First, ride the monorail up to the mountaintop campus nestled in the Santa Monica mountains. While this gleaming travertine campus, designed by architect Richard Meier, is a big tourist spot, it is also the repository of one of the world’s greatest photography collections. And since the museum has eschewed a permanent collection of 20th-century art, it has made a special point of championing local new works. Be sure to seek out the latest temporary installation by a Los Angeles-area artist.
Then, cruise up the Pacific Coast Highway to the Getty Villa, the restored replica of a Roman villa, which now houses the Getty Museum’s antiquities collection. Landscaped with a working garden that supplies herbs and other edibles to the onsite kitchen, the villa is a fragrant hillside retreat with an outdoor amphitheater that produces Greek and Roman classics.
