If you’ve lived in LA you know that when you live on the Westside, it’s rare you leave your little beach bubble to head East and vice versa. It’s unfortunate, but it’s a reality. Through having an LA bucket list, it helps me break that habit and get out of the Westside to explore what Southern California has to offer!
Downtown LA (or DTLA) has lots to offer in terms of delicious food, art and culture. Something that I’ve been wanting to do for a long long time is go to the Broad Museum.
When I make plans for a weekend adventure, I make sure to the make most out of my time and for this day it was all about parking. Parking in DTLA is not easy, so I wanted to build a day around our parking spot. That might sound odd, but I did a little bit research and found that the Pershing Square parking garage would be the perfect home base for our car. It would allow us to walk to the all of notable spots in DTLA that we wanted to visit.
Below you’ll find the perfect itinerary for a day in DTLA.
Park at Pershing Square Garage
The first thing we did was park at Pershing Square Garage. All of our destinations were no more than about .5 miles walking distance from here.
Historic Downtown Farmer’s Market
We were in DTLA on a Sunday which is when the Historic Downtown Farmer’s Market is popped up. Stop by the stands for fresh fruits & veggies, grab a coffee, or get a pre lunch snack! It’s a nice scenic route on the way to your next stop!
I’m not sure if there’s history to this bookstore, but all I know is that it’s a really awesome place to hang out for 15 minutes, an hour, a few hours, heck, the whole day even. It’s one of those places that you can get yourself lost in, especially if you’re a book fanatic. Also, it’s an old bank so the architecture and remnants of the bank make it unique.
The Last Bookstore is a multilevel bookstore, that also houses some small local businesses inside, that’s how big it is. The first floor is where you’ll find more popular books for purchase, but on the second floor is where the magic is.
The second floor houses unique, very specific book genres and those quintessential photo moments any Instagrammer is looking for. It’s such an eclectic place and you should 100% check it out if you’re in DTLA!
Tip: Don’t miss these photo moments – the hole in the books, book lined walkway and the rainbow book case. Also, for my true crime lovers, there’s a vault dedicated just to true crime reads.
Afternoon Tea at the Millenium Biltmore Hotel
After the Last Bookstore, we walked back to toward the Pershing Square Garage to get some afternoon tea at the Millenium Biltmore Hotel in their Rendezvous Court which is right across the street from Pershing Square Garage. I’ve always wanted to be fancy and get afternoon tea, my dream is of course to experience it in London, but getting afternoon tea in an iconic LA hotel is second best!
The Biltmore Hotel has been a popular filming location for many Hollywood movies, like Ghostbusters (the original), Wedding Crashers and Cruel Intentions. Afternoon tea is $65 USD per person (this includes champagne). If you want to opt of champagne it is just $45 USD. You need to have a reservation, but I was able to book one easily through Open Table.
While we were here we were showered with champagne, sounds of the piano, and finger sandwiches. I realize that $65 USD is quite a splurge, but I was able to justify the cost since all the other activities we had planned this day were free.
Tip: Make sure to walk up the grand stairs and take a peek from the top, also check out the (new) lobby it’s beautiful too!
The main attraction of our time downtown was our visit to the Broad Museum. I recommend planning your day trip well in advance just The Broad. It is free to enter, but you can reserve a time to go in so you do not have to wait in line. It took me 2 weeks out to get a reservation at 4pm on a Sunday! If you do not have a reservation you can still go as a walk in, you might have to wait in line for up to 2 hours depending on how busy it is.
The Broad Museum is a contemporary art museum with nearly 2,000 works of art. I’ve been to many many museums in my life and this is one of the most enjoyable art museums that I’ve been to. They host the likes of Andy Warhol to a really big blue balloon dog.
You should allocate at least 1 hour to spend here. We stayed about 1.5-2 hours.
Tip: Make sure to get a reservation for the Infinity Mirror Room. It’s something that I totally missed on our way in, and was really disappointed to find out that by the time I was done exploring the exhibit they were not taking any new reservations.
Our last stop of the day was grabbing some dinner to go at Grand Central Market. Grand Central Market is a collection of different cuisines in one location. You can find Italian, Asian, Mexican, Ice Cream, cold cuts, literally anything here. It’s a lively environment with bright neon lights, each food stall fighting for your attention.
The vendor that ultimately won our bid was Sticky Rice. They serve a Thai fusion cuisine, and wow, highly recommend! I got a sticky rice bowl for $14 USD.
In total I spent $79 USD on my day trip to DTLA.
