Column: Best places in LA: Where to take visitors

Descanso Gardens in La Canada Flintridge received many endorsements from readers.

Columnist

July 27, 2019 5 AM PT

There’s always one spoilsport.

Dozens of readers weighed in with great suggestions after I asked in a recent column where you should take a visitor who wants to see something other than the obvious sights in greater Los Angeles. Then there was this response from a former Angeleno:

For the record:

2:02 p.m. July 27, 2019In an earlier version of this article, Palos Verdes Peninsula enthusiast Jean Adelsman’s first name was miscast as Jane.

“Try as I might, I could not think of one venue in Los Angeles I would myself want to revisit, nor could I recommend any to visitors,” he wrote. “I recommend my visiting relatives stay away from Los Angeles. Sad but true.”

OK, Mr. Cranky. Sure. But scads of locals leaped at the chance to play tour guide in greater Los Angeles, and I could fill a book or two with their answers.

Jerry Rosenstein says you should get a good look at the natural beauty of Topanga and Kanan Dume canyons, but you have to do it the right way — in a convertible, top down.

James Morrow narrowed his list of 40 travel tips down to eight, one of which was to check out Marilyn Monroe’s crypt at Westwood Village Memorial Park.

Flea, of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, recommends Franklin Bell’s Blues Workshop in Watts, a Fairfax High School basketball game in season, and a trip to the Deukmejian Wilderness Park in Glendale.

“Just minutes away from the chaos of the city, and get yourself lost in the wooded chaparral high above the sprawling metropolis, creeks rippling, bears lumbering, and bobcats creeping,” says Flea. “Unbelievable!”

Flea’s enthusiasm for the place he calls home was far more typical of the responses. Sorting through them, I felt like I was at an L.A. love-in, with some people sending me long and detailed itineraries that I don’t have space for, unfortunately.

“I’ve lived in L.A. for 20 years, traveled many times in every direction and still haven’t seen a lot of the places recommended by readers.”

— Steve Lopez

They sent their favorite haunts for breakfast, lunch and dinner, their favorite places to watch sunsets or just go for a walk. Vasquez Rocks in Agua Dulce got lots of endorsements, as did Descanso Gardens in La Cañada Flintridge.

Vasquez Rocks in Agua Dulce were recommended by many readers as a must-visit.

I’ve lived in L.A. for 20 years, traveled many times in every direction and still haven’t seen a lot of the places recommended by readers.

The Nethercutt Collection in Sylmar, for instance, which got lots of votes from people who raved about the antique automobiles, furniture and clocks. I’m embarrassed to admit I haven’t yet been to another reader favorite — the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Culver City. Among the many treasures there is a collection of items from Los Angeles mobile home and trailer parks.

Frederick Frey was one of several who mentioned the Velaslavasay Panorama near University Park, a trove of panorama paintings from the 18th and 19th centuries. Others recommended a visit to the Adamson House and Malibu Lagoon Museum for a look at the history of Chumash and Spanish influences.

Union Station, for many, is a must-see. Same goes for the Korean Friendship Bell in San Pedro.

Rachel Kafka and Nate Hennagin, who have a blog called Finding Lost Angeles, recommended a visit to a UNESCO World Heritage site — Frank Lloyd Wright’s pre-modernist, century-old Hollyhock House in Barnsdall Park.

If your visiting friends or relatives are jet-lagged, asleep by day and wide awake at night, have them hook up with former L.A. City Councilman Mike Woo, Cal Poly Pomona’s dean of environmental design. The best way to appreciate Los Angeles as “a complicated living organism,” Woo said, is to scour the streets when the city sleeps.

“The invisible city is setting up, cleaning up, moving pieces around, and getting ready for many of the essentials of urban life that most people take for granted,” said Woo, who takes students on post-midnight tours of the produce and flower markets, the LAPD station on skid row, the Metro bus maintenance facility and the emergency room at County-USC Medical Center.

A lot of hometown pride showed up in suggestions from readers who raised a flag for Glendora, Orange, Highland Park, Pacoima, San Fernando and Echo Park. Jean Adelsman didn’t just recommend a tour of the Palos Verdes Peninsula — she laid out a specific route, turn by turn.

“Start on Palos Verdes Boulevard, heading southbound and merging onto Palos Verdes Drive West,” she wrote, with recommended stops at Malaga Cove, Point Vicente Lighthouse, Wayfarers Chapel and Portuguese Bend.

“Gorgeous views. Absolutely fabulous,” said Adelsman. “This isn’t South Bay chauvinism. This is the reaction of worldly travelers who compare the vistas with the Corniche on the French Riviera.”