Los Angeles, California area, December 2022.

Lots of mileage put on that car rental.

Which route did you take from Griffith to Santa Monica?

Interesting you chose the Orange Drive Hostel. Did they provide free parking for your car rental?

How much time do you think you spent in the car driving from Hollywood to Solstice Canyon?

Lastly, did you get over the guilt about taking the trip that you posted earlier about?

That sounds like a great trip/ report! I love going to Southern CA in December around Christmas time for the great weather, less traffic, and chance to see parents who lived there. All those sites, and the hiking overlooking the Pacific Ocean, are amazing. Huntington Library and Gardens are world class, never seen anything quite like those lovely desert gardens. I have hundreds of pics just of the gardens during different seasons of the year; the newest Chinese garden is beautiful and a nice addition to the Huntington.

I see that your report covers 5 nights of 8, so is there anything missing (like a few extra days) that you left off?

PS. The hostel looks nice and in a great location, can't really beat that price in a very expensive lodging market. Also, it was smart to fly into Burbank, it's a very easy airport and also nicely located. Downtown/ Main Street Burbank on the way out is a nice place to walk or grab some baked goods from Porto's Bakery before or after a flight.

For other travelers, please note that you can't get very close to the Hollywood sign with your car. The roads under it are small and crowded and not meant for the recent influx of visitors; the people who live there are quite upset about this. You can get a good enough picture just driving up Beachwood Canyon, and if need be stopping at the cafe. Do not venture further.

If you feel the need to try and hike up near it, do your research first since it's complicated. You might end up coming up from behind it, or from the side.

I have been to the Los Angeles area many times, and am embarrassed to say that I wasn't aware of the Huntington Library prior to reading your post, Mike L., so thanks for posting. It looks like a very interesting place, especially the botanical garden. Another destination to add to my list of places I want to visit!

Thursday, December 28th: I had an advance ticket to the Norton Simon museum in Pasadena. The place was open from 12 to 5. Before driving there I drove to the Hollywood reservoir trailhead and walked partly around the reservoir. I saw the Hollywood sign straight on from a bridge, two deer through a fence; past a place I saw downtown Los Angeles through some trees, past the bottoms of mountains, and so on. The Norton Simon was more extensive than I realized, maybe not as big as some art museums I have been to. The basement level has an extensive collection of old stone and bronze statues from India, and a special exhibit of abstract drawings from the 20th century by 6 women artists, that I didn’t care to spend much time on. The ground floor – there are only the two levels, has 6 Van Goh’s, at least two Renoir’s, a few small old Dutch paintings, and multiple “old master’s” (old European paintings from before about 1800) – At least 2 portraits by Rembrandt van Rijn and one or more by landscapes by Solomon van Ruisdale; one or more by Zurubán, Edgar Degas; a few detailed realistic landscapes of canals in Venice Italy, and so on; some other paintings from the 1800’s; some Picasso’s (I’m not even a fan of Picasso; he is the one who drew and painted highly distorted splotches that sort of resemble people with the noses and eyes not aligned right). That’s what was most memorable to me, not that me or anybody clearly remembers a lot of what they saw at an art museum days later.

Friday, December 29th: I had an advance ticket to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. I arrived in time to enter right when they opened at 10am. They are reconstructing or renovating parts of the museum; not everything the museum had on view was on display. I don’t know whether they own any old European paintings or drawings but none were on display. I saw three floors of modern art including works related to slavery, Korean paintings from the 1088’s to 1900’s; works I wouldn’t consider worth anything like one or two by Jackson Pollock that are just splatters of paint on canvas, a Korean version of a Jackson Pollock splatter of paint on canvas, and a painting of a can of Campbell’s soup; some modern abstract works by a group of artists working in New Mexico in about the 1930;s to 1960’s; some Picassos and European works from about the 1800’s to 1900’s, a few pieces of pottery from East Asia and England and France from about the 1700’s to 1900. I left approximately just after 2pm. I wrongly thought I would have time to go to Avila Adobe /the El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical district. I was wrong. I drove there, paid $10 to park, found Avila Adobe, but it had closed at 4pm. I thought I read that it would be open until 5.

Saturday, December 31st: I drove to Avila Adobe in time to enter when it opened at 10pm. It and the Sepulveda Museum a few feet away, occupied me for a total of about 45 minutes. From there I drove to Manhattan Beach. The Pier and areas around the downtown area were about 10 to no more than 20% as crowded as Santa Monica Pier on Christmas Day. The aquarium was rather small, maybe 25 to 20% or less the size of Bell Isle Aquarium in Detroit. After walking off the Pier, I wish I had stayed near the ocean or tried going to Petersen Automotive museum. Instead I thought the most memorable thing to do would be to drive to Topanga State Park. That was a mistake. It started raining on my way there. When I got to the parking lot, it was raining and 53 degrees. I couldn’t see any mountain scenery because visibility was extremely low because there was too much fog, clouds, and/ or smog. I walked on one narrow path for 20 minutes and another path for 5 minutes before I gave up and drove back to the hostel. I sat at the hostel for an hour and then walked on the Hollywood walk of fame again. I want to think of the street as safe enough but I did walk past: at least 3 police cars and about ten officers standing on the sidewalk; they seemed to be dealing with somebody who was at least acting calm; a lady who was screaming and crying to high heaven and talking to people who were not there, oblivious to who was observing her; I saw under about 5 catatonic people sleeping on the sidewalk; there were no tents on the sidewalk; there were street food venders and food trucks, souvenir sellers with carts, souvenir stores, the L. Ron Hubbard museum, somebody trying to pass out brochures about scientology, madam Tussards wax museum which costs $32; a museum about medieval torture devices that costs $29 (I didn’t go in either); Grauman's Chinese Theatre (the sign says TLC Chinese Theater – maybe I could have seen a movie but the movies playing didn’t seem appealing enough).

I used google maps on my phone to narrate driving directions. I don't necessarily remember exactly which routes I drove. Google maps narration worked ok 90% of the time. From Griffith Park to Santa Monica Pier, I might have driven US 101 to I-405 to I-10. I know I took this route at least once to somewhere. But I could have taken I-5 to I-10 or I-10 to I-5.

No. Parking at Orange Drive hostel cost an extra $10 a day.

I didn't drive directly from Hollywood to Solstice Canyon. I drove to the Getty Villa museum and then from the Getty Villa to Solstice Canyon. I didn't keep track of the driving times. On the way back from Solstice Canyon, I ran into slow traffic at one point on the Pacific coast highway waiting to turn left of off that road. Most of the time on my trip traffic conditions were much better than I expected.

I’m really glad you made the trip. Next is Mexico!

You did a lot of museums and a lot of hikes (LACMA is mostly modern art, not old masters, so no surprises there). Can you post which 3 were your favorite sites of all in descending order? Did the trip meet your expectations? It seems like your fears about traffic were outsized since you made it to every spot early or on time. You picked a very good location for lodging, although there's nothing like being close to the beach - it's what makes SoCal magical.

Yes, there are a lot of colorful characters in Hollywood, Venice, Santa Monica, etc but honestly, I never felt unsafe - feeling uncomfortable or seeing weird/ unbalanced people is not the same as being in physical danger. I lived in Southern California for 20 years and loved it.

I forgot to mention that after the Huntington, I went to Griffith Observatory. Again I parked my rental car about 0.7 miles from the observatory but on the 25th I remember walking through a tunnel on my way back to my car but this time on my way back to my car I did not walk through the tunnel. There was a huge amount of traffic trying to drive to the observatory. The Observatory was packed. I was there from 5:30-7:30pm. I read parts of the exhibits, saw the demonstration of the tesla coil with the purple lightening coming out of it when it was turned on. I overheard one staff member say there probably would be no viewing of outer space because it was too cloudy but we could still see the telescope. I didn't bother standing in line to see the telescope because there were at least 200, maybe 300 people in line. I saw the lights of buildings in downtown Los Angeles from just outside the observatory. I didn't bother buying a ticket for the 7:45 talk or show.

The Getty museum might have been the top sight, followed by the Norton Simon and Solstice Canyon. But I might have already had an irrational bias towards old paintings because I think they are special because they are rare. The Huntington and Getty museums include decorative objects not in the Norton Simon museum. The last Saturday of my trip I was not time efficient. Driving to Topanga state park was a total waste of time.

The Getty center does not require tickets. Like London, it's free despite being quite wonderful with a great museum, great architecture, great views down on the 405 freeway out to the Pacific, and it also has some truly amazing gardens.

Another famous museum is Los Angeles County Museum of Art near Hollywood and adjacent to the La Brea tar pits.

However, I think a lot of the charm of LA is people-oriented places rather than the museums - the Santa Monica 3rd street promenade, Venice Beach weirdos, hiking Palos Verdes, or drive down to the beautiful artistic city of Laguna Beach, "Surf City" Huntington Beach, Little India, Little Saigon, Little Tokyo, etc.

Yes you are right that the Getty museum - there are two branches, the Getty villa and the Getty center - doesn't charge for tickets. But they still require advance reservations, and parking at each location is $20.

Too bad with the time you spent in Griffith Park you didn’t see the view of downtown from the walk way on the backside of the Observatory. Its free and a lovely spot to enjoy sunrise. There’s also the 3 mile roundtrip trail from the Observatory parking lot up to the Tom LaBonge Overlook. My workout at least twice a week.

You could have also visited the well done Gene Autry Museum. All about the American West.

Also surprised you missed the Science Center and the opportunity to see the Space Shuttle Endeavor. From there a short stroll over to the Natural History Museum bypassing the Memorial Coliseum with the 1984 Olympic nude sculptures.

For future reference: https://lucasmuseum.org/

Claudia: Actually, I did see the view of downtown from the observatory and one of my stops in Griffith park was the Tom LaBonge Overlook.

I skipped the Gene Autry Museum, the California Science center, the natural history museum (I thought about going) and I missed the olympic statues.