Berlitz: Los Angeles Pocket Guide

• Publisher: Berlitz Travel
• ISBN:
  9781780047355
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Travel

Berlitz Pocket Guide Los Angeles combines insider tips with great colour photography to help you get the most out of the city's history and culture. This handy companion provides everything you need to truly get the most out of this city, from star spotting on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, to leisure time at Santa Monica Pier and Venice Beach. Handy maps on the cover flaps help you to get around with ease.

To inspire you, the book offers a rundown of the Top 10 Attractions in Los Angeles, followed by an itinerary for a Perfect Day in the city. The What to Do chapter is a snapshot of ways to spend your spare time, from nightlife and shopping to sports.

You'll also be armed with background information, including a brief history of the city and an Eating Out chapter covering its interesting cuisine.There are carefully chosen listings of the best hotels and restaurants, and an A-Z to give you all the practical information you will need.

Where To Go

To savor the abundant flavors of LA, you need a taste for adventure, a car (ideally), and a good map. Add savvy plans that keep you off the freeways during rush hour, and you will discover why Angelenos consider their home the center of the universe. Visit Hollywood by day for its remnants of old-time movie-world glamour, or after dark for its theaters and nightclubs. Star-gazing in Beverly Hills or a night out on the Sunset Strip are also favorite LA experiences. For culture, head for the Wilshire District’s Museum Row, the Westside’s Getty Center and Hammer Museum, or Pasadena’s superb art museums. Downtown has some of the city’s finest architecture, historic sites, and vibrant neighbourhoods offering a mix of ethnicities. And no trip to LA is complete without at least one day on the beach and a visit to the Santa Monica pier. The surrounding mountains and valleys, along with Orange County to the south, offer theme parks, historic missions and wildlife reserves. For a longer excursion, you can escape to Palm Springs or Catalina Island.

Tourist information

The city’s main visitor information centers are located at the Hollywood & Highland Center and downtown at 685 South Figueroa Street, but many areas of the metro region also have their own tourist offices.

Hollywood

‘Hollywood’ is not merely an actual place but, rather, a lifestyle unique to Los Angeles. While the city of Hollywood might once have had a glamorous reputation, during the past few decades the neighborhood, which stretches along the base of the northern hills emblazoned with the landmark Hollywood sign, deteriorated like a faded movie star. Now, thanks to a billion-dollar revitalization project, it’s making a major comeback as one of the city’s trendiest spots for shopping, dining, and night-time entertainment.

Tinseltown Triumphs

The Hollywood sign over Beachwood Canyon is perhaps the most recognized landmark in LA and a favorite photo background. Originally constructed in 1923 to promote real-estate sales in the neighborhood then called ‘Hollywoodland,’ the 50ft (15m) letters were abbreviated in later years and replaced due to age in 1978. Even though you can’t get close enough to the sign to touch it (it has a security system surrounding it, but a challenging hike via Griffith Park will bring you pretty close), it’s still a powerful and beloved symbol, reminding visitors of Los Angeles’ status as the center of the fast and glamorous world of movie making.

A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

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Equally famous is the Hollywood Walk of Fame 1 [map]. The ‘walk’ refers to the legwork you’ll need to do to check out the 2,300 or so bronze-and-terrazzo stars embedded in the pavement to honor celebrities in the music and entertainment industries. Stars stretch for a total of 3.5 miles (5.5km) along Hollywood Boulevard from La Brea Avenue to Gower Street, and along Vine Street from Yucca Street to Sunset Boulevard. Among the most sought-after are those of Marilyn Monroe (in front of McDonald’s at 6774 Hollywood Boulevard), Charlie Chaplin (at 6751), and John Wayne (1541 Vine). To find the location of your favorite, visit www.walkoffame.com/starfinder. What does it take to get one’s name on a star? You must be nominated to the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and, if selected, come up with $25,000 to pay for your star.

Grauman’s Chinese Theatre at night

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Grauman’s Chinese Theatre 2 [map] (6925 Hollywood Boulevard; tel: [phone] for tours; www.chinesetheatres.com), which you can’t miss due to its flashy Chinese temple-style architecture and the swarms of tourists out front, is one of the other worthwhile stops on Hollywood Boulevard. While current films are still shown here, the real attraction is the exterior courtyard, where autographs, handprints and footprints in cement commemorate Hollywood’s greatest celebrities. This Art-Deco picture palace, originally called The Grauman, was built by the great showman Sid Grauman in 1927. The courtyard tradition allegedly began at the opening, when actress Norma Talmadge accidentally stepped in wet cement. Among the famous signatures, you can also spot such unusual impressions as Jimmy Durante’s nose and the hoof prints of Gene Autry’s horse, Champion.

Adjacent to the Grauman is the glamorous Hollywood & Highland shopping and entertainment complex, focal point of the city’s renovation. It includes the gorgeous Kodak Theatre, permanent home of the Academy Awards; the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel; and Babylon Court, modeled after the set from the 1916 film Intolerance, with a grand staircase, 33ft (10m) pillars topped by a pair of elephants, and an archway that frames the Hollywood sign in the background. The Visitor Information Center is the place to pick up half-price theater tickets to shows playing throughout the city. Tickets become available on Tuesdays for productions running that week, so you can book ahead as well as attend same-day shows.

While Grauman’s is undoubtedly the hotspot for your ‘That’s-me-in-Hollywood!’ snapshots, the area’s other landmark cinemas deserve a peek as well. Citizen Kane premiered in 1941 at the Moorish-style El Capitan Theatre (6838 Hollywood Boulevard), which today is a primary venue for Disney films. The Egyptian Theatre (6712 Hollywood Boulevard) was Hollywood’s first movie palace, built by Grauman in 1922 after the discovery of Tutankhamen’s tomb. Restored in 1998, it shows classic and independent films and has backstage tours once a month (tel: [phone]; www.egyptiantheatre.com). Also noteworthy is the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel (7000 Hollywood Boulevard; tel: [phone]; www.hollywoodroosevelt.com), which established itself as the hotel of the film world when it opened in 1927. Just two years later, in 1929, the landmark building hosted the first public Oscar ceremony; it was also home to Marilyn Monroe for eight years. Its lobby features hand-painted ceilings and Spanish-revival décor of wrought-iron grillwork. On display on the mezzanine floor are historic Hollywood photographs and other memorabilia.

The former Max Factor Building, an Art-Deco gem, houses the Hollywood Museum (1660 N. Highland Avenue; tel: [phone]; www.thehollywoodmuseum.com; Wed–Sun 10am–5pm; charge). It contains some 5,000 artifacts of movie memorabilia, including costumes, props, posters, and photographs. Hollywood glamour is highlighted in the Max Factor exhibit of movie stars’ dressing rooms and make-up cases.

Oscars

A gold-plated bronze figure standing on a reel of film holds a sword upright: this prestigious statuette has been awarded since 1928 for what the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences judge the year’s best achievements in film, for everybody from actors and directors to scriptwriters, costume designers, and technical and effects artists. Why the name Oscar? Until 1931 the statuette had no name, until an obscure Academy librarian, Margaret Herrick (who eventually became its executive director), gave it the nickname because of its resemblance to her Uncle Oscar. The nickname stuck after it was reported in an article in a local newspaper.

Strictly Tourist

Clustered together on Hollywood Boul...