We’re all pretty familiar with images of iconic landmarks from around the world – the Eiffel Tower, Big Ben and The Coliseum. But sometimes it’s more exciting to unearth hidden gems, to explore deeper parts of popular cities that the guidebooks and city tours don’t always tell you about.
Like everyone else, we have tons of photographs of the iconic landmarks, but we’re also really well known by our customers for having niche, unusual and unique photographs. So what better way to show off this side of our collection, than by juxtaposing these hidden gems and the more famous landmarks of some of the most popular tourist cities, in our new series of blogs ‘Explore the iconic and the unseen’.
We’ve previously explored Bath, UK, and now we’re looking at Los Angeles, USA. LA is a city famed for its sunny climate, celebrity culture and being the home of Hollywood. So let’s take a look at the 10 places to visit in LA – the iconic and the unseen….
5 iconic places to visit in LA
Hollywood walk of fame
One of the most iconic landmarks in LA, the Hollywood Walk of Fame is made up of terrazzo and brass stars, each marked with the name of someone in the entertainment industry to celebrate their work and achievements. It goes on for 18 blocks so make sure you have some comfy footwear before you start to explore.
Chateau Marmont
Chateau Marmont is a hotel located on Sunset Boulevard, throughout the years, Chateau Marmont has gained recognition due to its vast number of celebrity guests and it’s appearance in loads of Hollywood films.
Venice beach
Venice Beach has millions of visitors every year and is famed for being wonderfully eccentric. It include various famous landmarks within itself including muscle beach, the bike trail and the paddle tennis courts.
Universal studios
Universal Studios is a film studio and theme park, it’s one of the oldest and most famous Hollywood film studios still in use and is a must see attraction for tourists.
Hollywood sign
You can find the Hollywood sign on Mount Lee in the Hollywood Hills area of the Santa Monica Mountains. The sign overlooks Hollywood, Los Angeles and can be viewed from various parts of the city.
5 unseen places to visit in LA
The Beverly Centre
The Beverly Center is a shopping mall which opened in 1982, before the mall opened there was a small amusement park known as Beverly Park and Kiddyland, featuring a ferris wheel, merry-go-round, and mini roller-coaster, and a pony ride known as Ponyland.
Abandoned Nazi compound
LA couple Winona and Norman Stephens spent $4million building Murphy’s Ranch during World War II. The plan was to make an elaborate compound that included massive concrete water and diesel tanks and a power station, but they ran out of money before their plans were finished. Luckily for us these gated and graffiti-covered ruins can still be explored by climbing a steep staircase above a creek bed in Will Rogers State Park.
Prohibition booze-running tunnels under the streets of LA
Behind the Hall of Records you can take an unmarked elevator to the bottom floor and explore some of the underground pedestrian tunnels that used to stretch underneath the city during the Prohibition Era. The tunnels were used to shuttle alcohol!
The longest stretch of the Berlin Wall outside of Berlin is on Wilshire
A-segment, 25-ton, 40ft-long curtain of concrete taken from the Berlin Wall stands in front of the Variety Building and showcases a mix of Cold War-era murals and modern designs by street artists from LA and Berlin.
Helios House
This is the first green gas station in the world and was designed to ‘reinvent the gas station.’ Built in 2007 the station’s roof consists of 90 solar panels which reduce the energy consumption of the station by 16%, the roofs design also collects water in case of droughts.
See more iconic and unseen places to visit in our previous blog from this series, The iconic and the unseen – Bath, Somerset, UK.