Looks like I'll be spending a week in L.A. this December, and I'll be free to do as I wish during the day (taking a vacation with the Wife, but she's got conferences during the day).

So, what's there to do in L.A.?

It'll be my first time in California. I've lived my whole life in N.Y. and N.J..

There are museums from the Getty to the Natural History to the Tar Pits to the Science Center to the Long Beach Aquarium. There are parks and gardens from Griffith Park and Observatory to the Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens. There's Chinatown and Little Tokyo and Koreatown and Olvera Street. There's the Hollywood sign and the Walk of Fame and Union Station. There are farmer's markets and fine restaurants. There are amusement parks from Knott's Berry Farm to Universal Studios to Disneyland to Magic Mountain. Thre are beaches and piers and the canals and boardwalks of Venice. There's Ports O'Call, the Queen Mary and Shoreline Village. Plenty to see and plenty to do :)

I'm not a fan of Los Angeles at all. It's one of my least favourite US cities. I think it is dirty, sprawling, and soulless.

But enough negativity. If you have never been there before, it can be interesting to go for a drive around Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive, Universal Studios is worth a look, and Hollywood is OK to see (once). My favourite place in the vicinity of Los Angeles is Disneyland, which I think is great.

Meh. I've been to San Fransisco and San Diego, but I never found a reason to go to L.A. (unless you want to be an actor/actress :lol: ).

I was in L.A. last week (for the first time), and I must agree with Harbourboy on the dirty, sprawling, and soulless part. I was there for only three days, of which I spend a whole day in Universal, so I didn't see everything, but I wasn't that impressed with what I saw.

Universal is fun, and it will keep you busy for a whole day. Especially the ride over the actual studios and filming sets is fun. The Hollywood sign is a must see attraction, but it wasn't that clearly visible with all the smog when I was there. If you want to see the Walk of Fame, go to the section near Grauman's Chinese Theatre (where stars put their imprints in concrete). You probably can't see the whole Walk of Fame, and the part near Grauman's has the biggest celebrities. Besides that, the rest of Hollywood Boulevard just looks like gone glory. December probably isn't the busiest season, but last week there were so many tourist on Grauman's Chinese Theatre that you could hardly read what all the celebrities wrote.

A walk over Rodeo Drive is something you can do when you're bored; it's just shops with clothes and stuff too expensive for any mortal person. I took a glimpse at Venice Beach and Santa Monica Pier, but the weather wasn't very nice that day, or else I would have taken a strowl over the beach.

All in all, I liked San Fransisco better and if I'm ever in that part of the US again, I might just skip Los Angeles completely.