Los Angeles is six cities in a trench coat. Pick the day you actually want.
Which open-air bus really gets past the celebrity gates. What the Warner Bros lot costs on a Tuesday. Whether the Hollywood Sign hike beats the drive up to Griffith. Reviews of every tour you can book in Los Angeles.
The sign, the studio lot, the observatory, and one long day in a bus.
Four bookings a first Los Angeles trip is built around. What each one costs, and what the people who took it say.
01The whole map in a dayFull-Day Iconic Sights of LA, Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Beaches and MoreHollywood, Beverly Hills, Downtown and the beaches in one run. Take it on day one and the rest of the week stops feeling enormous.
02The sign, on footThe Original 2.5-Hour Hollywood Sign HikeUp through the fire roads to the letters, with the basin laid out behind you. There is no visitor centre and no car park at the top.
03Behind the studio gatesWarner Bros. Studio Tour HollywoodThe Warner Bros lot in Burbank, sound stages and standing sets included. Book a weekday slot and the backlot is nearly yours.
04The city after darkGriffith Observatory Hike: Guided Tour through Griffith ParkUp through Griffith Park to the observatory as the grid switches on. The walk beats the queue for the car park every time.
Everyone comes for Hollywood. Almost nobody knows which Hollywood they mean.
The boulevard, the letters on the hill and the streets where the houses are three separate days out. Here is what each one is, and what it costs to get on board.
★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · Hollywood, Beverly Hills & Celebrity Homes Tour by Open Air Bus
The boulevard circuitWalk of Fame, the Chinese Theatre, Sunset Strip.
Past the gatesOpen-air vans up the canyons where the houses are.
The letters themselvesOn foot from Griffith Park, or driven to the viewpoint.
Inside a working lotBacklot trams, sound stages and the theme park.
Every Hollywood day out →
The days out more Los Angeles visitors book than any other.
Every tour we have reviewed →Eight tours that carry more travellers than anything else in the city, and what earns each of them the slot.
1
Full-Day Iconic Sights of LA, Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Beaches and More
Spend one full day touring LA by air-conditioned coach with guides such as George, Jeff, Colin, and Key. See Santa Monica, Venice Beach, Rodeo Drive, the Farmers Market, Griffith Park, and Hollywood, with lunch time included and select hotel pickup available.
From · $99
Read our review →
2
Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood
from $76
3
Hollywood, Beverly Hills & Celebrity Homes Tour by Open Air Bus
from $39
4
Hollywood Sign 2.5-Hour Tour with Comedians and Their Dogs
from $15
5
Full-Day LA Tour: Santa Monica, Hollywood and Beverly Hills
from $95
6
Hollywood and Celebrity Homes Bus Tour
from $39
7
Hop-On Hop-Off Bus Tour with Audio Guide
from $51
8
Half Day Best of Los Angeles Guided City Tour
from $69
Six pieces of Los Angeles, and the best day out in each.
Hollywood and the hills behind it, the mansion streets, a downtown that finally has evenings, two beach towns that share a bike path, and a working port with whales off it. Pick where you are staying and start there.
Los Angeles does not reward walking. Choose your wheels first.
Eighty miles of city and no plausible way through it on foot. An open-top bus, a set of e-bikes on the beach path, a helicopter over the hills or somebody else driving: the vehicle decides the day here more than the itinerary does.
The beach towns run twenty miles end to end, joined by one bike path.
Santa Monica pier at the top, the Venice skate bowl and the canals below it, Marina del Rey where the boats go out, then the long empty stretch down to the port. Rent wheels, take a lesson in the break, or get on the water and look back at the hills.
Every day out on the coast →
What a day out in Los Angeles actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. A surprising number of the best Los Angeles days cost less than parking downtown.
Sign hikes, walking tours, museum entry and the open-air bus circuits.
The full-day city runs, studio lots, e-bike days on the coast and surf lessons.
Helicopters over the hills, private drivers, and the desert runs that eat a whole day.
Three things you can only do in Los Angeles.
Every big city has a viewpoint, a bus tour and a restaurant scene. Nine white letters on a fire road, a working film lot you can walk through, and a Ferrari for half an hour on Sunset are a different matter.
The Hollywood Sign
The sign was built in 1923 to advertise a housing tract and was supposed to come down after a year and a half. It sits on Mount Lee behind a fence, so nobody reaches the letters themselves. What you get instead is the ridge above them, reached on foot from Griffith Park or Lake Hollywood, and the odd fact that the closest legal viewpoint is a residential street with almost nowhere to park.
- 1Hollywood Sign 2.5-Hour Tour with Comedians and Their Dogs★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 2,496 reviews
- 2The Original 2.5-Hour Hollywood Sign Hike★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,468 reviews
- 3Hollywood Sign Tour with Comedians, Dogs, & Epic Photos★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 1,193 reviews
A working film lot
Burbank is where the studios actually are, and the Warner Bros lot still runs as a factory. The tour goes through sound stages, the backlot streets that have played New York for eighty years, and prop houses stacked to the roof. Filming takes priority, so the route changes daily and nobody can promise you a set before you arrive.
- 1Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 5,246 reviews
- 2Warner Bros. Studio Tour & Celebrity Homes Tour Package★★★★★★★★★★ 3.5 · 225 reviews
- 3Warner Bros Studio Hollywood & Bus Tour Package★★★★★★★★★★ 3.6 · 150 reviews
Sunset in a Ferrari
The rental desks on Hollywood Boulevard hand over a supercar for twenty minutes to an hour with a guide in the passenger seat and a fixed route through the hills. It is the most Los Angeles transaction available: absurd, photographed constantly, and cheaper than most people assume once the time is measured in minutes rather than days.
- 130-Minute Luxury Driving Tour: Explore Hollywood in a Ferrari★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 676 reviews
- 250-Minute Driving Tour: Explore Hollywood Sign in a Ferrari★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 178 reviews
- 320-Minute Tour: Hollywood Blvd to Sunset Blvd in a Ferrari★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 102 reviews
Four Los Angeles bookings that do not wait for you.
Most of this city can be arranged over breakfast. These four run on studio calendars, dated tickets and boat timetables that take no interest in when your flight lands.
- 01Warner Bros. Studio Tour HollywoodThe lot is a working studio, so tours run on a fixed daily schedule with a set number of seats. Weekends go first.
- 02Universal Studios Hollywood General Admission Ticket, CaliforniaAdmission is sold for a named date, and the cheapest dates disappear well before the busy ones.
- 03Griffith Observatory Hike: Guided Tour through Griffith ParkThe observatory closes on Mondays, and the road up fills long before the building does at weekends.
- 04Catalina Express: San Pedro to Avalon One-Way FerryThe island is reached by a boat on a timetable. Miss the last sailing back and you are staying the night.
Nothing in Los Angeles is near anything else. Plan around that.
Hollywood to the pier is twenty minutes at seven in the morning and an hour at five in the afternoon. There are two honest answers: let somebody else drive, or spend the day inside one neighbourhood and walk it properly.
Downtown, the museums and the ghost stories nobody flies in for.
Grand Central Market, the tiled lobbies of the old bank district, tar pits full of mammoths in the middle of a shopping street, and a true-crime circuit that runs on Hollywood history the studios would rather forget. This is the Los Angeles that fills the second half of a trip.
By place, hills to harbour
By kind of day, wheels, water or backlot
Hollywood, Griffith, Downtown, then west until you hit the water.
The newest Los Angeles tour reviews.
The rest of the new ones →
Pacific Coast Highway: Smartphone Audio Tour, LA to Santa Maria
Read our review →
3.5-Hour LA Story Tour: Our Most Popular Los Angeles Tour!
Read our review →
Mini-Car Sunrise Tour in Hollywood with Breakfast
Read our review →
Mandir & Buddhist Temple Tour with Indian Lunch & Chinese Tea
Read our review →
Celebrity Homes Tour & Hop-on Hop-off Bus Tour Package
Read our review →