3 Days In Los Angeles With Teenagers, Part 1 – Downtown LA (DTLA)

When planning how to spend 3 days in Los Angeles with teenagers on our California road trip along the coast, Venice Beach and Santa Monica Pier were at the top of our list. As we also wanted to have a Hollywood-focussed day, that just left a third chunk of time to organise. As the distances between sights in LA are so big, because this city is huge, we decided to keep things simple on our arrival day and just take a walking tour of Downtown LA (DLTA), learning more about the birthplace of Los Angeles and looking for recognisable filming locations, of which there were many.

***January 2025 – Los Angeles and the surrounding area has been severely affected by devastating wildfires and so please check for updates before deciding to visit. My thoughts are with those who have been affected by this disaster***

Self-guided walking tour of Downtown LA (DLTA)

Our flight arrived at Los Angeles airport (LAX) in the early afternoon, but even by the time we had gone through immigration, reclaimed our baggage, and caught a taxi to our hotel, the Kimpton Everly Hotel, at the foot of the Hollywood Hills, it was still only mid-afternoon, but we had to try stay awake and get onto local time as quickly as possible to help manage our jet lag.

As we had time to explore one area of Los Angeles with teenagers, we caught an Uber to Los Angeles Union Station (6.5 miles away) to undertake a self-guided walking tour of Downtown LA (DTLA).

Stop 1 – Los Angeles Union Station

Los Angeles Union Station was built in 1939 and is the largest railroad passenger terminal in the West of the United States, often called “the last of the great train stations”.

Los Angeles Union Station has a Spanish Colonial feel to its exterior but is an Art Déco gem inside – with Art Déco designs and lettering throughout. It really is beautiful inside, and if the main waiting room looks familiar, it’s because it was used in the original Bladerunner film as the police station.

Stop 2 – El Pueblo de Los Angeles

Directly across the road from Los Angeles Union Station is the El Pueblo de Los Angeles National Monument, otherwise known as the ‘birthplace of Los Angeles’. This area was established by a handful of European families in 1781 and is the oldest part of LA.

At the centre of El Pueblo de Los Angeles is a park plaza with a bandstand. When we visited it was full of locals line dancing, chatting, and chilling out in deckchairs, which was nice to stop and watch for a while – a very chilled out vibe.

Calle Olvera (Olvera Street) is a pedestrianised street in El Pueblo de Los Angeles offering colourful market stalls under the shade of trees, lined with cafes and shops. The teenagers had fun browsing the gifts on offer, which included: painted skulls, Mexican wrestling masks, wooden puppets, stuffed llamas, sombreros, leather bags, and boho clothing.

One of the low-lying buildings on Olvera Street, is the Avila Adobe which was built in 1818 and is the oldest standing house in Los Angeles. You can go inside and only takes about 15 minutes to see, before grabbing taquitos covered in avocado salsa from nearby Cielito Lindo.

Stop 3 – Artwork on the way to Little Tokyo

For the next part of this walking tour of Downtown Los Angeles with teenagers, head out of Olvera Plaza on Los Angeles Street and cross the bridge over the Freeway, stopping to look down at the LA Freeway Kids mural on the inside of the Freeway walls, which is a famous piece of graffiti which both our kids recognised.

Continue along Los Angeles Street until you reach E Temple Street, turn left down E Temple Street and look for the sculpture called Molecule Man on your left (an 8-minute walk from El Pueblo de Los Angeles) – a tall structure comprised of four metal men in 2-D, interconnected with each other.

Stop 4 – Japanese Village Plaza, Little Tokyo

Cross over the road and take a right along Judge John Aiso Street, until you reach 1st Street. Turn Left down 1st Street until you reach the Japanese Village Plaza in Little Tokyo (a 16-minute walk from El Pueblo de Los Angeles). There is a large Japanese style Bell Tower marking the entrance from this road so you can’t miss it.

The Japanese Village Plaza in Little Tokyo is just great. Whilst not a large area, it offers a small taste of Japanese – paper lanterns, Pokémon, Anime, and supermarkets filled with cute Japanese toys and objects. There are Ramen restaurants aplenty and lots of people in eye catching outfits milling around.

As jet lag was starting to kick in for us at this point, we should have stopped for a ramen in the Japanese Village Plaza but decided to hold out for Grand Central Market at the end of our walking tour of DTLA.

Stop 5 – Angels Flight Railway

From the Japanese Plaza, walk up E 2nd Street and then S Hill Street to reach the Angels Flight Railway (a 16-minute walk), passing offices, government buildings and theatre buildings along the way.

Note – we were surprised to see a large homeless encampment – a compound filled with tents, row of toilets and security – directly in front of Los Angeles City Hall In this main area of the city. However, we visited in Easter 2022 and apparently this encampment was disassembled, and its inhabitants moved on, just before the Major-elect, Karen Bass’s inauguration.

The Angels Flight Railway is a bright orange wooden railway operating two cars up and down Bunker Hill. It is the shortest railway in the USA and has been in operation since 1901 and has featured in several films including La La Land, when Mia takes a ride on it during a singing montage. It costs $1 per ride, and is over in the blink of an eye, but it has to be done.

Visiting Los Angeles with teenagers was always going to be about the movies, and so it wasn’t long until they spotted that the grassy area next to Angels Flight Railway, called Angel’s Knoll, was featured in the film 500 Days of Summer…if you say so!

Stop 6 – Grand Central Market, Los Angeles

Once at the bottom of the Angels Flight Railway, you will find the Grand Central Market just opposite. This market offers a range of eateries with options such as Mexican burritos, pizza, veggie burgers, sticky rice, and lots more. It was quite a cool environment with neon signs and cool options, which we thought would be fun for the teenagers, but for us, by this point, we were all so tired with jet lag that we would have eaten anything and just fallen into bed!

Just before leaving the area, make sure to pop into the Bradbury Building just opposite the Grand Central Market. The atrium of the Bradbury Building should be recognisable by its beautiful wrought iron stairways and balconies from the original Bladerunner film.

The movies are everywhere here, you can’t escape them, which is why our second day in Los Angeles with teenagers was going to be a Hollywood themed day.

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