Michael Juliano

Don’t get us wrong, we love a good hike—particularly these best hikes—but sometimes we want to show off a stunning vista to out-of-towners who aren’t in the mood for an uphill climb. There are plenty of other days, too, when we’re feelng a little lazy and just want catch a stunning sunset without breaking a sweat. When you’re searching for scenic views but don’t want to stray too far from your car or the Metro, here are the best spots to see the city—from atop one of the city’s best parks to a Downtown L.A. skyscraper.

We don’t know about you, but our mind is always focused on the weekend. It can never come soon enough—which is why we’re already thinking about what new restaurants we want to try or where we can drive for the day. Whether you’re looking to scope out the latest museum exhibitions or watch a movie outdoors, you’ll find plenty of things to do in L.A. this weekend. We curate an L.A. weekend itinerary of the city’s best concerts, culture and cuisine, every week, just for you.

Walk in the footsteps of your favourite actors and put yourself right in the middle of the action with these Los Angeles studio tours that would make any film buff go nuts. That quiet East Coast cul-de-sac? A fake residential block at Universal Studios. That New York cityscape? The backlot at Warner Bros. Studios. An elaborate sci-fi ship? That would be a soundstage at Sony Pictures Studios. Give the beaches, botanical garden and shopping districts a break and spend the day exploring some of the most iconic sets to ever feature on the silver screen. From Culver City to Hollywood, take a peek behind the soundstage doors with these studio tours in Los Angeles. RECOMMENDED: 🍲 The best restaurants in Los Angeles🏠 The best Airbnbs in Los Angeles🏨 The best hotels with views in Los Angeles This guide was written by Michael Juliano, an editor based in Los Angeles. At Time Out, all of our travel guides are written by local writers who know their cities inside out. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines.

What’s the deal with Hollywood? Let’s start with the bad news: Hollywood can be pretty disappointing. Yes, there are still some movie studios here, and yes, there’s some worthwhile history. But it’s probably not the Tinseltown paradise you’re expecting: Hollywood is basically just a district in L.A. with a lot less glitz and moviemaking magic than you’d hope for and a lot more decay and traffic. But here’s the good news: Hollywood (the neighborhood, that is—certainly not the industry) is having a bit of a moment in recent years. High-end celebrity hangouts and hotel bars feel right at home with tucked-away cocktail bars and bespoke coffee shops—and there seem to be more and more by the day. Where exactly is Hollywood? Hollywood is centrally located within Los Angeles, served by the 101 freeway and multiple Metro B Line stops. The sizable area greets the scenic Hollywood Hills to the north, as well as Universal Studios just on the other side of the hill; stylish West Hollywood and the eclectic Fairfax District to the west; lively Koreatown and adorable Larchmont Village to the south; and a slew of neighborhoods to the east, including East Hollywood, Thai Town and Los Feliz. Is Hollywood part of Los Angeles? Yes, Hollywood is simply a neighborhood within the City of Los Angeles, and has been since 1910. What will you find in Hollywood? Well, you know, other than disappointment: the sort of big-name attractions you’ve seen in movies and on TV, including the Walk of Fame, the Chi

Outdoor movies combine two things we love about L.A.: an appreciation of movie-making and spending as much time as possible outside. Alfresco screenings usually start to pop up across the city in the early spring and continue into the fall and holiday season, be it atop rooftop bars, at L.A.’s best parks or even at a Hollywood cemetery. Most of our favorite outdoor series fall into two formats: Alfresco screenings where moviegoers bring their own chair or blanket and can pack together some picnic food, and rooftop ones where you’ll be offered a seat and some on-site snacks as you catch films both old and new. (If you’re looking for a fun date idea, this one takes the cake.) Be sure to check back all year long for updates on the list, as new screenings are always being added. Looking to see a new movie any night of the week? Check out the best movie theaters in L.A. or the few remaining old-school drive-in movie theaters. And for some at-home inspiration, you can always catch up on the best L.A. movies of all time. For screenings with multiple movies on a single night, each film is separately ticketed unless otherwise noted. Also, movie selections tend to change, but we’ll do our best to keep the list below updated on a weekly basis. A month-by-month calendar of L.A.’s outdoor movies July July 1 Rooftop Cinema Club presents Grease at LEVEL DTLA. July 2 Rooftop Cinema Club presents White Chicks at LEVEL DTLA. July 3 Rooftop Cinema Club presents Drive Me Crazy at LEVEL DTLA. Jul

You don’t have to get on a plane to feel like you’re in another country. Southern California is dotted with gorgeous, quaint destinations—all of them perfect for a weekend getaway from L.A. These easy, mostly affordable road trips are all within a three-hour scenic drive (or ferry ride) of the city. Once you arrive at your destination, partake in some of the local specialties: beach-lounging, wine-drinking, hiking and dining. Oh ,and there’s some pretty good shopping and thrifting in the mix, too. Let these weekend getaways from L.A. be your roadmap to a magical world within SoCal.  RECOMMENDED: The best day trips from L.A.  This article includes affiliate links. These links have no influence on our editorial content. For more information, click here.

August may signal summer’s home stretch, but that doesn’t mean the seasonal vibes need to end. Grab an ice cream cone, splash around in a swimming hole or dine on a rooftop—and make sure to follow our August events calendar for the best activities in L.A. this month. RECOMMENDED: Full events calendar for 2024

If we could write the rules of living in Los Angeles this would be our No. 1, always at the top of our list: When you live in this city, there’s no excuse for boredom just because it’s a weeknight. There are hundreds of things to do in Los Angeles each week, whether you hit the beach at sunset or go for a morning bike ride, or catch a concert or a comedy show—and that’s really only scratching the surface. Well, we don’t make the rules, but we will provide you with plenty of ideas for your next free weeknight right here. Now go out and tackle these things to do in L.A. this week.

If the price of gas has finally worn you down (along with the monthly cost of auto loans and insurance plus occasional repairs and parking tickets), it might be time to (at least occasionally) break up with your car and opt for something more reasonably priced. Yes, your own car will always be the most convenient transit option in L.A., but it’s certainly not the most affordable one—and not necessarily always the quickest either. So we’ve decided to help you out and highlight the best cheap transportation alternatives for getting around L.A. Not too long ago, Uber and Lyft absolutely would’ve been on this list, and likely our go-to pick. But with prices (and often wait times) way up in recent years, we can’t recommend them as a “cheap” option anymore. We have, however, found six other options (most of them car-free) to make your way around L.A. while staying within budget, whether for everyday errands or a fun day trip.

A few decades ago, DTLA never would’ve landed on any out-of-towner itineraries: There simply were’t enough things to do in Downtown Los Angeles, aside from witnessing a once-buzzing city center slump into a mix of stoic postmodern high-rises and vacant storefronts. These days, it’s a mostly different story—though one that’s been unquestionably impacted by the uncertainties of the past few years. Downtown’s momentum has absolutely slowed down since 2020, when it was arguably just hitting its stride: The area was in the midst of a retail, institutional and architectural resurgence that was turning the area into a more walkable, Metro-friendly destination dotted with museums, superlative restaurants and beautiful buildings. That’s still all true on paper, but it’s definitely not quite as buzzing as it was a few years ago. Still, we think it’s worth getting to know Bunker Hill, the Historic Core and beyond with these things to do in Downtown Los Angeles. Just a heads up: Though it’s home to L.A.’s biggest cluster of tall buildings, DTLA feels pretty different from most other cities’ downtown areas. For starters, L.A.’s cultural destinations are spread all over the city and not just in Downtown. And as for the neighborhood itself, it likely won’t have the sheen you’d expect from a major American downtown; most blocks aren’t really conducive to family-friendly touristy activities, and some simply don’t feel safe. But we think there are plenty of incredible finds for visitors who ar

It’s not too tricky to score an invite to the Magic Castle, Hollywood’s members-only magician clubhouse. Since 1963, the century-old Victorian mansion has served as the sort-of-secretive home base for the Academy of Magical Arts. Step inside—reservations and formal dress are required, and no photos, please—and you’ll find performance parlors, secret doors, mysterious illusions and—well, we don’t want to ruin all of the surprises in store. Instead of spending years practicing your craft as a wannabe magician, you can gain access to the Magic Castle via these ways below (ranked from easiest to most difficult).  

There are more things to do in West Hollywood than just a drunken gallivant on the Sunset Strip—not that we’re necessarily advising against that. The music venues along Sunset Boulevard and the colorful gay bars on Santa Monica Boulevard are ingrained in the city’s identity, but you’ll also find art galleries, parks and architecturally significant homes inside of WeHo’s irregularly shaped border. Explore the best of the city with these 17 things to do in West Hollywood. RECOMMENDED: See more in our guide to West Hollywood

Desert Daze is your antidote to the typical desert gathering (think a noisier, more indie lineup than Coachella and less dirt than Burning Man). Though it’s close enough to L.A. to go just for the day, the fest caters to campers with easy access to hiking trails and a bazaar of mystics and wanderers. After last year’s series of closer-to-home concerts, Desert Daze is back at Lake Perris from October 10 to 13 in full-blown festival form. Jack White, Cigarettes After Sex, Alex G and the Mars Volta headline the 2024 edition, with additional sets from Thundercat, Fleet Foxes, 100 Gecs, Sleep, Liz Phair, De La Soul, Marc Rebillet and more—including a Gold Diggers-curated jazz tent and a set from Death From Above 1979 playing You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine in full. It’s not just music, either: You can see Bikini Kill’s Kathleen Hanna read from her memoir, in conversation with the Mars Volta’s Cedric Bixler-Zavala. Courtesy Desert Daze

For all those mythical Clippers fans in L.A., you finally have a brand-new basketball arena of your own: Intuit Dome, a slick-looking billion-dollar-plus music and sports venue in Inglewood across from SoFi Stadium and just down the street from the Forum, where the team’s now-crosstown rivals the Lakers once played. You’ll find installations from local all-star artists across the grounds and plenty of technology-forward touches inside, including an arena-encircling two-sided scoreboard (with T-shirt cannons built in), USB-C power outlets at every seat and a pay-with-your-face checkout for concessions. Look out for the section dubbed “the Wall,” a steep soccer-style seating area reserved solely for Clippers fans.

In a city full of storybook architecture, it’s fitting that this one-time motel has been given a cottagecore glow-up. But Le Petit Pali doesn’t resort to kitsch: This is an adorably stylish and highly recommended boutique option, one that’s on a residential-bordering corner just a block from town, and it’s (usually) priced a little more than the area’s many roadside inns but less than its luxury villas. There are actually two new Palisociety-managed hotels in Carmel about two blocks from each other, both with essentially the same decorative touches but different building layouts. The 34-room Le Petit Pali Ocean Avenue is centered around a parking lot with a small outdoor terrace off of its airy lobby; the 24-room 8th Avenue location fills its courtyard with shaded cafe tables and Adirondack chairs, though you’re limited to street parking (we always managed to find a spot within a couple of blocks during our weekday visit). We were provided with a fireplace suite for our 8th Avenue stay, though if we were to visit again we’d be more than happy to settle for the smaller king room—chances are you’ll be spending most of your time alfresco anyway. In any configuration, the accommodations are just perfectly dapper, a cross between Craftsman cozy and Parisian chic with botanical patterns that add pops of color to an earthy palette. The bed is quite comfy, the Diptyque soaps smell like a pastoral grove and the rain shower is just superb. The hardwood floors are handsome though a litt

It isn’t summer in L.A. until the first cemetery screening brings hoards of movie-lovers to Hollywood Forever, toting folding chairs, picnic blankets, snack spreads and lots of booze. Each year, Cinespia brings classic cult favorites to the hallowed resting place of such Hollywood greats as Rudolph Valentino and Bugsy Siegel. The series typically releases its slate one month at a time, with summertime screenings at the cemetery and a few off-site ones on either end (usually at L.A. State Historic Park). For each evening at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, pack a picnic (yes, booze is allowed), pose in the photo booth and enjoy DJ sets, dance parties and all sorts of other magical mischief that’d otherwise be strictly forbidden behind the cemetery gates. The outdoor screenings are an L.A. rite of passage, a quintessential summer experience and one of the best film venues in the city. Just be sure to get your ticket early, arrive early, pee early… it’s a popular affair, to say the least.

Ready or not, spooky season is slowly stalking its way ever closer. The clearest sign? Universal Studios has already announced the first of its haunted houses set inhabit its Hollywood-adjacent theme park for Halloween Horror Nights. A Quiet Place will be getting its own haunted house at Universal Studios Hollywood this year (as well as the theme park’s Orlando location). Specifically, the attraction will take inspiration from the first two films in the series, so expect more silent dread and less city destruction à la the recent Day One. You’ll travel through the Abbott family’s farmhouse shelter with sound design that “mirrors the silence in the films” and includes the incorporation of American Sign Language. That’s in addition to an icy, New York-set haunted house inspired by Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, a demonic one dubbed “Insidious: The Further” (inspired by the Blumhouse franchise) as well as the return of “Monstruos 2: The Nightmare of Latin America” and “Dead Exposure: Death Valley.” In the coming months you can expect another handful of haunted houses to fill out the rest of the HHN lineup. Halloween Horror Nights will run on select evenings from September 5 to November 3. Tickets cost $77 to $107, depending on the night; with Express Pass add-ons, options range from $209 to $309. See more of the best haunted houses in L.A.

Walk around the leafy grounds of this suburban Sylmar sanctuary to see everything from monkeys to foxes—and school trips and birthday parties. For hands-on photo ops, request a close encounter with a porcupine, a two-toed sloth or a giraffe. Make sure to say hi to Zeus, the starry-eyed blind owl in the gift shop. Unlike many other spots on this list, you can swing by without a reservation any day for general admission pricing—though private tours and animal encounters come with steeper fees.

Where do animal actors go when they retire? If they’re lucky, they get to go to this Agua Dulce backyard. Stacy Gunderson, a veteran Hollywood animal trainer, cares for injured or rejected exotic animals—on our first visit we met residents like Jabba the bullfrog and Luke Skywalker, a squirrel monkey born at the Playboy Mansion—at this family-run nonprofit. The 75-minute tour is as educational as it is hands on; we had opportunities to pet everything from a hybrid wolf to a baboon.

Well, well, well, what have we here? The Nightmare Before Christmas’s bug-stuffed sack is once again taking over the Halloween duties at Disneyland for Oogie Boogie Bash, an after-hours, specially ticketed seasonal event at Disney California Adventure Park. Here’s the gist if you’ve never been to one of Disneyland’s seasonal parties: Halloween spirits begin to materialize around both parks before Labor Day with glowing decorations and spooky ride overlays, but this five-hour ticketed event (held on select nights from late August through October) throws in a bunch of exclusive Halloween entertainment with the promise of considerably shorter wait times for select rides. You’ll find a mix of longstanding Halloween fixtures and more recent additions at Disney California Adventure for the event: trick-or-treating trails, kid-friendly shows, the Headless Horseman-led Frightfully Fun Parade and the maze-like Villains Grove. As for end-of-night entertainment, the World of Color show “Villanous!” that debuted in 2019 never made it back onto the lineup; instead, you’ll need to pick up a general admission ticket to Disneyland, which will shoot off its “Halloween Screams” fireworks show. The perks of the after-hours event aren’t just Halloween-y: You’ll be able to venture through and hop on rides in most areas of the park, including at Avengers Campus (the Guardians of the Galaxy ride that predates the land usually flips to its Monsters After Dark edition).  The bad news: Tickets—which a

Though its rides may not match Disneyland’s charm or Six Flags Magic Mountain’s sheer terror, Universal Studios Hollywood’s hillside theme park offers its own amusing identity a few truly worthwhile thrills fueled by silver-screen memories plus a little bit of actual Hollywood magic. There are some absolute winners here, including the Nintendo, Harry Potter and Jurassic World lands, which we dive into in depth below. Speaking of depths, the park is split between two main levels with a series of escalators between: On the thrill-filled lower lot, the Transformers ride is a slick but muddy crash course in Michael Bay robot carnage, while Revenge of the Mummy is a short but action-packed coaster launch through a movie property you may have otherwise forgotten. (The area is also home to the standout Nintendo and Jurassic World areas.) You’ll find a mix of 3-D movies and stage shows—of all things, Waterworld is an entertaining highlight—on the upper lot, as well as themed areas and attractions for Harry Potter, Despicable Me and The Simpsons. Kids will appreciate Minion Mayhem and the adjacent Super Silly Fun Land, though neither are quite as engaging as you’d wish. On the other hand, The Secret Life of Pets: Off the Leash is easily the park’s most charming attraction, a family-friendly dark ride filled with troublemaking, wisecracking dog and cat animatronics. If you can stomach the nauseating Simpsons Ride, you’ll be rewarded with a bit of clever and wild entertainment. The adja

Best known for her rhinestone-studded paintings of Black women, collages of old Jet Magazine spreads and revisions of historic paintings, Thomas’s large-scale works (80 of them from the past two decades) are on display at the Broad. The Downtown museum’s transportive exhibition includes recreations of the elaborate tableaus that Thomas often poses her models in—including a pair of scenes of her mother’s New Jersey home that start the exhibition. Those intimate details run throughout, including in a living room-like lounge in the show’s largest gallery, as well as stacks of books from Black feminist and queer writers that’ve been placed throughout. Swing by on Thursday evenings for free entry, but on any other day, the exhibition is absolutely worth the $22 cost of entry.

Everyone’s favorite NPR member station has a hand in a slew of summer concert slates at public plazas and beloved museums, and this summer’s schedule is particularly packed. Familiar KCRW DJs and local buzz bands will be providing free, open-air tunes on select nights from June through September at Union Station, CAAM, Descanso Gardens, Bowers Museum, Century Park, the Autry, KCRW’s Santa Monica headquarters and—our favorite—the party-till-midnight bashes at Chinatown Central Plaza. The details slightly differ at each spot, but you can typically expect a bunch of food trucks, beer gardens and after-hours museum admission. Regardless of the location, you really can’t go wrong with any evening spent at Summer Nights.

Hilltop sunset views and rising bands combine to make this Getty tradition a worthy destination for Angelenos on both sides of the 405. This year’s lineup of free Saturday night shows includes Hailu Mergia (June 1), Slauson Malone 1 (June 15), Helado Negro (July 20), Julia Holter (July 27) and Woods (Aug 24). Tip: Avoid the traffic and the crowds and arrive early, preferably after 3pm when the parking price drops to $15 (though it’s $10 if you wait until the show starts). You’ll get to visit the exhibits, which stay open until 8pm on Saturdays, and beat the dinner rush.

“If all mankind could look through that telescope, it would change the world,” reads a quote in the lobby of L.A.’s beloved Griffith Observatory, attributed to its benefactor Griffith J. Griffith. Well, according to a recent data crunch, the only thing holding us all back from celestially-inspired enlightenment is… more parking? At least, that’s the finding from a study-of-sorts by Moneybarn, which factored in things like cost, availability and reviews to assign ratings to the parking situation at the world’s most popular tourist attractions. And while Griffith Observatory ranked third-to-last in overall parking ratings, it was the very worst by a wide margin when it came to the number of one-star Tripadvisor reviews that mention the word “parking.” Now, we have some mixed feelings about this, but let’s first quickly acknowledge that, yes, parking is expensive and sometimes impossible to find at the hilltop destination. But you can avoid most of the mess by just taking a DASH bus from Los Feliz for only 50 cents—or 35 cents if you have a TAP card. Alternatively, if you don’t mind turning your observatory trip into a proper hike, there are free lots near the Greek Theatre (only when there’s not a concert) as well as along Fern Dell Drive. Alright, so back to the rankings: We tend to have a love-hate relationship with these “studies,” which in this case was put out by an English car financing company. Is it scientific? Absolutely not. But there is some logical methodology behin

“Who was that?” a woman asks me as I wrap up a conversation with Doug Emhoff at Brentwood Country Mart. “The VP’s husband,” I tell her. “The VP of what?” she replies. “The country.” You might not realize it, but the first-ever Second Gentleman of the United States—that is, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris—is an Angeleno, and when he’s not in Washington, D.C. or traveling the world on White House business, there’s a good chance you may run into him ordering a cup of coffee (always black) at RustiCoffee or hiking the Santa Monica Stairs. Of course, he’s busy, even during his rare trips home where his Westside existence has to compete for time with his White House responsibilities: working in support of pay equity, to protect reproductive rights and against antisemitism. But on the day I’m speaking with him in late June (which, yes, a lot has happened since then that we obviously didn’t talk about), we’re meeting to talk about life on both sides of the 405 instead of inside the Beltway. We start the morning at Will Rogers State Historic Park, the hilly Pacific Palisades destination that he considers his neighborhood park. He gestures toward the polo fields and remembers, as a young dad, playing soccer there with his son. “I was a coach at first and then I transitioned to a referee because I was a little too annoying to my son as a coach.” The park is still a go-to for family hikes. He recalls trekking up one of the trails last year to a set of benches, where he and t

“It’s unfair, it’s not right,” Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer said very passionately about limiting T-shirt launches at NBA games to the floor seats. “Getting T-shirts to the top of the bowl is very difficult.” But the court-sized double-sided scoreboard at the Clippers’ new Inglewood arena, Intuit Dome, is about to solve that problem. “We are in the process of mounting T-shirt cannons all along the top of the board so that every single seat in this building has a chance to catch a T-shirt,” replied Gillian Zucker, president of business operations for the Clippers. Sure enough, during a media preview of the arena last week, the top of the so-called Halo Board began launching rolled-up T-shirts into our mid-dome section. (Specifically, a larger-than-life recording of Ballmer himself appeared on the board, chucking curled-up clothing below each cannon.) Photograph: Michael Juliano for Time Out The Clippers won’t actually play their first game at Intuit Dome until late October, but Ballmer and Zucker walked invitees through a preview of the sorts of stats, replays and time out amusements you can expect to see play out across the scoreboard. And sure, the T-shirt cannons are amusing silly, but they seemed to track with a larger and legitimate focus on the fan experience at all price points. But first, let’s talk about the technical side of that Halo Board: It’s absolutely massive and startlingly crisp. When Ballmer was first shown a rendering of the board, which displ

When the Academy Museum opened in 2021, one of its most beloved cinematic treasures on display was Dorothy’s ruby slippers—specifically the pair, among untold numbers of other versions, that the museum believes was used for close-ups and the iconic heel clicks in The Wizard of Oz. But to keep those shoes in pristine condition, they could only remain on display for about a year. Now you’ll be able to gawk at those sparkly shoes once again as part of “Color in Motion: Chromatic Explorations of Cinema,” which opens alongside “Cyberpunk: Envisioning Possible Futures Through Cinema” on October 6. Both exhibitions were first announced last year as part of the upcoming Getty-funded PST ART, a marathon of science-and-art exhibitions at museums around the city. But now the Academy Museum has released more details about what we can expect to see in each. We’ll start with “Color in Motion,” which features close to 150 objects—pieces of technology, costumes, props and film posters—from the 1890s to today. Broken up into six themes, the exhibition will look at the connection between color, music and movement, like in early dance and animated shorts; decades of color technologies, from Technicolor processes and Disney’s women-led Ink & Paint Department to contemporary digital tools; monochrome silent films; the narrative role of color; and experimental works. The final gallery in the show is dubbed the Color Arcade, an interactive, neon-hued space that includes a corridor inspired by the t

Look, you’re probably not headed to Intuit Dome just to see the artwork. First and foremost, the soon-to-open Inglewood arena will be the home of the Los Angeles Clippers when the NBA season starts in the fall. And even before it’s time for basketball, the 17,700-plus-seat venue will welcome concertgoers, starting with Bruno Mars in August. But don’t be surprised if you come away from your first visit with just as many photos of the art as the event. That’s because the Clippers have assembled an all-star team of L.A. and Inglewood artists to craft site-specific installations for its new home, which Gillian Zucker, president of business operations for the Clippers, calls a basketball palazzo, music mecca and urban oasis. We were invited this week to preview the first half-dozen installations to be unveiled at Intuit Dome, including works by Refik Anadol, Glenn Kaino, Patrick Martinez, Michael Massenburg, Kyungmi Shin and Jennifer Steinkamp. Photograph: Michael Juliano for Time OutIntuit Dome As the arena’s art consultant Ruth Berson explains, the team didn’t solicit proposals for its pieces but instead specifically approached all of these artists for their commissions (after being selected from a shortlist hatched by museum curators, art historians and the local arts community). After three years of discussion, planning, fabrication and installation, the resulting pieces manage to, in our opinion, successfully accomplish something seemingly pretty tricky: to create large-sca

UPDATE: There are more than twice as many non-Tesla electric cars on the road in California today compared to when I first wrote this story. So how has the EV road trip experience changed since then? The short version: Charging stations are notably busier and their reliability can be frustratingly spotty, but provided your car is outfitted with competitive range and charging speed specs, the process can still be smooth and snappy at its best—if everything works right. My original story from 2022 appears below (and is still mostly consistent with my experience today) but scroll to the bottom for some updated numbers as well as more thoughts from a year of EV ownership and a recent trip in the same direction as Yosemite. Our original story from June 27, 2022 appears below. Like many Angelenos, I think a lot about leaving L.A.—temporarily, of course, just for a road trip. The call of the open road is one of Southern California’s most romantic allures: If you can manage to escape the thunderdome of L.A.’s tense, traffic-choked freeways, there’s an entire state’s worth of wilderness waiting for you. I also, like many Angelenos, am fixated on our wince-worthy gas prices. And like three-quarters of Californians, I’ve thought about breaking up with my gas-powered car in favor of an electric vehicle. That’s become an increasingly enticing prospect as gas prices spike and an electric vehicle market of mostly long-range luxury cars and shorter-range blobs finally makes room for an attra

We love 4th of July fireworks, but sometimes our aversion to traffic and fighting to find parking is enough to keep us away (we’re looking at you, waterfront Westside fireworks shows). But thanks to our ever-expanding Metro system, you can stay off the road on the 4th of July and forget all about gas prices, overstuffed parking garages and Uber and Lyft surge pricing. We’ve put together some picks for our favorite fireworks shows at Metro-accessible spots (and specifically ones that are within a short walk or a quick shuttle transfer from the station). So ditch your car this Independence Day and scope out one of these transit-friendly fireworks shows.  Long Beach You don’t need to board a boat to see Long Beach’s fireworks show; you’ll have a view from nearly anywhere along the waterfront. Follow the throngs of people to ShoreLine Aquatic Park if you want one of the closest (but most crowded) views. Nearest Metro stop: Downtown Long Beach (A Line)  Old Pasadena With Americafest out and the L.A. Galaxy vs. LAFC match once again in, buying a comparatively pricier ticket is the only way to watch the fireworks show from inside the Rose Bowl (and if you do, FYI, the parking shuttle from the Parsons lot will indeed be running). But if you’re simply after fireworks and not footy, we’d suggest sticking to walkable Old Pasadena: Simply find the tallest parking structure with a clear view toward the northwest and you’ll have a distant but serviceable view of the show. If you’re up for

This morning I’ve watched a walking tour of unloved sculptures in Downtown L.A., an inordinately detailed talk about steer tongue at Langer’s and a montage of warty pigs at the L.A. Zoo set to Christina Aguilera’s “Beautiful”—and my day is just that much better because of it all. That’s right, there’s now a 24/7 stream on YouTube of episodes of Visiting… with Huell Howser, the multi-decade series that saw the late local broadcasting legend spending time with the people and places that make Southern California so unique. PBS SoCal began streaming the all-day, all-night feed earlier this week, and hopefully it’ll continue to do so until the heat death of the universe. If you’re unfamiliar with Huell Howser, then by golly are you in for a treat. A transplant from Tennessee, Huell—because it only feels right referring to him by his first name—started hosting a series of human interest segments on L.A. educational TV station KCET in the early 1980s up until his retirement in 2012; the broadcaster passed away the following year. Just about always dressed in a polo shirt and sunglasses, Huell would tote his microphone around to seemingly ever major and minor point of interest, statewide for his California’s Gold series and locally for Visiting. His enthusiastic interviews were peppered with a Southern-tinged “okay” and dazzled “that’s amazing!”, plus plenty of drawn-out takes and equally long handshakes. There’s a lot of unintentional comedy—as I write this, I’m watching him try t

If you see a flash in the night sky in Los Angeles, it’s likely a blown transformer or fireworks (especially this time of year). A bright bulb just kind of hovering there? Likely a helicopter or the LAX flight path. And a bright fiery streak across the sky? Rarely a shooting star, but otherwise pretty much always a rocket launch. Indeed, that was the explanation for Tuesday night’s otherworldly light streak above Southern California: SpaceX launched its Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base, a bit up the coast from Santa Barbara. The 8:40pm launch on June 18 delivered 20 satellites into low-Earth orbit, the latest Starlink mission from the Hawthorne-based company and its reusable rockets. Vandenberg—formerly an Air Force base and now a Space Force one—has hosted launches for decades, whether it’s satellites sent to space, missiles being tested or some other classified payload being launched into orbit. Chances are, though, that you don’t notice most of these launches: During the day they’re barely visible and well after dark they look like a little flare floating upwards across the sky. Photograph: Michael Juliano for Time Out But when the timing is just right—usually 30 to 60 minutes after sunset or before sunrise—these rocket launches leave behind an out-of-this-world display in the sky. Dubbed the twilight phenomenon, high-altitude light from the setting sun catches the rocket’s vapor trail, which turns its exhaust plume into a jellyfish-like kaleidoscope of c

Hace unos meses anunciamos que Lana del Rey pisaría Barcelona como cabeza de cartel de uno de los festivales de música más importantes de España. Ya ha empezado la cuenta atrás para disfrutar del concierto que la artista hará en el Primavera Sound 2024, que este año se celebrará del 29 de mayo al 2 de junio en el Parc del Fòrum. Ya es habitual ver a la estadounidense actuar en festivales: el año pasado estuvo como cabeza de cartel en el Lollapalooza de Chicago el pasado 2023 y este año ha empezado también como artista principal en el festival Coachella, uno de los más importantes del mundo. Quizás la actuación del día 12 de abril en el desierto de California pueda darnos pistas sobre cómo será el concierto de Barcelona, pero parece bastante improbable que la neoyorquina haga su entrada en motocicleta o que invite a cantar a Billie Eilish como hizo en el Empire Polo Club de Indio. Y no, no faltaron canciones tan conocidas de su repertorio como 'Born to die', 'Summertime sadness' y 'Video games', el 'hit' con el que se dio a conocer, además de algunas de su trabajo más reciente 'Did you know that there's en tunnel under Ocean's Blvd' (2023). ¿Cuándo actuará Lana del Rey en el Primavera Sound 2024? El concierto de Lana del Rey en el Parc del Fòrum será el viernes 31 de mayo, el segundo día del festival, en el escenario Estrella Damm. Está previsto que la actuación dure una hora y media: empezará a las 21.45 i acabará a las 23.15 h. ¿Sabemos cuál será el 'setlist

Fa uns mesos que vam anunciar que Lana del Rey trepitjaria Barcelona com a cap de cartell d'un dels festivals de música més importants de tot l'Estat. Ja ha començat el compte enrere per gaudir del concert que l'artista farà al Primavera Sound 2024, que aquest any se celebrarà del 29 de maig al 2 de juny al Parc del Fòrum. element. Considereu reescriure la frase o usar un sinònim.---#------#---Ja---#---Ja és habitual veure l'estatunidenca actuar a festivals: l'any passat va estar com a cap de cartell al Lollapalooza de Chicgo el passat 2023 i aquest any començarà també com a artista principal al festival Coachella, un dels més importants del món.---#---43" style="padding-bottom: 2px; background-image: url('../../../../../images/squiggle_green.png'); background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; cursor: default; color: #000000; font-family: 'Open Sans', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 300; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">Ja és habitual veure l'estatunidenca actuar a festivals: l'any passat va estar com a cap de cartell al Lollapalooza de Chicago el passat 2023 i aquest any ha començat també com a artista principa

Most installations, whether a pop-up or semi-permanent, that describe themselves as “immersive” toss around the phrase as a marketing gimmick. But Meow Wolf—known for its fully-enveloped environments replete with secret passages, touchable decor and tons of neon—is one of the few experiences that actually lives up to that promise. Soon, Angelenos will get to see for themselves without venturing outside of the state as Meow Wolf announced today that it’ll be opening a permanent exhibition in Los Angeles in 2026, its sixth such space. The company describes the L.A. location as a “maximalist fantasy” that takes design cues from the city’s history of filmmaking, including “cinematic mythos, mysterious eggs, absurd glitz [and] the fantastical spells cast by Hollywood.” (You might not be shocked to find out that they also describe their experiences as “hard to explain but easy to enjoy.”) Photograph: Courtesy Atlas MediaMeow Wolf Denver Meow Wolf started in Sante Fe in 2008, and since then its artist collective has built transportive walk-throughs in that city as well as Las Vegas, Denver and Dallas, with a Houston location on the way. Collectively, their locations have earned the top spot in Time Out’s list of the country’s best immersive experiences. An official release from the company only hints that it’ll reside in a movie theater, but a report in the L.A. Times narrows things down to a vacant complex in West Los Angeles—though it’s unclear if that means the 405-adjacent nei