Best LA tour or thing to do for extra day to explore 1st timers?

Hawkeyegirls

Mouseketeer
Joined
May 9, 2014
We are thinking of only doing 2 days at the parks and will have one full day left and my daughter wants to see the sights. I assume a tour might be the easiest instead of us trying to drive and park. Have you done a great tour if so which one? Or are they super cheesy and is there a better way to spend the day exploring this city that is new to us?
 
I've never done a tour but here are some things I like:

Griffith park observatory (not for the museum but for the views and usually on the way to other stuff I'm doing anyway)

Little Tokyo (especially the mochi ice cream store and sanrio store plus choose a sushi restaurant that pull the food around on little boats or the restaurant where you order on the touch screen and food delivered via tubes)

Canters diner(cool atmosphere, 24 hrs, good Jewish food, cool neighborhood next to Hollywood)

Warner bros studio tour (if you do this one then you should eat at Porto's before/after, good Cuban food and go vintage shopping at the shops on magnolia)

Santa Monica Pier is kinda cool but usually crowded

If you want to go to the beach pick one in Malibu. The water will probably be cold though

I think watching the price is right live is fun and then after you could eat at the original farmers market

FYI I'm from LA and moved away when I was 17 so all the things I know I like to do there is from that teenager perspective lol
 
If you have never been to DLR, I would probably just do the 3 days at DLR. I agree with the above poster that the Warner Brothers Studio tour is great as is the Griffith park observatory. But, the year that after DLR we went north (universal, Warner Brothers, Hollywood etc) to stay a couple of days instead of our usual south (San Diego area), it was about an hour and a half drive from DLR to get to that area, and the day we had to drive back to fly out of SNA it was a 2 hour drive. These were not rush hour times either, and it is only about a 30-40 mile about all interstate drive.
 
I've never done a tour but here are some things I like:

Griffith park observatory (not for the museum but for the views and usually on the way to other stuff I'm doing anyway)

Little Tokyo (especially the mochi ice cream store and sanrio store plus choose a sushi restaurant that pull the food around on little boats or the restaurant where you order on the touch screen and food delivered via tubes)

Canters diner(cool atmosphere, 24 hrs, good Jewish food, cool neighborhood next to Hollywood)

Warner bros studio tour (if you do this one then you should eat at Porto's before/after, good Cuban food and go vintage shopping at the shops on magnolia)

Santa Monica Pier is kinda cool but usually crowded

If you want to go to the beach pick one in Malibu. The water will probably be cold though

I think watching the price is right live is fun and then after you could eat at the original farmers market

FYI I'm from LA and moved away when I was 17 so all the things I know I like to do there is from that teenager perspective lol
Do you recall the names of the Little Tokyo restaurant? Google isn’t giving me any help.
 


https://kurasushi.com/locations/los-angeles-ca-little-tokyo/ (this place is super fun but gets busy. dont know if they take reservations or not)

i couldnt see the mochi place on the map...maybe the place i used to go to is closed now but yamazaki bakery is good

and lots of cute stores and super walkable area. if youre driving you can find pay for parking lots nearby.

if youre trying to save time and stay in one area little tokyo is downtown. other cool places downtown are the last bookstore and olvera street
 

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