Los Angeles travel info

At sunset, lean on the railing of the Griffith Observatory terrace: the white HOLLYWOOD letters hang on the ridge to your left, and below you a street grid runs on with no visible end into an orange haze, broken only by a handful of downtown towers in the distance. When the sun drops toward the ocean, the streetlights come on along that grid one line at a time, and you understand at once why this city is hard to do without a car. It's simply enormous.

Every neighbourhood feels like a different country. On Hollywood Boulevard people crouch beside the stars set in the sidewalk for photos; an hour's drive west in Santa Monica, surfers wait for waves beneath the Ferris wheel at the end of the pier. There's the scrape of skateboard wheels at the Venice Beach skatepark, the hushed shop windows of Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, and Koreatown, where Korean signs run block after block along Wilshire Boulevard. It's the biggest Koreatown in the US, so soft tofu stew and galbi are never far away.

The best food is eaten on the street. A taco truck in the corner of a parking lot piles grilled meat onto palm-sized corn tortillas, and the In-N-Out drive-thru has a line of cars until late. Grab the rental car keys first thing: in this city, freeway traffic writes the real timetable.

Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)