Hello All! I am in charge of planning a trip to LA with a group of friends. We are all 20-something professionals from NYC. We will, of course, visit the "typical" tourist stops in the City of Angels....but, are also looking for the more unusual places that only seasoned Angelinos may know about. Maybe you could suggest tours that are a little different? For example, one of my friends heard of a tour of gravesites that takes place in a hearse?? Or, perhaps there are some off-colored museums for us to check out?? Any crazy stuff you may know of would be of great interest. We aren't really being "weird" per se, but we have heard that LA has a great deal to offer in the "bizarre fun" arena......thanks in advance!

the most weird and bizarre sights in LA to me are the old women with the grotesque face lifts,the young ones with the huge plastic boobs and the old guys with the wrinkled old bodies and tight weird faces,like Michael Douglas.

Don't know about the hearse tour, but the Forest Lawn cemetery up in HOllywood/Burbank has several stars gravestones. Take a walk around there and you'll suddenly see a name you recognize from show biz.

Thismay not be weird but it is a great way to tour LA. I'm a native of LA and have made this drive with visiting guests. I noticed Randy Newman did this drive recently for an "I Love LA" TV special:

Start in Hollywood on Sunset Blvd and drive it west all the way to the Pacific Ocean. You can make stops along the way at Grauman's Chinese Theatre and the new Academy Awards Complex, the Sunset Strip (West Hollywood Segment), enjoy the view looking south down La Cienga Blvd. Pass through Beverly Hills perhaps stopping at the Beverly Hills Hotel or veering off in that vicinity to look at homes, then passing by the north end of the UCLA campus. When you reach the intersection of Sunset Blvd. and the 405 FWY, you can go north on freeway a bit to Getty Center Drive and spend some time up at the Getty Center Art Museum (or do this another day)... then pass through Brentwood (sorry, I think OJ's house is torn down) and the Pacific Palisades area. Stop at the Will Rogers Ranch in this area..check the newpapers as I think most Sunday's there are polo matches at the Ranch. You can tour the house and have picnic lunch while you watch the match. (Hmmmm....20-somethings, eh? Well, check your history books first to learn who Will Rogers was!)

Shortly after this, you will reach the coast. Relax on the beach, go for a swim, then travel a bit north up the coast on Pacifc Coast Hwy, till you reach Gladstones For Fish restaurant. Sit outside, have some fresh seafood and people watch and view the Sunset. From there you can continue north to Malibu or south to Santa Monica or Venice to end your day.

Everyone gets a kick out of the LaBrea Tar Pits.

http://www.tarpits.org/

Spend a some time at Venice beach either walking or roller blading along the beach walk or enjoying lunch at one of the cafes.

I think an afternoon/evening walking along Hollywood Blvd (between the Roosevelt Hotel and the Pantages) would fit into your plans also.

I know that someone put together a guidebook of weird/offbeat sites in LA

You might try searching on Amazon for "weird" and "Los Angeles"

Museum of Jurassic Technology, 9341 Venice Blvd. (310) 836-6131. The director just won a MacArthur genius grant and he has been written up extensively. It's a very strange, almost "anti-museum" and definitely, I think, is "weird." Then go to Versailles, a great, inexpensive Cuban restaurant nearby, 10319 Venice Blvd. (310)558-3168. Versailles is at Motor Blvd and Venice.

The post above about taking Sunset Blvd to the teach is a good one. About half a mile before you hit the beach, on the left (north) side is the Self-Realization Shrine, not weird, but beautiful and unexpected. It's an eastern religion place built around a smalllake, with a beautiful flower-laden path around it that you can walk around. There's a windmill, small chapel, gift shop. It's tranquil and lovely.

Oops.The "left" side going toward the beach is south, not north.

Pinky,
There was a tour company that gave tours of the various graveyards in a hearse. Can't remember the name (sorry).

I like Hollywood Forever for the stras final resting place (HBO special on it last Sunday). Valentino is there, Eleanor Powell, Tyrone Power, etc. It has an appropriate faded atmosphere.

The other place you might enjoy is the Frederick's of Hollywood museum on Hollywood Blvd. I believe Jane Russell's brassiere is on display.

Have fun.
M.

Try the Beverly Hot Springs. This a wonderful spa that actually is built on top of a real hot springs at the far end of Hollywood. It is run by Koreans and includes an underground grotto and the most amazing massage treatment of my life, they dose your body with baby oil, then slather your body with honey (from a 5 gallon drum) then rinse your body with chopped cucumber (also from a drum) and they flip you around like leaf of lettuce and then do an amazing head massage. You come out looking about 8 years younger and have soft soft soft skin for a week. Never seen nor heard nor experienced anything like this in my entire life. You gotta check this place out, it is truly something else. After the massage you can soak in the grotto. Amazing!!!

Every Saturday, the LA Conservancy conducts tours of the historic movie palaces of downtown LA. The theaters have all been renovated and the interiors are incredibly beautiful and elaborate. For more info, go to
http://www.laconservancy.org/tours/tours_main.shtml

In LA's Eastern suburbs is what is regarded as the largest Buddhist monastary in the Western Hemisphere. Groups and self guided tours are offered, and addition there is a museum and buffet restaurant serving Buddhist vegetarian cuisine. For more info, go to
http://www.hsilai.org/

The Museum of Death is located on Hollywood Blvd not fare from Graumann's Chinese theater. They are slated to be closing on July 29 and moving to a different location. If you are in the area before that date you may want to check it out. For more info, go to
http://museumofdeath.com/

If you can, go to the legendary Magic Castle in Hollywood. It's not open to the public, but you might be able to scrounge up a few passes from members at a magicians message board.

For an unusual dining experience, visit Palms Thai restaurant just East of Hollywood. The food in authentic Thai, but what makes the place so unusual is that several nights a week they have a Thai Elvis impersonator entertaining you!

http://www.palmsthai.com/frame.html

All of these suggestions are amazing! I love all of them! Going to do my best to try them all! Thank you all so VERY much!

weird LA? try....
The hearst tour, I believe used to depart to the left of the Mann chinese theatre in Hollywood.
I always got a kick out of the parade of tranvestites near LaBrea and Santa Monica Blvds. Late late nite weekends.
Hollywood has a museum of Death..off the blvd..just ask some kid dressed in black..they will know.
Check out the free paper..LA WEEKLY for listings of fetish clubs and if you dont want to go in..at least check the line of people waiting to get in.
Have fun...and for CAL who bagged on Michael Douglas. I have to say that when I lived in LA..had the opportunity to have dealings with Mr. Douglas and there is no nicer guy to the little people than him, "wierd face" and all.

That book is called L.A. Bizarro - check it out. There is another book out called The Underground Guide to Los Angeles and another book about seedy sex shops and dives but I don't know the name. A search on Amazon brings up all kinds of fun stuff.

Pinky, the hearse tour is by a company called "Grave Line Tours." Definitely visit Venice Beach for some sights!

My suggestion is for the 'not-so-weird' but more of a fun place to go for a few beers/drinks for people in your age group.
It's a place called the Pitcher House in Hermosa Beach, not too far south of LAX.
It's fairly lively most nights; with Friday and Saturday being most fun. Rather a long/narrow place with the walls filled with old license plates and a variety of other things to look at.
Great stereo system which sometimes features sounds of trains/planes that you would swear are coming right down the center of the room.
Weekend nights can find anything from people just having a good time to visiting Irish tourists doing some Irish folk dances.

You can visit a world famous gift shop at the Los Angeles Coroner's office.
www.lacoroner.com
You can buy all sorts of cool stuff and the proceeds go to youth programs.

My favorite afternoon adventure is the Hollywood Memorial Cemetary (behind Paramount Studios, off Melose) many wonderful monuments and a lot of old movie stars are buried there.

Skeletons in the Closet
The Los Angeles County Coroner's Office
1104 N. Mission Rd.
Los Angeles, CA 90033
By Phone:
(323) 343-0760
8:00 am to 4:30 pm (Pacific Time) Monday thru Friday