They say Los Angeles is a good place to live and a terrible place to visit. And they say in Los Angeles you can hit the desert, the mountains, the beach, and the city all in one day. And they say in Los Angeles there isn’t any culture. (And everything everyone says about Los Angeles is true.) It’s a huge city, and no one seems to have anything good to say about it, so where do you even begin? Curbed’s editors have put together this guide to 26 of the most essential sites in Los Angeles, whether you’re here for a week or the next few decades, updated now for summer.

And, as always, if we missed anything—a cool new gallery, a hidden neighborhood gem, or a landmark that’s just not getting its due—let us know in the comments, or hit the tipline.

[Note: Places are listed geographically, roughly east to west.]

Dodger Stadium, built in 1962, is the third oldest park in the MLB, and might just have the league’s first best views. (It sits in Chavez Ravine, which was once home to a Mexican-American ghetto; the city cleared it out in the 1950s in order to build public housing, but a little redbaiting later, that plan was dead and residents were voting to hand the land to the Dodgers.) A true Angeleno arrives in the third inning and leaves in the seventh (traffic is a nightmare), which allows plenty of time to wait in line for a Dodger Dog. On Friday nights, you can go down into the outfield to watch the weekly fireworks show lying on the grass.

For most of the first part of the Twentieth Century, the LA city charter prohibited buildings taller than 150 feet, with the exception of the now instantly recognizable City Hall, built in the late 1920s and stretching to 454 feet. The rules were changed and the building was surpassed in the 1960s, but it still offers one of the best views of Los Angeles from its 27th-story observation deck. It’s free and open to everyone on weekdays between 8 am and 5 pm, although you’ll have to go through a metal detector. One story below the viewing deck you’ll find the mayoral portrait gallery, where we recommend learning all about LA’s earliest and craziest mayors (like the guy who once resigned so he could lead a lynch mob).

Stick around for happy hour, trivia, or a movie, because this summer, the market is staying open later — until 10 p.m. daily — and there’s scheduled entertainment nightly

The Frank Gehry masterpiece really is that striking and the Yasuhisa Toyota acoustics really do sound that good. Explore the building’s exterior folds from the sidewalk or the little-known but very nice second-level park; if you can swing it, treat yourself to LA Phil tickets to see the interiors.

If you’re going to get to know Los Angeles, you have to understand its weird relationship with death, for which Forest Lawn Glendale is ground zero. The “memorial park” was founded in the 1910s by “The Builder,” Hubert Eaton, who believed that there could be joy in death and that tombstones were gloomy. Following these tenets, he developed these 300 acres of rolling grounds with copies of famous chapels and artworks, including all of Michelangelo’s statues and a stained glass version of “The Last Supper.” Today Forest Lawn Glendale (the memorial park is now a chain) is the final resting placeof Walt Disney, Michael Jackson, and infamous preacher Aimee Semple McPherson. It also helped inspired Evelyn Waugh’s essential LA book The Loved One and its movie adaptation.

This waterway, once viewed by most Angelenos as just a concrete channel, is poised to become one of the city’s biggest outdoor playgrounds. Its transformation into a major recreational area is just beginning, but there are already opportunities to enjoy the space. The river is open daily from sunrise to sunset through the end of September for fishing and boating. Bring your own kayak or rent from one of four outfitters: Paddle the LA River, LA River Kayak Safari, LA River Expeditions, or LA River Kayaks

The Los Angeles Theatre was the last of the great movie palaces built on Broadway, and is one of the most accessible today, but really it should stand in here for a stroll down the length of Broadway through the Historic Core (roughly from Third Street, at Grand Central Market, to Olympic). Among the Urban Outfitters and Umami Burgers and Ace Hotels, you’ll find the famously intricate Bradbury Building, and a collection of grand movie theaters built in the years leading up to the Depression, some repurposed (that Urban Outfitters was a Rialto), some shuttered or converted to lesser uses, some on the verge of rehabilitation, and some back to their handsome old ways (the United Artists Theatre at the Ace). The city’s also begun dedicating a little more of the street to pedestrians, with wider sidewalks and tables and chairs, so it’s a nice stretch of Downtown to hang out in.

The Watts Towers are one of the most famous works of folk art in the US, made up of 17 steel and mortar sculptures built between 1921 and 1955 by Italian immigrant Simon Rodia. The towers rise as high as 99.5 feet and are entirely covered in “a diverse mosaic of broken glass, sea shells, generic pottery and tile, a rare piece of 19th-century, hand painted Canton ware and many pieces of 20th-century American ceramics.” When he was done, Rodia said “I had it in mind to do something big and I did it,” and he deeded the property to a neighbor and moved away. After his house burned down, a group of neighbors banded together to save the towers, eventually founding the Watts Towers Arts Center; the site is now run by the city and is on the National Register of Historic Places. You can take a guided tour or just go yourself and see what Simon Rodia did.

Echo Park Lake began life as a reservoir, but has been purely recreational for well over 100 years now. Besides being one of LA’s most pleasant parks, it’s also one of its most recognizable for its role in Chinatown—early on in the film Jake Gittes floats in a boat on the lake pretending to pose for his associate’s camera. After an early aughts restoration, there’s now a cafe where you can rent pedal boats, a short boardwalk, and a walking path around the lake.

Maybe we’re cheating by making Griffith Park just one entry—you could spend days at the 4,217-acre park. You could spend those days at the Griffith Observatory and its planetarium; or at the Travel Town train museum; on a visit to the Bronson Caves, which have played the Bat Cave and dozens of other science fiction and Western roles; on a hike to the Wisdom Tree; crawling around the ruins of the Old Zoo; visiting the animals at the Los Angeles Zoo; seeing a concert at the Greek Theatre; or walking or playing tennis or taking a bootcamp class or even driving through the tunnel to Toontown.

You could spend a full day in Exposition Park—visit the California Science Center (which has the space shuttle Endeavour and an Imax theater), the California African American Museum, and/or the Natural History Museum, picnic in the rose garden, and wander around the instantly identifiable Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

Opportunities to picnic in LA are plentiful, but this should be at the top of anyone’s list. Every Friday evening since early June, Silverlake Wine curates tastings at the park on Hollywood Boulevard, which boasts stunning views of the city. Bring your own picnic, or taste from the local food trucks. For $15, Frank Lloyd Wright’s newly restored masterpiece, the Hollyhock House, may also be toured during the event.

Technically in Griffith Park, the Hollywood Sign deserves its own entry for obvious reasons. It’s one of the most recognizable symbols in the world and it’s ours. Call it corny, call it cliched, but it really does have a little bit of magic to it. The closest view is at the top of Beachwood Canyon, up a trail at the end of Hollyridge Drive (it’ll take you behind the Sign). Beware of onerous parking restrictions, the LAPD, and the nastiest neighbors you’ve ever encountered next to an internationally famous landmark.

Though the film selections are top-notch, seeing a movie at Cinespia at Hollywood Forever Cemetery is more about the hip, laid-back scene and the experience of picnicking in one of the city’s oldest graveyards. Pack a dinner, a blanket, and a bottle of wine — yes, booze is allowed — and arrive early to stand in line for a good spot on the sprawling grass lawn, which is where you’ll watch a flick projected on the side of a mausoleum. Buy tickets early, because they sell out fast.

Leimert Park was developed in the 1920s from a design by the Olmsted brothers, and for many years was a whites-only neighborhood; once that kind of housing discrimination became illegal, wealthy African-Americans began to move in, and by the 1970s Leimert had become the epicenter of black arts culture in Los Angeles, eventually breeding the LA Rebellion film movement and the famous World Stage open mic nights. Besides being arty and extraordinarily pleasant, Leimert Park Village is also one of the few places in the city to find a walkable and diverse cluster of small, local businesses.

The Walk of Fame stands in here for the touristy stretch of Hollywood Boulevard, from roughly La Brea to Vine. Ignore Madame Tussaud’s and the monstrous Hollywood & Highland shopping center and get a steak at Musso & Frank’s; see a movie at the historic Chinese, Egyptian, or El Capitan Theatres; and close the night out with a cocktail at the Roosevelt hotel. Pause in the Chinese forecourt pretending to look at the handprints while waiting for the boulevard’s costumed characters to start acting up.

It’s expensive and an enormous pain to get to, but the Hollywood Bowl really is an awesome place to see live music. Concerts have been held at the bowl-shaped site—chosen for its excellent acoustics—since 1921; the balloon-shaped seating and concert shell date from 1926 (though they’ve been updated since).

Still haven’t Instagrammed yourself in LACMA’s Rain Room? Remedy that! Also, starting in August, visitors can check out the exhibit of objects from horror film director Guillermo del Toro’s creepy-cool house. While you’re at the museum, don’t forget to take in the rest of the collection, the architecture both successful and un-, the sculpture garden, and then grab dinner and drinks at Ray’s and Stark Bar.

If you’re doing Los Angeles, you really have to do one starfucky thing on the Sunset Strip, and we recommend the Chateau Marmont. Built in the 1920s as the city’s first earthquake-proof apartment building, it became a hotel and the place for stars to misbehave in the 1930s, and it’s been that way ever since. The rooms and bungalows are shockingly expensive, but make a reservation for lunch, enjoy the restaurant patio, then sneak a look around the pool and grounds, shrouded in foliage and perched tastefully above the Strip.

Pierre Koenig’s Stahl is simply the most iconic house in Los Angeles, thanks to architectural photographer Julius Shulman. And, unlike many of the other houses built for the groundbreaking Case Study House Program, it’s open for tours.

The backbone of the city snakes 21 miles through the Santa Monica Mountains, from Hollywood to Pacific Coast Highway, and is named for William Mulholland, the scheming civil engineer whose Los Angeles Acqueduct brought enough water to a young LA to make it into a real metropolis. You can’t drive the entire route (it’s a gated dirt road roughly between West Mandeville Fire Road and Topanga Canyon), but you should definitely wind your way along several miles some quiet night—the road will alternately reveal endless, twinkling views of Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley.

The Museum of Jurassic Technology is a museum about museums, one of its founders won a MacArthur genius grant, and there’s a lovely tea room and garden on the top floor. That is all you need to or should know about it before you go, except that no one ever regrets going.

Completely funded by oilman J. Paul Getty’s trust and designed by Richard Meier, the Getty is one of the most breathtaking places in Los Angeles. Meier’s light-colored marble buildings bob and weave, up and down, among pools, fountains, and a circular garden designed by Robert Irwin, all on top of a ridge high above the 405 Freeway with 360-degree views. Plus you get to take a funicular up there. The collection isn’t particularly beloved, but includes everything from photography to early books to furniture. And it’s all free except for the parking.

You don’t swim at Venice Beach, but you do get a pot card, get your septum pierced, watch some sick skateboarding, join a drum circle, gawk at the swoleness at Muscle Beach, and catch some pretty solid breakdancing. Snapchat and the rest of the tech crowd is doing its best to colonize the neighborhood, but for now Venice is still weird and still fun.

Once you’ve seen the views from the top of City Hall, head across the basin and see them from the top of the “world’s only solar-powered ferris wheel” at Pacific Park at the end of the Santa Monica Pier. (The Ferris wheel just got new lights, too.) When you get done, you’ll have your pick of fun stuff to do: midway and arcade games, carousel, aquarium, even trapeze school. You can also take a history tour of the pier, which has been around in many different forms for about a century. It’s easier than ever to get here, thanks to the Expo Line extension.

The Self-Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine is one of the most storied, eclectic, and radically peaceful spots in all of Los Angeles. Early film studios shot movies at the Santa Ynez Canyon site in the 1920s before Bel Air developer Alphonzo Bell bought the land and began to grade and level it. Only he didn’t finish the job—he left a large basin that eventually filled with spring water and became the lake. In 1940, a 20th Century Fox construction superintendent named H. Everett McElroy bought the property and built the houseboat and windmill, among other structures. Supposedly, he then sold the spot to an oil company president, who lived in the windmill and planned to build a resort, until he had a dream that the site had become a “Church of All Religions.” At 3 am, he looked the phrase up in the phone book and came upon the Self-Realization Fellowship, founded by Paramahansa Yogananda. (That’s their story anyway!) It opened as the Lake Shrine in 1950, and the church later added a “golden lotus archway” and temple. It’s open to the public every day.