Los Angeles is the most famous city in California and only a few hours from Las Vegas. The city has many tourist attractions that are well worth a visit and there are tours that take you to the main sights in one, two or three days. See a little about the city and get inspired!
Los Angeles is known as The Empire of the West and the tallest building in the western United States, right in the center, is one of its best-known symbols. Also called LA , its main characteristic is the profusion of highways on all sides.
The 2the largest American city, more than any other place in the world, was built for automobiles. It has an area of approximately 100×80 km, made up of diverse communities, ethnicities, languages, colors and creeds, where dozens of municipalities have been gradually spliced together.
A stroll through the city center can be very glamorous! Just a short walk away, you’ll discover the most elegant shopping centers, frequented by well-dressed men and women getting out of gleaming cars.
Of the various municipalities that make up the greater Los Angeles area, one of the most pleasant and sought-after is Anaheim, famous for hosting Disneyland (Disneyland) – the first of the Disney parks. AnaheimThe photo opposite shows the statue of Walt Disney holding hands with Mickey, with Sleeping Beauty Castle in the background.
Due to its status as the main tourist attraction in the LA region, Anaheim concentrates a range of new hotels and motels with very attractive prices, excellent facilities, good department stores and everything else a tourist could want for entertainment, shopping and so on.
In addition to Disney, another park worth a visit is the Knotts Berry Farm, south of Buena Park. The Knotts Berry Farm was the first theme park in the USA, known as the Snoopy Park or Charlie Brown Park.
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The most elegant areas of the city are the neighborhoods of Beverly Hills, Bel Air, Westwood Village and Brentwood.
Beverly Hills is the most beautiful neighborhood in Los Angeles and another visit not to be missed. Between these palm-lined streets are the mansions of many well-known movie stars. Magazine stands sell an illustrated map showing the location of the home of each artist or music star living in Beverly Hills. For those who prefer, there are also several tours where you can see these mansions. The main points of commerce in the neighborhood are Beverly Center, fantastic 7-storey shopping mall, and in the exclusive Rodeo Drive, the street where the city’s most expensive and fashionable designer stores are located. The mall is great and worth a little shopping, although the Rodeo Drive is not very suitable for tourists who don’t want to spend too much.
Another popular spot in the city is Little Tokyo (in the center, between 1st and 3rd), where the cultural life of the Japanese community is concentrated. In the area around the Japanese Village Plaza there are dozens of restaurants, bookstores and stores selling typical Japanese products.
LA also has its beaches. Santa Monica is the closest of all and in practice serves as a kind of Los Angeles playground; Its main feature is that famous pier who always appears in movies; It has a roller coaster, rides and a Ferris wheel powered by solar energy. People of all kinds gather there to play sports, play music or just go for a walk, especially at weekends.
A little further south of Santa Monica lies Venice, which got its name because of the large number of canals, similarity to its ‘cousin’ Italian. It’s also a pleasant place to walk around and is reminiscent of a small beach town, with restaurants, shops, handicrafts and a lifestyle in no way similar to the hustle and bustle of Los Angeles.
Hollywood is the most famous area of greater Los Angeles. It is actually an independent municipality, but in practice it has been swallowed up by the megalopolis. The region made a name for itself during the 1920s, when the big movie studios left the east coast in search of cheaper land and found a quiet location there, with land at a bargain price and a great climate, where it hardly ever rained. It was the ideal location for the construction of large studios and in a short time Fox, RKO, Metro, Paramount and several other companies have transformed Hollywood in the cathedral of American cinema and a magical name in the rest of the world.
A new lease of life Hollywood Boulevard happened with the inauguration of the Kodak Theatre (currently called Double Theatre), the majestic building where the annual awards ceremony of the Film Academy of Hollywood, the Oscars; Although at night this is not a very recommendable neighborhood, during the day it is full of tourists and great fun to walk along the Walk of Fame, adorned with thousands of stars, each with the name of a music, film or theater celebrity. It is interesting to note that the location of each star is directly linked to the importance of the name represented. While up-and-coming names are in the most upmarket locations on the avenue, forgotten artists are in more remote or decadent areas.
The Chinese Theater (Chinese Theater) is one of the largest theaters in the city and many premieres of the great productions of Hollywood take place there. But the main reason for this place’s fame are the marks in the concrete of the sidewalk of the feet, hands, arms or legs of a multitude of current and past movie stars. It’s exciting to see the handprints of Carmen Miranda, Clark Gable, John Wayne, Gene Kelly, Marylin Monroe, Frank Sinatra, Bette Davis, Eddie Murphy, Jack Nickolson, Donald Duck, and many more, including Michael Jackson’s glove handprint next to the hands of the pop star’s children.
In the photos above you can see the façade and the concrete floor at the entrance to the Chinese Theater. Incidentally, the correct name of this venue is Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in reference to Sid Grauman, the tycoon who built this luxurious building and several others in Hollywood. In its golden age, it was said that going to Los Angeles and not visiting the Chinese Theater was like visiting China and not seeing the great wall. It’s interesting to note that several autographs left by artists on the concrete have dedications to Sid.
Another interesting visit is to Hollywood Bowl, one of the largest amphitheaters in the world; Its program of events is constant and of a high standard, from rock concerts to symphony orchestras. It was there that the Beatles gave two historic performances. On the way back, pass by Century City, a huge open shopping mall built where the old Twenty Century Fox.
To the north of the city are the studios of Universal Pictures (Universal Studio), another great place to spend the day. Most of the films and television series produced by Universal are made there and the park is similar to those in Florida, with many attractions for the whole family.
Anyone who happens to be in Los Angeles at the beginning of the year and doesn’t have a program can go straight to Pasadena, north of the city, to attend one of the country’s best-known and most traditional events, the Rose Paradea parade of floats made from roses and other flowers. For over a hundred years, this event has monopolized the country’s attention and has been broadcast on TV. It used to take place on January 1st, but now it’s on January 2nd.
Los Angeles is also surrounded by two mountain ranges, San Gabriel and Santa Monica. To get there just follow the Mulholland Drive. From its highest point you can enjoy one of the best views of the city, as well as being an excellent place for walks in the middle of nature. Further on, at the junction of highways 5 and 14, is Six Flag Magic Mountain, amusement park with many attractions and huge roller coasters.
Further west are the regions of San Fernando Valley (famous for its computer and high-tech equipment industries), San Gabriel Valley (which became known for its oranges, lemons, and walnuts), and Pasadena (with beautiful gardens and some of the best museums in the city).
The Glendale is famous for being the largest community of Armenians outside that country, and also for its Forest Lawn, an incredible cemetery-park-museum; Anyone who goes there shouldn’t miss the The Crucifixion, the largest religious painting in the world, measuring 60 x 13 meters!
East of Los Angeles are two famous natural parks: Lake Arrowhead and Big Bear Lake. Another famous spot is the Joshua Three National Monument, where there are the Yucca trees, huge trees with a strange shape, called Joshua by the old Mormon pioneers.
In short, there are many, many attractions in Los Angeles and to describe them all without mentioning any is almost utopian.
Part of the text was written by Douglas and Regina, owners of the tourism website viagensimagens.com, whose publication has been previously authorized for Vegas Brazil.
