Looking for the best things to do in Los Angeles? Locals point visitors to the Griffith Observatory, the Getty Center, the beaches and piers at Santa Monica and Venice, The Broad and Grand Central Market downtown, and Hollywood. LA is huge — here’s how Angelenos actually spend their time, by area, by night, by budget, and by who you’re with.

Things to do in Los Angeles, by area

Griffith Park & Hollywood

The Griffith Observatory (free, with the best Hollywood Sign and skyline views), the Walk of Fame, and the TCL Chinese Theatre.

The Westside: Santa Monica, Venice & the Getty

The Santa Monica Pier, the Venice Boardwalk and canals, and the hilltop Getty Center with gardens and ocean views.

Downtown LA

The Broad and MOCA, Grand Central Market, the Arts District, Little Tokyo, and Olvera Street.

Mid-City & the Miracle Mile

LACMA and its Urban Light, the La Brea Tar Pits, and the Petersen Automotive Museum.

Silver Lake & Echo Park

LA’s indie east side — coffee, vintage, murals, and the Echo Park Lake paddle boats.

Things to do in Los Angeles at night

Hollywood and the Sunset Strip for music and bars, the Arts District downtown, Silver Lake and Echo Park for indie spots, and Koreatown for late-night eats.

Indoor & rainy-day things to do in Los Angeles

The Getty, LACMA, The Broad, the Natural History Museum, and the California Science Center. Grand Central Market covers indoor food.

Free things to do in Los Angeles

• The Griffith Observatory
• The Getty Center (free admission)
• The Broad (free)
• The Venice Boardwalk and the beaches
• The Hollywood Walk of Fame and Urban Light at LACMA

Things to do in Los Angeles for couples

Sunset at Griffith Observatory, a Malibu drive, the Getty’s gardens, a Santa Monica pier evening, and dinner in Silver Lake or the Arts District.

Things to do in Los Angeles with kids

Family wins: the California Science Center, the Natural History Museum, the Santa Monica Pier, the LA Zoo, Universal Studios, and the beaches.

What Los Angeles locals actually recommend

Which neighborhoods are worth the drive, where to eat off the tourist track, how to beat the traffic — that comes from people who live here. On Neighborhood Nurturers’ Los Angeles community, real LA neighbors answer “what should I actually do this weekend?” Join your LA neighbors free →

Where this fits in Los Angeles

The best days here mix the well-known spots with the places only locals frequent. The picks in this guide make the most sense once you know how Los Angeles is laid out. the free Griffith Observatory and Griffith Park sit at the center of where locals actually spend their time, so planning a full day out around one of them rarely goes wrong. When you want something calmer, the Venice Boardwalk pulls you away from the busiest blocks, and the free Getty Center is the kind of spot regulars mention but visitors miss. Anchor your plan to one of those and the rest of the day in Los Angeles tends to fall into place.

More Los Angeles guides

Los Angeles rewards people who dig a little deeper. These related guides map the same neighborhoods from different starting points: Free things to do in Los Angeles, Best restaurants in Los Angeles, undefined Los Angeles — enough to plan a whole day or two.

Ask a Los Angeles neighbor

The best tips never make the guidebooks — they come from neighbors who know which spot is worth it this week. That is what the Los Angeles community on Neighborhood Nurturers is for. Ask Los Angeles locals what they would do, or join free and get honest answers from people who actually know Los Angeles.

Los Angeles landmarks you can actually walk into

A surprising number of the city’s best-known buildings are free, open and take twenty minutes each — and three of them sit within a few blocks of one another Downtown, which makes them the most efficient afternoon in Los Angeles.

The Broad, 221 S Grand Ave, has free general admission. Free timed tickets are available in advance and walk-ups are welcome. It is closed Mondays, open Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday 11am to 5pm, Thursday 11am to 8pm, and 10am to 6pm at weekends.

Bradbury Building, 304 S Broadway, completed in 1893, has an iron-and-light atrium that is among the most filmed interiors in the country. It is free and the lobby and atrium are open to the public, but you cannot go past the first landing — it is a working office building, so look up, be quiet, and keep it brief.

Angels Flight, 351 S Hill St, is a funicular railway that has been climbing 298 feet up Bunker Hill since 1901. It runs seven days, 6:45am to 10pm, and costs $1.50 each way, $0.75 with a TAP card, or $3 for a souvenir round trip. It is a genuine piece of transport rather than a ride, and it connects Grand Central Market at the bottom to the Bunker Hill museums at the top.

Grand Central Market, 317 S Broadway, has been running since 1917 and is where that walk should start or end. Full detail in the Downtown Los Angeles guide.

Best things to do in Los Angeles for a first visit

If you have never been, the mistake is trying to see the whole city. Los Angeles punishes that plan with traffic. Pick two districts a day and walk them properly.

Little Tokyo is the strongest single half-day: the oldest and largest Japantown in the United States, with Fugetsu-Do at 315 E 1st St making mochi since 1903 under the same family, and Japanese Village Plaza to walk through. One caveat to plan around: the Japanese American National Museum’s galleries are closed for renovation until late 2026, though the institution continues to run programming on its campus. If you are here in August, Nisei Week is a nine-day cultural festival that is mostly free.

Downtown’s shopping district is the other reliable half-day. Santee Alley runs between Santee Street and Maple Avenue from Olympic Boulevard down to 12th Street, with 150 or more stores, open 365 days a year, roughly 9:30am to 6pm. It traces back to the wholesale garment trade of the 1970s and it is loud, crowded and cash-friendly.

What to do on a Los Angeles weekend

Weekend searches are among the highest-volume things people ask about this city, and the honest answer is that the weekend has a rhythm worth following.

Saturday morning belongs to the markets and the water. The Silver Lake Farmers Market runs 8am to 1:30pm at Sunset Triangle Plaza; the Silver Lake Reservoir loop is about two miles and flat. Sunday morning is the bigger market day citywide — Mar Vista, Atwater Village, Westchester and Larchmont all run. Our farmers markets guide has every day, time and address.

Saturday or Sunday afternoon is for one neighborhood, walked slowly. Echo Park Lake at 751 Echo Park Ave has pedal-powered swan boats from Wheel Fun Rentals — daily from about 9am until sunset, roughly $13 per adult and $7.50 per child, one-hour rentals, reservations required, and the last boats go out about an hour before sunset. Above the lake, Angelino Heights holds the highest concentration of 19th-century Victorian houses in the city on the 1300 block of Carroll Avenue; they are private homes, so walk the sidewalk and admire from it.

Saturday night has a specific east-side answer: Highland Park Bowl, 5621 N Figueroa St, the oldest bowling alley in Los Angeles, dating to 1927, with eight restored vintage lanes, cocktails and wood-fired Neapolitan pizza. It opens at noon on Saturday and runs to 2am. For music, The Echo at 1822 W Sunset Blvd and the Echoplex below it have hosted everything from unknown touring bands to the Rolling Stones; The Wiltern at 3790 Wilshire Blvd, opened in 1931, holds about 1,850 seated or 2,300 standing.

Outdoors: water, hills and stairs

Los Angeles rewards being outside more than almost any large city, and not all of it costs money. The Silver Lake Reservoir loop is the flattest good walk on the east side. The Silver Lake public stairways, cut into the hillsides when the neighborhood was built around streetcar lines, are free, always open, and steep enough that residents use them as a workout.

For swimming, the Echo Park Indoor Pool at 1419 Colton St — also called Echo Deep Pool — is open year-round, heated to 79 to 82 degrees, and costs about $4 for adults and $1 for children, for ages 50 and up, and for people with disabilities, with under-3s free. It is a city facility running lap swim, lessons and water aerobics, not a seasonal splash pool.

Things to do in Los Angeles with teens

Teenagers are badly served by most Los Angeles itineraries, which pitch either at small children or at adults with a dinner reservation. The things that reliably land are the ones with something to do rather than something to look at.

Highland Park Bowl works because bowling is an activity and the building is genuinely interesting. Santee Alley works because it is a shopping district with real bargaining and a budget can go a long way. The swan boats at Echo Park Lake are pedal-powered, which makes them participatory rather than passive. Galco’s Soda Pop Stop at 5702 York Blvd in Highland Park stocks more than 750 independent sodas and is, improbably, a reliable hit. And Angels Flight costs $1.50 and takes two minutes, which is exactly the right size of novelty.

Turn any of these into a neighborhood day

The single best way to use this city is to pick a district and give it a day rather than assembling a list of attractions scattered across forty miles. Each of these has a full guide: Downtown, Little Tokyo, Koreatown, the Arts District, Silver Lake, Echo Park and Highland Park.

For the rest: free things to do, events, parks, restaurants and date ideas.

Frequently asked questions

What are the top things to do in Los Angeles?

Locals send visitors to the Griffith Observatory (and the Hollywood Sign views), the Getty Center, the beaches and pier at Santa Monica and Venice, the Broad and Grand Central Market downtown, and Hollywood Boulevard. Spread them across a few days — LA is big and traffic is real.

What is there to do in Los Angeles at night?

LA nights spread out: Hollywood and the Sunset Strip for bars and music, Downtown’s Arts District, Silver Lake and Echo Park for indie spots, Koreatown for late-night eats, and rooftop bars with skyline or ocean views.

What can you do in Los Angeles when it rains?

Rare, but great museum weather: the Getty Center, LACMA, the Broad, the Natural History Museum, and the California Science Center. Grand Central Market and the malls cover indoor food and shopping.

What are free things to do in Los Angeles?

The Griffith Observatory, the Getty Center (free admission), the Broad (free), the Venice Boardwalk, the beaches, the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and Urban Light at LACMA are all free.

What are the best things to do in Los Angeles for couples?

Sunset at Griffith Observatory, a Malibu beach drive, the Getty’s gardens and views, a Santa Monica pier evening, and dinner in Silver Lake or Downtown’s Arts District.

What are fun things to do in Los Angeles with kids?

Family favorites: the California Science Center, the Natural History Museum, the Santa Monica Pier, the LA Zoo, Universal Studios, and the beaches.