Best Art Museums in Los Angeles
Add Culture to a Luxury Vacation in LA, California
The best art museums in Los Angeles add class to a luxury vacation. From Greek and Roman antiquities to contemporary art, LA California has a museum to please anyone.
People planning trips to Los Angeles usually have a few things in mind: Disneyland, the beach, celebrity-spotting. Families may head to the Santa Monica Pier and Promenade for old-timey carnival rides and kid-friendly food, while young singles often like to party their nights away at the clubs on Melrose and the Sunset Strip. A luxury vacation in LA may touch upon all these aspects, but with a few common threads; stays at the 5-star luxury hotels in Los Angeles, dining in the best high quality restaurants LA has to offer, and touring its several world-class art museums. In fact, the best art museums in Los Angeles belie the idea that LA is a city devoid of culture.
The best art museums in Los Angeles County add class to a luxury vacation. Art is a most sophisticated form of entertainment - and LA is, after all, the entertainment capital of the world. It follows that these great museums are at the top of their game.
- The J. Paul Getty Museum - Luxury Travel must have been to the Getty Museum upwards of ten times in the past four years, it's that beautiful. The Richard Meier-designed architecture of the Getty Museum is truly astounding, and almost worth the trip in itself. This is an inside-outside museum, with the attention paid to natural light and the Los Angeles landscape from the mountains to the ocean. Exhibits at the Getty Museum are constantly changing, but favorites include classic Greek and Roman art and those that focus on Renaissance art from Italy.
- The Getty Villa - Sure, there's been a lot in the news about the Getty Villa; the Getty Trust has agreed to a settlement with Italy and Greece, and is returning part of its antiquities collection to their countries of origin. But the Villa isn't empty now, of course. The Roman-inspired garden and architecture is a marvel, and the antiquities collection here fit right in with their surroundings. The permanent collection includes around 44,000 Etruscan, Greek, and Roman busts, statues, and objects d'art, with the galleries arranged by theme (Gods, the Trojan War, etc).
- The Los Angeles County Museum of Art - LACMA is right in the heart of LA's Miracle Mile, on Wilshire Blvd. In as such, it's on many a luxury traveler's list for convenience alone. It is Luxury Travel's favorite museum on Museum Mile, and for good reason: It's the largest art museum west of Chicago, with exhibits both classic and contemporary. The sheer diversity of LACMA ensures that there will be exhibits to please any art lover. Favorites in the permanent collection include Art of the Ancient Americas, Chinese Art, Costumes and Textiles, and European Painting.
- The Huntington Library, Art Collection and Botanical Gardens - Okay, the Huntington is really in Pasadena; close enough. It befits a luxury vacation in Los Angeles to take a detour to Pasadena (the Norton Simon Museum of Art is here too). The Huntington Library, Art Collection and Botanical Gardens are all part of one spectacular whole. The Library contains one of the best collections of rare books and manuscripts, quite literally, in the world. The Huntington Art Collections include a specialized collection of French and British art from the 1700's and 1800's. This is one of the best collections of British portraits from the 1700's to be found outside of Britain. Last, the 120-acre Botanical Gardens are truly spectacular; nearly any time of year, something's in bloom, and the love of nature is evidenced at every turn.
Other popular museums in Los Angeles are also notable, despite not quite making it into this Best Museums list. These include the Hammer Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Museum of Latin American Art, the Fowler Museum at UCLA, and the California African American Museum.
A visit to any of these best art museums in Los Angeles does more than counterbalance the effects of spending travel time star-gazing and trying to learn how to surf. It will add quality to a luxury vacation in LA, and prove that culture is not so hard to find in this city!
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