The Getty Center Is Free, and the Ride Up Is Half the Reason to Go

Museums traditionally open at the door. The Getty Center opens at a tram. You leave your car in the structure at the bottom of a hill in Brentwood, board an automated white train, and spend five minutes climbing the chaparral while the city disappears under you. By the time you get to the travertine plaza, you’ve had an experience, and you haven’t looked at a single painting yet.

This arrival explains why the Getty Center in Los Angeles is what it is. The Getty Center isn’t only a collection of art – it is the building, the hilltop, the garden and the view, and there are four reasons to go there rather than one.

The Getty Center Tickets Are Not Something You Pay for When You Visit

I need to say it to clear the misconception – admission is free. There are no Getty Center tickets to buy, there are no Getty Center tickets in general. The Getty Center doesn’t collect any money at the door. There is no suggested donation and no time slots for galleries – the Getty Center tickets you hear about don’t exist as a product.

All you pay for is the car – and that’s the key to the pricing. Once you understand it, the museum visit is cheap. Special exhibitions are included too, so the free entry is not a limited version of the museum – it is the museum itself. Large groups have to arrange visits beforehand, and special programmes are booked separately, but regular visitors just enter for free.

The Getty Center Address and How You Get to the Top

The Getty Center address is 1200 Getty Center Drive in the hills above Brentwood, at the Getty Center Drive exit from the 405. This freeway location makes the Getty Center Los Angeles one of the most accessible museums – reachable in twenty minutes from everywhere on the Westside and from the Valley as well.

You can’t drive up to the top – everyone parks in the structure at the base and uses the tram, which operates continuously and takes five minutes. There is a walking route for the enthusiasts. Metro passengers can take a bus stopping near the entrance, which bypasses the parking fee altogether and is the cheapest option.

The Getty Center Parking Fee

The Getty Center parking fee is around $25 per car charged at the structure at the bottom, and that’s the only cost of a standard visit. Starting from some late afternoon hour the fee is reduced. That’s important to remember if you plan to visit the Getty Center on Saturday evening.

It doesn’t matter how many people you have in the car – you pay for one car, and that’s it. The structure is huge and seldom crowded, but weekend late mornings are the busiest hours. Arrive before eleven or after three and the visit will be calmer, tram included.

The Getty Center Hours: Opening Time and the Best Hours to Go

The Getty Center hours usually start on Tuesday and end on Sunday, 10AM to 5:30PM, with the museum closed on Mondays. The information visitors don’t often get is Saturday opening hours, which extend to 8PM.

This extension is the best-kept secret on the hill. Late Saturday afternoon till evening gives you thinner crowds, beautiful light falling on the travertine, and a sunset over the Pacific from the western terrace, which is indeed one of the great free views of Southern California. Allow three or four hours for a visit – you will need them.

The Getty Center Art Collection and What Is Hanging There

The Getty Center art collection consists of European painting, drawing, sculpture, illuminated manuscripts, decorative arts and photography from the medieval period to the present. Van Gogh’s Irises is the star attraction here – the painting everybody stops in front of – together with the works of Rembrandt, Monet, Cezanne, Turner and Titian.

The photography collection is actually better than visitors might think and is constantly changing. The Getty Center art collection occupies five pavilions surrounding the central plaza and is connected by outdoor walkways – the visit includes both gallery and outdoor spaces. It is a museum that is much easier on your feet than it might seem.

The Getty Center Garden

Do not skip this. The Getty Center garden – the Central Garden designed by artist Robert Irwin – is situated in the ravine beneath the plaza and accessed via the zigzag path following a stream engineered to change sounds as you follow it.

At the bottom of the garden you’ll find the floating maze of azaleas in a pool. The plants change seasonally so that the Getty Center garden never looks the same. Irwin never stopped saying that it is a sculpture rather than landscaping – many visitors consider it the best thing on the hill. With the cactus garden on the southern promontory as the second stop, the outdoor half of this museum can stand the comparison with the indoor one.

The Getty Center Events Calendar

The Getty Center events are numerous and include concerts, film screenings, lectures, artist talks, family art workshops and the outdoor summer performance series taking place in the courtyard on warm evenings.

Most of the Getty Center events are either free or very cheap, which corresponds to the institution’s philosophy – but the popular events require prior booking. Checking the Getty Center events calendar before choosing the date is the smartest thing to do, because landing at a concert day gives you an opportunity to make a full night of museum visiting.

The Getty Center Reviews

The Getty Center reviews are among the best of any attraction in the county, and the praise focuses on four things: the free admission, the building, the garden and the view. Richard Meier’s travertine campus photographs well, and that can be seen in how many reviews are really about the building.

The realistic advice in the Getty Center reviews should be considered as well. It is a lot of walking, mostly outdoors and partly uphill. The parking fee surprises those who saw the word “free” and thought that the whole day would be free. And on a hot and cloudless afternoon the white stone reflects a lot of light and heat. Hat, water, comfortable shoes – that’s what reviews keep repeating and for a reason.

Building a Full Day Program Including the Hill

As a practical consideration, the Getty Center in Los Angeles is a three-to-four-hour attraction with Brentwood and Westwood at the bottom of the hill for meals, the Skirball a few minutes to the north, and all the Westside at hand.

But by late afternoon the pattern appears, familiar to everybody who visited a museum. Everybody walked and looked for hours. The kids are tired of looking and absorbing. The adults saw a lot of beauty and want something with pulse. The looking is over and the day is not.

Changing From Looking at Masterpieces to Being Inside a Story

That’s where we come in. At Maze Rooms we provide escape rooms in LA – we have six locations, more than twenty private rooms – and our West LA and Robertson spots are a short drive away from Brentwood.

The difference is exactly what we aim at. The gallery hour is passive: you absorb the other person’s world through glass and ropes. The escape room hour is the opposite skill – your group inside a set world, an Egyptian tomb or an underwater research station or a Victorian mystery, sixty minutes on the clock and every pair of hands needed. The hill gives you the beauty. The room gives you the story you retell all week.

Why Groups End a Day at the Getty Museum at Our Escape Room

Because the format suits everybody who has gathered in the group. Families – Temple of Lost Gold at our Robertson location is specifically tuned to let a nine-year-old solve the puzzles rather than watch adults doing it. Birthdays – we put the gift inside the room for the birthday person to find mid-game, and the reception area accepts the outside food, so the cake goes with the game. Date days – a morning at a free museum and a private room for two is one of the best value days in LA. Corporate groups – half-day and full-day events, beating any conference room.

Every booking is private – your group only, without other guests. The prices start at around $37 per person. We are open daily from 10AM to 11PM, hours unmatched by any museum in the city. No matter what time the tram brings you back down – there is always a room available. Five-star reviews on Google, Yelp and TripAdvisor come from years of creating sets and stories with care – the same care that the architects of the hilltop put in.

Our Locations & Rooms

Highland Ave
Robertson Blvd
Santa Monica Blvd
Playa Del Rey
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