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This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.

Arts & Entertainment

Tourists Come to Los Angeles for the Culture

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When America isn't hating on Los Angeles, they're coming here as tourists to soak up the culture.

A higher percentage of visitors who come to Los Angeles end up going to museums compared to any other major U.S. city, according to a travel piece on Easier.com. We're not totally sure how the site got that number or if it's totally accurate. (It seems like DC alone should be giving us a run for our money on the basis of schoolchildren going to all those free Smithsonian museums alone.) But we'll take any love that Los Angeles' cultural scene can get—especially if it's free of backhanded compliments.

The museums and cultural centers the article lists are all of the biggies that we would wholeheartedly endorse and it's where we often bring out-of-towners: the Getty, LACMA, the Griffith Observatory and Walt Disney. Kitschier Hollywood stops like Madame Tussaud's get thrown in for good measure, too. Yes, the writer points out we have film festivals but there's even history at the San Fernando Mission. It looks ahead, too: coming soon are the USS Iowa to the Port of Los Angeles and the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts.

And that's only counting Los Angeles proper. The article misses out on the Watts Towers, the Huntington Gardens of San Marino, and everything going on in Culver City, Santa Monica and Pasadena.

Where are the top places you take out-of-towners or the top places you go to play "tourist" for the day?

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