The hook
A cable tram carries you up out of the traffic to a hilltop city of white stone and gardens, with world-class art inside and the whole basin spread out below, and none of it costs a cent.
01Why it's worth it
The Getty Center is what happens when an oil fortune hires Richard Meier and tells him to build on a mountaintop over the 405. You leave your car at the bottom and ride a driverless tram up the hill to a campus clad in sixteen thousand tons of Italian travertine, cut so its fossils show, arranged around plazas and fountains with the Pacific one way and the San Gabriels the other. The galleries hold Van Gogh's Irises and rooms of European painting and furniture, but the building and the grounds are the equal of the art: Robert Irwin's Central Garden is a living sculpture that changes with the seasons, and the views from the edges are among the best in the city. Admission is free; you pay only to park.
02How to experience it
It's above Brentwood off the 405, about six hours from the Bay. Free entry, but reserve a parking slot ahead since that's the only cost and it fills. Take the tram up, give yourself a half day for the art, the architecture, and the garden, and time the edges for sunset. It's a separate place from the Getty Villa down the coast; both are worth it.