Los Angeles

POP: 3.976 MILLION

GPS: 34.0522° N, 118.2437° W

AREA: 1,302 km²

CUR: US DOLLAR

Los Angeles is a sprawling Southern California city and the center of the nation’s film and television industry. Near its iconic Hollywood sign, studios such as Paramount Pictures, Universal and Warner Brothers offer behind-the-scenes tours. If you can afford to, use the "skip the queue" facilities they have at Universal Studios (and others) as it saves heaps of time and makes for a much more enjoyable day.

On Hollywood Boulevard, TCL Chinese Theatre displays celebrities’ hand- and footprints, the Walk of Fame honors thousands of luminaries and vendors sell maps to stars’ homes.

It is the second most populous city in the United States (after New York City) and most populous city in the state of California. Located in a large coastal basin surrounded on three sides by mountains reaching up to and over 10,000 feet (3,000 m), Los Angeles covers an area of about 469 square miles (1,210 km2). The city is also the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populated county in the country. Los Angeles is the center of the Los Angeles metropolitan area, with 13,131,431 residents.

Other great cities to visit while in California are San Francisco to the north and San Diego to the south.