Things to Do in Los Angeles

The Hollywood Walk of Fame is in that vein, commending actors, musicians, directors, musical and theatrical groups and even 16 fictional characters with stars in the pavement.

An obligatory day trip whatever your age, Disneyland Resort is two theme parks, Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure, linked by the outdoor shopping area, Downtown Disney.

Replenished by the Pacific through sea gates at the Marina Del Rey Breakwater, these cute waterways were built in 1905 but had become outmoded by the late-1920s and over the next few decades were allowed to fall into disrepair.

Heavy oil from the Salt Lake Oil Field would seep to the surface, becoming viscous natural tar as its lighter fractions evaporated.

The standard tour lasts between two and three hours and packs in a visit to the Sound stage where the Big Bang Theory is shot, as well as the Archive and Prop House, bursting with props and costume from countless movies including the Harry Potter series and the DC Universe.

At the time of writing in 2019 the shuttle was still in a temporary pavilion, and the exhibition, available with a Special Exhibit or IMAX Theater pass, shows off this staggering piece of hardware, along with some of its fittings like the Space Potty, galley, tyres from its final mission and the SPACEHAB Logistics Module, a kind of workshop for astronauts.

Before the Getty Center there was the Getty Villa, commissioned by J. Paul Getty in the 1970s after the previous gallery on his property in Pacific Palisades ran out of space.

Although gentrification has crept in, the 2.5-mile Venice Beach Boardwalk is still prowled by outlandish characters, and teems with tattoo parlours, cannabis shops, international cuisine, countless street vendors and a big cast of street performers.

The largest art museum in the western United States, and one of the largest museums of any description in the country, LACMA on Wilshire Boulevard’s Miracle Mile is in a mishmash of seven buildings on a 20-acre site.

For an everyday visitor, the Library Exhibition Hall draws from these enormous reserves, showing a captivating miscellany, from Medieval manuscripts to documents from Abraham Lincoln’s life.

The museum’s founder was petro-industrialist Jean Paul Getty, who left another $661m to the institution when he passed away in 1976. This went towards a spectacular and labyrinthine new complex, the Getty Center, which opened in 1997 after almost two decades of planning and construction.