🇩🇰 Copenhagen → 🇺🇸 Los Angeles · 2 weeks

Visit The Getty Center on a Tuesday morning (free, always — no tickets needed) when crowds are thinnest. The building itself is the spectacle: Richard Meier's travertine hilltop campus. The Impressionist collection and the rotating photography exhibits are consistently excellent.

Rent an electric bike in Venice (multiple rental stands on the boardwalk, ~$25/hr) and ride the 22-mile South Bay Bicycle Trail south to Manhattan Beach and back. Start by 8am before the boardwalk gets crowded and the temperature climbs.

Skip the tourist taco trucks and go to Guisados in Boyle Heights — the braised meat tacos (the tinga and lamb barbacoa especially) are some of the best in the city. Open from 9am, cash preferred, expect a short queue. The original Boyle Heights location beats the newer branches.

Hike the Griffith Observatory trail from the Greek Theatre parking lot at sunrise — 45 minutes up, and you'll have the city view completely to yourself before the parking lot opens to the public. The Observatory itself opens at noon on weekdays.