LA Long Weekend--Itinerary Help
 

I'll be in LA next weekend for a long weekend--arriving at LAX on a Thursday at 11 AM and leaving LAX on Sunday at 11 AM. I'm looking to make the most of my time there and was hoping people could help group a list of things I might like to do into an itinerary that works. I'll be staying in Koreatown at The Line hotel on Wilshire and am considering having dinner Thursday at Matshuhisa in Beverly Hills and the Brit in WeHo on Friday evening. I have reserved a rental car (Ford Focus sized), but not really sure how far away things are from. I realize some things might need to be cut, but also interested about hearing other fun or off the beaten path things that might be near things on the list. Maybe a walk outdoors along a beach or other area would be good.

Things I am interested in seeing:

-Downtown (maybe a self walking tour, Walt Disney Hall, Grand Central Market, other stuff down that would interesting?)

-Getty Villa (was at the regular Getty a few years ago)

-Huntington Library and Gardens

-A comedy club one evening

-LA Museum of Contempary Art

-WeHo area (any good coffee shops, areas to shop (home decor/vintage/boutiques)/people watch). What else is there to do in that area? Any recs on good low key trendy coffee shops/bars?

-Hotel Pool/Lounging

- Recommendations for good coffee/tea shops with excellent coffee and people watching (like Intelligenstia or Blue Bottle)

-Any areas with good short outdoor walks hikes--maybe along the coast?

Please help rearrange and suggest ideas!

Thursday:

Arrive 11 AM:

Settle in at hotel (lunch nearby? downtown? lounge by pool)

Maybe explore downtown then dinner in Beverly Hills.

Friday AM:

Museum of Cont. Art. then drive to WeHo Area.

Dinner in WeHo

Comedy Club (open for recommendations)

Saturday:

Getty Villa Museum

?Huntington Library or possibly a short hike walk in along the coast if Pasadina is too for--any suggestions)

Open to ideas for dinner--Maybe at the hotel restaurant

Sunday:

Need to be return rental car at LAX and flight is at 11 AM.

Any suggestions on a good breakfasty/bruncy place near hotel or en rte to LAX from KoreaTown?

Less than 30 minutes from the Getty Villa is Malibu Creek State Park. There, you can do the 4.75 mile RT hike (easy terrain--little elevation) to the site where they filmed the outdoor scenes on the TV series M*A*S*H. The famous sign and some old vehicles from the show are still there. There's also a covered picnic area. At the Visitor's Center, you can see a great short film about all the movies and TV shows that have been made in this park, including "Butch Cassidy"'s famous jump scene.

On our last visit, we enjoyed going to Second City LA. Their theatre is located within walking distance of Graumann's Theatre and the Kodak Theatre. The show was hilarious and the tickets were cheap. (We got even cheaper tickets on Living Social.)

Why are you staying in downtown Los Angeles ? I would suggest Santa Monica or Beverly Hills.

We're staying in Koreatown since my friend saw a write up of The Line hotel in the NY Times and wanted to try it.

I have a few comments that I will convey piecemeal because I have a short attention span.

Koreatown is a good base from which to see most of the places you mentioned. It is not "downtown". Downtown LA is as shown here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downtow...es#Description

And something about Koreatown here:

http://www.discoverlosangeles.com/bl...wn-los-angeles

Santa Monica is not a good base for LA sight seeing because it's as far west of most of the LA tourist attractions that you can get without falling off into the ocean. And you have to drive 15 miles in the justly criticized LA traffic to get from SM to downtown LA.

Getty Villa and Huntington Library and Gardens, both of which I love, are a pretty far distance from one another, Villa is in Malibu and Huntington is in Arcadia, near Pasadena. Maybe have lunch at the Getty and head to Huntington about 2pm or so to avoid rush hour traffic. You do need reservations for the Villa due to limited parking.

Jamie99 brings up some good points. My suggestion is to work the Huntington in with your downtown LA sightseeing. It's only a 20 minute drive from downtown in non rush hour traffic.

Regarding reservations at the Villa, you need to get a reservation for a specific time of day whether you park there or not. Their web site explains how to do this.

http://www.getty.edu/visit/

The Villa is not in Malibu and never was. They propagated this misinformation on their website for years, I think maybe to identify with a well known locality. Their latest web site now owns up that they are in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of LA.

Huntington is in Arcadia

And the Huntington is actually in San Marino, which is closer to Pasadena than to Arcadia.