The 5 most interesting walking tours in Los Angeles

The nonprofit Los Angeles Conservancy is the largest preservation group of its kind and the group responsible for safeguarding many of the city’s most treasured historic places. The group’s knowledgeable docents host weekly walking tours focused on specific styles (Art Deco) or areas (downtown’s historic core, the Broadway Theatre District).

The nonprofit organization Hollywood Heritage oversaw the restoration and preservation of this 1901 structure, the Lasky-DeMille Barn, which was the actual building where director Cecil B. DeMille had his office, and his studio staff worked and played. Today, the barn houses the Hollywood Heritage Museum.

Every Saturday this preservation organization hosts a two-hour walking tour (comprising only of six blocks) that retraces Santa Monica’s history from its Wild West days to how it became the vibrant community it is today.

Boasting a collection of materials about the history of the Valley (don’t be confused though, geographically there are other valleys nearby, like San Gabriel, but only San Fernando is the Valley), this museum also offers walking tours of historic neighborhoods, from North Hollywood and Van Nuys to abandoned missile silos to murals.

This community-based museum and cultural center offers a series of thoughtful walking tours that share, preserve, and celebrate the dynamic history of the multicultural neighborhood of Boyle Heights. Today a vibrant center of Chicano culture, there is a fascinating convergence of Jewish American, Japanese American and Latino communities to learn about and explore.