Odd Things to Do in Los Angeles: Cemetery Tours, the Old Zoo and More

Los Angeles has two layers. On top there's the standard itinerary - the sign, the observatory, the Walk of Fame, all covered in my Los Angeles travel guide. Underneath is the strange layer: a cemetery that's also a party venue, an abandoned zoo you can picnic in, and a bookshop that ate a bank vault. These are the odd things to do in Los Angeles - the ones I've done and the ones I'd tell you to build a day around.

The Hollywood Forever Cemetery Tour

This is the one that changed my mind about what a cemetery visit can be. Hollywood Forever, on Santa Monica Boulevard right next to Paramount Studios, is the resting place of Hollywood's founding generation - Judy Garland, Rudolph Valentino, Cecil B. DeMille, Douglas Fairbanks - and the guided tours bring the whole silent-film-era soap opera back to life: the feuds, the scandals, the mysterious deaths, the stars who died broke.

The daytime tour runs about $35 per person and lasts around two and a half hours, and you can also wander the grounds yourself with a self-guided map for free. Two names people always ask about: Johnny Ramone of the Ramones, whose bronze guitar-playing statue is one of the most photographed spots in the cemetery, and his bandmate Dee Dee Ramone, who is buried here too. And if you go in summer, check what's on - the cemetery hosts Cinespia movie nights where thousands of people picnic among the gravestones watching classic films, which is exactly as odd and exactly as LA as it sounds.

Michael Jackson's Resting Place: Forest Lawn Glendale

The Michael Jackson pilgrimage is a different one: the King of Pop was laid to rest in the Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, north of downtown. Be clear on the reality before you go - his crypt is in a private section and not open to the public, so there's no grave to stand at like there is at Hollywood Forever.

What you can do is visit the cemetery grounds and its public buildings; Forest Lawn is a remarkable place in its own right - it's where a huge slice of old Hollywood is buried, with replicas of British churches and art in every building. If seeing the location matters to you, treat it as a quiet, respectful visit rather than an attraction, and check the current visitor rules on their site before driving out.

The Old Los Angeles Zoo

In the hills of Griffith Park, a short walk from the current zoo's car park, sits the abandoned Old LA Zoo: concrete animal enclosures, caves and cages abandoned in the 1960s when the zoo moved up the hill, and now open to wander through for free. You can climb into the bear grottos, stand inside the enclosures, and it's a genuine picnic spot - on a weekend you'll find locals eating lunch inside a former monkey cage, which tells you everything about LA. It's free, there's parking at Griffith Park's trailheads, and it pairs perfectly with an afternoon at Griffith Observatory up the road.

The Last Bookstore

Downtown LA's most improbable sight: a massive bookshop inside a century-old former bank building on Spring Street, with a tunnel of books arched over your head, a book labyrinth on the mezzanine, and the old bank vault you can step inside. Entry is free, it's open daily until 8pm, and it's the best excuse for a downtown wander - pair it with Grand Central Market across the road.

The Museum of Death

Hollywood's most on-the-nose attraction: the Museum of Death on Hollywood Boulevard is exactly what it says - a self-guided museum of mortuary history, crime-scene art, and the strange corners of death culture. It costs around $20, it is genuinely not for everyone, and if you're the sort of person who reads this list and thinks "finally, something interesting", it's for you. It's an easy add-on to a Walk of Fame walk, when you need an escape from the costumed characters.

The Bunny Museum (Altadena)

A heads-up for a future trip rather than a current recommendation: Altadena's delightfully strange Bunny Museum - a whole house turned museum of over 35,000 rabbit objects - was destroyed in the January 2025 Eaton Fire and hasn't reopened yet, with hopes of returning around 2028. I'm including it because it was one of the genuinely great oddball LA attractions, and it's worth keeping on the list for when it returns.

Planning an Odd LA Day

The nice thing about LA's strange layer is that it clusters:

• Day one: Hollywood Forever Cemetery tour in the morning, then Hollywood Boulevard, the Walk of Fame and the Museum of Death in the afternoon
• Day two: Griffith Park in the morning for the Old Zoo picnic, Griffith Observatory at sunset
• Day three: Downtown for the Last Bookstore, Grand Central Market, the Broad, and the Bradbury Building

Final Thoughts

The standard LA highlights are worth your time, but the odd stuff is what you'll still be talking about a year later. I went into the Hollywood Forever tour thinking "cemetery, okay" and came out wanting to sign up for another one - and that's the whole pitch for this list.

More from Los Angeles and California: the Los Angeles Travel Guide, the California Travel Guide, Salvation Mountain and East Jesus (the strangest detour in the whole state), and the United States Travel Guide.