The Academy Awards are handed out at the Dolby Theatre, which has also hosted the American Idol finale, the Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly (ESPY) Awards and the Daytime Emmy Awards. The stage also hosts occasional one-off performances and touring Broadway shows, plus the annual PaleyFest, the country's premier TV festival, held in March. Guided tours of the theater will have you sniffing around the auditorium, admiring a VIP room and nosing up to an Oscar statuette.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby attractions

1. Hollywood Walk of Fame

0.02 MILES

Big Bird, Bob Hope, Marilyn Monroe and Aretha Franklin are among the more than 2600 stars of big and small screens and the music industry being sought out…

2. TCL Chinese Theatre

0.04 MILES

Ever wondered what it’s like to be in George Clooney’s shoes? Find his foot- and handprints alongside dozens of other stars', forever set in the concrete…

3. El Capitan Theatre

0.04 MILES

Spanish Colonial meets East Indian at the flamboyant El Capitan movie palace, built for live performances in 1926 and now run by Disney. The first flick…

4. Madame Tussaud’s

0.07 MILES

The better of Hollywood's two wax museums, this is the place to take selfies with motionless movie stars (Salma Hayek, Tom Hanks and Patrick Swayze), old…

5. Ripley’s Believe It or Not!

0.11 MILES

Life’s pretty strange and it’ll feel stranger still after you’ve visited Ripley’s, where exhibits range from the gross to the grotesque. If shrunken heads…

6. Hollywood Museum

0.12 MILES

For a taste of Old Hollywood, do not miss this musty temple to the stars, its four floors crammed with movie and TV costumes and props. The museum is…

7. Guinness World Records Museum

0.14 MILES

You know the drill: the Guinness is all about the fastest, tallest, biggest, fattest and other superlatives. Frankly it's an underwhelming tourist trap…

8. Hollywood Wax Museum

0.14 MILES

Starved for celeb sightings? Don’t fret: at this museum Angelina Jolie, Halle Berry and other red-carpet royalty will stand still – very still – for your…