Santa Monica is a coastal town that maintains a balance as a tourist destination and as an area with a thriving local culture. On the beach, bikers, roller-bladers, runners and walkers move along the famed bike path enjoying the beautiful Los Angeles weather. The solar-powered Ferris wheel at the Santa Monica pier spins high above the water, while park revelers scream with delight riding the roller coaster. Inland from the beach, Third Street Promenade bustles with shoppers and street performers, where every block seems to have a musical or acrobatic act drawing crowds giving Santa Monica both the feeling of a laid-back beach town and a major commercial hub.

Downtown Los Angeles is a busy metropolis of towering buildings, bustling streets, and industrial warehouses. There is a distinct multiplicity of cultures here with a growing influx of business professionals and hipsters. Many call the evolution of Downtown over recent years gentrification. New lofts, bars, hotels and restaurants are popping up regularly. Downtown is home to some of the very best restaurants in the city leading the LA foodie scene, plus it is the location of cultural and sports venues including the Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Staples Center, and the Coliseum at the University of Southern California.

Venice has always danced to its own beat as the epicenter of bohemian culture in Los Angeles. Along the boardwalk there are street performers and local craftsmen selling their wares. Original paintings, souvenirs, and jewelry are on display. Crowds of visitors marvel at the sites while weightlifting enthusiasts pump iron in plain view, and skateboarders do their tricks around the skate park. All of it happens under the warm California sun with sprawling views of sand and sea. Heading east, the main drags of Abbot Kinney Boulevard and Main Street are lined with boutique shops, some major retail stores, art galleries and restaurants. Here the ambiance is more relaxed and upscale than the frenetic boardwalk area. Venice is a mostly walkable (and certainly bikeable) neighborhood, full of areas to explore.

Beverly Hills began as a modest village years ago and today you can still feel its small town origins, even though it has become a major tourist attraction and business center for the entertainment industry. This town lives up to its reputation as an area full of designer retail stores and residential streets lined with mansions and palm trees. Inside the commercial center of Beverly Hills, along Rodeo Drive, droves of tourists peak into ultra-luxurious boutiques hoping to catch a glimpse of someone famous. Off of Rodeo Drive however is where some of the most affluent Angelenos occupying the streets of Beverly Hills come for leisurely meals, power lunches and beauty treatments.

For years, West Hollywood has been known as a hub for the LGBT communities in Los Angeles. Today it still maintains the title, but has also become the “it” neighborhood for the entertainment industry’s up-and-comers. Producers, directors, writers and aspiring actors call this area home. Known for great boutique shopping, vintage clothing stores, home décor shops and fitness studios, West Hollywood is a grid of wide boulevards and narrow residential streets. The neighborhood also has a concentration of the most avant-garde restaurants in Los Angeles (rivaled only by the burgeoning restaurant scene Downtown). A trip to the iconic Sunset Strip, with its many clubs, music venues, hotels and flashing lights won’t be forgotten.

Home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, this concert hall is designed to be one of the most acoustically sophisticated in the world.

A major university that has developed into an international center of learning, enrolling more than 28,000 undergraduate, graduate, and professional students on its two campuses.

Located in the midst of downtown Los Angeles, only the second cathdral to be built in a US city in the past 50 year, the structure has been compared to Notre Dame in its magnificense.

Famous 19th-century Italian Renaissance building in downtown Los Angeles.