The landmarks of Los Angeles are well-known around the world: Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood Walk of Fame, the Hollywood Sign, Universal Studios, Capitol Records Building, Santa Monica Pier, Muscle Beach and Sunset Boulevard.

Outdoors

Not many people think of the great outdoors when they think of LA, but the truth is most locals are very in-tune with Mother Nature. In Los Angeles, you don’t have to travel more than 10 miles from downtown to find a trailhead into the foothills. Dense urban streets give way to shimmering beaches, grassy hillsides, and rugged mountains. There are no park fees and no need to pack for a road trip, so many Angelenos are able to squeeze an outdoor excursion into their daily routine.

Party Life

Los Angeles definitely lives up to its reputation as a party town. You can find an infinitely diverse array of late-night shenanigans, from steampunk parties to rooftop soirées to heavy metal carnivals to underground warehouse raves. How do you find these imaginative parties? Purely by word-of-mouth.

Grand Central Market

This 100-year-old food hall is the culinary epicenter of LA. Many locals will gladly spend a day-off from work trying to eat their way through the melting pot of the Los Angeles food scene. For starters, try the city’s most coveted orders: Tacos Tumbras a Tomas, Sticky Rice, and Eggslut.

Los Angeles traffic is real. It’s not uncommon for the average commute to take over 2 hours, and trying to get around on public transit can even get a little complicated. The savviest way out of LA’s rush-hour standstills is to choose your apartment wisely, plan a smart commute, and try to avoid that pesky 101.

If you’re a sports fan, there’s no shortage of teams to support with two teams in each major league. The teams of Los Angeles are the LA Dodgers and LA Angels (MLB), the LA Rams and LA Chargers (NFL), the LA Lakers and LA Clippers (NBA), and the LA Kings and Anaheim Ducks (NHL).

The weather in Los Angeles is generally warm and sunny. In the late spring and early summer, LA experiences “June Gloom,” where overcast skies and fog are common in the mornings, but tend to clear by early afternoon.

You may already know that Los Angeles is home to 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros., Universal Pictures and Paramount - but the Hollywood economy is quickly diversifying its portfolio with strong technology, aerospace, energy, fashion and financial sectors. Well-known tech companies with headquarters in Los Angeles include Snapchat, Dollar Shave Club, TicketMaster, and Hulu. All the big names in aerospace have offices in the area, including Boeing, Lockheed, Raytheon SpaceX, Aerojet Rocketdyne, Virgin Galactic and Northrop Grumman. In downtown, you’ll find major financial operations such as US Bancorp, Ernst & Young and Bank of America. And on the fashion scene, you can add Quicksilver, American Apparel, Lucky Brand, Oakley, Forever 21 and PacSun to the list of companies that now call Los Angeles home.