Weird & unusual things to do in Los Angeles
The genuinely offbeat side of Los Angeles: 62 hand-vetted hidden spots — oddity shops, hidden bars, haunted history, sound baths, weird outdoor finds — built for an unusual date night, a weird afternoon, or showing a visitor a side of the city they'd never find alone. Like House of Intuition, Pan's Apothika (formerly Panpipes Magickal Marketplace), Philosophical Research Society. Local secrets even locals miss — you didn't hear it from us.
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House of Intuition
Founded in 2010 by Marlene Vargas and Alex Naranjo, this is the witchy flagship you reach by climbing a steep…
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Pan's Apothika (formerly Panpipes Magickal Marketplace)
One of the oldest continuously running occult shops in the country, this East Hollywood storefront was once o…
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Philosophical Research Society
Founded in 1934 by esotericist Manly P. Hall, author of The Secret Teachings of All Ages, this Mayan Revival…
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The Crooked Path Occult Apothecary
Run by Italian witch Sal Santoro, who has 35-plus years in the occult and witchcraft community, and his wife…
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Botanica Luz Del Dia
Opened in 1984 by Salvadoran immigrant Maria Elena Ceron, who has read tarot for over 40 years, this is bille…
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Botanica Ochun
A working neighborhood botanica named for the Yoruba/Santeria orisha of love and rivers. Alongside candles, o…
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Hollywood Forever Cemetery
Founded in 1899 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, this is the resting place of Rudolph…
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Heritage Square Museum
Eight ornate Victorian-era buildings, including a Queen Anne mansion, an 1897 church, an old rail depot, and…
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Pico House at El Pueblo
Built in 1870 by Pio Pico, the last Mexican governor of Alta California, this Italianate-Victorian pile was t…
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Colorado Street Bridge (Suicide Bridge)
Opened in 1913 as the highest concrete bridge in the world, this Beaux-Arts span of eleven sweeping arches ri…
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Workman & Temple Family Homestead Museum (El Campo Santo)
A genuine hidden gem the Smithsonian called one of California's true historic treasures, this free museum cen…
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The Queen Mary
The retired 1936 ocean liner is permanently moored in Long Beach harbor and is one of the most investigated h…
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Whaley House Museum
Built in 1857 on the site of Old Town's public gallows, this two-story brick house has been dubbed America's…
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Memento Mori
A small Hollywood storefront packed with vintage medical and dental instruments, mounted insects under glass,…
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Wacko / Soap Plant & La Luz de Jesus Gallery
A 6,500-square-foot Los Feliz institution running since 1971, crammed with more than 10,000 items: tongue-in-…
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Bearded Lady's Mystic Museum
Two side-by-side units on Burbank's Magnolia strip: one a shop of insect and bat taxidermy, apothecary goods,…
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Vulture Culture Oddities
A Magnolia Park shop packed with vintage taxidermy, bones, skulls, occult goods, and dark art from local make…
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Museum of Death
A single-obsession shrine to mortality packed into a Hollywood storefront, holding what's billed as the world…
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Psychiatry: An Industry of Death Museum
A free, deeply strange Sunset Boulevard museum run by the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, filled with an…
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The Museum of Jurassic Technology
A deliberately disorienting warren of dim, velvet-hushed rooms where the exhibits blur the line between real…
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Center for Land Use Interpretation
A tiny, deadpan exhibition space run by a research organization devoted to how American land gets used, perce…
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Museum of Neon Art
The only museum in the world dedicated solely to neon, electric, and kinetic light art, rescuing the glowing…
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Phantasma Gloria
In a residential Echo Park front yard, artist Randlett 'Randy' Lawrence has spent years building a towering w…
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Mosaic Tile House
Over three decades, artists Cheri Pann and Gonzalo Duran encrusted their own Venice home, inside and out, wit…
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Chromasonic Field
Chromasonic Field is a 10,000-square-foot space where proprietary technology translates sound into light and…
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Tio's Tacos
Behind a working Mexican restaurant, Martin Sanchez has spent decades turning one acre into a dense folk-art…
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Grandma Prisbrey's Bottle Village
Starting in 1956, Tressa "Grandma" Prisbrey hand-built sixteen structures from bottles, mortar, and discards…
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Watts Towers of Simon Rodia
Italian immigrant tile-setter Simon Rodia spent 33 years (1921-1954) building these seventeen interlocking sp…
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Cabazon Dinosaurs
Sculptor Claude Bell built these two colossal concrete dinosaurs beside Interstate 10 starting in 1964 to lur…
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Elmer's Bottle Tree Ranch
On a stretch of old Route 66 in the high desert, Elmer Long welded hundreds of metal 'trees' and hung them wi…
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The Wisdom Tree, Cahuenga Peak
A single solitary pine clings to the spine of Cahuenga Peak, the lone tree in the area that survived the 2007…
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Old LA Zoo, Griffith Park
The original Los Angeles Zoo opened in 1912 and was simply abandoned in place when the new zoo opened in 1966…
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Self-Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine
A 2.5-acre spring-fed lake — the only one in the City of L.A. — sits a few blocks from the ocean on 10 acres…
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Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park
Tilted slabs of sandstone jut from the desert floor at a dramatic 45-degree angle, up to 150 feet high, expos…
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Bronson Caves (the Batcave)
A short man-made tunnel carved into the rock wall of an abandoned early-1900s quarry, the Bronson Caves have…
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Tiki-Ti
This twelve-seat tropical hut on a busy stretch of Sunset has been run by the same Filipino-American family s…
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Good Times at Davey Wayne's
The entrance is a run-down refrigerator standing inside a garage staged like a permanent yard sale of vintage…
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La Descarga
After clearing the doorman, a hostess sends you through a dusty armoire that opens onto a balcony overlooking…
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Tonga Hut
Opened by brothers Ace and Ed Libby in 1958, this is the oldest tiki bar still operating in Los Angeles, dim…
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The Lucky Tiki
Hidden above the rebuilt Tail o' the Pup hot dog stand, this tiki lounge is reached by buzzing an intercom tu…
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Cold Shoulder
Tucked beside the easygoing Fairfax bar Blue Collar, Cold Shoulder hides behind a secret bookcase that swings…
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Prey Taxidermy
Prey is the studio of award-winning taxidermist Allis Markham, who trained and worked in the taxidermy lab at…
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The Perfumer's Studio LA - Perfume Making 101
Run by a studio that has been training perfumers for over 25 years, this two-hour intro workshop hands you a…
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Adam's Forge
Adam's Forge is a volunteer-run 501(c)(3) blacksmithing and metal-arts school where forges and anvils fill a…
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Moonlight Glass (John Mooney)
Moonlight Glass is glassblower John Mooney's Venice studio offering private, beginner-friendly hot-glass less…
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Revenge Of
A comic-book and trading-card shop with a tucked-away back room styled like the interior of a spaceship - ind…
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Walt's Bar
A tiny rockabilly-leaning dive in a former auto-parts shop, run by brothers Jeff and Brad Johnsen, who along…
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Blipsy Bar
An easy-to-miss Western Avenue dive that opened in 2010 as one of LA's first barcades, with original 1980s ca…
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AYCE Gogi / On Tilt Pinball
An all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ restaurant with a dedicated 21+ pinball bar, branded On Tilt, tucked into a bac…
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EightyTwo
A 21+ arcade-bar and listening lounge in the Arts District showing 55-plus restored vintage pinball and video…
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Highland Park Bowl
LA's oldest bowling alley, opened in 1927, when its upstairs doctor's offices wrote Prohibition-era prescript…
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Griffith Observatory Public Star Party
On the Saturday nearest the first-quarter moon, volunteer astronomers from the L.A. Astronomical Society, the…
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Mount Wilson Observatory 60-inch & 100-inch Public Ticket Nights
High above the city on a forested ridge, this historic observatory opens its century-old giant telescopes to…
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New Beverly Cinema Midnight Movies
One of the oldest revival houses in L.A., the New Bev has been running double features since 1978 and is now…
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Old Town Music Hall Silent Films with the Mighty Wurlitzer
Inside a 188-seat 1921 theater, two musicians installed a 1925 Wurlitzer theater pipe organ rescued from a Lo…
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626 Night Market
Billed as the original Asian night market in the U.S., this sprawling after-dark food festival fills the Sant…
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LAAS Steve Kufeld Dark-Sky Site (Lockwood)
The Los Angeles Astronomical Society's private dark-sky site sits in Lockwood Valley about 90 miles northwest…
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Upper Newport Bay Moonlight & Bioluminescence Kayak Paddle
Guided night paddles launch from the Newport Aquatic Center after a short safety and instruction briefing, gl…
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The Integratron
Ufologist George Van Tassel began this all-wood parabolic dome in 1954, claiming the design came from Venusia…
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Desert Christ Park
Sculptor Antone Martin spent 1951 to 1961 installing snow-white concrete figures of Christ and biblical scene…
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Galleta Meadows Sky Art Sculptures
Across roughly 3,000 acres of open desert, landowner Dennis Avery commissioned artist Ricardo Breceda to plan…
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Salvation Mountain
For nearly three decades Leonard Knight built this 50-foot painted hill out of adobe, hay bales, and an estim…
Unusual things to do in Los Angeles — FAQ
What are some unusual things to do in Los Angeles?
62 hand-vetted weird spots — like House of Intuition, Pan's Apothika (formerly Panpipes Magickal Marketplace), Philosophical Research Society — plus oddity shops, hidden bars, haunted history, sound baths, and offbeat outdoor finds. Every one is real and sourced, not a top-ten landmark.
Where can you go for a weird date night in Los Angeles?
Try House of Intuition, Pan's Apothika (formerly Panpipes Magickal Marketplace), Philosophical Research Society — strange-but-real spots that make a memorable date. Filter by neighborhood, vibe, or how far you'll drive: in town, nearby, or a day trip.
What's a weird thing to do in Los Angeles tonight or this weekend?
For tonight, filter to "in town" and low-key picks; for the weekend, the day-trip ring opens up genuinely strange spots a short drive out. Start with House of Intuition, Pan's Apothika (formerly Panpipes Magickal Marketplace), Philosophical Research Society — and sort by how far you're willing to go.
Are there free or cheap weird things to do in Los Angeles?
Yes — 32 Los Angeles spots are free or low-cost, like Heritage Square Museum, Museum of Death, Psychiatry: An Industry of Death Museum. Roadside oddities, public art, and outdoor curiosities usually cost nothing.
How is this different from the usual Los Angeles tourist lists?
We skip the landmarks everyone knows. An agentic research system digs up the genuinely hidden, offbeat spots — the local secrets even locals miss — and verifies each against real sources before it makes the list.