Why travel to Los Angeles

 Anyone who watches TV will immediately feel they know at least a little about Los Angeles! This sprawling American city hugs the ocean in Southern California – the appropriately named Sunshine State. Like most cities it has a diverse economy but the big attraction for visitors is the entertainment sector; the movie industry is at the top of the list.   

Los Angeles is home to Hollywood, the Oscars, Venice Beach, Wiltshire Boulevard and Rodeo Drive, the original Disneyland Resort and the much filmed Walk of Fame to immortalize famous actors. Los Angeles embraces everything that is bold, beautiful, successful, healthy, expensive and brash. Here dreams come true and some do not. 

Here are a few things to do in Los Angeles but be warned – this is not a one day stopover if you want to it any justice. 

•  Drive or walk along some of the iconic roads in the city: Rodeo Drive to gawk at the expensive emporiums and glitzy sports cars; Sunset Boulevard famed for its neon signs, pubs, restaurants and live music; Mulholland Drive with awesome views of the city and 25kms long Wiltshire Boulevard which covers everything from high rise apartments to verdant golf courses. 
• A must-see is a tour of Universal Studios where you will recognize the actual sets where your favourite movies like the Harry Potter series were made, and you better brace yourself for a flash flood and an earthquake! 
• By contrast, a tour of Warner Bros. Studios is more about the craft of making movies. You’ll also get a chance to visit the set of The Big Bang Theory and in the car vault you will see the Batmobiles, made famous by Bruce Wayne. 
• Griffith Park covers a large chunk of the Santa Monica Mountains and incorporates the Hollywood sign, walking trails, pony and train rides, an observatory, restaurants and picnic sites as well as panoramic sights of the city below. 
• The boardwalk at Venice is still prowled by weird and outlandish characters and then there is the muscle beach and skate plaza, not forgetting tattoo parlours, street vendors and great cuisine. Venice Beach has also featured in many movies, so you may recognise a stretch or two! Nearby are the revived canals – the Venice of America.  
• Make an obligatory trip to the two theme parks at Disneyland Resort. This is the original theme park dating back to 1955 and is constantly updated to ensure maximum fun and entertainment. 
• Pacific Park is an amusement park on a pier with 12 exhilarating rides. Entry is free and you pay for the rides like the West Coaster and Pacific Wheel. 
• The Petersen Automotive Museum is housed in an eye-popping futuristic style building and has no less than 25 galleries of vehicles from the past, the present and the future. 
• The Getty Centre and the Getty Villa are at Brentwood with views of the city and the ocean. These museums are repositories for one of the greatest art collections in the world and home to the iconic Irises by van Gogh.  
• For more culture (and there is plenty of it in Los Angeles) visit the Huntington Library which is in fact a mansion and large gardens with a library filled with literary treasures. 

This is just a tiny taste of what to do, places to see and activities to experience in Los Angeles. There are many more fabulous museums including the California Science Centre, The Broad - which showcases contemporary art, photography and sculpture - and the curving steel walls of the Walt Disney Concert Hall which is a huge work of art. 

Let Thompsons plan the perfect Los Angeles package that takes in all the sights of this vibrant Californian city.