Things to Do in Hollywood for Adults

Most of Hollywood Boulevard is built for the photo — Walk of Fame stars, costumed Spider-Mans, wax museums, T-shirt shops. Adults looking for something more interesting than the souvenir loop have to know where to look. Here's a working list of grown-up things to do in Hollywood: cocktails with history behind them, live performance worth the ticket, places where the room is the point, and one new working distillery that opened in 2025 — the first inside Hollywood since Prohibition.

Hollywood is two cities stacked on top of each other. There's Hollywood the tourist destination, which is mostly four blocks of Hollywood Boulevard between Highland and Vine. And there's Hollywood the neighborhood, which spreads south to Sunset and Santa Monica Boulevards and contains some of the best bars, theaters, restaurants, and music venues in the city. Most travelers experience only the first version, which is unfortunate, because the second version is the one worth coming for.

Cocktails and spirits

Hollywood's relationship with the drink is older than the film industry — Musso & Frank Grill has been serving martinis since 1919, which makes it older than every studio that's still operating. If you want to drink in Hollywood like a grown-up, three categories matter:

• The historic icons. Musso & Frank on Hollywood Boulevard pours a perfect martini in a setting that's barely changed in a century. The Frolic Room next to the Pantages is a tiny neon-lit dive that Bukowski drank in. The Tropicana at the Roosevelt is a rooftop pool bar that feels like 1955 in a good way.
• The craft cocktail circuit. A handful of speakeasy-style bars hide behind unmarked doors near the Walk of Fame — No Vacancy and Black Rabbit Rose are two of the better ones, both reservation-only and worth the planning.
• The distillery itself. Hollywood Distillery on Santa Monica Boulevard runs sixty-minute tours Thursday through Sunday, ending with a tasting flight of all four production spirits. It's the only place in Hollywood where you can watch spirits actually being distilled, and it's also the first new distillery in Hollywood since Prohibition emptied them all.

Live performance

Hollywood has more legitimate stages per square mile than almost anywhere in the country. The categories worth knowing:

• Big concert halls. The Hollywood Bowl is a 17,500-seat amphitheater that runs from late spring through early fall — the LA Philharmonic, jazz nights, John Williams scores, and a few rotating major acts. Picnic tradition is part of the deal. The Greek Theatre in nearby Griffith Park is smaller and more intimate.
• Theater and Broadway. The Pantages and the Dolby Theatre host the bulk of touring Broadway productions in Los Angeles. The Pantages is the more historic of the two — a 1930 movie palace converted to live performance, gilded everything, gloriously over-decorated.
• Comedy. The Comedy Store on Sunset Boulevard is the legendary one — three rooms, multiple shows a night, drop-in sets from major comedians who are in town. The Laugh Factory nearby is a worthy alternative. Both are stacked Friday and Saturday nights; weeknights are easier to walk into.
• Movies in cemeteries. Every Saturday in summer, Cinespia screens classic films on a giant outdoor screen in Hollywood Forever Cemetery. It's exactly as strange and beautiful as it sounds. Bring a blanket, picnic, and lower your expectations of dignified behavior from the audience.

Places where the room is the point

A handful of Hollywood spots earn their reputation from atmosphere alone — the food and drinks are fine, but you go for the building.

• The Magic Castle. A Victorian mansion in the hills above Hollywood that operates as a private club for magicians and their guests. You need a member to sponsor you in. If you can get in, do it — multiple performance rooms and an enforced dress code make it feel like a different decade.
• Yamashiro. A century-old Japanese-style mansion in the hills above Hollywood, with a view that explains why studio executives keep buying houses up there. Sunset is the move.
• The Roosevelt Hotel. The first Academy Awards happened in its ballroom in 1929. The lobby and the pool — painted by David Hockney in 1988 — are both worth a walk-through even if you're not staying.

The distillery tour

If you only do one adult-specific Hollywood activity, this is our pick. Hollywood Distillery opened in 2025 in a 1920s warehouse on Santa Monica Boulevard — originally a working mortuary, now a 1,000-gallon copper Vendome pot still and a refurbished tasting room directly across from Hollywood Forever Cemetery. It's the first working distillery inside Hollywood in nearly a century.

The tour runs about sixty minutes, group size capped at twelve, and ends with a tasting flight of all four production spirits side by side: Oasis Vodka (distilled from California dates), Nopalera Gin (built on prickly pear), Zanja-Madre Bourbon, and Zanja-Madre Rye. $30 per guest, all ages welcome, Thursday through Sunday.

A sample adult evening

One way to use the above as an actual itinerary, for a couple or a small group with three or four hours to spend:

Adjust for show nights at the Bowl or the Pantages, or sub the Comedy Store for after-dinner drinks if you want something funnier than your own conversation.

Plan a distillery visit

Address: Hollywood Distillery, 5975 Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90038. Across from Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

Tour days: Thursday through Sunday. Private tours for groups of 10+ available any day by appointment. Current hours and tour start times on the booking page.

Tickets: $30 per guest. ~60 minutes. Tasting flight included. All ages welcome.

Frequently asked

Where to next

For more on the distillery tour specifically, our visitor guide walks through what to expect. To learn how a 1920s mortuary became a working distillery, read our story. Or skip ahead and browse the spirits.