As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not a huge fan of Los Angeles. Slowly, my opinion has been changing, and recently, a trip to Pasadena has totally changed my mind. You see, Pasadena is the oldest of LA’s 88 suburbs – it was founded by wealthy mid-westerns who saw how the city of Los Angeles was growing and decided to get their own slice of sunshine.
Old Pasadena and its surrounds are famous for the annual Rose Bowl Parade, but I found that there is plenty to see and do around town. Pasadena is in the Northeast part of LA, just in the shadow of the mountains, with the skyline of LA very faint in the distance. Here are a few recommendations of what I loved the most; whether you choose to actually stay in Pasadena during your visit or just come up from other parts of LA for the day, you’ll definitely be pleased you did.
Pasadena has quite a few excellent museums, so if it’s culture you’re after, you can find it here. I toured several – my personal suggestions:
California is well known for food, and Pasadena is one of the culinary hot spots of the state – a prestigious cooking school and over 500 restaurants are just partly evidence. Just sample some eats from any of these restaurants and you’ll be ready to come back to Pasadena just to eat!
If you want to do a food tour while in Pasadena, I very highly recommended the kind folks at Melting Pot Tours. Their tour is very comprehensive and hits all of the best locally owned establishments.
Have you been to Pasadena? What were your recommendations?
Photo copyright Andy Hayes
Photo credit humbleopinion
Posted : Friday, May 27th, 2011 at 11:00
Andy Hayes is a travel journalist currently based in Seattle, Washington. When not soaking up the Pacific Northwest lifestyle or enjoying life on the road, he is spending time hanging out on his own travel lifestyle magazine, Sharing Travel Experiences.
Hello, I live in Pasadena so I was interested to see what you thought. Glad you liked it here. One error, the Huntington Library and Gardens is still in the city of Pasadena. I would also recommend visiting the campus of the California Institute of Technology. A small but beautiful campus.
And chicken and waffles are most famous at a restaurant called Roscoe’s that is located in Pasadena. I’d also recommend eating at Europane (two locations in Pasadena now); they are famous for their open faced egg-salad sandwich and I love their macarons. And you won’t want to miss hanging out in the evening in Old Town Pasadena, where Choza Mama is located.
I was born and raised in Pasadena. The parade is not called “The Rose Bowl Parade.” It is the Rose Parade. Just thought you’d like to know.
We have relations living in Pasadena and friends living in Glendora. In September we are staying about half way between the two and will be visiting them, so your remarks will be useful. We have been to Pasadena, but only for a few hours and we realised that it is a rather beautiful area – so we are looking forward to seeing more of it.
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