LA may seem like a mad rush, but a few blocks east of the Civic Center, El Pueblo de Los Angeles is a 44-acre state historic park commemorating the site where the city was founded in 1781 and preserving many of its earliest buildings. Its central attraction for most visitors is Olvera Street, a narrow, block-long passageway that was restored as an open-air Mexican marketplace (c1930).

Directly across from El Pueblo is Union Station, one of LA's oft-overlooked architectural treasures, built in 1939 in Spanish mission style. A few blocks north of the station, the 16 square blocks of Chinatown comprise the social and cultural nucleus of LA's 200,000 Chinese residents. The Museum of Contemporary Art is considered one of the world's most important collection of paintings, sculptures and photographs from the 1940s to the present.

Los Angeles has built its reputation on the glamour of the movies and most visitors want at least a little of its glitz to rub off on them. Hollywood, in northwestern LA, is no longer the movie mecca it once was, but it certainly holds plenty of historic interest. Outside the Chinese Theatre, more than 150 of the glitterati have left their prints on the sidewalk, while the first Academy Awards were held in 1928 at the historical Roosevelt Hotel.

But you're more likely to spot big stars in the ultra-rich suburb of Beverly Hills, just west of Hollywood. This city-within-a-city flaunts its wealth with opulent manors on manicured grounds and shopping streets overflowing with designer labels, most notably the world famous Rodeo Drive, where retailers such as Tiffany, Armani and Vuitton flog their wares. North Beverly Hills is the epicenter of luxury living, home to the likes of Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty and Harrison Ford, among others. If you still haven't spotted someone famous then extend your trip to that other famous neighborhood, Bel Air. stepping into an unreal movie, full of manufactured attractions and fame that you can't help admiring.

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