#HTE

10 Offbeat LA Destinations to Visit During Your Core77 Conference Trip

This year’s Core77 Conference is being held in the sunny city of Los Angeles—a city with rich design history, beautiful beaches, happy faces and, like any city, activities that err on the odder side of the spectrum. When planning your trip, remember that there’s more to LA than our fabulous two-day conference itinerary. Explore LA’s quirky, creepy and historic sides by adding these offbeat destinations to your trip:  

10. Visit the world’s only active, urban Ice Age excavation site, La Brea Tar Pits & Museum. The on-site paleontologists discover new fossils and Ice Age insights almost everyday, right in the heart of LA.

9. With all the recent hubub around self-driving cars, it’s nice to take a step back and look at what got us to this point. Petersen Automotive Museum is here to help with their vast collection of automobiles permanently housed in an old department store.

8. Sunken City is an abandoned development of beach homes in San Pedro that was destroyed in a 1929 landslide. An eerie and exciting place to hike, this area is comprised of crumbled foundations, destroyed streetcar tracks and other mysteries worth exploring.

7. The California Institute of Abnormalarts is not your typical night club. With happenings ranging from freak shows to live music to open mic ghost stories, you never really know what you’re going to get. If you’re looking to get weird, this is the place to be.

6. The Velaslavasay Panorama is an exhibition hall, theater and garden that focuses on unusual visual experiences—especially 18th and 19th century 360 degree panorama paintings. If you’ve only been exposed to the iPhone panorama camera feature, you should check this out.

5. Take it back to the ‘70s at Good Times at Davey Wayne’s…if you can find the entrance. One things, for sure, the alcoholic snow cones are worth the hunt.

4. If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to be an animal in captivity, the first Los Angeles Zoo gives you the chance to picnic inside and around its abandoned habitats. The zoo opened in 1912 and was abandoned in 1966.

3. Grab drinks under an old redwood tree at the iconic, 81 year old, Clifton's Cafeteria. Not sold yet? There’s also a lot of Jell-O and a real waterfall. The overall experience is sure to take you on a trip back in time to the golden age of LA—especially the water abundance.

Not even going to attempt explaining this photo, but yes, this is part of an exhibit.

2. Discover all types of oddities at the Museum of Jurassic Technology, where you can expect to be surrounded with elusive exhibits like “Dogs of the Soviet Space Program” and a creepy rooftop garden. Every pervious visitor gives a different description of the museum, so you’ll have to see this one for yourself.

1. It’s no secret that LA had some pretty fantastic neon signs back in the day. The Museum of Neon Art’s collection is filled with iconic nods to the past, but also looks towards the future with rotating exhibits and workshops.

We know you’re excited for our conference, but we encourage you to show LA some Tupac style California Love while you’re there. Enjoy planning your trip, and we’ll see you later this month!

Join us September 29-30 for the Core77 Conference in Downtown Los Angeles. Buy your ticket today!