I know, I know: many Aussies love – adore – Los Angeles. But me? I was never a fan of La La Land. Too big; too spread out; too hard to get around. It’s easy to aimlessly wander around New York, London, Melbourne, Paris – it didn’t seem that way in LA. But on my most recent visit, something switched. I’m beginning to get Los Angeles. The City of Angels is revealing her charms.It’s down to a surprise change in this famously car-centric city which my fellow Australians may like; a detail that’s been building for some time but suddenly has become undeniable. It’s now possible to navigate large parts of the LA visitors want to go to without a car, taxi, Uber or even one of those Waymo driverless vehicles. Public transport is getting better and better and key chunks of the city are even – gasp – walkable. And about time too: Los Angeles is set to get busier then ever with the Super Bowl in early 2027 and the Olympics in 2028.West Hollywood, nestled below the celebrity drenched Hollywood Hills, is a prime example of this easy to get around LA. Often called simply “WeHo” this pint sized pocket hangs off two famous thoroughfares heaving with hip hotels, boutiques and bars: Santa Monica Boulevard and the Sunset Strip. “Even the ground floor of West Hollywood is the penthouse of Los Angeles,” chief marketing officer of the West Hollywood Travel and Tourism Board Jeff Morris tells me, referring to the district’s commanding position overlooking the city below.“If you’re going to stay someplace in Los Angeles that is the absolute heart and soul of the city, this is where you want to be”.The WeHo rule you shouldn’t breakThere’s an attitude here – it’s the WeHo way or the highway. Appropriate perhaps as America’s most iconic highway, Route 66, begins its length, sinuous journey here. “The West Hollywood ethos is be whoever you are, or who you want to be, but just don’t be an a**hole,” musician and WeHo local and tour guide Jon D’Amico tells me.“That’s why I love living here”.The WeHo way also means having a car is not mandatory. As long as you don’t mind the odd leg burning hill climb (this is LA, think of it as surrendering to health and wellness) West Hollywood is as walkable as New York’s West Village or London’s West End. A few minutes’ stroll can take you from a poolside lounger at the five star 1 Hotel with views to Downtown, to ridiculously priced but ever so tasty smoothies at viral gourmet grocer Erehwon. Hydrated, it’s then just a jaunt to the bougie boutiques that line Melrose Ave and then onto a chilled martini or two at famed gay bar The Abbey that Chappell Roan immortalised in her hit Pink Pony Club. It’s not the only thing that is extremely pink. The Paul Smith store has an enormous pink wall which has become viral for being, well, very pink. Everyone wants a photo basking in its rosy glow.At Maxfield, an institution of designer togs and second-hand treasures housed within an imposing concrete fortress, I scoured the racks while sticky beaking on another customer falling in love with a pair of vintage sunnies. “They’re $1400?” he gasped, stopping in his tracks at what I mistakenly thought was sticker shock. “Oh that’s a really good price,” he said admiringly.It was my time to gasp. I moved away from the clothes my grubby fingers were lazily fumbling through.My travelling companion was unimpressed by my incredulity. For that brand, in that style, from that era, it was an entirely reasonable proposition, she insisted.WeHo can be fancy, but this isn’t neighbouring Beverley Hills – the streets are not lined with luxury mega brands; here you can be iconic and economic.MadHappy, for instance, can give you a sprinkle of that California celeb chic without maxxing out the credit card. For a cheap eat swing by Tail of the Pup, the WeHo place to snag a hot dog since 1946. Its sausage shaped servery dishes out chilli pups slathered in grilled onions and mustard. Upstairs is a hidden gem: The Lucky Tiki speak-easy serves up tropical cocktails in perpetual and cooling dusk, even when it’s a blazing afternoon outside. Roadhouse Barney’s Beanery is a short stumble away up Santa Monica Blvd. It’s every inch the archetypal American bar with sports on the TVs and a menu weighed down with moorish chicken wings and melts. Glitterati from the golden age of LA have swung by Barney’s – from Clark Gable to Judy Garland. Quentin Tarantino, it’s said, wrote most of Pulp Fiction in Barney’s beery booths. For decades an anti-gay slur hung proudly above the bar. That hissy fit ended in the mid-1980s: good job too given WeHo is the epicentre of LGBTQ LA and hosts the city’s biggest annual Pride festival. The city surrounded by another cityFun fact: WeHo is not actually in Los Angeles. It’s now a mini municipality of 36,000 hemmed in by a massive metropolis. It’s separation from LA proper has meant things have been done differently here. In the 1920s gambling was illegal in Los Angeles, but not West Hollywood. While the LAPD, which had a reputation for heavy handed policing, were prevented from entering. It became a sanctuary for “ruffians, musicians, misfits and the gay community,” one local reminisced.Mr D’Amico, one of those musicians, owns Rock ‘n’ Walk tours.He takes visitors on an immersive trip through Sunset Strip’s bevy of landmarks from The Viper Room to The Roxy. “Here, everything cool is hidden in plain sight,” he relays. This tour is not conducted by some blow-in who looked up his facts on Wikipedia. Mr D’Amico leaves and breathes WeHo.Outside The Viper Room, a club once owned by Johnny Depp and infamous for being the scene of River Phoenix’s overdose death, other tourists take snaps. Not us. Mr D’Amico bustles his rock aficionados into the belly of the musical beast where we find ourselves in an A-listers’ only secret hideaway where the rich and infamous could observe that night’s shenanigans in seclusion.LA’s surprising changeWeHo might seem like a walkable bubble in car mad LA but something unexpected is happening with the rest of the city too. It’s getting easier to get around without a vehicle at all. Up until this year, LA professed to have two underground lines. That was a stretch: it was more like one line and one laughable little branch.But that stub, the Metro D line, has made a $14 billion break for the Pacific bringing it within spitting distance of WeHo. A speedy dash to Downtown, avoiding the snarling traffic, is now possible. Once amid the skyscrapers of LA’s CBD you can saunter to the free entry Broad modern art museum and feast on Warhol and Koons. The feast again on steamy, brothy bowls of wonton soup or award-winning queso tacos at the giant food hall at Grand Central Market. Head back on the D towards WeHo and the famed Petersen Automotive Museum and the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures are within easy reach. Next year the Metro will be extended to Beverly Hills while light rail has reached the airport. Already, the frequent buses can take you from WeHo to the tourist hub of Hollywood, the hiking trails of Runyon Canyon and grungy East Hollywood and Silver Lake.“The beach is 20 minutes from WeHo, Universal Studios seven miles away, the Super Bowl stadium 12 miles,” said Mr French of West Hollywood’s enviable position. Getting around with ease? Without a car? Sauntering around charming neighbourhoods? This isn’t the LA I remember.It’s a different side to the City of Angels. A side, I confess, that means I may even like this city now. The reporter travelled with the assistance of Visit West Hollywood