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How to Use laguide
The book went to print, but the city kept moving, so I made a version that keeps moving too. What each part of laguide does, and how to plan a whole day with one heart, all in one go.
Translated from Jasmine’s original Chinese. The illustrated slides are on the interactive reader.
Key points
- It asks how you feel, not which sights
- The light on the page changes with real LA time
- Tell it your days and what you love, and it gives you a full route
Full text
Two cities. One life.
Born in Taipei, I studied and worked in LA for ten full years, and I've gone back and forth ever since. Ten years to learn the city's everyday life, and every time I go back, I see how it's changed.
'What's there to do in LA?'
Every time someone asks, I can never answer well, because what comes up are scenes, not sights. Those don't fit in a list; a list would only keep the addresses.
A book is a freeze-frame; a city isn't
After the book went to print, some shops closed and seasons changed, and the paper stayed frozen on deadline day. So here's a version that keeps moving: A Field Guide in Motion.
What this is
400+ places, 30 FAQs, 6 themed guides, 13 quizzes, 1 book. Instead of opening with a 'top ten must-sees,' it asks you first: what do you want LA to give you today?
It's awake when LA is awake
The site reads LA local time, and the whole site's color temperature shifts with it: first light, morning fog, noon, golden hour, blue hour, after dark. The color you see is LA's light right now.
JASMINE WOULD…
The gold button in the bottom right of every page gives you just one place and one line, not ten options. Ask in the morning and ask at dusk, and you'll get different places.
One heart, and you've got a whole day planned
See something you like? Tap ♡ to save it to MY LA; open it and tap 'plan a day with these places,' and it puts them in order with reasons. It won't ask where you want to go again, because you already picked.
The book and the site talk to each other
Places from the book are marked 'FROM THE BOOK · p.○○' on their pages. The page that made your heart skip on paper, you can now look up online and see what it's like today.
Start your way
The homepage asks how you want to read today: plan fast, read slow, or play the quizzes. Three buttons are always top right: SEARCH (works in Chinese and English), ♥ MY LA, MENU.
LA FAQ
The 30 questions I get asked most: should I rent a car, how does tipping work, how many days is right, is Erewhon actually worth it. No more digging through forums.
Guides: LA guides
The 400+ places are split into six themed guides: food 140, sights 99, places to stay 64, cafés and matcha 44, K-Town 35, the 626 Chinese community 25.
Explore: every place
Every place has its own page; filter by area, mood or time of day, or go in through the hand-drawn district map on the homepage. Each page has my notes, nearby stops, and 'might not be for you.'
Plan：Build My LA
Three steps: the basics, your travel personality, real-world limits. Every stop tells you WHY THIS STOP and WHY THIS ORDER; if it's out of the way, tap '↺ REPLACE' to swap it, then send the whole thing to Google Maps in one tap.
Stories: the field guides
Most of it is what I've written on IG over the years, brought over and reorganized. IG posts keep sinking; here there's a table of contents, it's searchable, and nothing disappears.
Originals
Four series you'll only find here: LA DECODER, IF YOU ASKED JASMINE, LITTLE THINGS, LA PERSONALITIES. 'I'm five minutes away' usually means they just got on the 405.
13 quizzes
Which kind of Angeleno are you, which area should you stay in, your matcha personality, how many days for a first visit, which day-trip route to take… and when you finish, it drops you right at the start of a route.
And a few more places
ESCAPES: one tank of gas, one full day. VEGAS. WELLNESS: putting recovery into your itinerary. REELS: real-location videos. OVERHEARD has zero practical value. It's just LA.
Honestly: this site is still growing
The site's been up less than a week, but what's in it was saved up bit by bit over the years, and I'm still adding photos. I've been to most of the places I write about, more than once. 'I won't write "I want to go" as "I recommend."'
The Los Angeles worth returning to
Not necessarily the hottest spots, just the LA I keep going back to. And now it's yours too.
Places in this story
An original JSLALALAND field guide by Jasmine Chang (@jslalaland).