We do not take guilt trips about wanting time without the kids. We have two daughters we adore, and we also have a marriage and interests of our own, and the time we spend on those things makes us better parents. This is not a complicated calculation. It took me longer than it should have to arrive at it without feeling defensive, but here we are.
Here are seven experiences in Los Angeles that are genuinely better without children — not because children are not welcome, but because the experience itself changes when you are not managing someone else’s attention span, bathroom needs, or threshold for unfamiliar food. I have done every one of these both ways, with the girls and without, and in each case the childless version is a different, quieter, more absorbing thing. Below each one I have added the practical details you actually need to pull it off, because a kid-free outing only counts as a break if you are not spending it troubleshooting logistics.
1. A Long, Slow Dinner at Rustic Canyon
Rustic Canyon Wine Bar and Seasonal Kitchen on Wilshire in Santa Monica is the restaurant I want when I want to actually taste what I am eating. The room is small and warm, the menu changes with what is good that week, and the whole thing is built around lingering. We have brought the girls. It is fine. Without them, it is substantially better — you can order the whole snack section, split a glass of something interesting, and let the meal unfold instead of racing the check.
Two things worth knowing before you go: it is at 1119 Wilshire Blvd, and it is now walk-ins only — no reservations. That sounds like a hassle and occasionally is, but it also means the trick is simply timing. Go right at opening when they start seating in the early evening, or roll in later after the first wave clears. Sit at the bar if the tables are full; it is one of the better seats in the house anyway.
2. The Getty Center
We take the girls to the Getty occasionally. They like the garden and the tram ride. We do not look at art for longer than forty seconds per piece. When Brad and I go without them on a Tuesday afternoon, we spend forty minutes with a single painting. The architecture and the gardens are different experiences when you can simply stand somewhere quietly without anyone asking when you are leaving.
Admission to the Getty is free; you pay only for parking, and it is cheaper in the afternoon. That combination — world-class collection, no ticket price, a tram ride up the hill, and a view of the whole basin — makes it the single best-value cultural afternoon in the city. Bring a light jacket even in summer; the hilltop gets breezy, and the outdoor garden terraces are half the reason to come.
3. Griffith Observatory at Night
The city view from Griffith at night is one of the best things Los Angeles offers for free. The planetarium shows are genuinely good, the lawn out front fills with people who all seem to have decided to slow down for an hour, and the whole grid of the city glitters below you. With kids it is a scramble of “careful near the edge” and “we are leaving in ten minutes.” Without them it is one of the most romantic hours you can spend in this city for the price of parking.
Go on a weeknight if you can. Weekend nights the road up can back up badly, and the lots fill. The building itself has evening hours later in the week, and the telescope lines are shortest right after dark. If you want the view without the crowd at all, the trails just below the Observatory give you nearly the same panorama with a fraction of the people.
4. A Natural Wine Bar in Silver Lake or Los Feliz
Bar Bandini, Vinovore, or any of the smaller natural wine bars that have opened in Silver Lake and Los Feliz in the last several years. These are adult spaces in the best sense: small rooms, interesting pours, the option to sit for two hours with a glass and a plate of cheese without anyone needing anything from you. We go on Friday nights when we can arrange it. It is a significant mood reset.
The nice thing about these places is that you do not need a plan. The whole point is to walk in, let whoever is behind the bar pour you something you would never have picked yourself, and stay as long as the conversation lasts. Order one snack, then another. This is the outing that most reliably makes Brad and me feel like the people we were before we had a diaper bag permanently slung over one shoulder.
5. LACMA on a Weekday
LACMA during the week when school is in session is a different museum than LACMA on a weekend. The crowds thin dramatically. The galleries are navigable. The permanent collection has things worth seeing slowly that you cannot see slowly on a Saturday. The Urban Light installation out front is best photographed at dawn when nobody is there, but the collection inside justifies the trip at any hour.
Pair it with lunch nearby and you have a full, unhurried afternoon. The museum sits on Wilshire in the middle of a stretch that includes the Tar Pits next door, so if you finish the galleries early you can wander the park without getting back in the car. A weekday membership pays for itself fast if you go more than twice a year, and it lets you drop in for one gallery at a time instead of feeling obligated to “do the whole museum.”
6. An Early Morning Hike in the Santa Monica Mountains
Brad and I hiked the Backbone Trail section near Malibu Creek one Saturday morning when his parents were visiting and took the girls for breakfast. We left at 6:30 AM and were back before 10. The trail was nearly empty at that hour and the views toward the ocean in morning light are among the best close-to-the-city views in Southern California. Hiking with children is different in every way and both things are worth doing.
Early is the entire strategy here. By mid-morning the popular trailheads fill and the parking turns into its own small ordeal, and by midday the exposed ridgelines get hot with no shade to speak of. Go at first light, carry more water than you think you need, and wear real shoes — the Santa Monica Mountains trails are rockier and steeper than they look from the road. You will be showered and back home before the rest of the house has finished breakfast.
7. A Real Movie Theater Experience
The Landmark in West LA, or the ArcLight before it closed — a real theater with assigned seating, decent sound, and an audience that came to watch the film. We see films with the girls. We also see films without them, which allows for the films that are not appropriate for children and also for the films that are technically appropriate but that would be improved by not explaining every plot development in a whisper to a child next to you. There is a version of going to the movies that is its own complete experience, and it requires uninterrupted attention.
Book a reserved seat, go to an early-afternoon weekday show if you want a nearly empty auditorium, and treat it like the small event it is. A matinee is cheaper, quieter, and somehow more decadent on a Tuesday than a Saturday night ever feels. This is the lowest-effort item on the list and one of the most reliably restorative.
How We Actually Make Kid-Free Time Happen
The experiences are the easy part. The hard part is childcare, and the honest answer is that we trade. We have two other families with kids around the same ages, and we swap: they take our girls one Saturday, we take their kids another. Nobody pays a sitter, everybody gets a real break, and the kids treat it like a party. When that is not an option, a standing every-other-week sitter you actually trust is worth more to a marriage than almost anything else you could spend the money on.
Keep the outings short and specific. “A whole day to ourselves” rarely materializes and creates pressure to make it count. Three unhurried hours around one thing — a museum, a hike, a long dinner — is easier to arrange and, frankly, easier to enjoy. Guilt is the tax we quietly stopped paying, and everyone in the house is better for it.
The Bottom Line
Los Angeles is full of experiences that quietly transform when you are not shepherding a small person through them. You do not need a special occasion or a plane ticket — a free museum, a night view, a walk-in dinner, a matinee. Pick one, arrange the childcare, and go. You will come home a better version of the parent you already are.
