DETAILS
Los Angeles has long been synonymous with film, yet its cultural foundations were built by a very different set of visionaries. Industrial fortunes forged by magnates like J. Paul Getty, Eli Broad, Henry Huntington, and Norton Simon transformed this desert city into a world capital of the arts. Renaissance art scholar Linda Wolk-Simon will accompany the program, bringing a curator’s eye to the artistic ambitions that defined 20th-century Los Angeles. Our visit to The Getty’s Drawings Collection will open a week that reveals how great fortunes, channeled into art, redefined Los Angeles’s identity.
- Pricing from
- $5,999
- Trip Type
- Closer to Home, Group Travel Tour
- Departure Dates
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May 14, 2026 - May 18, 2026
Downtown L.A. Proper Hotel
With interiors by award-winning designer Kelly Wearstler (named to the AD100 Hall of Fame by Architectural Digest), this beautifully reimagined boutique hotel is placed within a 1926 vintage Renaissance Revival building. You’ll be dazzled by the comfort of your room, the beauty of the common spaces, its restaurants, and the rooftop lounge spanning 5,000 square feet with views over the Los Angeles skyline in every direction.
TOUR MAP
ITINERARY
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day 1
Arrival in Los Angeles, California
Following an independent arrival and check-in at the Downtown L.A. Proper Hotel, our journey begins with an entrée into the world of Los Angeles art collecting. The evening commences with a visit to a significant private art collection (pending confirmation), followed by a welcome reception with fellow travelers.
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day 2
Los Angeles
The day is dedicated to two monumental expressions of private patronage. We begin our exploration at the J. Paul Getty Museum, where a private walking tour will illuminate how Richard Meier’s architecture of travertine and light enters into a dialogue with the landscape and the masterworks within. Our tour continues through the painting collection, a survey of European art from the Italian Renaissance to the 17th-century Dutch Golden Age. A private viewing of selections from the Getty’s drawings collection, an area not accessible to the public, offers a look into the working methods of artists from Da Vinci and Rubens to Degas. After lunch at LULU Restaurant LA—the brainchild of farm-to-table pioneer Alice Waters, set in the courtyard at the Hammer Museum—we join a curator to understand the Hammer’s dynamic contemporary program. The visit concludes with the Armand Hammer Collection, with its emphasis on 19th-century French painting, including works by Cézanne and Gauguin. This evening, we will enjoy dinner and conversation against the backdrop of a Pacific sunset from a rooftop vantage in Santa Monica.
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day 3
Los Angeles
Our morning is an encounter with the contemporary icons of Grand Avenue. With exclusive early access to The Broad, we will examine one of the world’s leading collections of postwar art and experience Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirrored Room—The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away before the museum opens to the public. Then we enjoy a guided tour of the Walt Disney Concert Hall (pending confirmation), Frank Gehry’s deconstructed masterpiece of stainless steel, where we will consider its architectural significance and acoustic innovation. Inside the home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, observe the pipe organ’s unconventional design, featuring wooden pipes normally hidden on most organs. Wander through innovative eateries, exciting boutiques, and a large array of galleries and museums during a leisurely afternoon exploration of the Los Angeles Arts District. Shop at Row DTLA and marvel at the recently remodeled Sixth Street Bridge. This evening, enjoy special access to an artist’s studio (pending confirmation) followed by dinner at a local favorite.
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day 4
Los Angeles / San Marino / Pasadena
We dedicate the day to the cultural pillars of San Marino and Pasadena. Our explorations begin at The Huntington in San Marino, where a guided walk through the botanical collections reveals the famed Japanese and Chinese Gardens. We will walk among roses, succulents, orchids, tropical plants, cycads, and camellias, including rare species and unusual specimens. We then turn to The Huntington’s art collections, with their celebrated holdings of 18th-century British portraiture, including Gainsborough’s The Blue Boy and Lawrence’s Pinkie. Additionally, you’ll see works by celebrated artists like Rogier van der Weyden, Joshua Reynolds, John Constable, J.M.W. Turner, Mary Cassatt, Benjamin West, Edward Hopper, and Andy Warhol. We will sit down for lunch in the outdoor Garden Café at Pasadena’s Norton Simon Museum, surrounded by a sculpture garden and Monet-inspired lily ponds. Afterwards, we will participate in a private tour of the museum’s superlative collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist masterpieces, featuring works by Monet, Degas, Renoir, Van Gogh, Cézanne, and Gauguin. Later, we will enjoy a private, curator-led tour of the Gamble House, the pinnacle of the American Arts and Crafts movement, built in 1908 for the son of Procter & Gamble founder James Gamble. Here, we will examine how architects Charles and Henry Greene synthesized English craft ideals with Japanese design principles to create a new architectural language born of the Southern California climate. We will conclude our artistic journey through Los Angeles with a festive farewell reception and dinner.
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day 5
Los Angeles / Return
Following breakfast, transfer independently to the airport for flights home.
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