Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles was born as a Spanish colonial pueblo in 1781, when forty-four settlers from Mexico — a diverse group of indigenous, African, and European descent — established El Pueblo de Los Ángeles on the banks of a seasonal river in a semi-arid basin ringed by mountains. The city's transformation from sleepy ranching outpost to global metropolis was catalysed by three forces: the arrival of the transcontinental railroad in 1876, the discovery of oil at the turn of the century, and the birth of the motion picture industry in Hollywood in the 1910s. Today, LA sprawls across nearly five hundred square miles, a polycentric megalopolis of extraordinary cultural diversity — over two hundred languages are spoken here — that defies easy characterisation but rewards patient exploration.

The port of Los Angeles, located in San Pedro at the southern edge of the city, is the busiest container port in the Western Hemisphere, handling over nine million containers annually. Yet the waterfront itself has been elegantly reimagined: the San Pedro Fish Market, Ports O'Call Village, and the Battleship Iowa museum line a revitalised harbour promenade. Inland, the Getty Center, Richard Meier's mountaintop campus of travertine and glass, offers world-class art collections alongside panoramic views of the city stretching to the Pacific. The Broad, a contemporary art museum in downtown's Grand Avenue arts corridor, houses works by Basquiat, Koons, and Kusama in a honeycomb-like structure of white aluminium.

LA's culinary landscape is arguably America's most diverse. Koreatown offers a neon-lit labyrinth of barbecue restaurants, karaoke bars, and late-night tofu houses. The Grand Central Market, operating since 1917, brings together vendors serving Oaxacan tlayudas, Thai papaya salads, and pupusas under one historic roof. Guerrilla Tacos and countless street stands elevate the humble taco — carne asada, al pastor, birria — to an art form. Sushi Nozawa and its descendants pioneered the omakase experience in America. For a quintessential LA moment, order a double-double at In-N-Out Burger with a view of the ocean at the Playa Vista location — it is fast food elevated to civic religion.

Greater Los Angeles offers an almost absurd range of day-trip possibilities. Hollywood, with its Walk of Fame, Chinese Theatre, and Griffith Observatory (offering commanding views of the sign and the city), is an obvious draw. Santa Monica's pier, Venice Beach's boardwalk, and Malibu's surf breaks line twenty-seven miles of Pacific coastline. The cultural riches of the Huntington Library, the Norton Simon Museum, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) could fill days. Disneyland, in Anaheim, remains the original Magic Kingdom.

The port of Los Angeles serves Carnival Cruise Line, Celebrity Cruises, Costa Cruises, Crystal Cruises, Hapag-Lloyd Cruises, Lindblad Expeditions, MSC Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises, P&O Cruises, Princess Cruises, Regent Seven Seas Cruises, Royal Caribbean, Seabourn, Silversea, Viking, and Virgin Voyages. Itineraries from here reach Mexico, Hawaii, the Pacific Coast, and transpacific voyages to Asia. Cruising operates year-round, with Mexican Riviera sailings popular in winter and Alaska repositioning voyages in spring.