Upcoming in Los Angeles
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78th Primetime Emmy Awards
Television's biggest night, live in downtown LA and hosted by Mariska Hargitay. Even without a ticket, the L.A. Live red-carpet buzz is an event in itself.
Abbot Kinney Festival
A 40-year Venice block party on "the coolest block in America" with 350 vendors, food trucks, multiple music stages, and beer gardens along a mile of boutiques. Free admission.
Watts Towers Day of the Drum Festival (43rd Annual)
Free, deeply local day of drumming and world music at the foot of Simon Rodia's folk-art masterpiece. Admission and parking are free.
Simon Rodia Watts Towers Jazz Festival (48th Annual)
Free weekend of jazz at the foot of Simon Rodia's folk-art masterpiece, following the Day of the Drum. Admission and parking are free.
LA Greek Fest at St. Sophia
Billed as the city's largest Greek food-and-wine festival, drawing 15,000+ attendees to St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral.
Top things to do
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Free admission to the building and grounds, with free public telescope viewing on clear nights, including the historic 12-inch Zeiss refractor on the roof. It's the best free vantage for the Hollywood Sign and a full-city sunset.
Free admission (you only pay to park), reached by a hilltop tram that makes arrival feel like ascending a modernist city. Richard Meier's travertine architecture, the Central Garden, European painting up to 1900, and 360-degree views of the basin make it worth half a day.
Free to enter (you pay only for parking) and reached by a hillside tram. Worth it for the Richard Meier travertine architecture and Robert Irwin's Central Garden as much as the Van Goghs.
Free general admission to a heavyweight contemporary collection, and home to two of Yayoi Kusama's Infinity Mirror Rooms, which you enter for one minute at a time. Book ahead; the Kusama rooms draw lines.
Open since 1917, this is the edible autobiography of LA. Legacy stalls like Roast to Go (1952) and China Cafe (1959) share a historic roof with 40-plus vendors and some of the city's most exciting newer chefs.
One of North America's largest urban parks at over 4,000 acres, holding the observatory, the LA Zoo, the Greek Theatre, pony rides, and dozens of trails. A whole day's worth of city and nature in one spread.
Where to stay
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Opened in 1927 and financed partly by Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, it hosted the first Academy Awards and features the Tropicana pool with a David Hockney mural on the bottom. It sits right on the Walk of Fame, pairing history and location in one.
Opened in 1929 and modeled loosely on France's Château d'Amboise, it's the most mythologized hotel in LA and a longtime celebrity hideaway steps from the Sunset Strip. You're paying for the legend and the location as much as the room.
Kelly Wearstler-designed interiors with a rooftop pool and bar, a short walk to the pier and Third Street Promenade. Best for design lovers who want the beach nearby.