We just returned from 8 days in Los Angeles. We had been there 9 years ago when our son was married at the home of his wife's parents, then for a week a couple of years ago (in Pasadena) where we visited museums en route to visiting our son and his family in San Diego. This time we were celebrating, again at the home of our daughter-in-law's parents, the impending birth of a new grandchild.

The people in LA think I am a jinx, as every time we visit they have exceptionally hot weather and have to explain why they really don't need air conditioning. This time was no exception.

We took our newly graduated daughter this time, and put her on a train to visit our son in San Diego, then arrive with him for the baby shower. I rented a car, which I usually don't do when traveling, and it spent most of the time in the hotel garage, as we were able to get to all the museums we wanted to see by public transport. Only on the last day was the car useful, when we visited the Bergamot Station (an interesting collection of art galleries) and the famed pier in Santa Monica. Actually, other than the Bergamot Station, public transport would have worked just as well, without the risk of getting lost or falling asleep on the freeways.

We used Internet mapping services to plan auto routes, and they were, frankly, often confusing. Despite 4 hours between landing at LAX and my daughters train leaving Union Station, we barely made it, as it took inordinately long to get the rental car, then the routing we had ran us through every traffic jam in town, and gave us a couple of misleading instructions, but we got her to the train on time. The routing from the train Station to Westwood Village was much better.

We stayed at the Hilgard House Hotel very near the UCLA campus. It is a small pleasant hotel, with air-conditioning, that provides a continental breakfast, and was very convenient to a lot we wanted to see. Parking is limited, but as we rarely used our car, this was not a problem. There is a municipal lot nearby if the hotel garage is filled, or locked (they close a lower level gate each evening). They have a special rate it you book on line, which makes for very reasonable accommodations.

The only fixed events on our schedule were Saturday dinner, and the shower on Sunday, but we did have to deal with closed dates at some museums, and the heat, which made walking a lot slower.

We arrived Wednesday early afternoon and had time to visit the Armand Hammer UCLA museum, within easy walking distance of our hotel. As a University museum, they have a lot of movement in some of their galleries, but the permanent collection is quite nice and well worth a visit, particularly as it was free during the summer.

The Getty Villa is reopened, but sold out for months. Before we left, we contacted them and they said they often had a limited number of same day tickets available, and we could call for them.

The next morning I called the Getty Villa, as instructed, but they weren't open as early as we EST people arise, so we walked to the north end of the UCLA campus, where the Armand Hammer museum maintains an outdoor sculpture garden (the Murphy Sculpture garden) which was well worth a visit as they have some nice pieces, and it is free and always open (although they had built a shed around one Rodin piece by our second visit, apparently to protect it from nearby construction).

After our tour, I called the Getty Villa, and they said they did have some tickets for that day, but couldn't release them over the phone, only on line (tickets are required, but free). Since I don't travel with a computer, I had to find one; I have to say that Europe has far more access via Internet cafe's than the US. I finally found a Kinko's and got on line, but then the Getty site wanted to fax or email the tickets to me, which was hardly practical. While online, I called and finally found someone who could help me. He gave me a reservation number and I presented it to the guard and all was well. I wish the Getty Villa could make things more convenient for tourists who need to get last-minute tickets, since these are the only ones currently available.

The online instructions are that if you arrive by public transportation, you must show proof to get in, and they suggest you buy a transfer and use that. Armed with this information, I bought transfers, but when we transferred from one bus to another, the driver insisted he had to keep the transfers. I showed him printouts from the Getty site and the Transit site saying I needed the transfers to get in, but he was adamant. After it got to the point of taking names and pointedly writing them down, he annotated some sort of log he had, and gave us our transfers, but insisted they wouldn't get us into the Getty. He was right. The guards never asked to see our transfers, possibly because they saw us getting off the bus. Still, this should be something of concern for people who use public transit to visit the villa; my suggestion would be to pay a few more cents and buy a day pass, and use that as proof, if proof is needed.

The Getty Villa was a good way to spend a day. The scenery and architecture are superb, even if, like me, you are not too interested in antiquities. We had a quite good reasonably priced lunch there with a view not to be forgotten.

Getting into the villa so early disrupted our schedule a bit, so we had to improvise for the rest of the visit. Fortunately, I had made a spreadsheet of the museums and sites we hoped to see (and a few more), and their hours and open/closed days, so we were able to adjust.

The next day we went to the Getty Center. The bus from near our hotel got us there well before they opened. At first they seated us in a pleasant picnic area at the base of the tramway, and a few minutes later they came over and told us we could take the tram to the top and visit the gardens while waiting for the museum to open. Such a deal, we got to wander all over the gardens with almost no one else there, although the water displays they have were not on. When the water displays started, we new the museum was open and trekked up to see it.

The museum itself is something like an open air building, where you often go outside to get from one gallery to another. I had some trouble with this as it was a very sunny day, and it took some time for my eyes to adjust after entering the galleries (a good excuse to rest).

The campus is wonderful, although a few times we had difficulty getting to a specific gallery, even with a map. It seemed sometimes you had to go to the back of another gallery building, up two elevators, a ramp, and two stairways, then sacrifice a chicken to find the specific gallery you wanted, and getting out was just as challenging.

I had planned to spend two days visiting the Getty Center, but, while there is certainly memorable art there, the collection on display was not as big as I had anticipated, so we didn't go back for the second day. I don't mean to imply that it is not an excellent venue, and I would certainly recommend visiting it.

I believe they have three cafe/restaurants and the restaurant certainly enjoys an excellent reputation, but when we got hungry, we were near the most utilitarian cafe, so were drawn there. The menu was apparently more limited, but still we enjoyed a very pleasant lunch, at most reasonable cost, on a terrace with a view to remember. There were a lot of young kids eating here, and everyone was enjoying it.

The next day we visited friends for lunch and picked up our daughter, then went to dinner, so our spare day was gone. We had a large party for dinner and they selected Maggianos Farmers Market. I had not been to the farmers' marked in nine years, and there has been an awful lot of development there, to the point where it was hard to find parking and we finally had to rely on the valet service.

Maggianos is apparently quite popular, as it was very crowded, and noisy. However, the service was good and our varied orders arrived in due order. The portions were quite large, and could easily have fed two. The food looked good, and everyone seemed to enjoy it, but the particular dish my wife and I ordered seemed a bit dry and tasteless. I should point out that we are hardly gourmets, and this may very well be the way that dish is supposed to be. Our daughter in law took it home in a box, so I think she must like it. We had a large piece of chocolate cake for desert, but my granddaughter was sitting near us so I have no idea what it tasted like.

Sunday we were busy with the shower, but did go to dinner at Mio Babbo's in Westwood Village. We non-gourmets really enjoyed the food, service, and ambiance there, and returned more than once. The food was good, the portions reasonable, the prices good, and they had some very nice gelato based deserts. We had also eaten at Napa Valley Grille and Acapulco Mexican Restaurant and Cantina, both in Westwood Village. Napa Valley Grill had what seemed to me to be superb food and service, but was fairly pricey. Acapulco was very reasonable, but the portions were quite large, and the food seemed far less spicy than the Mexican food to which I am accustomed. Perhaps the Acapulco region has a less spicy cuisine, but the guacamole we ordered was almost tasteless compared to what we get elsewhere, and at home. I think there are likely regional variations in Mexican food, as the food I learned to love in California was quite spicy, while that I have had around Texas was far less spicy, with some dishes not resembling each other, while having the same name.

Monday took us downtown to the Museum of Contemporary Art. I have never learned to appreciate contemporary art, so other than to say that the museum had a lot of it, I will say no more, unless someone wants to buy an old door I have down the basement that I have used for many years to check that spray paint cans I have used have the nozzle cleared. Since we were in the area, we visited the Disney center. The hall was not open, but we were able to tour the outside and some of the inside, and enjoy a light lunch there. The Disney center does not look bad because it is isolated, standing on its own. However, I bet it leaks if it ever rains there. We have a building in Cleveland by the same architect, which leaks. Alas, our building is amidst a large number of typical classical college buildings, and simply does not fit the neighborhood. My feeling is it resembles nothing as much as an overloaded dumpster.

The next day we were back on the Wilshire bus (I'm starting to think you can get anywhere in LA by taking Wilshire) to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. What a pleasant place to visit, study, and lunch. I was saddened that we had only one day to visit there, as we did not get to see nearly everything. But that just gives us an excuse to return.

We enjoyed most of the museums we saw on this visit, but I think my favorite in this area remains the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena.

RE: Acapulco. It's a chain of crushingly mediocre Mexican restaurants in this area. That's why the food was so bland.

Too bad you didn't have time to explore a bit. There's a branch of La Guelaguetza on Palms near Sepúlveda, not too far from Westwood in the neighborhood of Palms. Great Oaxacan specialist.

Hit "Post" too soon...!

Nice tour of some major museums and galleries in the area. I'm more tolerant of modern art than you, so MOCA always is worth my time. I'm glad you got to the Getty Villa-- it's been almost 10 years since I've visited that site.

RE: Disney Concert Hall. I usually find Frank Gehry's architecture precious and ugly. But I've warmed up to the Disney. As far as it leaking-- I haven't heard that rain was a problem there, and we've had a couple of good soakers in the time since it opened. The acoustics are supposed to be incredible in there.

How refreshing. An L.A. trip report that doesn't mention Hollywood, Disneyland or Universal!

Very nice information for those looking to explore the various L.A. Museums. (Ashamed to admit, as a local, that I don't do this often enough.)

Haven't heard of any problems with leaks in the WDCH. (We attended a concert there on a rainy February evening.) Sunlight reflecting off the WDCH and into other buildings has been the main problem mentioned.

Thanks for the report!

I know what you mean about the difficulties with tickets for the Getty Villa. I started about four or five months ago for tickets for our two weeks in late August. Although the website only showed tickets through July (but all sold out) there was no information about tickets beyond that time. I called to be told they had no idea when tickets would be available for August and beyond.
Finally one day I found that August was posted, but only two days were in red meaning all sold out and the rest were simply marked unavailable. What does that mean if they aren't "sold out". So I called. The answer was that those other days were all sold out for website tickets, but they could release some over the phone which they did.

I'm anxious to see it.

I'd agree that the Getty Center is probably more about the facility and setting than it is about the art.

In Farmer's Market is the excellent and authentic Loteria for Mexican Food.

Nice report and refreshing to hear someone who traveled via public transit and found it relatively effective and painless.

Mmmmmm, Lotería-- good suggestion!

I think the OP chose a great location to rely on mass transit: Westwood. The buses go everywhere, they go frequently, and they go back to Westwood frequently as well! I'd rely on mass transit if I lived and worked in the same city-- but I don't ....

HI rjw_lgb_ca--getting ready to leave for LA right now. As we will only be there for a 3 day week-end, I don't know if we will get to La Guelaguetza this time--altho it sure would be great to go!! If we lived there, it would be a mainstay for us. "Son of socialworker" has the good fortune of living very near the place. FYI, if you are ever having a party and want to buy their mole in bulk, they will sell it to you "deli style" in take out containers.

The leaking architecture is a bit of a family joke. My wife and I watched as they assembled the building here, and she wondered how they knew which end was up with some of the panels; I said I didn't think it really mattered, as no one would know if they got a few wrong. A few months after opening, the building was reported to have some leaks, and we both thought about the assembling we had watched.

Our "Pyramid" at Cal State Long Beach leaked soon after it was finished. They were pretty darned worried about those expensive basketball courts.
The Community Center Building in Carson was built over a high ground water table. It leaked into the "conversation pit" which became a "conversation pool."

But I've never head anything about leaks at Disney Concert Hall though.

La Guelaguetza -- hmmm.. I ate there and just was not impressed. Did I miss someting?

Hmmm. Now I'm curious. I printed off the webpage for La Guelaguetza and plan to check it out next month. I tend to love a "hole in the wall" cheap place with no tourist appeal. Hope that's what it is.

Hey clevelandbrown, great report! Thanks for posting.

We too, were just in LA for a mom-daughter getaway and sizzled like never before LOL the heat and humidity were just like home. Had an amazing time tho, and can't wait to return!!

clevelandbrown: Thx for your report. I have a friend visiting early Sept (I live in So Cal) and we're visiting the Getty Museum in the morning and the Getty Villa in the afternoon. I've been trying to figure out lunch in between.

I have been to the Getty Museum a couple of times and thought the food in the cafe was very mediocre and over-priced. However, I would like to be disabused of that thought. Perhaps it's better in the last 3 yrs. (As an aside, I have always disliked food served in museum restaurants anywhere in the world).

Re getting reservations to the Getty Villa on line: it's a joke! After telling my friend they were sold out all year and her thinking that was ridiculous, she called a week or so ago and got us reservations for early Sept. I'm embarassed that I didn't just call. It would be nice if the website explained things better.

To anyone else who might read this: Any thoughts on a restaurant for lunch between the Getty Museum and the Getty Villa? Thx, Nancy