About this experience
Handlebar Bike Tours takes you where buses and walking tours can't — deep into LA's Arts District, an underground, trendy neighborhood most visitors never see. Just past Little Tokyo, this rapidly evolving industrial district is packed with galleries, tech startups, nightlife, murals, historic architecture, breweries, and some of LA's best restaurants — plus surprises like lowriders, pop-ups, and film shoots.
We'll stop at iconic murals, Hauser & Wirth Gallery, ride the Sixth Street Bridge, Bloom's Square, Warner Music, Art Share LA, The American Hotel, on an easy E-bike ride. Your guide shares the neighborhood's origins, industrial roots, and ongoing transformation, plus introduces you to the street artists shaping its walls.
Enjoy off-bike breaks at a fine art gallery and a unique local coffee house along the way.
Perfect for visitors craving something different from the typical LA sightseeing loop — an insider's ride through a side of the city most tourists never see.
At a glance
- Duration: 2 hr 30 min
Plan your experience
Set aside 2 hr 30 min for the experience itself, with additional time to reach your meeting or pickup point.
Before you go
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
- Minimum age is 16
Local guides to help you plan
How to Plan Los Angeles by Region, Light, and Distance
Build a Los Angeles day around one region, honest travel time, changing light, and enough room to understand the place between stops.
Los Angeles Without One Center
A practical way to use regions and neighborhood names without flattening Los Angeles into one downtown or one story.
Reading the Los Angeles River
Choose a named river reach, check current conditions, and understand the corridor as infrastructure, habitat, and community space.
What is included
- We use class 2 Electric bikes
- Helmet + live amplified guide
Not included
- This tour does not include any food.
Itinerary and highlights
The largest concentration of murals and street art in L.A. You'll learn about the artists, process and production of these museum worthy walls. Building this tour on Trip Advisor/Viator is hard, because software only allows us to choose from well-established locations. But this tour is unique; as the nature of street art is fluid, temporary, and every pop-up, mural and underground warehouse is not a "well-established location" but an of the moment, off the beaten path part of Los Angeles many "locals" do not even know about. You will not see a tourbus as you would at other LA top locations. You might see a few other tourists looking lost at the first few stops, but this bike tour goes deeper into the Arts District than vans, busses or walking tours can go. This neighborhood hugs the LA River, and if you've enjoyed the gritty views in productions like Grease, Repo Man, Sugar and Bosch, with the LA Skyline in the background, we ride these streets.
This area contains excellent examples of graffiti writing, Warner Brothers Music, and several star chef's restaurants. The eclectic mix of street art culture can not be found on any other tour.
Our tour takes an off-bike break here. Guests have a chance to explore this expansive gallery, art book store, and nearby cafes on their own.
Non-profit providing below market live work studios to keep artists in the Arts District
The birth place of the modern Arts District, this historic hotel has stories to tell. Built in 1905, covered in murals, and steeped in history long before artists took it over in the 1980's. Your guide will fill in the last 150 years of history of this historic neighborhood that reigned as a produce shipping hub from the 1800's into the beginning of the last century when LA was primarily citrus groves. For the past 40 years it has been the canvas of Unite to Ignite graffiti crew.
We ride through Little Tokyo to access the Arts District. Full of sushi, Anime and Ramen, when the gallery is closed we take our break stop here.
Located in Little Tokyo we stop by to see Museum of Contemporary Art and the Go For Broke Monument and explain how the history of Little Tokyo is entwined with the history of the Arts District and Los Angeles.
One of the many under the radar cool clubs in the Arts District.
One of several production studios in the Arts District. As we ride the surrounding streets, you might recognize them as B-reel from some of your favorite movies and shows. A lot of production and filming takes place in the Arts District. We might even see a shoot in progress as we often do.
One of several chef driven restaurants in the Arts District.
We are located at LA's 100 year old food hall, a destination in itself. Our home base has over 45 food vendors to choose from pre or post ride. All bike tours are round trip from DTLA's #1 destination we're proud to call home.
Ride by this celebrity enclave hiding out next to the railroad tracks of East L.A.
Ride this iconic bridge featured more and more frequently as an LA film location.
LA outpost of the famous London motorcycle clubhouse. We'll ride by, and probably see some motorcycles cruising the arts district out on our pedal bike tour.
One of several movie studios, this giant warehouse space often hosts special pop-up events like the Balloon Museum and Luna Luna: Forgotten fantasy. Hollywood is where they used to make movies, but downtown L.A. is where they still do.
One of several high end, chef driven restaurants in the Arts District, Bestia is just one of Chef Ori Maneshe's two restaurants located in this foodie neighborhood.
We'll take a break in this unique coffee house and vintage auto-storage that serves Vietnamese ice coffee out of a bus. A great way to get a look inside the converted warehouses many artists call home.
One of many murals we'll see on our Arts District Tour. This mural done by homegrown artists Robert Vargas features the double threat of Ohtani pitching and hitting, appropriately located in the Little Tokyo neighborhood of DTLA.
Housed in a repurposed train station, LA's premiere graduate architectural school, with a gallery, is a central historical location to the establishment of LA's cold storage warehouses later converted to artists lofts.
All Handlebar Bike Tours are round trip from L.A.'s historic food hall. We meet here, and it is a great spot to land after the tour for hungry riders. Your guide will have suggestions for what's good and how to snag a coveted table.
Meeting and pickup information
- We are located at Grand Central Market, Hill St entrance. Look for our "Tour Meets Here" sign on the sidewalk. Bikes staged from the 1st floor parking garage.
Languages and tickets
- English — Guide
- Mobile Only
Tour operator
- Handlebar Bike Tours LLC
Meeting points and locations
Accessibility and practical details
- Public transportation options are available nearby
- Not recommended for travelers with poor cardiovascular health
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
- Minimum age is 16
- Ability to ride a bike on city streets
- Should know how to ride a bike
Cancellation policy
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
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