Downtown Los Angeles

Planning Your Time

Visit weekdays during the day, when the area is bustling and restaurants are open for lunch. It's easy to find street parking on weekends, but with the exception of Chinatown, L.A. Live, Olvera Street, and destination-bars such as The Edison at night, the area shuts down.

Seeing everything in one day is possible, but it's best to spread it out over two. For art lovers, the Museum of Contemporary Art, MOCA at the Geffen Contemporary, the African American Museum, the Japanese American Museum, and the Chinese American Museum are worthy of more than just a pass-through.

Plan your visits around specific areas you can walk to in one circuit. Parking lots run $4-$12 so if you're on a budget, you don't want to be moving around your car too much.

The entertainment industry loves to use Downtown for movie backdrops so when film crews take over entire blocks for shooting traffic jams up in every direction.