All guides

The guides hub is a library of essential-reading articles built around the questions that trip up first-time visitors. A Hollywood Sign guide is direct about access: there is no way to reach it on foot from the road below, and it's viewed from marked viewpoints and trails in Griffith Park or from a distance around the Hollywood district. A theme park guide compares Disneyland Resort, Universal Studios Hollywood and Knott's Berry Farm, and explains that dated tickets bought in advance and paid queue-skipping products are two separate purchases, not one.

A Getty Center guide covers the free admission, the paid parking at the base of the hill, and the tram ride up that's required either way, alongside the separate, timed-entry Getty Villa in Malibu. A Getting Around guide compares LA Metro rail and bus, covering parts of the basin, against the rental car most visitors end up needing for the beaches, the desert and Orange County. A Catalina Island guide explains that the only way there is a ferry crossing, with no bridge or causeway to the mainland. A desert guide is direct about Joshua Tree and Death Valley: both are US National Parks with an entrance fee and limited fuel, water and phone signal inside their boundaries.

A currency and tax guide is direct about the US dollar, the sales tax added at the till, and the tipping norms that catch out visitors used to tax-inclusive prices elsewhere. A studios guide draws the line between a working-studio tour of an active production lot and a theme-park-style studio attraction with rides.