Los Angeles/Hollywood

Los Angeles didn’t start as a movie town or a beach town. On September 4, 1781, 44 settlers known as Los Pobladores founded a farming pueblo here and gave it a name that ran to eleven words: El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles — The Town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels. Everyone shortened it eventually, but the “City of Angels” nickname you’ve heard a hundred times isn’t marketing — it’s just the name, translated straight out of Spanish. Two and a half centuries and roughly 3.87 million residents later, it’s still, technically, a farming town named for angels.

Hollywood was its own city for seven years before Los Angeles swallowed it. It incorporated separately on November 9, 1903, by a vote of just 88 to 77, then merged into L.A. in 1910, mainly to get city water and sewer service. The name predates the movies by decades — landowner Daeida Wilcox picked it up from a friend’s estate back in Illinois because she liked the sound of it and considered holly good luck. The film industry itself didn’t arrive until 1911, and not chiefly for the weather: the first studios moved west to escape Thomas Edison’s Motion Picture Patents Company, which was suing rival filmmakers into the ground back in New Jersey. Sunshine was a bonus.

The sign on the hill wasn’t built for the movies either. Real estate developers put it up in 1923 to advertise a housing subdivision: 450 feet of letters, roughly 4,000 light bulbs, built to last about eighteen months, and for its first 26 years it read HOLLYWOODLAND. It outlived the subdivision. The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce had the last four letters removed in 1949, the City of Los Angeles owns what’s left, and a nine-person trust maintains it. You cannot hike up and touch it — the hillside around it is private and residential, watched by motion-sensor security cameras, and officials point everyone toward two legal viewing spots instead.

Griffith Observatory sits on the flank of Mount Hollywood inside the park a mining speculator named Griffith J. Griffith gave the city in 1896 — 4,310 acres, comfortably bigger than either Central Park or Golden Gate Park, though nobody bothered to tame it the way those two were tamed. The observatory opened May 14, 1935, and Griffith’s will made sure admission would stay free forever, because his stated goal was to hand astronomy to the public instead of leaving it to scientists on remote mountaintops. The 12-inch Zeiss telescope inside has now been looked through by more than 9 million people — the most-viewed telescope in the world, by the observatory’s own count — and the building got a second life as a movie landmark after Rebel Without a Cause filmed here in 1955; there’s a James Dean bust on the lawn to prove it.

*Fees subject to change, please check griffithobservatory.lacity.gov for updated information.

Original Tommy’s opened May 15, 1946, on the corner of Beverly and Rampart, and the original walk-up stand is still there, still serving the chili burger it built its name on. It predates In-N-Out by two years and has never left its first corner.

For a broader sample, walk through Grand Central Market downtown, open in the same Beaux-Arts building since 1917 — decades-old stalls next to newer ones, all under one roof.

32 breweries within 10 miles of Los Angeles/Hollywood, 10 of them brewpubs with a kitchen.

Brewpub locations from Open Brewery DB (MIT)

Give it real time. Three or four days is a fair minimum if you want Hollywood, Downtown, the beach, and one day trip without sprinting between them — this is closer to touring a small region than stopping at a city.

The dry season runs May through October, the dry season. Ninety-two percent of the region’s annual rainfall falls between November and April, and February is typically the wettest month. Coastal mornings can still turn grey and cool in late spring and early summer — a UCLA weather explainer defines “June gloom” as persistent low clouds along the coast. A National Weather Service forecasters’ handbook for southern California says that in May and June low clouds can linger much of the day over the coastal plain, and that the beaches clear almost every afternoon from mid July through September.

Rail is an option between Downtown and Hollywood. Metro’s B Line runs between Union Station, in the northeastern corner of downtown Los Angeles, and North Hollywood, and its stops include Hollywood/Highland and Universal City/Studio City. Check Metro’s current schedule before planning around it.

You cannot walk up to the Hollywood Sign. The hillside around it is private and residential and watched by motion-sensor cameras; Griffith Observatory and the Hollywood & Highland Center are the two spots officials actually point visitors toward.

2 public campgrounds within 25 miles of Los Angeles/Hollywood, all bookable ahead. Public campgrounds run by federal agencies. State-park and private campgrounds are not included.

Griffith Observatory

Address

2800 East Observatory Road, Los Angeles, CA 90027

Hours

Tue–Fri noon–10pm; Sat–Sun 10am–10pm; closed Mondays

Price

Free to enter and explore, including telescope viewing; planetarium shows may require a separate ticket — confirm current showtimes before you go

Link

griffithobservatory.org

We checked opening hours, operating status and fees on 2026-09-21. These change without notice — confirm with griffithobservatory.lacity.gov and metro.net the week you travel.

Straight-line distance from Los Angeles/Hollywood, not drive time.

• Jack Northrop Field Hawthorne Municipal (HHR) — 10 miles
• Los Angeles International (LAX) — 12 miles
• Santa Monica Municipal (SMO) — 12 miles