Four Great Walks Through Los Angeles
Discover Los Angeles on Foot
LA is a driving city, but that’s exactly why its walkable pockets punch above their weight: pick the right neighborhood and you can cover a genuine slice of the city without ever touching a freeway. Here are four routes that each stay inside one walkable bubble.
Downtown: Historic Core to Bunker Hill (2.5 miles)
Start at Union Station’s 1939 Mission Moderne hall, cross to Olvera Street, walk Broadway down to Grand Central Market, then across to the Bradbury Building’s free sky-lit atrium. From there, ride Angels Flight up Bunker Hill for $1 (50 cents with a Metro TAP card) to California Plaza, finishing at The Broad and Walt Disney Concert Hall’s rooftop garden, both free; check current transit connections at metro.net . Book a guided Downtown LA walking tour if you’d rather have a docent narrate the architecture as you go.
Venice Canals and Boardwalk (3 miles)
Enter the Venice Canals Historic District near Washington and Pacific, engineered in 1905 by Abbot Kinney and modeled on Venice, Italy. Walk the arched wooden footbridges over Carroll, Linnie, Howland, and Sherman canals, all free public sidewalks, then continue west to Ocean Front Walk past Muscle Beach and the skate park to Venice Pier. This route is flat the entire way and works equally well morning or sunset.
Hollywood Boulevard cinema walk (1.5 miles)
Start at the Hollywood and Highland Metro B Line stop and walk the Walk of Fame to TCL Chinese Theatre’s celebrity forecourt, then the Dolby Theatre’s lobby staircase, then east past the El Capitan Theatre to the Egyptian Theatre, restored and now run by the American Cinematheque. Reserve a TCL Chinese Theatre interior tour if you want to see beyond the forecourt.
Griffith Park’s Ferndell Trail to the Observatory (2 miles round trip)
A shaded canyon trail from Ferndell Park climbs past sycamores and tree ferns alongside a running creek, transitioning to the East Observatory Trail up to Griffith Observatory, free access 24/7. Check hours before you go; the observatory building itself is closed Mondays. Route details and trail conditions post at laparks.org .
LA isn’t one contiguous walkable city, so don’t try to stitch these routes together on foot. Hollywood and Downtown alone are 7 miles apart along commercial strip malls and highway overpasses, a walk that’s exhausting and not scenic. Drive or take the Metro B Line between bubbles instead, and treat each route as its own self-contained outing. For a broader sightseeing day that pairs with any of these, see the Los Angeles sightseeing guide .