of those "omg Japan is so wacky anime and catgirls squee!" people, but Little Tokyo is pretty sweet. In my experience Little Vietnam is just a lot of sketchy restaurants, and K-Town is a few good restaurants (Tofu House!) and a lot of computer repair places (boring).

You can get to Olvera Street, and thereby the touristy Tijuana-lite awesomeness, EXTREMELY easily from Union Station, and according to Argyle you can then walk over to Chinatown. I haven't been to Chinatown in a few years, so maybe I am judging it incorrectly, but uh, I hope you like pirated videogames and VCDs and karaoke CDs, because that's about all I ever found.

It's on car-clogged, touristy, pedestrian unfriendly, expensive Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood, but if you are passionate about music AT ALL, Amoeba Records is a must see. Every music geek I know describes their first visit the same way; you stop breathing, your heart swells, your head spins, and you spin through the wonderland in a trance. You know how some record stores lump EVERYTHING into one catagory? Amoeba has catagories for genres you've never heard of. You think it's huge before you even see the second floor and the back room. Oh, god. I need to save some money and go to Amoeba.
posted by Juliet Banana at 8:15 AM on January 8

Just took my husband there for his first time (I spent most of my life in SoCal) so it is pretty fresh for me.

Catalina is expensive ($300. for two people round trip plus dinner,) and while it is a cool little place, it isn't very "Angeleno" feeling. It is largely ignored by the locals and seems more like a small Mediterranean island.

Definitely hit the La Brea tar pits-- it is one of the oddest places in the United States-- a big tarry, gooey mess in a park with a museum and it is right next door to the LA County Art complex which is several buildings.

Of the two, unless you are really into ancient Greek culture, I would try to go to the Pacific Palisades Getty. I don't know how you get there without a car and with a car you have to make a reservation (both day and time) in advance. However it is completely free and it is stunning in architecture, setting and exhibits.

If you want way off the beaten path, check out the Museum of Jurassic Technology which is a one man collection of real and faux exhibits, but be careful because they are only open on Thursday nights and weekends.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 8:24 AM on January 8

It's not exactly in LA, but I highly recommend the Warner Brothers VIP Studio Tour in Burbank. It's over two hours and you get taken all over the studio lots. I went about five years ago, and I got to see the set of Friends, the facades of a bunch of famous TV "homes," the "emergency room entrance" for the ER set, among other things. We went on a weekend but apparently if you go during the week you can see stars walking around!
posted by radioamy at 8:44 AM on January 8

Previously.
posted by charlesv at 9:15 AM on January 8

The central library in LA is pretty cool, and I believe they do regular tours. Worth checking out if you are downtown at all. I stayed downtown for a conference and took public transit to Amoeba and to the Tar Pits/LACMA etc area and I felt pretty transgressive for doing so. It all worked fine (though it was time-intensive), but it made me feel like a weirdo.

Silver Lake seemed like a funky fun neighborhood, but I was driven there by people who knew where they were going, so I don't know how walkable or transit accessible it is.
posted by yarrow at 9:23 AM on January 8

I was all OMG I JUST THOUGHT OF SOMETHING ELSE and in the process of researching it I found out The Wat Thai Temple has stopped having food festivals on the weekends, for good. I might cry.

So, don't go there, but pour a little Thai Iced Coffee out on the curb for a deceased source of the most delicious, incredibly authentic Thai food ever.

Also, Silverlake is INCREDIBLY CONFUSING if you don't live there, and probably if you do. The streets make no sense.

Just so this post isn't all Debbie Downer, I'm going to give a big nth-y thumbs up for LACMA. If you like your art more modern and less full of bloody martyrs and glowing madonnas, skip the Getty and go for the good stuff.

Keep plugging your date range into Pollstar as you get closer to April; chances are you'll find a concert you want to attend. Pretty much every tour hits LA.
posted by Juliet Banana at 9:42 AM on January 8

This is all brilliant stuff, thanks so much everyone!

[Really looking forward to planning my trip now]
posted by different at 10:21 AM on January 8

Seconding Amoeba Records. Even though it originated in the Bay Area, it's definitely the best music store in LA, hands down.

It's also not too far from Griffith Park/the Griffith Observatory, which is definitely accessible via public transportation (via a shuttle that runs from Los Feliz, just south of Griffith Park). Even if you have no interest whatsoever in astronomy, the views from the observatory are incredible.
posted by chicainthecity at 10:59 AM on January 8

I agree that Santa Monica is the place to stay, because its walkable and has good public transport, there's lots of nice cafes and coffee places in SM and Venice, plus the beach. Just head down to the boardwalk and walk south towards Venice and explore.

LA without a car is not much fun. My go-to recommendation for LA is the Getty Center (not the Getty Villa which is different). I am pleased to report that Secret Life of Gravy's info is out of date, and you no longer need reservations for parking or any of that shenanigans. Entry is free (yay!) parking is $8, and since you don't have a car that will be awesome. There are bus routes along Sepulveda that drop you off right outside, not sure of the numbers sorry. Take a picnic lunch with you if you are on a budget, because while the cafe there is great, it is a bit on the pricey side for cafeteria food.
posted by Joh at 11:10 AM on January 8

The problem with L.A., as you may be gathering, is that it is a very decentralized city. There is no single neighborhood that puts you close to all the action that also has easy access to public transportation.

Some neighborhoods, though, are better than others in terms of acting as hubs. So for that reason I'm going to go against the grain and suggest that you stay in the Fairfax District rather than Santa Monica. Santa Monica is lovely and I think it's a fine place to stay for a long weekend, but if you're staying a full week, you're very likely going to want to see areas (e.g., downtown/Chinatown, Hollywood/Los Feliz, etc.) that are so far from Santa Monica as to make them totally impractical to get to and from on public transportation without spending a great deal of your time every day on a bus.

Fairfax is quasi-central for a lot of the areas and attractions that have already been mentioned in the thread. You have immediate access to Farmers Market, LACMA, the Petersen Museum and the La Brea Tar Pits, as well as easy access to West Hollywood and (from there) Hollywood/Los Feliz/Griffith Park. It also basically splits the difference, distance-wise, between Santa Monica and the rest of the west side (the Getty, Museum of Jurassic Technology, etc.), which is about 12-15 miles away, and downtown (MOCA, Chinatown, etc.), which is about 10 miles away. From downtown, there's also access (via the Gold line) to Pasadena. Whenever my friends come into town from San Francisco, they stay in Fairfax at the Farmer's Daughter (but even they still rent a car).
posted by scody at 12:02 PM on January 8

You know, I didn't suggest staying in the Fairfax District because it's so chain-oriented, what with the Grove and all. It's also where I live, and I find myself spending much more time in Echo Park, Silver Lake and Santa Monica than home, because I'm pretty chain-averse myself.

But! Being an oldtimer here I totally took for granted the fact that the Farmers Market remains full of indie businesses, despite the encroaching chains (Starbucks and, ugh, Pinkberry, for example). And yes, the Fairfax District has great access to bus lines and museums galore.

Also, on the corner of Wilshire and Crescent Heights, Caffe Latte has decent coffee, good breakfast, and free wifi, and is a nice place to relax and people-watch.
posted by chez shoes at 12:44 PM on January 8

I am not sure what your dates are, or the exact date of the event, but the Brewery Artwalk is right around that time. 150 open artist studios, music, food, and usually parties after. You can spend all day there. And if you are going to Little Tokyo, Chinatown, the library, it is pretty close by (not walking)

As it gets closer, you can check for dates...link

(and I will most likely be there, so let me know...)
posted by Vaike at 1:17 PM on January 8

Los Angeles Conservancy has some great walking tours, which are covered on their website (laconservancy.org). Lots of cool things to see that you might not find on your own.

I agree that Hollywood is overrated, but American Cinematheque at the Egyptian might be showing something cool while you're here, and there are a few old places (Boardner's, Musso and Franks, Pig and Whistle) that you might enjoy visiting beforehand if you're in a Noir mood.
posted by OolooKitty at 4:51 PM on January 8

Any time I'm in the Fairfax district I always stop in at Canter's Deli-- it's not just a restaurant, it's an institution! They opened at their present locale in 1953 and pretty much left the decor untouched. Be sure to go upstairs to the bathrooms and you'll see the photographs of their history. And the menu is to die for, darlink!
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 6:28 PM on January 8