Local Strolls: 10K steps down and around LA’s (in)famous Sunset Strip

04.06.2024 - 18:25 / lonelyplanet.com / Anthony Bourdain

In our 10K steps series, we’ve asked writers for the best places to get in your steps while enjoying city sights, favorite routes and some secret detours. Here, James March leads us down and around LA’s Sunset Strip – an infamous party zone that’s also surprisingly lovely.

“Drive west on Sunset, to the sea,” sings Donald Fagan on Steely Dan’s 1978 track “Babylon Sisters.” Over a slinky, organ-led beat, Fagan’s drawl evokes LA excess – and nowhere epitomizes the city’s kitschy allure more than the Sunset Strip. 

Though it stretches a full 23 miles from downtown Los Angeles to the Californian coast, the iconic Sunset Blvd is largely associated with a small, 1.7-mile section often called the Sunset Strip, which runs through West Hollywood. Things are more genteel now since the days when Guns ’n’ Roses et al threw TVs from hotel windows – look out for the cute little delivery robots that have been rolling around of late near Sunset and Holloway – but the glamor is still here in spades, with WeHo (as locals it) playing host to LA’s hottest restaurants and coolest hotels. 

In some ways, WeHo’s streets seem more “LA” than anywhere else in town – think cartoonishly skinny coconut palms, sweating joggers, pocket-sized dogs, silent Teslas and droning helicopters above. But for a famously car-centric city, the city of West Hollywood (it’s independent of the City of Los Angeles) is also walkable, with curving avenues and gentle backstreets that feel vaguely European. In other words, perfect for a stroll. 

With plenty of seductive stops along the way, there’s a lot to take in. So we recommend this tour, which features Sunset Blvd’s greatest hits alongside some catchier, deeper cuts. And since this is somewhere that gets its biggest kicks when evening falls, we suggest starting this walk after lunch. 

If it’s good enough for Anthony Bourdain, it’s good enough for me. Tony’s favorite LA hotel was the Chateau Marmont – and its turreted white perch high above Sunset and Marmont Lane, at the eastern end of the Sunset Strip, is a striking starting point for our walk. Completed in 1929, it’s been an exclusive and at times notorious address for LA’s glitterati – and you’ll need a pretty hefty bank account to check in here for a night or two.

Need some fuel for the walk west? Laid-back Mexican joint Pinches Taco sits on the south side of Sunset Blvd in the shadow of the Chateau Marmont. The indulgent breakfast burrito here ($11.25) might become your new favorite dish.

Speaking of hotels, some of West Hollywood’s most iconic properties flank Sunset as it gently curves downhill – so make the short walk west from Pinches Taco and into West Hollywood. Rising like an art deco wedding cake, the 1931 Sunset Tower is perhaps the most