Los Angeles

Beneath the iconic “Hollywood” sign, Los Angeles sprawls out over 10,518 square kilometres. More than 80 neighbourhoods spread up into the mountains, through bustling city streets and down to the ocean.

Wealth and glamour reign in up-market areas like Bel Air and Beverly Hills, while eccentricity rules in Venice Beach. In the hills high above the city, art and architecture are on display at the Getty Center. For science and history fans, there’s astronomy at the Griffith Observatory, prehistoric remains at the La Brea Tar Pits and a naval monument at the USS Iowa. A carnival atmosphere pervades Santa Monica Pier, and life beneath the waves is on show at the Aquarium of the Pacific.

Universal Studios is a good place to see big names in film and television hard at work. You might also see a celebrity getting in some retail therapy at the designer boutiques in Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive. Take a stroll along the Hollywood Walk of Fame, where the biggest stars of stage and screen have been immortalised with brass plaques on the footpath.

Despite the red carpets, velvet ropes and shiny limousines that seem synonymous with the city today, LA has had many different looks since Mexican settlers founded it in 1781. Once a dusty cattle settlement, the city was at the heart of the gold and oil rushes in the 1840s and ’50s. In the early 1900s, major film studios arrived and the outback town began its evolution into the entertainment capital of the world.

To get a true sense of the city’s past and present, try to visit a wide range of attractions from studio tours to beach trips, museum visits to fine dining. Even if you don’t spot a major celebrity, you’ll find Los Angeles a star in its own right.