Places strangersigh Wants to Go

An Italian restaurant became a rock-and-roll hangout and the lair of the "Hollywood vampires."

The beloved dining spot stands at the cross-section of Hollywood and the Old West.

A treasure hunter's tiny bar, harboring celebrities since 1959.

Try the frozen treat that inspired Arrested Development's famous banana stand.

Someone really, really wanted to save this fast-food icon from demolition.

Grab a latte at the birthplace of modern American skateboarding.

Santa Monica's oldest restaurant, decorated with set pieces from the Mutiny on the Bounty.

A classically trained chef makes beloved burritos inside a gas station.

From sax to spuds, get 'em all at this landmark music establishment.

Every weekend, the parking lot of this Buddhist temple turns into a Thai street-food paradise.

A beautiful memorial tells the story of a formerly enslaved woman whose kindness shaped a burgeoning city.

The legendary building that needed ghostly approval before being built.

Historic funicular railway, believed to be the shortest railroad in the world.

This opulent hotel has been visited by Spider-Man, Charlie's Angels, and the Ghostbusters.

Inside this library, the history of Los Angeles is retold through a mural.

The space-age building is home to one of the few remaining rotating restaurants in America, and the only one that inspired a 1980s sitcom.

Though the original building has been demolished, these massive bronze doors were saved.

This star-studded Old Hollywood restaurant is where fettuccine Alfredo made its United States debut.

A beloved carnival gets a modern makeover in Los Angeles.

This iconic L.A. bookshop is housed in an abandoned bank—both symbolic and chic.

Remants of foundations, streets, and streetcar tracks inhabit the cliffs where a landslide occurred in 1929.

Three vintage horses survived a 1976 inferno and found a home on a sister carousel.

The abandoned zoo enclosures offer a perfect place to experience the other side of the bars.

High on a hill overlooking Los Angeles lives a world famous, high-power conical Tesla Coil.