Los Angeles travel guide and things to do: Nine must-do highlights

Snap a shot of the Hollywood sign from the rooftop of the Thompson Hollywood.Credit:

THE ONE HOTEL

Hollywood has a parade of glossy new stars adding fresh lustre to the historical district, and Thompson Hollywood is one of the brightest. Opened late last year, just a stroll from Sunset and Vine, the 11-storey property puts you close to multiple landmarks, including the Hollywood Bowl, Chinese Theatre, Hollywood Boulevard and Griffith Observatory. A mash-up of old-Hollywood opulence and contemporary Cali cool, its sleek design, paired with retro screen idol photos, is also mercifully free from hipster attitude. You won't feel dorky if you snap a shot of the Hollywood sign from the rooftop Terrace bar. Up here, sipping poolside sundowners against a backdrop of the Santa Monica mountains amid yellow striped umbrellas and lush greenery, Tinseltown feels like it's all yours. See hyatt.com

THE ONE HIKE

For a fresh-air antidote to LA's multi-lane highways, pull your sneakers on and head up to Runyon Canyon, on the eastern end of the Santa Monica Mountains. Three hiking routes around its 65 hectares range from an easy couple of kilometres to a more demanding five-kilometre climb, but all trails offer priceless views of the Hollywood sign, Sunset Strip and the LA Basin. You'll share space with local walkers, runners and dogs (sometimes with their celebrity humans). Benches at Inspiration Point and Cloud's Rest offer breathers with panoramas. See laparks.org/runyon/

THE ONE COCKTAIL

When one of Musso & Frank Grill's red-jacketed bartenders mixes you a classic martini, you're sharing a time-honoured ritual on hallowed Hollywood ground. Pick any name from the Walk of Fame and chances are they've raised a glass in this 103-year-old institution that's so independently famous it has its own star on the Walk – right outside on Hollywood Boulevard. Steve McQueen was once ejected for over-imbibing, Keith Richards was a regular, and if the wood-panelled walls could talk, they'd dish on Chaplin, Marx, Monroe, Valentino, Bogart and Bacall. Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio and Al Pacino drank here in Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, served by real-life veteran bartender Sonny Donato. Your martini will be crafted as purism decrees: London dry gin (or vodka if you must), stirred (never shaken), a juicy, briny, house-cured olive and never more than a sideways glance at vermouth. Musso martinis were artistic fuel for Orson Welles and a library of literary legends including F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dorothy Parker and Charles Bukowski. See mussoandfrank.com

THE ONE STUDIO TOUR

Dream factory Warner Bros turns 100 in April, 2023, and celebrations are already under way at its Warner Bros Studio Tour in Burbank, augmented post-pandemic with major new exhibits showcasing a century of celluloid magic. The new Storytelling Showcase kicks off the three-hour tour with a journey through movie-making history, from silent movies to streaming. An interactive soundstage, Stage 48: Script to Screen, unveils the filmmaking process via the Central Perk set from Friends, Sheldon's bedroom from The Big Bang Theory and diehard-delighting immersions into the DC and Harry Potter universes. The guided section explores working backlots and soundstages, with a photo opp at the Friends fountain. With plenty for fans and film nerds of all generations, the tour delivers a big bang for your buck at $69 ($A99.15) or $59 for kids. See wbstudiotour.com

THE ONE SPOT TO PEOPLE WATCH

LA's exhibitionist soul reveals itself in maximum boho technicolour along the Venice Beach Boardwalk, a free four-kilometre seaside circus of life. As you cycle or stroll past street vendors and tattoo joints, you might see – as I did - an al fresco grand pianist, a roller skater in just a gold thong, dogs in superhero costumes, fire eaters, acrobats practicing a human pyramid, skateboarding ballerinas and of course Muscle Beach Gym, an open-air flesh-fest of sunbaked beefcake.

THE ONE FOOD MARKET

The Original Farmers Market, on 3rd Street and Fairfax Avenue, started in 1934 as a handful of local farmers selling produce from trucks. It's blossomed over the years into a storied and multicultural foodie wonderland with more than 100 speciality stores, produce stands and sit-down restaurants. This being LA, every corner has a celebrity connection; President Dwight Eisenhower and The Beatles enjoyed the fresh peanut butter at Magee's House of Nuts, and a photo in Frank Sinatra's favourite, Patsy D'Amore's Pizza, testifies to Ol' Blue Eyes' patronage. If heat's your pleasure, don't miss Light My Fire, a store devoted to hot sauces from around the world.

THE ONE MUSEUM

Credit: Iwan Baan

Downtown's The Broad offers free general admission to one of the world's leading collections of contemporary art – around 2000 pieces by more than 200 artists, including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Jeff Koons, Barbara Kruger, Takashi Murakami, Cindy Sherman and Andy Warhol. The building itself is art, with a "veil and vault" design wrapping public galleries around the entire archive, where racks of stored works can be glimpsed through viewing windows. Although everyone's raving about the two stunning Yayoi Kusama mirror installations, there's plenty more spectacle, such as Koons' weirdly absorbing "Michael Jackson and Bubbles" sculpture and Robert Therrien's "Under the Table", a house-sized dining table and chairs. See thebroad.org

THE ONE CONCERT VENUE

Next door to The Broad on Grand Avenue, the Walt Disney Concert Hall dazzles (literally, on sunny days) even before you enter. With its spectacularly jumbled silver sails, the showstopping Frank Gehry structure looks as if someone tossed the Sydney Opera House in the air and it landed as a flamboyant, metallic, rock n 'roll version of itself. Music lovers adore the hall's acoustic excellence; the Los Angeles Philharmonic's home, which turns 10 next year, was painstakingly engineered for such extraordinary auditory clarity and richness, and experts have described it as an instrument rather than a space. If you don't catch a concert, free daily self-guided tours offer fascinating insights. See laphil.com

THE ONE ROOFTOP

In this city of eye-candy eyries, it's hard to pick a top perch, but Hotel Erwin's High Rooftop Lounge at Venice Beach is as close as you'll get to a full LA 360, with beach, city, mountains and ocean all in the frame. From your comfy couch you can pan out from the Venice Beach and Boardwalk directly below, to distant Pacific Ocean horizons, up and down the Californian coast, and inland to Downtown, the Santa Monica Mountains and the Hollywood sign. Panoramic ocean sunsets are even more glorious while sipping the bar's signature mezcal-infused Light My Fire, inspired by Venice locals The Doors. See hotelerwin.com

ONE MORE THING

LA's beautiful inhabitants are notorious for their devotion to wellness, and the city's hottest hangout isn't a nightclub, but upscale health grocery store Erewhon, which abides by the motto: "nutrition is the key to a radiant lifestyle". Step inside any of LA's six outlets to escalate your likelihood of rubbing shoulders with Leonardo DiCaprio, Dakota Johnson, Kanye West or various Kardashians over chakra tonics and medicinal mushrooms. Wonder, for a mad moment, if perhaps you really do need some rainbow sea moss or a $A25 Strawberry Skin Smoothie created by Hailey Bieber, then raise a toast with your reishi latte, because now you're a true Angeleno.

The writer travelled with assistance of Los Angeles Tourism.