California (Los Angeles Area)
San Fernando Valley

The San Fernando Valley, spreading west, is the valley to most Angelenos: a sprawl of tract homes, mini-malls, fast-food drive-ins and auto parts stores. It has more of a middle-American feel than anywhere else in LA, inhabited – at least, in the popular LA imagination – by macho men and bimboesque “Valley Girls,” speaking their own dialect, “Valley Talk.” 

North of Hollywood in the San Fernando Valley, visit Universal Studios Hollywood, the famous movie theme park, and check out Jurassic Park or go Back to the Future. Shop and dine at Universal's Citywalk, and feast your eyes with a visit to the Museum of Neon Art. If television is your passion, tour the sets and see the shows at NBC Studios in Burbank.

Griffith Park, 4,000 acres of fun in the foothills of the Santa Monica Mountains, is home to the impressive Autry Museum of Western Heritage, the stunning Los Angeles Zoo, riding and hiking trails, a great train collection, an observatory, a golf course, a 1926 merry-go-round, and much more.

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In the gateway town of GLENDALE, eight miles north of downtown, Forest Lawn Cemetery at 1712 S Glendale Ave (daily 9am–5pm; free) was immortalized with biting satire by Evelyn Waugh in The Loved One. Those buried here include Errol Flynn, Walt Disney (contrary to urban legend, not frozen), Clara Bow, Nat King Cole, Chico Marx, Clark Gable, and Jean Harlow, in a marble-lined room paid for by her fiancé William Powell. If seeing the gravesites of the famous isn’t enough for you, check out the replicas of the highlights of art history, all rendered with maximum vulgarity.

VAN NUYS
Situated at the center of the San Fernando Valley and adjacent to I-405, Van Nuys is primarily a bedroom community for Los Angeles and the Valley.

STUDIO CITY
The city takes its name from the time when Hollywood studios were located over the hills in the San Fernando Valley, attracted to the inexpensive real estate. Now, Studio City is also a bedroom community for movie industry types.