Get FREE email communications from Fodor's Travel, covering must-see travel destinations, expert trip planning advice, and travel inspiration to fuel your passion.
We've compiled the best of the best in Los Angeles - browse our top choices for the top things to see or do during your stay.
Named after a stop on the Air Line trolley that once shuttled between Downtown and the Santa Monica Pier, Bergamot Station is now a depot for intriguing art---the largest of its kind on the West Coast. The industrial facades house more than 30 art galleries, shops, a café, a theater, and a museum. The galleries cover many kinds of media: photography, jewelry, and paintings from somber to lurid. Leashed, tame dogs are welcome and admission is free.
Plenty of traditional and contemporary cultural events make this center well worth the trip. Founded in 1980, JACCC is home to a number of civic and arts organizations. Through the center's basement you reach the James Irvine Garden, a serene sunken space where local plants mix with bamboo, Japanese wisteria, and Japanese maples. The main floor of the museum houses the George J. Doizaki Gallery, which has 2,000 square feet of exhibition space and has housed everything from national treasures of Japan to the Bugaku costumes from the Kasuga Grand Shrine in Nara. An 880-seat theater is known for any number of performing arts shows including Bunraku Puppet Theater and the Grand Kabuki of Japan.
