4 Best Sights in Los Angeles, California

The ultimate shopping indulgence, Rodeo Drive is one of L.A.’s bona fide tourist attractions. The art of window-shopping (and reenacting your Pretty Woman fantasies) is prime among the retail elite: Tiffany & Co., Gucci, Jimmy Choo, Valentino, Harry Winston, Prada—you get the picture. Near the southern end of Rodeo Drive is Via Rodeo, a curvy cobblestone street designed to resemble a European shopping area and the perfect backdrop to pose for your Instagram feed. To give your feet a rest, free trolley tours depart from the southeast corner of Rodeo Drive and Dayton Way from 11:30 to 4:30. They’re a terrific way to get an overview of the neighborhood.

Melrose Avenue is a tale of two streets: west of Fairfax Avenue is a haven of high-end boutique shopping, chichi restaurants, and avant-garde galleries while east of Fairfax is much grittier, where street style is more in vogue, with sneaker stores, head shops, fast-casual food, and vintage boutiques. Fans of Melrose Place will be excited to learn that the eponymous street actually exists and is home to upscale shops and restaurants. Instagram junkies will recognize a number of photo hot spots like the shockingly pink Paul Smith store or graffitied angel wings along numerous storefronts.

From Fairfax Avenue in the east to Doheny Drive in the west, Santa Monica Boulevard is the commercial core of West Hollywood's gay community, with restaurants and cafés, bars and clubs, bookstores and galleries, and other establishments catering largely to the LGBTQ+ scene. Twice a year—during June's L.A. Pride and on Halloween—the boulevard becomes an open-air festival.

One of the most fabled avenues in the world, Sunset Boulevard began humbly enough in the 18th century as a route from El Pueblo de Los Angeles to the Pacific Ocean. Today, as it passes through West Hollywood, it becomes the sexy and seductive Sunset Strip, where rock and roll had its heyday and cocktail bars charge a premium for the views. It slips quietly into the tony environs of Beverly Hills and Bel Air, twisting and winding past gated estates and undulating vistas.