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Downtown LA
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Urban · Easy

Downtown LA

Tile, marble, and sky — the city's old heart, walked or scootered.

Downtown LA stacks a century of ambition into roughly a square mile: Beaux-Arts banks turned bookstores, a 1893 cable railway still climbing Bunker Hill, a Frank Gehry concert hall, and the tallest open-air bar in the Western Hemisphere. The Historic Core to Bunker Hill loop is flat enough to walk and scooter-perfect — Metro Bikes and Lime/Bird stations are scattered every few blocks. This hunt threads nine stops from Spring Street up to a 73rd-floor view, then over to Olvera Street where the city began.

The Map

Your route

Offline directionsOpen in Maps

Pinch to zoom. Tap a marker to see the stop name. The dashed line traces the suggested walking order.

The Hunt

Turn-by-turn stops

Each stop shows the walking distance and direction from the previous one, plus a tap-through to your phone's maps for step-by-step directions.

  1. 01

    The Last Bookstore

    "Begin at 453 S Spring Street, inside the old Crocker Bank. Find the second-floor 'book tunnel' — count the arches you pass through."

    34.0479, -118.2497Start walking here
  2. 320 m~4 min walkhead NNE from stop 1
    02

    Grand Central Market

    "Walk three blocks to 317 S Broadway. Enter under the long neon sign and find the original 1917 'Coca-Cola' painted ghost sign on the interior wall."

    34.0507, -118.2487Walk from stop 1
  3. 70 m~1 min walkhead E from stop 2
    03

    Bradbury Building

    "Cross Broadway to 304 S Broadway. Step into the lobby (free, ground floor and first landing only). Look up — count the open-cage elevators."

    34.0506, -118.2479Walk from stop 2
  4. 220 m~3 min walkhead WNW from stop 3
    04

    Angels Flight Railway

    "Walk one block to the foot of the orange railway at 351 S Hill Street. Find the carved name above the lower archway — what are the two cars called?"

    34.0511, -118.2502Walk from stop 3
  5. 470 m~6 min walkhead N from stop 4
    05

    Walt Disney Concert Hall

    "From the top of Angels Flight, walk north up Grand Avenue to 111 S Grand. Find the rooftop public garden — the 'Blue Ribbon Garden' — and the Lillian Disney Memorial Fountain shaped like a giant rose."

    34.0553, -118.2498Walk from stop 4
  6. 110 m~1 min walkhead SSW from stop 5
    06

    The Broad

    "Next door at 221 S Grand, find the white honeycomb-screen building. Count how many oval 'eye' openings are cut into its veil on the Grand Ave side."

    34.0544, -118.2503Walk from stop 5
  7. 990 m~13 min walkhead SW from stop 6
    07

    Spire 73 at the InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown

    "Scoot west to 900 Wilshire Boulevard, the Wilshire Grand Center — the tallest building west of the Mississippi. Take the dedicated 'Sky Lobby' elevator from the 70th floor up to the rooftop bar. Look out — name the freeway interchange directly south."

    34.0489, -118.2588Walk from stop 6
  8. 1.3 mi~29 min walkhead ENE from stop 7
    08

    Olvera Street (El Pueblo de Los Angeles)

    "Head northeast to the brick-paved alley off N Main Street. Find the giant cross at the south end and the Avila Adobe at the middle of the block. Read the year carved on the Avila Adobe plaque."

    34.0571, -118.2378Walk from stop 7
  9. 160 m~2 min walkhead SE from stop 8
    09

    Union Station (End of the Hunt)

    "Cross Alameda Street to 800 N Alameda. Walk into the main waiting room — find the 3,000-pound brass chandeliers and the long leather-and-walnut benches. You finished where every train into LA still arrives."

    34.0561, -118.2365Walk from stop 8