Scenic helicopter tours around LA to see all the best attractions by air. Great personalised service, friendly and helpful pilots, and great prices.

www.los-angeles-helicopter-tours.com

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A privately-owned, car-free island 21 miles off the coast of Long Beach. A haven for sailors, you can hire bikes and kayaks, gamble in the casino, take one of the guided bus tours of the interior or just sit in one of the cute cafes or on one of the small but pretty beaches. The pace of life here is roughly 50 times slower than that of the mainland - a reviving day trip.

www.catalina.com

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Pretty self explanatory really, runs along the beach. Best walked on the weekends when all manner of strange and fabulous people emerge, reminiscent of Glastonbury at times, but, you know, with fewer annoying middle class students. Watch out for various street entertainers including a guy who walks literally 6 inches behind you, imitating everything you do, to the amusement of everyone sitting in the cafes. Rollerblading or rollerskating along the sidewalk is best if you can manage it, or rent a cycle. Parking can be found at one of several large lots right next to the beach for around $10/day, park at Marina del Rey and walk up to Venice past Muscle Beach and the basketball courts for a longer stroll, stop at the Sidewalk cafe for a margarita before heading back or further north to Santa Monica.

Venice Beach

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Great 24 hour cafe on Manhattan Beach Blvd just 2 blocks from the ocean. One of the few places around the area to be open 24 hours. Their sandwiches are great, burgers tasty, but the best thing on the menu is their french onion soup with a chunk of baguette dunked in it and a slice of mozzarella melted over the top. Get the blackberry lemonade too. Good people watching from the (heated) terrace.

1138 Highland Ave (Cross Street: Manhattan Beach Boulevard)
Manhattan Beach 310 545-8511

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A fish'n'chip joint par excellence! Situated on the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway), you sit at tables overlooking the ocean eating superb freshly-cooked fish and seafood from an extensive menu. Line up at the cooking shack, choose your food, and it is cooked to order. Those in the know bring their own plates and cutlery, wine etc. Watch the sun set over the Pacific, it's magical - or go anytime for a cheap delicious meal.

PCH (Highway 1), Malibu.

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Look at the paintings if you must, but the external beauty of the gardens and the building itself are perhaps more engaging. The smoggy views of the city over the cactus rooftop are awesome.

On the outskirts somewhere

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The great green outdoors with giant eucalyptus trees, hiking paths to city views, polo field, Will's old house & cars, large circular horse stable from 1920s.

West on Sunset Blvd. in Pacific Palisades between Brentwood & Santa Monica. (www.parks.ca.gov)

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Perfect for Guardian readers, the Los Angeles Conservancy organises regular walking tours of the city's architectural delights and curiosities. Tours generally cost about $10, last for a couple of hours, and are informal affairs led by helpful and knowledgeable folk who don't press their obsessions too hard.

The downtown art deco and Broadway theater tours get you exclusive access into now privately owned and/or disused beacons of the city's gloriously ostentatious 1920s, 30s and 40s.

The Angeleno Heights tour is a relaxed stroll around the city's first middle class suburb, several streets of charming Victorian wood-framed houses perched above the freeways and steel monoliths of downtown. Other tours take in San Pedro, USC, and downtown at night. Book via the conservancy's website at www.laconservancy.org

www.laconservancy.org/tours/tours_main.php4

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As a denizen and big fan of this crazy, mixed-up city, may I recommend:
Yuca Taco Stand www.ericgarcetti.org/blog/000039.php
and there's a lady from Oaxaca who has a cart (the one under the blue umbrella, usually) on Echo Park Boulevard just south of Sunset Blvd., between Sunset and Echo Park Lake, Wednesdays thru Saturdays from noon until 5:30--she's illegal (so no links here) and delicious!

Traditional blue corn quesadillas with huitlacoche (an earthy black fungus paste that grows on ears of corn), squash blossoms, and other wonderful things to put in, pickled cactus to put on top--$3! Sometimes she doesn't show because she's afraid of the policia, but she's worth taking your chances. Yum.

Both of these places are on the eastern side of town, the far more interesting half. While here, work up your appetite and get a taste of local life by taking a hike in either Griffith Park (www.ci.la.ca.us/RAP/dos/parks/griffithPK/griffith.htm) or Elysian Park (www.laparks.org/dos/parks/facility/elysianPk.htm). Views from both.

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This Japanese restaurant perched high above Hollywood Blvd offers spectacular views of the entire LA basin from the ocean to downtown and the mountains.

Go there for drinks before dinner somewhere else (the restaurant is okay, but overpriced and there are far better Japanese restaurants). If you've never been to LA before, Yamashiro's view will give you a sense of where everything is in the sprawling megalopolis. Spectacular.

1999 N. Sycamore Ave., Hollywood, CA 90068 (off Franklin Ave. - v. well sign posted). Phone: 323-466-5125

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Stunning views, smog-permitting, of LA from this iconic observatory that has featured in many a film. You're really out in the woods on the drive to Mt Wilson, which is refreshing after hectic L.A. The mountain is also a hotspot for paragliders.

19 miles (approx 45 min. driving time) from the Angeles Crest Highway exit from the I-210 freeway in La Canada-Flintridge. Turn north toward the mountains and follow Angeles Crest Highway (California Route 2) for about 14 miles.
www.mtwilson.edu

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Take a scenic drive from the 101 highway at Woodland Hills along Topanga Canyon Road towards the ocean - it is a great road with twists and turns and fantastic views of the valley and then as you turn the last bend the Pacific Ocean appears to open out in front of you....a much nicer way to get to Malibu or Santa Monica than the freeway!!

Take 101 north and exit at Woodland Hills follow Topanga Canyon Blvd

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Sleep in an Art Deco palace (with a full-sized kitchen in every room) in Santa Monica. Steps from the beach, amusement pier and shopping/cinema area 3rd Street Promenade. A great place you can stay in L.A. without actually needing a car!

Ocean Avenue, Santa Monica
323-394-2791

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Between the 405 and the 101 freeways, Mulholland Drive provides the iconic view of the unending sprawl of the city of tiny lights (OK, that may have been somewhere else). From the ridge of Mulholland, gaze south at the skyscrapers of downtown, the Pacific and LAX in the distance. Look east and you may see the snow on the mountains 50 miles away on the edge of the city. Look down and you may get a glimpse of the Hollywood sign. Look north and you will see the view immortalised in innumerable movies, of the San Fernando valley. All views fog permitting.

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