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Street parking is heavily restricted in West Hollywood, but you’ll find two hours of free parking at 8383 Santa Monica Blvd. Mid-City areas usually have plenty of street parking. DASH buses Click here serve the area on the Fairfax Route and the Hollywood/West Hollywood Route.

SUNSET STRIP

A visual cacophony of billboards, giant ad banners and neon signs, the sinuous stretch of Sunset Blvd between Laurel Canyon and Doheny Dr has been nightlife central since the 1920s. Mobster Bugsy Siegel and his posse hung out at such clubs as Ciro’s (now the Comedy Store;); Marilyn Monroe had her first date with Joe DiMaggio at the Rainbow Bar & Grill (Map; 9015 Sunset Blvd); the Whisky A Go-Go gave birth to both the Doors and go-go dancing; and Led Zeppelin raced motorcycles in the Hyatt Hotel (Map; 8401 Sunset Blvd), henceforth known as the ‘Riot House’. Then, in the late ’90s, the strip captured the limelight again with the House of Blues (HOB;), the ultraposh Skybar at the Mondrian Hotel and the sexy Standard Hollywood hotel Click here.

These days, though, it seems to be coasting on its fabled legacy. The young, hip and fickle have moved on to ghetto-glam Hollywood, leaving mostly buttoned-down and cashed-up suburbanites braving the velvet ropes, ordering $500 bottle service and listening to eardrum-friendly Stevie Wonder. Even the landmark Tower Records store is no more since the company went bankrupt in 2006. Like all aging divas, the strip is ripe for a makeover. Stay tuned.

PACIFIC DESIGN CENTER & AROUND

Design is big in WeHo, with around 130 trade-only showrooms at the Pacific Design Center (PDC; Map; 310-657-0800; www.thepacificdesigncenter.com; 8687 Melrose Ave, West Hollywood; admission free; 9am-5pm Mon-Fri; ) alone and dozens more in the surrounding Avenues of Art & Design (Map; Beverly Blvd, Robertson Blvd & Melrose Ave). PDC showrooms generally sell only to design pros, but sometimes you can get items at a mark-up through the Buying Program.

The PDC itself is an architectural landmark by Cesar Pelli of Petronas Twin Towers (Kuala Lumpur) fame. By 2009, a new racecar-red building will be joining the existing cobalt-blue one (nicknamed the Blue Whale) and another sheathed in forest green. The West Hollywood tourist office Click here is on the mezzanine level of the blue building. At night, the fountains on the San Vicente Blvd side put on a colorful show.

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TICKETS TO SAVINGS

Besides the usual discounts (Click here for an overview), there are a couple of other options to trim expenses in LA. One is the Hollywood CityPass (www.citypass.com; adult/child 3-11 $50/39), a voucher booklet valid for admission to a handful of Hollywood museums and tours. It’s available online and at participating venues, which change periodically. Check the website for the latest scoop.

An alternative is the Go Los Angeles Card (www.golosangelescard.com; 1/2/3/5/7 days adult $49/79/149/161/179, child 3-12 $39/59/119/149/159), which gets you into as many of the 40 participating museums, tours and attractions (including Universal Studios Hollywood) as you can cram into its period of validity. It’s sold online, and the website also has handy sample itineraries to help you determine what can be reasonably accomplished within a certain time frame.

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Standing a bit forlorn amid the glassy behemoths is the MOCA Pacific Design Center (Map; 213-289-5223; www.moca.org; admission free; 11am-5pm Tue, Wed & Fri, 11am-8pm Thu, 11am-6pm Sat & Sun; ), a small satellite branch of Downtown’s Museum of Contemporary Art. Exhibits usually have an architectural or design theme.

SCHINDLER HOUSE

The former home and studio (Map; 323-651-1510; www.makcenter.com; 835 N Kings Rd, West Hollywood; adult/senior & student $7/6, 4-6pm Fri free; 11am-6pm Wed-Sun) of Vienna-born architect Rudolph Schindler (1887–1953) offers a fine primer on the modernist elements that so greatly influenced mid-century California architecture. The open floor plan, a flat roof and glass sliding doors, while considered