LA Activities Beyond the Theme Parks
Activities in Los Angeles
Pedal an illuminated swan boat across Echo Park Lake at night, ride the shortest railway in the world up Bunker Hill, and watch a 60-year-old ice cream tradition close out a marionette show. LA’s best activities aren’t the theme parks, they’re the small, specific, slightly odd things scattered across a city that’s actually 88 separate cities stitched together.
Grand Central Market, running since 1917
The Historic Core’s Grand Central Market on Broadway has packed 40-plus independent vendors under one roof for over a century. Eggslut for breakfast, Wexler’s Deli for house-smoked pastrami, Tacos Tumbras a Tomas for carnitas, and Sari Sari Store for Filipino rice bowls sit elbow to elbow. Open daily 8am to 9pm, free to walk through, with most plates running $5 to $22. Get there hungry and go early on weekends before the lines build. If you’d rather have someone else map the route, book a downtown food tour .
Swan boats on Echo Park Lake
Wheel Fun Rentals runs pedal-powered swan boats on Echo Park Lake, with lotus beds, a central geyser fountain, and the DTLA skyline as backdrop. Daytime rides run $13/hr for adults and $7.50/hr for kids ages 2 to 17; after dark, the boats light up for $14/hr and $8/hr. Each boat carries up to five people and life jackets are provided.
Bob Baker Marionette Theater
Founded in 1963 in Highland Park and now a designated LA Historic-Cultural Monument, Bob Baker Marionette Theater stages handcrafted wooden marionette revues in the round, Wednesday through Sunday, and still closes every show with a free Dixie cup of ice cream, a tradition older than most of LA’s theme park rides. General admission runs $25, and kids age 2 and under sit free on a lap.
Angels Flight and the Bradbury Building
Angels Flight has climbed Bunker Hill since 1901 and bills itself as the shortest railway in the world, 298 feet of track for $1 cash or card, or 50 cents with a Metro TAP card. It runs 365 days a year, 6:45am to 10pm. At the bottom of the hill, the Bradbury Building’s 1893 sky-lit atrium (the interior featured in Blade Runner) is free to walk into on weekdays 9am to 5pm and weekends 10am to 5pm.
The Strand, 22 flat miles along the coast
The Marvin Braude Bike Trail, known locally as The Strand, runs an uninterrupted 22 miles from Will Rogers State Beach through Santa Monica, Venice, and Marina del Rey down to Torrance Beach, with separate lanes for bikes and pedestrians. Cruiser rentals from beachfront shops like Perry’s run $12 to $15 an hour or $35 to $45 for the day, or reserve a Santa Monica bike rental ahead of a weekend visit. See the official route map at metro.net before you set out, since cross-town transit doesn’t reach every trailhead.
LA’s activities are spread across a basin that stretches 469 square miles, so resist the urge to stack Highland Park, DTLA, and Santa Monica into one afternoon: freeway traffic alone can eat three hours you’d rather spend at the market or on the water. If Angels Flight and the Bradbury Building whet your appetite for more of Bunker Hill on foot, the Downtown walking route picks up right where this list leaves off.