Los Angeles - City Attractions, Things to Do and Much More

Long Beach Jazz Festival

8 - 10 Aug (annual)
The annual Long Beach Jazz Festival features some great artists and benefits from a stunning location in Rainbow Lagoon Park.Taking place each year on a grassy knoll next to the lagoon, there is a consistently good line-up over the three days. Highlights of the year line-up include Michael Franks, Down to the Bone, Poncho Sanchez, Commodores
and Superstars of Jazz Fusion featuring Roy Ayers, Lonnie Liston Smith, Miki Howard, Wayne Henderson and Tom Browne.

The Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum

1 Jun - 28 Sep;Fri,Sat,and Sun only (annual)
Open-air auditorium of the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum presents Shakespeare plays and other classics in the Topanga Canyon at weekends throughout the summer.Their self-proclaimed belief is "that theatre, music and art in general are as necessary to the living of a full life as food and shelter." It's definitely worth checking out, but the seating capacity is only 300, so be sure to book in advance.

Mercedes-Benz Cup - Countrywide Classic Pete Sampras

4 - 10 Aug (annual)
Founded in 1927, the Mercedes-Benz Cup is an important tournament on the ATP Tour, offering a healthy purse and important championship points to the 32 entrants, who compete on the hard courts among many others. The total prize money is in excess of US$525,000.

Santa Monica Pier. Photo by Toby(Yang) Yu

Santa Monica Pier Twilight Dance Series

26 Jun - 28 Aug Thu only (annual)
The Santa Monica Pier Twilight Dance Series takes advantage of the beautiful Californian summer evenings in the stunning location of Santa Monica Pier, attracting performers playing everything from Latin jazz and pop to hip-hop and the blues.Audiences for these free concerts each Thursday evening are increasing every year - last year approaching the 10,000 mark - so arrive early to get a good spot.

Dodger Stadium. Photo by 7D7 Studio (Omar)

Los Angeles Dodgers - Major League Baseball

31 Mar - 25 Sep (annual)
The Dodgers Stadium is home to the Los Angeles Dodgers Major League Baseball team and stages regular games from March to September.The Dodgers compete in the tough National League West, which includes the San Francisco Giants, Arizona Diamondbacks, Colorado Rockies and the San Diego Padres.

American Black Film Festival

7 - 10 Aug (annual)
The American Black Film Festival is a unique opportunity for black filmmakers, actors, producers, journalists and film fans to get together to watch the best new releases, network and party.The festival has now moved to LA; it started in Acapulco, Mexcio and later moved to Miami. The festival is open to anyone and, with more than 2500
attendees, is normally booked up by May, so bag your place early. Film executives from the major studios such as Walt Disney, Warner Brothers and Miramax regularly attend, so if there's a script you're burning to direct or an actor you're looking for, then this is the place to come.On the closing night the Black Film Awards are presented.

Martin Luther King Kingdom Day Parade

Martin Luther King Jr (1929-1968)

Jan (annual)
The Martin Luther King Kingdom Day Parade has been celebrated over a million people take to the streets of Los Angeles to remember the life and works of the great man.It includes more than 150 floats, ten dance groups, celebrities aplenty and the bombastic tunes of a military marching band. Local vendors and restaurants spill out onto the street in the carnival atmosphere. Streets around the parade area are closed off at 8.30am, so if you're planning to drive, you'd better get up early.

Los Angeles Fusion: LGBT People Of Colour Film Festival

Nov - Dec (annual)
People Of Colour Film Festival is a non-competitive festival held over a three-day period celebrating works by and relating to non-white sexual minorities. Film screenings, workshops, spoken-word performances and seminars are held at the Japan American Theatre, the Egyptian Theatre and Barnsdall Park.First held in 2002, the festival was founded by HBO in collaboration with a diverse number of local art, activist and community organisations as an extension of OUTFEST.

Whale Fiestal

Jan (annual)
Start the whale watching season in Los Angeles at the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium's annual Whale Fiesta. This fun-filled day for all the family includes the famous Duct Tape Whale Sculpture Contest, the Great Cetacean Creation Sand Sculpture Contest, talks by whale experts, music and food.

Arnie Morton's Steakhouse

Cuisine Steak, Seafood

The best steakhouse in Downtown is Arnie Morton's.You'll often see both movie and sports celebrities here. Located below street level, the windowless restaurant has that old-fashioned Midwestern steakhouse feel to it.There's no menu to peruse; rather, the waiter pushes a cart to your table and does a well-rehearsed show-and-tell presentation of the meats, vegetables, and seafood

Border Grill

Cuisine Mexican

The huge Mexican restaurant in West Hollywood. The most flavorful and unique Mexican dish you've ever had: tender roast duck, guajillo chile sauce, and roasted sweet peppers, then topped with an exquisite cranberry salsa. For dessert, you have to try Tres Leches (a melt-in-your-mouth milk cake with passion fruit and prickly pear sauces) and Aztec chocolate cake.The happy hour menu started

Cafe Del Rey

Cuisine California

Cafe Del Rey is one of those lively restaurants where everyone seems to be celebrating something on the company's tab. There's a terrific view of the marina's bobbing sailboats, particularly in the summer when the windows facing the harbor are open, creating an indoor-outdoor dining area. The exhibition kitchen focuses on creative preparations of fresh and seasonal foods.The Wine Spectator-award-winning wine list offers more than 340 selections.

Dar Maghreb

Cuisine Moroccan

Dinner at Dar Maghreb is an entertaining dining experience that improves exponentially the larger your party and the longer you linger.You'll feel like a guest in an ornately tiled palace as you dine at traditional tables on either low sofas or goatskin cushions.Nothing is available a la carte here. The fixed-price meal is a multicourse feast, starting with bread and traditional Moroccan salads.Perhaps it's the atmosphere that makes everyone eat more than they expected, but you'll be thankful that dessert is a simple fruit-and-nut basket.

Grace Dinner. Photo by gayle kingston

Grace

Cuisine New American

High ceilings, well-spaced tables, and soothing earth tones of orange, green, brown, and rose evoke a relaxed atmosphere at Grace. The dinner started with plump Kumamoto oysters with a trio of superb dipping sauces, a roast beet salad with grilled radicchio and onion marmalade, pumpkin risotto with sea urchin and sweet Maine shrimp. if you're going to splurge on a meal in L.A., Grace is where you'd go.

Jar. Photo by androog

Jar

Cuisine Modern Chop House

Jar offers everything you could hope for in a restaurant.A warm and relaxed setting, excellent service, and generous servings of reliably fantastic food. Everything makes is a lesson in quality and simplicity. The most popular dishes are the Niman Ranch char siu pork chops. An extensive wine list and martini menu are two good reasons to arrive early and stay for a nightcap at the beautiful Parisian-style bar.

Kings Road Cafe

Cuisine American

This is the cafe you wish was down the street from your place instead of that Starbucks.sunny sidewalk seating along bustling Beverly Boulevard, excellent coffee served in big bowl-like cups, great people-watching, attitude-free service, the occasional celebrity sighting, a huge magazine stand right next door, and fresh, healthy, inexpensive food served in large portions. It's open from morning until night, so you can drop by anytime for such local favorites as their banana-pecan buttermilk pancakes, fluffy French toast, spinach and shiitake mushroom omelet. You can pretty much count on waiting for an outside table on weekends

Lucques

Cuisine Franco-Mediterranean

The old brick building, is decorated colors with lighting that extends to the handsome enclosed patio. Fresh-from-the-farm produce, and an instinctive feel for the food of the Mediterranean. The short and oft-changed menu makes the most of unusual ingredients such as salt cod and oxtails.On Sundays, Lucques offers a bargain $40 prix-fixe three-course dinner from a weekly changing menu.

Providence restaurant in Los Angeles. Photo by whalt

Providence

Cuisine Modern American Seafood

The city's best seafood restaurant as one of L.A.'s finest seafood restaurants.It's a pleasure to just relax at this sleek, modern space and converse with Donato at the bar, so be sure to arrive a bit early.Recommend asking the waiter which are the evening's best dishes.Lastly, be sure to order anything makes with sea urchin, especially if you don't like sea urchin. we''ll convert you.

Toi on Sunset

Cuisine Thai

You will surprise to find possibly L.A.'s best bargain Thai food, authentically prepared and served.Menu highlights include chicken, coconut soup ,and the house specialty. chicken curry somen, a spicy dish with green curry and mint sauce spooned over thin Japanese rice noodles.Vegetarians will be pleased with the vast selection of meat-free items such as pad kee mao, rice noodles served spicy with tofu, mint, onions, peppers, and chile.And drinking glasses are cheap coffee-shop issue. In other words, it's all about the food and the scene neither will disappoint.

Photo by finishing-school

Craft & Folk Art Museum

This gallery, housed in a prominent Museum Row building, has grown into one of the city's largest. "Craft and folk art" encompasses everything from clothing, tools, religious artifacts, and other everyday objects to woodcarvings, papier-mâché, weaving, and metalwork. The museum displays folk objects from around the world. Be sure to stop in the funky, eclectic Museum Shop to peruse the wearable art, folk-art books, and various handmade crafts.

Hollywood Walk of Fame

Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Photo by MiguelOz

Since 1960, more than 2,200 celebrities have been honored along the world's most famous sidewalk. Millions of visitors are thrilled by the sight of famous names like James Dean,John Lennon,Marlon Brando,Rudolph Valentino,Marilyn Monroe,Elvis Presley,Greta Garbo,Louis Armstrong,Barbra Streisand,and Eddie Murphy.And at least 1 weekend a month, a group of fans calling themselves Star Polishers busy themselves scrubbing tarnished medallions.

Paramount Pictures. Photo by SpacePotato

Paramount Pictures

Paramount is the only major studio still located in Hollywood. which makes the 2-hour "cart tour" around its Hollywood headquarters far more historically enriching than the modern studios in Burbank (even the wrought-iron gates Gloria Swanson motored through in Sunset Boulevard are still there).The tour is both a historical ode to filmmaking and a real-life, behind-the-scenes look at a working movie and television facilities in day-to-day operation. Visits typically include a walk-through of the soundstages of TV shows or feature films, though you
can't enter while taping is taking place.After the tour, have lunch at the Paramount Studio's world-famous commissary; you never know who might drop in for a bite, and the food's pretty darn good.

Photo by Laughing Squid

The HOLLYWOOD Sign

These famous 50-foot-high white sheet-metal letters have come to symbolize the movie industry and the city itself.The full text originally read HOLLYWOODLAND and was lined with thousands of 20-watt bulbs around the letters.Officially completed in 1978, the 450-foot-long installation is now protected by a fence and motion detectors. The best view is from down below, at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Bronson Avenue.

Universal Studios Hollywood & CityWalk

Universal Studios Hollywood.
Photo by Sjors & Jennifer


Walt Disney Concert Hall
Photo by Christopher Chan


Warner Bros. Studios
Photo by Tony Peters

Today Universal is more than just one of the largest movie studios in the world. it's one of the largest theme parks as well. The main attraction continues to be the Studio Tour, a nearly 1-hour guided tram ride around the company's 420 acres. The route you pass stars' dressing rooms and production offices. Other attractions are more typical of high-tech theme-park fare, but all have a film or TV-oriented slant.The park's best attractions are the Mummy,Jurassic Park ,Terminator 2, and Shrek.

Walt Disney Concert Hall

The Walt Disney family insisted on the best and, with an initial gift of $50 million to build a world-class performance venue.The 45-minute self-guided tour is narrated by actor John Lithgow.There's almost always a rehearsal in progress and the acoustics are so good that there's no discreet way to sneak a peek.

Warner Bros. Studios

The Warner Brothers' "VIP Tour" takes visitors on a 2 1/4-hour jaunt around the world's busiest movie and TV studio.View of the inner workings of a motion picture and television studio: back-lot streets, sound stages, sets, and craft shops. The tour ends with a visit to the Warner Bros. Museum, which contains original costumes, props, sets, scripts, and correspondence from classic WB films and television shows.

Watts Towers & Art Center

The Watts Towers are truly a unique attraction, and the adjoining art gallery illustrates the fierce determination of area residents to maintain cultural integrity.The Towers -- the largest piece of folk art created by a single person -- are colorful, 99-foot-tall cement and steel sculptures ornamented with mosaics of bottles, seashells, cups, plates, pottery, and ceramic tiles. Closed in 1994 due to earthquake damage, the towers were triumphantly reopened in 2001 and now attract more than 20,000 visitors annually.