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During your Los Angeles vacation, don't miss these great establishments and attractions:
Craft & Folk Art Museum
This gallery, housed in a prominent Museum Row building, has grown into one of the city's largest. "Craft and folk art" encompasses everything from clothing, tools, religious artifacts, and other everyday objects to wood carvings, papier-mâché, weaving, and metalwork. The museum displays folk objects from around the world, but its strongest collection is masks from India, America, Mexico, Japan, and China. The museum is also known for its annual International Festival of Masks, held each October in Hancock Park, across the street. Be sure to stop in the funky, eclectic Museum Shop (tel. 323/857-4677) to peruse the wearable art, folk art books, and various handmade crafts.
California Science Center
A $130 million renovation -- reinvention, actually -- has turned the former Museum of Science and Industry into Exposition Park's newest attraction. Using high-tech sleight-of-hand, the center stimulates kids of all ages with questions, answers, and lessons about the world. One of the museum's highlights is Tess, a 50-foot animatronic woman whose muscles, bones, organs, and blood vessels are revealed, demonstrating how the body reacts to a variety of external conditions and activities. (Appropriate for children of all ages, Tess doesn't possess reproductive organs.) Another highlight is the new Air and Space Gallery, a seven-story space where real air- and spacecraft are suspended overhead.There are nominal fees, ranging from $2 to $5, to enjoy the science center's more thrilling attractions. You can pedal a bicycle across a high-wire suspended 43 feet above the ground (demonstrating the principle of gravity and counterweights) or get strapped into the Space Docking Simulator for a virtual-reality taste of zero gravity. There's plenty more, and plans for expansion are always in the works. The IMAX theater boasts a screen seven stories high and 90 feet wide, with state-of-the-art surround sound and 3-D technology. Films are screened throughout the day until 9pm and are nearly always breathtaking, even the two-dimensional ones.
Sony Pictures Studio Tour
Although it doesn't have quite the historical cachet as Warner Brothers or Paramount, a lot of movie history was made at this Culver City lot. The 2-hour walking tour includes stops at classic stage scenes such as the Yellow Brick Road winding through Munchkinland, sets from modern thrillers like Men in Black, and an opportunity to drop in on the Jeopardy! set to test your trivia prowess. But the main reason for the tour is the chance to catch a glimpse at the stars who work here (it's one of the busiest studio lots in the world).
Miyako Hotel Los Angeles
Find the Spirit of Japan at the Miyako Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. The handsomely appointed and spacious guest rooms feature all the comforts of being home while away from home. The decor of the 174 guest rooms brings a blend of Japanese elegant flair with the spacious contemporary comforts of home to make your stay more enjoyable. All rooms are equipped with complimentary high speed internet connections, in-room safe, work desk, coffee maker, iron and ironing boards, hairdryer, mini ...
Residence Inn by Marriott Beverly Hills
Residence Inn by Marriott is designed to make you feel at home for a day, a week, a month or more. Our suites give you fifty percent more space than most traditional hotel rooms. The Residence Inn Beverly Hills is located one mile from the exclusive shops of Rodeo Drive, two miles from Twentieth Century Fox studios and twelve miles from downtown Los Angeles. Parking is USD 18 per night valet service only with discounted rates available for stays of five nights or more. Pets thirty-five ...
La Quinta Inn & Suites LAX
Conveniently located less than a mile from one of the world's busiest airports and within five miles of Manhattan Beach, the La Quinta Inn & Suites LAX is a welcoming oasis for travel weary guests. Just off the 405 Freeway, this full-service hotel features an onsite restaurant, free 24-hour airport shuttle service, an outdoor pool with sundeck, fitness center, and meeting/banquet facilities for up to 300 guests. Wireless high-speed Internet access is available throughout the hotel as ...
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