Gay West Hollywood in a Nutshell:
The small but bustling city of West Hollywood, which is completely encircled by the city of Los Angeles, has come to be identified as one of the world's great gay meccas. A sizable number of its nearly 40,000 residents are gay, and the city contains the greatest concentration of gay-oriented or gay-popular hotels, restaurants, shops, and bars in greater Los Angeles. It's also the site of some of the area's largest GLBT events, such as Gay Pride, Outfest, and the Halloween Carnaval. For gay visitors to L.A., West Hollywood is a must-see, and also a good base for exploring the region.
The Seasons:
West Hollywood is a sunny desert city that receives little rain and only limited humidity. There's no bad time to visit, although late spring through summer sees the hottest and calmest days, which means the city's notorious smog can be more stifling then. Winter is cooler and can even be quite rainy, producing occasional floods and mudslides in the hills but also fresher days.
Average high-low temps are 68F/48F in Jan., 73F/54F in Apr., 88F/65F in July, and 79F/60F in Oct. Precipitation averages 3 to 4 inches/mo. Jan. to Mar., and inch or 2 in Nov. and Dec., and less than an inch at other times.
The Location:
Although it feels like a neighborhood of L.A. and is surrounded by metro Los Angeles, West Hollywood actually incorporated as its own independent city in 1984. It's located at the southern edge of the Hollywood Hills, just east Beverly Hills, west of Hollywood, north of Mid-Wilshire and Century City, and south of the San Fernando Valley. It's very centrally located, just 8 miles northwest of Los Angeles.
The main thoroughfares in West Hollywood are Sunset Boulevard and Santa Monica Boulevard, which run east-west and are lined with shops and eateries. La Brea, Fairfax, and La Cienega are main north-south avenues.
Driving Distances:
Keep in mind that it can take 30 to 60 minutes to drive between most neighborhoods within L.A. - plan accordingly, and expect traffic and delays. Driving distances to West Hollywood from major places and points of interest are:
Big Bear Lake: 100 miles (1.5 hours)
Laguna Beach: 50 miles (1 hr)
Las Vegas, NV: 270 miles (3.5 to 4.5 hrs)
Monterey: 330 miles (5 to 6 hrs)
Palm Springs: 110 miles (2 hrs)
Phoenix, AZ: 370 miles (4.5 to 5.5 hrs)
Sacramento: 110 miles (2 hrs)
San Diego: 120 miles (2 hrs)
San Francisco: 380 miles (5.5 to 6.5 hrs)
Santa Barbara: 95 miles (90 min)
Yosemite National Park: 350 miles (7 to 8 hrs)
Flying to West Hollywood:
One of the busiest airports in the country, Los Angeles International (LAX) is by the ocean, about 12 miles south of West Hollywood. It's served by direct flights from all over the world. L.A. is also served by a number of smaller airports, many still with numerous direct domestic flights. The best of these if you're visiting West Hollywood is Burbank, just 10 miles north of WeHo. Other options include Long Beach (25 miles south), John Wayne/Orange County (45 miles southeast), and Ontario (40 miles east).
A car is your best way to get around, and all airports have car-rentals and ample ground transportation.
Gay-Popular Events and Festivals:
late Feb.: Oscars Week (a great time for celeb-spotting).
Late March: West Week (the Pacific Design hosts this fashion and design showcase).
Late May: Russian Cultural Month (a big fete of WeHo's huge Russian community).
Early June: Avenues of Art & Design Art Walk (a night to explore WeHo's design district along Melrose and Beverly).
Early to mid-June: Los Angeles Gay Pride.
Mid-July: OutFest (SoCal's Gay and Lesbian Film Festival).
Mid-Oct.: AIDS Walk Los Angeles.
Late Oct.: West Hollywood Halloween Carnaval (a riotus gathering for the gay community).
Resources on Gay West Hollywood:
A number of resources out there offer extensive information on the city's gay scene, including the LA Gay & Lesbian Center, Columbia Fun Maps Los Angeles guide), the popular gay newspapers Frontiers, IN Los Angeles), and Lesbian News). The Los Angeles Times) is the city's best mainstream news source, and LA Weekly is a terrific alternative newsweekly.
For tourism info, check out GoGayWestHollywood.com, an incredibly useful guide to all things gay and gay-friendly, produced by the West Hollywood CVB.
Santa Monica Boulevard and the Sunset Strip:
Since the 1930s the hippest and rowdiest nightclubs and music venues have lined Sunset Boulevard from Doheny Drive to Fairfax Avenue. Running north of and parallel to Santa Monica Boulevard, the Sunset Strip is a touristy, glitzy section of West Hollywood. The best place for sidewalk strolling---and celebrity spotting---is Sunset Plaza, a swank stretch of shops and outdoor restaurants.
Santa Monica Boulevard, especially the stretch from Robertson to La Cienega, has scads of gay-oriented shops, boutiques, bars, restaurants, and coffeehouses - it's ground-zero for gay visitors to West Hollywood.
The Avenues of Arts & Design:
The southern end of West Hollywood, chiefly along the thoroughfares of Melrose Avenue, La Cienega Boulevard, Beverly Boulevard, and North Robertson Boulevard, has become known as The Avenues of Art & Design, owing to the area's wealth of posh and stylish boutiques, design shops, furniture showrooms, and galleries. This is also an area with some outstanding restaurants. For sidewalk strolling, you can't beat this lively district.
The area's chief landmark is the dramatic blue-and-green Pacific Design Center contains some 135 showrooms packed with furniture, textiles, and interior-design accessories.
West Hollywood: L.A.'s Gay Mecca:
West Hollywood, which has arguably the highest percentage of gay residents of any city in America, earned its LGBT identity during the 1940s and '50s, when set designers, makeup artists, wardrobe staffers, and other behind-the-scenes workers on TV shows and films moved and worked here.
From its earliest days the then-unincorporated community was a major nightlife center. Because it fell outside the jurisdiction of the oppressive L.A. Police Department, strip clubs and peep shows opened along Santa Monica Boulevard, and gay bars ran little risk of being raided. Not only gays but many film celebrities and rock stars had West Hollywood addresses by the '60s. The most dramatic surge in the gay population occurred in the '70s, when Santa Monica Boulevard became the nightlife mecca it still is today. That being said, WeHo is becoming increasingly more trendy with all walks of life, and while it remains a popular locale for gay clubbers, shoppers, and diners, many of the newer establishments in the city cater to a decidedly more mixed - though no less stylish - crowd.
One must in WeHo for those interested in America's lesbian-rights movement and history is the Mazer Collection at 626 N. Robertson Blvd., one of the nation's only lesbian cultural archives. It contains some 2,500 books and a substantial T-shirt collection, plus videos, records, softball uniforms, quite a few misguided psychological studies, some intriguing old pulp novels with wicked portrayals of lesbian love, and many filing cabinets of articles and clippings. It's open to the public the first Sunday of each month 2 to 5 pm and Tuesdays noon to 3 pm.
West Hollywood and the hills above it contain numerous examples of significant 20th-century residential architecture, including the R. M. Schindler House, Rudolf Schindler's 1922 modernist marvel, which hosts rotating exhibits, some of which document the architect's many accomplishments. Tours are available Wed.-Sun.
The nearby Beverly Center functions as something of an unofficial queer community center. Movie theaters, a pretty decent food court, and the usual array of stylish shops (Ben Sherman, H&M, Guess, etc.) make it popular with cruisy guys and chic lesbians
Just south and east of West Hollywood, don't miss the L.A. Farmers Market, which offers a true slice of local life. The original market building is a social hub for all types - gay, straight, old, young; it contains some of the best food markets and affordable eateries around.
