12 Best Sights in Pasadena, Los Angeles

With an enormous rose on its exterior, this 90,000-seat stadium, host of many Super Bowls and home to the UCLA Bruins and the annual Rose Bowl Game on New Year’s Day, also regularly sees performances from the biggest recording artists in the world. Set at the bottom of a wide arroyo in Brookside Park, the facility is closed except during events, incuding its famed Flea Market, a Southern California institution. The massively popular and eclectic event, which happens the second Sunday of each month (rain or shine), deservedly draws crowds that come to find deals from more than 2,500 vendors on goods including mid-century and antique furniture, vintage clothing, pop culture collectibles, books, and music. Food and drink options are on hand to keep shoppers satiated, parking is free, and general admission is just $13. Bring cash to avoid an inevitable line at the ATM, and feel free to try your hand at haggling.

If you have time for just one stop in the Pasadena area, be sure to see this sprawling estate built for railroad tycoon Henry E. Huntington in the early 1900s. Henry and his wife, Arabella (who was also his aunt by marriage), voraciously collected rare books and manuscripts, botanical specimens, and 18th-century British art. The institution they established became one of the most extraordinary cultural complexes in the world.

The library, beloved of researchers worldwide, contains hundreds of thousands of books and 9 million manuscripts, including one of the world's biggest history of science collections and a vellum Gutenberg Bible that's on show to the public in an exhibition of the library's biggest draws.

Don't resist being lured outside into the 130-acre Botanical Gardens, which extend out from the main building. The 10-acre Desert Garden has one of the world's largest groups of mature cacti and other succulents (visit on a cool morning or late afternoon). The Shakespeare Garden, meanwhile, blooms with plants mentioned in Shakespeare's works. The Japanese Garden features an authentic ceremonial teahouse built in Kyoto in the 1960s, along with historic buildings to explore (including a residential compound from 1700, brought from Japan and reassembled on-site). A waterfall flows from the teahouse to the ponds below. The Chinese Garden, which is among the largest outside China, winds around waveless pools. The Bing Children's Garden lets tiny tots explore the ancient elements of water, fire, air, and earth. Several on-site dining options are available, including the Rose Garden Tea Room, where afternoon tea is served (reserve in advance), and the new Asian-inspired Jade Court Cafe. 

A 1¼-hour guided tour of the Botanical Gardens is led by docents at posted times, and a free brochure with a map and property highlights is available in the entrance pavilion. Tickets for a monthly free-admission day are snapped up within minutes online, so plan carefully.

As seen in the New Year's Day Tournament of Roses Parade, this low-profile brown building is one of the finest midsize museums anywhere, with a collection that spans more than 2,000 years of Western and Asian art. It all began in the 1950s when Norton Simon started collecting works by Degas, Renoir, Gauguin, and Cézanne. His collection grew to include works by old masters and Impressionists, modern works from Europe, and Indian and Southeast Asian art. Today the museum is richest in works by Rembrandt, Picasso, and, most of all, Degas.

Head down to the bottom floor to see temporary exhibits and phenomenal Southeast Asian and Indian sculptures and artifacts, where pieces like a Ban Chiang blackware vessel date back to well before 1000 BC. Don't miss a living artwork outdoors: the garden, conceived by noted Southern California landscape designer Nancy Goslee Power. The tranquil pond was inspired by Monet's gardens at Giverny, and there's even a copy of Rodin's "The Thinker" to inspire a little musing of your own.

Getting its name from the Spanish word for "rest," this 160-acre oasis is a respite from city life, shaded by massive oak trees. A smaller, mellower version of the nearby Huntington, Descanso Gardens features denser foliage, quaint dirt paths, and some hilly climbs that make for good exercise. It's the perfect place to come in search of wonderful scents—between the lilacs, the acres of roses, and the forest of California redwoods, pines, and junipers, you can enjoy all sorts of fragrances. A forest of California live oak trees makes a dramatic backdrop for thousands of camellias and azaleas and the breathtaking 5-acre International Rosarium holding 1,700 varieties of antique and modern roses. Families love the model ride-on train that winds through the gardens daily ($5 per person).

With its elegant dark-wood paneling and floors, curved staircases, and a theatrical stage in the parlor, it's easy to envision how this 1907 mansion along Pasadena's Millionaire's Row once served as a gathering place for the city's elite (it also housed the Finnish consulate until 1965). Most rooms on the ground and second floors are still fitted with original furniture; you can peek into these roped-off spaces to get a sense of what life was like more than a century ago. The mansion, which has been used in many films, is part of the two-acre Pasadena Museum of History complex, which also includes the adjacent Finnish Folk Art Museum, the Curtin House, the Estate Garden, and the History Center with its galleries, which host rotating exhibits dedicated to the art and culture of Pasadena.

Built by Charles and Henry Greene in 1908, this American Arts and Crafts bungalow illustrates the incredible craftsmanship that went into early L.A. architecture. The term "bungalow" can be misleading, since the Gamble House is a huge three-story home. To wealthy Easterners such as the Gambles (as in Procter & Gamble), this type of vacation home seemed informal compared with their mansions back home. Admirers swoon over the teak staircase and cabinetry, the Greene and Greene–designed furniture, and an Emil Lange glass door. The dark exterior has broad eaves, with sleeping porches on the second floor. An hour-long, docent-led tour of the Gamble's interior will draw your eye to the exquisite details; specialty tours are available for those who crave more. For those who want to see more of the Greene and Greene homes, there are guided walks around the historic Arroyo Terrace neighborhood. Advance tickets are highly recommended. Film buffs might recognize this as Doc Brown's house from Back to the Future.

Little ones can pan for gold in a small creek, play Spider-Man on a weblike climber, or race around a trike track at this children's museum.

Wander through a re-created tropical forest, a South African landscape, or the Australian outback at this family-friendly arboretum. One highlight is the tropical greenhouse, with carnivorous-looking orchids and a pond full of brilliantly colored goldfish. The house and stables of the eccentric real-estate pioneer Lucky Baldwin are well-preserved and worth a visit, along with the fairy-tale Queen Anne Cottage built for his 16-year-old fourth wife, which has been painstakingly renovated and is now open for docent-led tours. (It's best known as Ricardo Montalbán's Fantasy Island house.) Kids will love the many peacocks and waterfowl that roam the property, and an abandoned 1890 train station built using Baldwin's own brick yard. The most recent additions include a new forest pathway and the Garden of Quiet Reflection, filled with contemplative quotes, a sundial, and East Asian flora.

Established in 1771 as the fourth of 21 missions founded in California, this massive adobe complex was dedicated by Father Junípero Serra to St. Gabriel. Within the next 50 years, San Gabriel Arcángel became the wealthiest of all California missions. In 1833 the Mexican government confiscated the mission, allowing it to decline. The U.S. government returned the mission to the church in 1855, but by this time the Franciscans had departed. In 1908 the Claretian Missionaries took charge and poured much care into preserving the rich history, albeit without a focus on the indigenous people who built the mission. A devastating arson fire in 2020 has resulted in a grand reopening with newly reimagined museum exhibitions centering the thousands of Native Americans who built and were baptized on the site. The cemetery here, the first in L.A. County, is said to contain approximately 6,000 Gabrieleños. Tranquil grounds are lushly planted and filled with remnants of what life was like two centuries ago. Public mass is held at the mission Sunday morning at 7 and 10, but check ahead as times are subject to change. If you're lucky, you'll hear the six bells that ring out during special services—a truly arresting experience. You can take a self-guided tour of the grounds here by purchasing a map in the gift shop.

Built in 1816 as a gristmill for the San Gabriel Mission, the mill is the state's oldest commercial building and one of the last remaining examples in Southern California of Spanish Mission architecture. The thick adobe walls and textured ceiling rafters give the interior a sense of quiet strength. Outside, a chipped section of the mill's exterior reveals the layers of brick, ground seashell paste, and ox blood used to hold the structure together. The surrounding gardens, an accredited arboretum, are reason enough to visit, with a flower-decked arbor and old sycamores and oaks. In summer, the Capitol Ensemble performs in the garden.

This 22-block historic district contains a vibrant mix of restored 19th-century brick buildings interspersed with contemporary architecture. Chain stores have muscled in, but there are still some homegrown shops, plenty of tempting cafés and restaurants, and a bustling beer scene. In recent years, a vibrant Asian food scene has popped up in the vicinity as well. In the evening and on weekends, the streets are packed with people. Old Town's main action takes place on Colorado Boulevard between Pasadena Avenue and Arroyo Parkway.

Straight out of a Looney Tunes cartoon, this activity-focused playground with oversize replicas of familiar objects offers lessons along with some fun. The whole family can gain tidbits of knowledge on earthquakes, animals, and insects. Explore gravity in the Physics Forest, which features 12 interactive experiences. In the sunny atrium, kids assume the role of ants on their daring ascent. Outside they can run and climb along a running river or take on a tricycle race. The museum is practically designed to wear out the little ones and give parents a much-needed break.