Mulholland Drive

As you drive north out of downtown Hollywood [1] into the residential section of Hollywood Boulevard, you will find folks on street corners hawking maps of stars’ homes on Mulholland Drive and its surrounding neighborhoods. Whether you choose to pay up to $10 for a photocopied sheet of dubious information is up to you. What’s certain is that you can drive the famed drive yourself.

When you reach the ridge, you’ll see why so many of the intensely wealthy in the L.A. Basin choose to make their homes here. From the ridgeline, on clear days you can see down to Los Angeles [2] and the coast to the west, and the fertile land of the San Fernando Valley to the east. Whether you care about movie star homes or not, the view by itself is worth the trip, especially if it’s rained recently and the smog is down.

You won’t see the facade of Britney Spears’ multimillion-dollar hideaway facing the street, but a few homes do face the drive—most boasting mid-century modern architecture. If you can see them, they probably don’t belong to movie stars who guard their privacy from the endless intrusion of paparazzi and fans.