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La Brea Tar Pits and MuseumvsPetersen Automotive Museum
Both Petersen Automotive Museum and La Brea Tar Pits and Museum are praised by professionals. Overall, La Brea Tar Pits and Museum ranks marginally higher than Petersen Automotive Museum. La Brea Tar Pits and Museum has a TripExpert Score of 87 with praise from 14 reviews including Afar Magazine, Not For Tourists and On the Grid.
La Brea Tar Pits and Museum
Fodor's
Lonely Planet Lonely Planet
Time Out
Michelin Guide Michelin Guide
Not For Tourists Not For Tourists
Travel + Leisure Travel + Leisure Show All Reviews
5801 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90036
From $0/night
Fodor's "A bas-relief around four sides depicts life in the Pleistocene era, and the museum has more than 3 million Ice Age fossils."
Lonely Planet Top Choice
"You’ll likely have a ball at the unique Page Museum, an archaeological trove of skulls and bones unearthed at La Brea Tar Pits, one of the world’s most fecund and famous fossil sites." Full review
Lonely Planet "Between 10,000 and 40,000 years ago, tarlike bubbling crude oil trapped saber-toothed cats, mammoths and other extinct ice-age critters." Full review
Time Out "Back in 1875, a group of amateur paleontologists discovered animal remains in the pits at Rancho La Brea, which bubbled with asphalt from a petroleum lake under what is now Hancock Park." Full review
Michelin Guide 1 Star
"Hancock Park, the public park embracing the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Page Museum, is the setting for the world's largest and most diverse cache of Ice Age plant and animal..." Full review
Michelin Guide 1 Star
"Visitors to this museum on the site of the famous Rancho La Brea Tar Pits can learn about Los Angeles as it was between 10,000 and 40,000 years ago." Full review
Not For Tourists "It's just a big pool of tar, yet it continues to fascinate us."
Not For Tourists "Don't miss the La Brea Woman exhibit."
Travel + Leisure "Kids will get a kick out of this natural wonderland, where tar has bubbled up from the earth for tens of thousands of years." Full review
Travel + Leisure "Chef Peel’s small plates are a step up from typical bar fare (Mediterranean tapas alongside upscale comfort foods) with dishes like wild boar meatballs and steak and kidney pie." Full review
Petersen Automotive Museum Fodor's Lonely Planet Time Out Not For Tourists Michelin Guide
Atlas Obscura
Frommer's Travel + Leisure
6060 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90036
From $0/night
Fodor's "The Petersen is likely to be one of the coolest museums in town with its take on some of the most unusual creations on wheels and rotating exhibits of the icons who drove them." Full review
Lonely Planet Top Choice
"A four-story ode to the auto, the Petersen Automotive Museum is a treat even to those who can’t tell a piston from a carburetor." Full review
Time Out "What better place to explore the impact of the car on culture than Los Angeles? The Peterson Automotive Museum has been doing just that since its opening in 1994." Full review
Not For Tourists "Like you don't see enough cars in LA. Mediocre."
Michelin Guide 1 Star
"Employs imaginative dioramas, photographs and computer stations to show how developments in automotive transport influenced the growth of Los Angeles, the quintessential car town." Full review
Atlas Obscura "Once strictly off-limits, this lower level housing curious and priceless vehicles of the Petersen Automotive Museum is now open to the public. " Full review
Frommer's "When the Petersen opened in 1994, many locals were surprised that it had taken this long for the city of freeways to salute its most important shaper." Full review
Travel + Leisure "Part of Miracle Mile’s Museum Row, this can’t-miss, over 300,000-square-foot building houses one of the world’s largest automotive collections"
19 Best Museums in Los Angeles, According to Local Experts
December 25, 2023
