Explore the Los Angeles Bucket List with a Twist

The last surviving model shark created for Steven Spielberg’s 1975 blockbuster Jaws, "Bruce" is just one of the priceless movie artifacts on view at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, designed by famed Italian architect Renzo Piano. Cinephiles will find something to love around every corner, from Dorothy's ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz, to the sled from Citizen Kane, to C-3PO and R2-D2 from the Star Wars franchise.

The Academy Awards get a nod with displays of gleaming Oscar statuettes and iconic costumes, including the infamous Bob Mackie ensemble that Cher wore to the Oscars in 1986, a year before she won Best Actress for Moonstruck.

Book the immersive Oscars Experience and feel your heart pound as you’re handed a replica Oscar (it’s heavy!) and give your acceptance speech. If you want to take a statuette home, the Museum Store sells Lego and gold-dusted chocolate versions.

Visitors interested in the craft of filmmaking should check out the fascinating Path to Cinema: Highlights from the Richard Balzer Collection, featuring pre-cinematic objects dating to the 1700s. Board of Trustees member Tom Hanks has said it's his favorite exhibit.

After learning about the movies, you can catch a screening at the 1,000-seat David Geffen Theater inside the futuristic, glass-domed Sphere Building. Keep an eye out for Spencer, a hawk that watches over the Sphere to ensure it isn’t besieged by pigeons. Get that bird an agent!

TIP: Buy your timed admission tickets at the museum’s website, where you can also make reservations at Fanny’s. The restaurant is named after showbiz legend Fanny Brice - Barbra Streisand won an Oscar for portraying her in Funny Girl.

Something thought-provoking awaits in every gallery and garden at the Getty Center, nestled in the Santa Monica Mountains. Opened in December 1997, the museum is home to Vincent van Gogh’s Irises, Paul Cézanne’s Still Life with Apples, a priceless collection of historic manuscripts, and one of the most impressive collections of photography in the world.

Many would argue that the Getty Center’s true masterwork is the museum itself, designed by Pritzker Prize winning architect Richard Meier. Built with 1.2 million square feet of stone, including 300,000 pieces of travertine quarried from Bagni di Tivoli in Italy, the 24-acre campus makes you feel like you’re on top of Mount Olympus - if Mount Olympus had a convenient monorail that took you to the top.

Of the center’s four idyllic gardens, the showstopper is the 134,000 square-foot Central Garden, designed by artist Robert Irwin. A stepping stone in the garden reads, “Always changing, never twice the same,” a fitting description of the feeling you get while exploring the space. Its maze-like walkways wind through 500 varieties of plants—bougainvillea, azaleas, lavender, and crepe myrtles - plus streams and a peaceful stone waterfall.

TIP: Download the GettyGuide app for themed audio tours in ten languages.

After a visit to Mount Wilson Observatory in 1912, businessman and philanthropist Griffith J. Griffith was inspired to build a shrine to the cosmos in the hills above Los Feliz. Opened to the public in May 1935, the Griffith Observatory is a world-class museum with a theater named after Star Trek’s Leonard Nimoy, scale models of the solar system, and a planetarium for a different kind of stargazing than you’d do in Hollywood.

Don't miss the Wilder Hall of the Eye, where the powerful Tesla coil is fired up several times a day, emitting lightning-like sparks and bursts of electric noise. The Observatory’s Tesla coil has been a beloved feature since 1937, when it was donated to the City of Los Angeles by Dr. Frederick Finch Strong.

While science is the Observatory’s raison d’être, the institution is also home to artistic treasures. Look up in the W. M. Keck Foundation Central Rotunda to view the Hugo Ballin Murals, painted in 1934. The ceiling mural depicts celestial mythological figures and the 12 constellations of the zodiac; the eight upper wall murals are centered on the "Advancement of Science."

After your visit, enjoy a picnic on the lawn in the shadow of the Astronomers Monument, which includes a statue of Sir Isaac Newton by George Stanley, who also sculpted the iconic Oscar statuette and the Muse statue at the Hollywood Bowl.

Speaking of the Oscars, make sure to visit the Rebel Without a Cause Monument, which celebrates the Observatory’s role in the iconic 1955 film, released a month after star James Dean's untimely death. A bust of Dean is perched on a ridge overlooking the Hollywood Sign, offering the perfect opportunity for a movie-worthy photo op.

TIP: Avoid parking hassles with the DASH Observatory/Los Feliz public bus. Connect via the Vermont/Sunset station of the Metro B Line (Red).

You can’t visit LA without seeing the Hollywood Sign - literally. On a clear day, its 50-foot-tall letters perched high in the Hollywood Hills are visible all the way from Downtown LA’s high rises to South LA's hilltop parks.

The Hollywood Sign has symbolized the glamour and magic of the movies for decades, but when it was first built in 1923 it had nothing to do with the film industry—the sign originally read “Hollywoodland” and was meant to be a temporary advertisement for a new subdivision of the same name in Beachwood Canyon below.

There are lots of ways to see the sign, but one of the best to enjoy an up-close view is a horseback ride at Sunset Ranch. Located at the top of Beachwood Drive, the ranch offers guided tours on Griffith Park’s miles of trails. You’ll feel like a Wild West desperado—or at least a movie cowboy—as you ride the rugged terrain, taking a break from the buzz of the city below. There are options for day and night tours, with spectacular views of the Griffith Observatory, the DTLA skyline, and of course, the Hollywood Sign.

If saddling up sounds intimidating, companies like Bikes & Hikes offer up-close tours on foot - just don’t go it alone and, whatever you do, don’t bug the neighbors.

TIP: For killer views of the sign on foot, check out the Mount Hollywood Trail, which begins in Griffith Park.

More than 2,700 stars line the world-famous Hollywood Walk of Fame, which stretches along both sides of Hollywood Boulevard from Gower Street to La Brea Avenue, and three blocks of Vine Street from Sunset Boulevard to Yucca Street. Grab an e-bike or a scooter to traverse the entire 1.3-mile walk. Start on the western end at the Hollywood & La Brea Gateway, an Art Deco monument designed by Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke that celebrates the magic of moviemaking.

The first star permanently installed on the Walk of Fame is located at 6100 Hollywood Blvd. and honors Stanley Kramer, the director/producer of classics like Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner and It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. Joanne Woodward - the Oscar-winning actress and widow of Paul Newman - is notable for being the first honoree photographed with their star, which is located in front of Ovation Hollywood at 6801 Hollywood Blvd. New stars are added to the Walk throughout the year - celebs have to be nominated by a third party. Recent additions include Michael B. Jordan, Ludacris, Ming-Na Wenand posthumous honorees Tupac Shakur and Carrie Fisher.

If you're looking for a particular star, the Walk's official website has a directory of every star, with its location and info on the honoree’s life and career. To see Muhammad Ali’s star, look up rather than down outside the Dolby Theatre. "The Greatest" asked that his star not be embedded in the sidewalk so that people wouldn’t step on the name of Muhammad.

TIP: Want to see a celeb get their star? Walk of Fame ceremonies are free and open to the public. Check the Walk of Fame website for more info.

Smack in the middle of modern LA - alongside world-class museums and towering office buildings in the Miracle Mile - 50,000 years of Southern California history gurgles in the prehistoric puddles of asphalt that make up the La Brea Tar Pits.

At this active excavation site, paleontologists are constantly at work - 3.5 million fossils have been recovered from the black pitch since the pits were discovered: skeletons of saber-toothed cats, mammoths, ground sloths, western horses, and dire wolves; all trapped in shallow pools of bubbling goo.

Museum exhibitions feature skeletons of some of the Pits’ most impressive finds, but it's much more than a showcase of artifacts. Visitors can watch paleontology in action at the Fossil Lab, where scientists clean, extract, and study fossils from Project 23. This excavation project has been active since 2006, when workers building a new parking deck for the adjacent Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) discovered a treasure trove of new fossils. During the summer, you can watch paleontologists sift through sticky asphalt at Pit 91, one of the longest-running urban paleontological excavation sites in the world.

TIP: Watch a life-size saber-toothed cat come to life in Ice Age Encounters, created in collaboration with the award-winning Jim Henson Company.

In March 1915, legendary movie producer Carl Laemmle opened the gates to Universal City, welcoming a reported 15,000 people to the world’s first community totally dedicated to filmmaking. More than a century later, Laemmle’s dream of a neverending movie rolls on at Universal Studios Hollywood, where millions of annual visitors get a behind-the-scenes look at a real working studio, experience thrilling rides, and guzzle mugs of Butterbeer.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter and Jurassic World: The Ride generate lots of excitement, but the hour-long Studio Tour is still one of the theme park’s biggest hits. Trams take visitors on a journey through the studio, past ersatz suburban streets and the Bates Motel from Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho; director Peter Jackson's King Kong: 360 3D; and Fast & Furious: Supercharged. New for 2022, you can see the original Jupiter’s Claim set from Jordan Peele’s horror epic, Nope.

The famed backlots include Courthouse Square (as seen in Back to the Future and To Kill a Mockingbird), Brownstone Street (Annie and The Sting), and Mediterranean Square (Three Amigos! and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest).

Elsewhere in the park, you can be immersed in Super Nintendo World; enjoy a Duff Beer on tap at Moe’s Tavern in Springfield; run wild through New York City in The Secret Life of Pets: Off the Leash; and stroll the shops of Hogsmeade. Find a moment of hope hidden in the darkness when Dark Arts at Hogwarts Castle lights up the sky with music and live special effects.

From September 7 to October 31, Halloween Horror Nights will bring some of the scariest films ever made to life with haunted houses, the Terror Tram, and Scare Zones throughout the park.

TIP: Save money on parking and take the Metro B Line (Red) to the Universal City/Studio City station. From there, a free shuttle will drop you off at the front gate.

Imagine gliding down a lush waterway with your sweetheart, a gondolier singing as he navigates canals lined with twinkling lights. That was the scene in Venice Beach shortly after the turn of the last century. The neighborhood’s famed network of canals was the brainchild of tobacco millionaire Abbot Kinney, who dreamed of developing a seaside resort that would have the fun of Coney Island and the cultural importance of Venice, Italy.

While none of Kinney’s original canals remain (they were filled in during the 1920s), the Short Line canals that were built afterward survive to this day. There are six in all, and each has a name: Sherman, Howland, Linnie, Carroll, Eastern, and Grand. In the early 90s, the canals underwent a dramatic restoration, and they are now the centerpiece of an eclectic neighborhood of distinctive bungalows and cottages.

Stroll along the canals and cross nine picturesque foot bridges - look for the herons, seagulls, and pelicans that call the area home. Even better, take out a paddleboard with tour companies like Paddle Method or SUP in Venice that offer private and group excursions. If you have a small engineless boat like a kayak or a canoe, you can put it in the water at the public launch at the end of the Grand Canal. The most magical time to paddle is at sunrise or sunset, when golden light shimmers on the water and the surrounding neighborhoods are quiet and calm.

TIP: Named for the father of the canals, nearby Abbot Kinney is a trendy street with upscale boutiques and acclaimed restaurants.

The 37 soundstages on the Warner Bros. Studios backlot have done a lot of duty over the years. In 1942, Stage 7 doubled as the interior of Rick’s Café in Casablanca. In 1985, Stage 16 was transformed for The Goonies into a coastal cavern in Oregon where One-Eyed Willy’s pirate ship was stranded. And in 1987, the cave where the tragically cool vampires from The Lost Boys hung out (pun intended) was constructed on Stage 12.

The Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood offers a crash course in the history of the pop culture powerhouse founded by brothers Harry, Sam, Albert, and Jack in 1923. The studio was long known for its hard-boiled dramas starring legends like Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, Bette Davis and Joan Blondell. Today, people take the tour to see sets from more recent properties, like The Big Bang Theory and Friends. Fans of the latter can actually grab a snack at Central Perk Café and then hang out in a recreation of Monica’s apartment. The tour will also take you through iconic backlots, interactive experiences, and the DC Super Heroes and Villains exhibit, where you can hold Wonder Woman’s golden lasso and check out the legendary Batmobile.

For some impromptu stargazing, watch for people zipping around in golf carts or on bicycles—it might be a celeb traveling between soundstages.

One of the coolest places to visit on the studio tour is the cavernous prop house, which contains thousands of pieces of furniture, household appliances, and accessories that bring sets to life.

TIP: During the tour, look for plaques affixed to various soundstages that list the iconic movies and TV shows shot within.

From 1931 to 1954, Sabato “Simon” Rodia worked alone to create 17 towering structures that would come to define South LA's landscape and inspire generations of artists and musicians from jazz legend Charles Mingus to sculptor Noah Purifoy. Rodia called his creation Nuestro Pueblo (“Our Town”) but today it’s best known as the Watts Towers.

Located on a triangular lot where Santa Ana Boulevard meets Graham Avenue, the towers have become an LA icon. The landmark’s calling card is the silhouette of the three tallest structures—open-work steel cones that climb as high as 99 1/2 feet—but you have to get closer to appreciate the details that make these towers a one-of-a-kind work of outsider art.

Embedded in the concrete that envelops the structures, colorful mosaics made from discarded bottles, broken tiles, and shells collected from local beaches tell a story that illuminates decades of LA history, from trends in soda and stoneware to the health of certain marine ecosystems.

Researchers from LACMA determined that much of the cracked and broken pottery Rodia used in his mosaics—mass-produced dishes, mugs, pitchers, and bowls—came from local manufacturers like Vernon Kilns in Vernon and Metlox Pottery in Manhattan Beach. Look closely at fragments lodged in the towers’ concrete surfaces, and you can see which pottery mill made the objects and get a feel for what would’ve been found in homes at the time.

The Watts Towers aren’t just for art buffs. Marine scientists have studied the shells Rodia embedded in the towers to determine which mollusks and gastropods were plentiful off the coast of Southern California during the 1930s and 40s.

TIP: You can’t venture inside the fence that surrounds the monument at the moment, but guided tours around the periphery are free and available several days a week. Check Wattstowers.org for the schedule.