Walking tours for health, interest
Photo by Deissy Flores
If one of your New Year’s resolutions this year was to amp up the number of steps you tread each day, try checking out the collection of guided and self-guided walking tours put together by the Los Angeles Conservancy.
A Conservancy-guided walk can add about 3,000 steps, or about one and a half miles, to your daily pedometer count, but each walk is a little different.
Photos by Rachel Olivier
Conservancy walking tours
The Conservancy partners with groups such as Architecture Tours L.A., the Art Deco Society, the Central Library and others to conduct guided walks throughout the city.
There are regular weekly tours as well as special events throughout the year. Walkers can choose from a variety of neighborhoods to explore. The Conservancy webpage for each tour has information on the length and time of the walk, the difficulty level, whether it’s wheelchair accessible, and what is or is not included in the cost of the tour.
What to expect
The Art Deco walk, which begins at Pershing Square Saturdays at 10 a.m. and Thursdays at 11 a.m., takes about two hours and covers 12 blocks, with some inclines and stairs, guiding walkers past (and sometimes through) several Art Deco buildings in downtown Los Angeles.
The Broadway Historic Theatre and Commercial District walking tour has an estimated 4,000 steps, or about two miles, not counting walking through and around each location. The number of steps can vary due to detours, closed locations or even extra side trips.
Tickets are $15 for the general public and $10 for Conservancy members and children under 17 years old.
Self-guided tours
Conservancy self-guided tours begin with maps available for download through the organization’s website. Maps include background and history on points of interest along the suggested routes. Chinatown, the Arts District, Hollywood, Downtown Los Angeles and Koreatown are some of the neighborhoods covered. Each self-guided tour varies in length, yet all are relatively easy walks, with plenty of opportunities along the way for exploring, shopping or coffee and a snack.
For example, while the tour for downtown Los Angeles is a simple stroll down 7th Street, with information on several buildings from the 1920s and ’30s, the map for the Arts District (which has details on such places as the Pickle Works, Toy Factory Lofts and Angel City Brewery) meanders along smaller streets. That map also suggests a self-guided biking tour for those so inclined.
Closer to the Larchmont Chronicle readership area is the self-guided walking tour along Wilshire Boulevard, which highlights such structures as the Wilshire Professional Building, the Wiltern, the Equitable Building and the Wilshire Galleria.
Photo by Rachel Olivier
Field Trip
Another suggestion from the Los Angeles Conservancy’s website is to use the Field Trip smartphone application (fieldtripper.com). Walkers can set up the free app to notify them of points of interest to explore while walking through a neighborhood almost anywhere in the United States.
Other options
If you’re tired of concrete buildings and sidewalks, there are other options for getting your steps in while walking along paths and beneath trees — without the long drive out of the city.
Griffith Park, Runyon Canyon and the Los Angeles State Historic Park are three options.
Griffith Park, 4730 Crystal Springs, is open 5 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. daily, and has a 53-mile network of hiking trails, allowing walkers many choices.
Runyon Canyon, 2000 N. Fuller Ave., part of the Griffith Park network, albeit a different section, has several dog friendly areas. Bring your best-friend-on-a-leash to explore the trails.
Los Angeles State Historic Park, located next to Chinatown, open from 8 a.m. to sunset daily, has 32 acres of open space for walking.
The Missing Persons’ song “Walking in L.A.” (1982), claimed that “nobody walks in L.A.,” and yet many neighborhoods in Los Angeles are very walkable, and they include many historic points of interest.
Category: Entertainment
