Family Fun
Arroyo Seco
1055 Lohman Ln., Los Angeles, CA, 91030
323-255-1506
South Pasadena’s Arroyo Seco miniature golf course is not big or elaborate like those theme-parky installations you see from the freeway…
Website: http://www.arroyoseco.com/
Neighborhood: Los Angeles, South Pasadena
Category: Family Fun, Golf, Sports & Recreation
Bailey Canyon Park
451 W. Carter Ave., Los Angeles, CA, 91024
Hollywood’s popular Runyon Canyon offers us panoramas, celebrity sightings, and stargazing, but Bailey Canyon Park in Sierra Madre has our pooches scampering across rivulets…
Website: http://www.sierramadrenews.net/bailey.htm
Neighborhood: Los Angeles, Sierra Madre
Category: Arts & Entertainment, Family Fun, Parks & Beaches, Sports & Recreation
Beachwood Canyon
Between 2872 and 2882 Belden, Los Angeles, CA, 90068
Build granitelike glutes and take in the landscape as you hike the public staircases notched into the city’s hillsides.
Website: http://www.secretstairs-la.com
Neighborhood: West Los Angeles
Category: Best of LA, Best of LA 2012: Do, Best of LA: 2012, Best of LA: Do, Family Fun, Sports & Recreation
Belmont Shore
Street, Los Angeles, CA, 90802
When we’re hanging out by the Granada boat launch in Long Beach, they’re tough to miss: People in wet suits being yanked across the water by enormous half-moon kites
Category: Family Fun, Sports & Recreation
Blue Collar Working Dog
1533 Echo Park Ave., Echo Park, CA, 90026
213-977-9042
Blue Collar Working Dog carries all manner of camping and hiking paraphernalia for canines–spot items that ensure pet safety and comfort in the wild
Website: http://www.bluecollarworkingdog.com/
Neighborhood: Echo Park
Category: Best of LA, Best of LA 2014: Pets, Best of LA 2014: Shop, Best of LA: 2014, Best of LA: Shop, Family Fun, Outdoor Recreation, Pet Stores
Briarwood Park
461 Almaden Ct., Los Angeles, CA, 90077
310-840-2186
The general rule for play dates in the 310 and the 818 is that someone has to schlepp from one side of the hill to the other. If people only knew about Briarwood Park…
Website: http://www.laparks.org/dos/parks/facility/briarwoodPk.htm
Neighborhood: Beverly Hills, Los Angeles
Category: Arts & Entertainment, Family Fun, Parks & Beaches, Sports & Recreation
Bridge to Nowhere
Camp Bonita Rd., Los Angeles, CA, 91702
Few hikes in Southern California make one feel as intrepid as the five-mile haul to the Bridge to Nowhere.
Category: Best of LA, Best of LA 2012: Do, Best of LA: 2012, Best of LA: Do, Family Fun, Sports & Recreation
Douglas Park
2439 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA, 90403
310-458-8974
At the colorful playground at Douglas Park is a shallow rink that shoots jets of water in the summer and is prime turf for tot cycling the rest of the year…
Website: http://www01.smgov.net/parks/douglas.htm
Neighborhood: Los Angeles, Santa Monica
Category: Arts & Entertainment, Family Fun, Parks & Beaches, Sports & Recreation
Dreams Unlimited
14210 Cholame Rd., Victorville, CA, 92392
800-246-8247
As a rule, hot-air balloon companies steer clear of the city, preferring the less congested areas of Palmdale and Palm Springs. But Dreams Unlimited will launch from your lawn…
Website: http://dreamballoons.com/
Category: Family Fun, Sports & Recreation
E. Waldo Ward
273 E. Highland Ave., Los Angeles, CA, 91024
800-355-9273
Before all the tract houses, there were oranges, millions of oranges. At the end of the 19th century, the San Gabriel Valley was booming with agriculture…
Website: http://waldoward.com/
Neighborhood: Los Angeles, Sierra Madre
Category: Family Fun, Sports & Recreation, Tours & Excursions, Travel
El Porto
Pacfic Coast Highway, Los Angeles, CA, 90266
Wedged against the ominous Hyperion sewage treatment plant, with its tubes and domes and belching chimneys, El Porto will never be a glamour beach
Category: Family Fun, Sports & Recreation
Elysian Park
1880 Academy Dr, Los Angeles, CA, 90012
213-485-5054
Want to play tennis on a Saturday afternoon? Good luck finding a court that’s not mobbed
Neighborhood: Elysian Park
Category: Family Fun, Sports & Recreation
Escondido Falls
Winding Way, Los Angeles, CA, 90265
There are no elevation changes on the just-over-two-mile trail leading to Escondido Falls in Malibu, but there are scenery shifts galore
Website: http://www.localhikes.com/Hikes/EscondidoFalls_4472.asp
Category: Family Fun, Sports & Recreation
Fire Groove
671 N. Berendo St., Los Angeles, CA, 90004
1-800-755-6423
The quest for a hot body meets hippie spirituality in the burgeoning trend known as fire dancing.
Website: http://www.firegroove.com
Neighborhood: Hollywood
Category: Best of LA, Best of LA 2012: Do, Best of LA: 2012, Best of LA: Do, Dance Studio, Family Fun, Sports & Recreation
Franklin Canyon Ranch
2600 Franklin Canyon Drive, Los Angeles, CA, 90210
Trail running is basically hiking—for crazy people. The mountains above Malibu and Santa Monica have some lovely views, but running uphill for 50 percent or more of the stint left us feeling insufficiently fit
Category: Family Fun, Sports & Recreation
Glendale Narrows
street, Los Angeles, CA, 91210
The L.A. River is at its renegade best where Los Feliz Boulevard crosses the 5 in Atwater Village
Website: http://www.trails.com/tcatalog_trail.aspx?trailid=XWP018-029
Category: Family Fun, Sports & Recreation
Go Kart World
21830 Recreation Rd., Los Angeles, CA, 90745
310-834-3700
At Carson’s Go Kart World, driving for fun is not an L.A. oxymoron. Built in the shadow of the 405 freeway, the mini speed zone boasts six tracks of varying shape…
Website: http://gokartworld.com
Neighborhood: Carson, Los Angeles
Category: Family Fun, Sports & Recreation
Hahamonga Watershed
550 N. Oak Grove Dr., Los Angeles, CA, 90041
At this summer’s Japan Open, disc golfers from across the globe played for a $26,000 purse. Closer to home, the sport holds a cultlike sway, and for good reason…
Website: http://www.lamountains.com/parks.asp?parkid=643
Neighborhood: Los Angeles, Pasadena
Category: Family Fun, Golf, Sports & Recreation