Inside LA
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The Los Angeles Lowdown
For locals who want to experience LA like a visitor and visitors who want to experience LA like a local.
The Los Angeles Lowdown is designed by us to take you inside LA, whether you’re visiting or you live here. From current-affairs inspired articles on Southern California’s history, to our suggestions on the best things to do in LA every month, via inside information on authentic experiences and events, we give you the essential lowdown on the city of angels.
And if you’re a visitor looking for more specific information related to your trip here, such as where to stay, how much to tip in LA, a list of the best family activities in Los Angeles or how to navigate the city using public transport, don’t forget to check L.A. Info.
Beverly Hills & The Celebrity Homes Tour
The name of Beverly Hills is synonymous with Los Angeles and the movie-star lifestyle. There probably isn’t a single visitor to Southern California who hasn’t heard of this small city, nestled on the slopes of the Santa Monica mountains, in the LA suburbs. It forms one of the four pillars of the city’s praetorian glamor…
Commercial Exchange Building: LA’s Shrinking Tower
The South Park neighborhood of downtown Los Angeles is undergoing enormous change at the moment, as new apartment and condominium blocks sprout upwards and older buildings (such as the beautiful Herald Examiner Building and the Commercial Exchange Building) are renovated and repurposed, often as lofts or ‘creative’ offices. The crypto.com Arena and the many restaurants,…
How LA & SF Became Queer Capitals Of U.S.
When most people think of the birth of the LGBTQ+ rights movement in America, they think of Stonewall, 1969 in New York City. But long before that famous uprising, the earliest sparks of organized queer resistance were already burning in California. By the time of the Stonewall Riots Los Angeles and San Francisco were already…
Crime Seen: The Hotel Cecil
Amongst Los Angeles hotels the Hotel Cecil holds a unique place. It’s a marquee name that not only a lot of Angelenos know, but also many visitors too. It’s been the subject of numerous documentaries, articles and, even, a TV horror series, yet you can’t actually rent a room there (at time of publication). In…
The Red Cars: LA’s Lost Trams
Visitors are often surprised to learn that LA had an extensive tram network over the first part of the twentieth century. Many visitors, and even a few Angelenos, don’t even know that we have a metro rail system today, they just assume that “everyone drives in LA”. So it comes as a shock to them…
Crime Seen: The Ambassador Hotel
The Ambassador Hotel was one of Los Angeles’ most famous hotels, which is no mean feat in a city that boasts the Biltmore, the Beverly Wilshire, the Chateau Marmont and many other famous, and infamous, establishments. The Ambassador’s renown came from its reputation as a place of entertainment and glamor from its opening in 1921 all…
Toypurina: LA Freedom Fighter
For Indigenous People’s Day I want to look at a First American who lived in the Los Angeles area during the city’s earliest years, Toypurina. In many cultures and countries around the world there are legendary historical women, leaders who rallied their people to fight against foreign invaders. Examples include Joan of Arc in fifteenth…
Union Station: LA’s Great Rail Terminus
Los Angeles Union Station is to LA what Grand Central Station is to New York. It’s our major rail terminus, designed and built to reflect the history and feel of the city back at us as we pass through. It opened in May 1939 with much fanfare, ironically just as the US was falling out of…
Hollywood: LA’s Dream Factory
This is the story of how a small farming town outside a mid-range American city became the most famous neighborhood in the entire world. Probably 95% of the world’s population know that there’s a place called Hollywood and that it’s in Los Angeles. How did that happen? Why did that happen? Even if you don’t consider yourself…
Musso & Frank Grill: Hollywood Institution
Musso & Frank Grill opened in September 1919, 105 years ago later this year. In a town that changes so much, and is really almost unrecognizable to when Musso’s first opened, this Hollywood institution has somehow managed to remain the same. The menu and cocktails are exactly how you would want them to be, timeless…
Film Noir: A Dark Side Of The City Of Angels
There’s something so LA about Film Noir. In a similar way to how the novels of Charles Dickens recreate the world of Victorian London, Film Noir perfectly captures the aesthetic and atmosphere of 1940’s and 50’s Los Angeles. The different aspects of the city: its sunny beaches, neat clean suburbs and downtown concrete jungle, make a perfect setting for these…
The Old Los Angeles Chinatown
With this month marking the date of the Lunar New Year (as celebrated in China and much of Asia) we wanted to take a look at the birth of Chinese-American culture in Los Angeles and, specifically, the history of LA’s Chinatown. Although San Francisco’s Chinatown is more famous, Los Angeles has been home to a…
Bridget ‘Biddy’ Mason: LA Pioneer
In honor of Black History Month (this month) and Women’s History Month (in March) we’re celebrating the life and achievements of Bridget ‘Biddy’ Mason. An African American woman who was born into slavery in the old South, Biddy was brought to Los Angeles in the 1850’s (much against her will), only to become a free…
Crime Seen: Prohibition In LA
America is almost unique among developed countries for its ban on alcohol, beginning in January 1920 (104 years ago this month) with the passage of the Volstead Act, which is known as Prohibition. Although it’s now synonymous with the corruption and organized crime that it later spawned, at the time the intention was to address…
Crime Seen: LA Chinatown Massacre
One of the things we believe in at the Real Los Angeles Tours is talking about the good, the bad and the ugly aspects of history. It’s really the only way of looking at our past, if we ignore the nasty and ugly episodes then we are almost certainly dooming ourselves to continue making the…
Legendary Los Angeles Latinos
People from the Spanish-speaking countries of Central and South America have had an enormous impact on Los Angeles. Which isn’t at all surprising when you consider nearly fifty per cent of the population of Los Angeles today has a Hispanic background and that, therefore Los Angeles Latinos form the largest ethnic share of the population.…
Historic Preservation in Los Angeles
Historic Preservation in Los Angeles is a much more important thing here than many people realize. Is it important enough, though? That’s another question. It’s such a relevant concern here because so much of the city’s ethos is about reinvention. LA has often been a city that erases, or tries to erase, its past, as…
Angels Flight: LA’s Last Funicular
One of DTLA’s many gems is Angels Flight, a funicular railway that connects Grand Central Market and the Historic Core to the Bunker Hill Financial District. In 2013 it was closed due to safety issues and it felt disappointing explaining to guests on our tours that the neglected, graffiti-covered, trolley cars were two of the most beautiful remaining artifacts of Victorian Los Angeles. Unused, rundown and…
Hollywood Playhouse: Avalon Nightclub
The performing arts building at 1735 Vine Street near the intersection with Sunset Boulevard, now known as the Avalon Hollywood, has been singularly successful over the course of its nearly hundred-year-old life. When the Hollywood Playhouse opened in during the Prohibition era of the 1920’s most theaters being erected in Los Angeles were being designed…
Crime Seen: The Barclay Hotel
The Barclay Hotel is, more or less, right in the navel area of the dark underbelly of downtown Los Angeles.The Hotel Cecil has become famous in the last few years, reaching a peak in 2021 with the Netflix mini-series The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel. However the Barclay has just as dark a history as the Cecil,…
Outbreak: Spanish Flu In LA in 1918
It’s hard to think about anything other than Coronavirus or Covid-19 right now. It’s taken over the news cycle and our lives. Los Angeles is almost entirely shut down – schools, movie theaters, restaurants, bars and most businesses (including The Real Los Angeles Tours). Most of us have never experienced anything like it before. Life…
Los Angeles River: LA’s Mighty Waterway
In a city with many famous features and elements, including such mega-stars as the Hollywood Hills, Beverly Hills and Santa Monica Beach, the Los Angeles River is more like the well-known character actor that you’ve seen in dozens of movies and TV shows, but you can’t remember their name. That’s especially ironic when it comes…
Art Deco Los Angeles: 10 Key Locations
Art Deco is an architectural style that is very much associated with Los Angeles. Since the new style first appeared in the 1920’s, at the Exposition des Arts décoratifs in Paris, through the 1930’s there was a boom in construction in LA, and developers immediately turned to the new style for inspiration. Art Deco seemed…
San Fernando Valley: LA’s Other Half
The San Fernando Valley is, in many ways, underrated. Sure, it has some big attractions, such as Universal Studios, but it’s often derided as a suburban sprawl that’s generally way hotter than the rest of Los Angeles and much less interesting. It’s not seen as having either the cultural might of Hollywood, nor the theme park riches…
Venice: LA’s Seaside Neighborhood
Since it opened 120 years ago this year Venice Los Angeles has always attracted visitors, both from the region and, later, from the wider world. Conceived as a Disneyland – before Disneyland existed or had even been conceived – it was a crucial developmental stage between the early amusement parks, like Coney Island, and the…
Griffith Park: LA’s Greatest Gift
Visitors to Los Angeles may not know Griffith Park by name (although many do), but you would struggle to find anyone in the world not familiar with its best-known landmark, the Hollywood Sign. The park’s 4,300-acres make it five times the size of Central Park in New York (it’s not a competition – but if…
The LA Olympics: 1932, 1984 & 2028
Los Angeles is about to become the third city to host the Summer Olympic Games three times, funnily enough (after London and Paris). Perhaps that’s not surprising considering the city’s unique renown, sports-mad population and ability to put on event of this size and magnitude. Still, LA has been a leader in many ways in…
Charles Chaplin’s Los Angeles: Today
Charles Spencer Chaplin, or ‘Charlie’ for short, is one of the most influential figures in the history of entertainment, as a Hollywood pioneer and, arguably, its greatest superstar. Not only do his films endure the test of time, with six of his movies selected for preservation in the National Film Registry, including The Gold Rush,…
Santa Monica: LA’s Beach Resort
Santa Monica is a city within LA County, but it’s long been considered the beach resort for Los Angeles. However, SaMo is more than just a beach though, it has plenty of interesting things to see and fun things to do, so there are plenty of reasons to spend some time there. Now the city…
How To Guarantee Seeing A Celebrity In LA
Some people have become obsessed by a celebrity and it can be very unhealthy. The news is full of stories of stars who’ve been stalked by overly-fanatical fans, so I’m definitely not encouraging that kind of stuff in How to Guarantee Seeing a Celebrity in LA! The first thing to know about famous people (and…
Los Angeles On A Layover
If you’re booking a flight and the chance presents itself to visit Los Angeles on a layover, or stopover, you probably aren’t going to refuse the opportunity, especially if you’ve never been here before. LA is a place that most people would like to visit, at least once, in their lives. And why not? Forgetting…
Culver City: LA’s Hidden Westside Gem
Culver City isn’t by any means considered one of Los Angeles County’s best known cities. Sitting on the Westside, almost completely surrounded by the city of LA, at first it can seem like it’s in-between a lot of other, much more interesting, places such as Santa Monica, Koreatown, Venice, downtown and even Beverly Hills. However,…
Crime Seen: The Black Dahlia
The Black Dahlia is one of the most famous unsolved murder cases in criminal history and a subject for numerous documentaries, books, TV episodes and movies. Law enforcement agencies, criminal experts, on-camera presenters and amateur sleuths have all attempted to solve the case, all without success. Rather like the Jack the Ripper murders in London…
The Sunset Strip: LA’s Adult Playground
Victor Ponet, a Belgian LA land developer, undertaker and diplomat, bought 240 acres of the old Rancho La Brea in 1890. His new estate consisted mostly of poinsettia fields and was a couple of miles west of a small village that was only just becoming known as Hollywood. Fourteen years later Ponet had a six-hundred…
Hollywood Sign: Hiking & History
The Hollywood Sign is such an iconic structure that it never needs an introduction or description to first-time visitors who are guests. They know it well, having seen it untold times in movies, TV shows and news pieces. For sure they’ve seen a picture of it many times too. Interestingly if you next ask them…
Broadway: LA’s Historic Theater District
When we visit the Broadway Theater District on our tours, visitors from outside Los Angeles can get confused. There’s a Broadway with lots of theaters in LA too? Isn’t that New York? Their confusion only increases when we tell them that actually ours has the largest number of historic theaters in the entire U.S. It…
Bicycling In LA: Rides & Routes
A lot of people, both visitors AND locals don’t even think it’s possible to go bicycling in LA. Or even if it is, that it would be unsafe, not to mention downright dangerous. The car is king here – this ain’t Yurup (which is how we say Europe by the way). However, you may be…
Sid Grauman & His LA Theaters
When the TCL Chinese Theatre opened in 1927 it was known as Sid Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, and some older Angelenos still call it such. Directly opposite, across the Walk of Fame, is the El Capitan Theatre, now owned by Disney, but when it opened in 1926 it was a Broadway style theatre that was part-owned…
10 Best Things To Do In LA In September
There are some really fun events happening in Los Angeles this month – from al fresco cinema to concerts by the beach, via film festivals and Mexican Independence Day celebrations. September has it all, but every month we produce a list of upcoming events and other activities that we think anyone here, both Angeleno and…
10 Best Things To Do In LA In August
August is a popular time to visit Los Angeles and, as always, there are a ton of things going on here this month. What we, at The Real Los Angeles Tours, try to do here is break it down and give you an easy to manage list, a selection of cool activities that we think…
10 Best Things To Do In LA In July
As summer – more commonly known as pool party season in Los Angeles – gets into fifth gear (if you know how to drive stick shift) we start the month off with THE most ‘merican of celebrations, Independence Day. It’s a special holiday here, probably to some extent because LA has a such a significant…
10 Best Things To Do In LA In June
As the weather continues to warm up, there are more and more outdoor activities and events going on in Los Angeles this month. LA Pride (which features a number of separate events) definitely comes to mind here, but there are some great things happening indoors too! Every Summer the LA Conservancy throw open the historic…
10 Best Things To Do In LA In May
With the advent of May comes the official beginning of Summer. This is a great time to be in Los Angeles as the days get warmer and longer, but with a cool marine layer coming off the Pacific creating the famous ‘May grey’, it’s almost the perfect temperature. This month we’ve got a beach festival,…
The Sunset Strip: True Crime & Ghost Tour
What do Lindsay Lohan, Bugsy Siegel and Charles Manson have in common? It’s obvious really – Sunset Boulevard! Find out if there are any other common denominators on the Sunset Strip: True Crime & Ghost Tour, a deep dive of this historic neighborhood (you’d be surprised). The Sunset Strip is one of the most famous…
10 Best Things To Do In LA In April
“Ah! Los Angeles in the Spring”: said absolutely no one. But they should – LA is a great place to be at this time of year. The rainy season is behind us, the nights are longer, it’s nice and warm, but it still hasn’t gotten hot yet. Things are starting to gear up for summer…
10 Best Things To Do In LA In March
There are always a ton of things happening in Southern California, so many in fact that it can be hard to decide what to do. That’s why we put together this list of the 10 best things to do in LA in March, so you can get some inspiration, make the most of your time…
Malibu Food & Wine Tour
Get ready for the ultimate Malibu Food & Wine Tour! This fun all-day trip includes 3 different wine tastings in the Malibu area, food to complement the wines, and a scenic drive through the Santa Monica mountains and Hollywood Hills. The whole day will be arranged in advance by an expert guide so that you…
10 Best Things To Do In LA In February
February is normally a surprisingly good month for events and things to do in Los Angeles, there’s the advent of the Lunar New Year, Valentine’s Day, amazing marionette shows AND numerous other things you can just do on your own. Like most major cities, there’s always a few interesting things going on, days are getting…
10 Best Things To Do In LA In January
There are lots of interesting things happening in Los Angeles this month. The year always starts with a bang, featuring one of the biggest and most famous festivals in the U.S., the Rose Parade, and things don’t let up after Christmas and the New Year, with the pace really picking up in January. There are…
10 Best Things To Do In LA In December
December is always a busy month, and there are always a ton of demands on our time. We’re rushing here, rushing there, as well as trying to do all the Christmas shopping, get all the food, do the social rounds etc. Maybe you’re looking for something different to do with friends or family, maybe you…
10 Best Things To Do In LA In November
Some great things are happening in Los Angeles in November. From fairytale forests to hiking the highest peaks in the city, via red carpets and Academy Awards, we’ve got the lowdown for you, right here. Every month we produce this list of the ten top events or things to do in southern California. The list…
10 Best Things To Do In LA In October
October, for most Angelenos, means two things: Halloween and Dia de Los Muertos. As you’d expect there are a ton of events connected with those holidays this month in Los Angeles. However, not everyone wants to go to yet another Halloween themed event, or at least they probably want to do something else too, so…
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