CNN’s James Williams: Los Angeles in 24 Hours

As part of my 24 hour whirlwind journey through the city of Los Angeles, I found myself flying in a skytrike, which is a hang glider, connected to a tricycle and powered by a propeller engine. It’s a totally different way to ride, like a roller coaster over the city’s most famous landmarks: over the Hollywood sign, through Beverly Hills, and topped off with a stunning, surprisingly close-up view of the rocky Pacific coast. It’s the perfect way to take in the size and scope of the one-and-only LA.

This is a city known for sunshine, celebrities and luxury, surrounded by palm trees, rolling hills, tropical ocean breezes and the unique buzz created by the heart of the U.S. film industry. Young actors come here with big dreams and movie stars create the trends that the world will soon follow. But when you get beyond the façade of the movie sets, there’s a city that’s just begging to be discovered.

I kick off my morning with an energy boost in a glass, at Moon Juice, a juice bar favored by celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow, and created by self-styled alchemist Amanda Chantal Bacon. With a wealth of knowledge of unique herbs and powders, she peruses a wall full of spices, carefully pulling out jars to create the perfect concoction for me. It’s a blend of almond milk, crushed pearls, chaga, which turns out to be a mushroom, and cordyceps, an herb used in traditional Chinese medicine. I don’t have high expectations for the taste, but I’m pleasantly surprised to enjoy a refreshing drink akin to a vanilla malt milk. My morning has now been rejuvenated.

No trip to LA is complete without an experience of Hollywood and I’m excited to go behind the scenes at the Warner Brothers Studio. Beyond the back lot and production facilities that host hourly tours, I’m invited to a place no tourist is allowed: The Ranch. This is a working studio lot filled with block after block of cityscapes. In one direction, you’ll see suburban America, in another, the streets of New York City. One of the most famous television shows to be filmed here was Friends, and the fountain where the cast danced around with umbrellas in the opening titles is still here. Surprisingly, there’s no fountain in New York like it. This is purely a Hollywood creation.

Among the film sets and movie star mansions, you never know who could be sitting next to you at a restaurant or what secrets lie behind closed doors. As I make my way up the hill to a Victorian Era Mansion, I’m thinking this could be the luxury home of an eccentric film director, but instead, it’s the headquarters of a mysterious and exclusive club.

Founded in the 1960s, the Academy of Magical Arts has a roster that reads like the who’s who of Hollywood. Johnny Carson, Cary Grant and Ronald Reagan were all members, all devotees of the art of magic. I enter the Magic Castle through a hidden door with a special password, “open sesame.” Inside on any day I could find celebrities like Johnny Depp and Katy Perry having a drink among the quirky, yet priceless, magic-related collectables, and watching one of the dozens of world class illusionists who grace the four stages here. Steve Valentine, my guide, Academy board member and magician, performs part of his act for me, an impressive sleight of hand that did, in fact, fool me.

Before my night begins, I have the privilege to go behind another exclusive door, usually reserved for the Hollywood elite. Jeanne Yang is a stylist behind the stars, a fashion guru who dresses the likes of George Clooney and Ben Affleck for red carpet appearances. Inside this showroom for the privileged are racks and racks of one-of-a-kind runway pieces, items that would never be available in stores. With an eye for the dramatic, Yang dresses me in an outfit that I never would have picked for myself. I have to admit, I hated the electric blue jacket at first, but when she insisted, I tried it on and it looked amazing. It was an outfit that could best be described as “so LA.”

While the Hollywood celebrities bring Los Angeles its glitz and glamor, I chose to end my 24 hours in Los Angeles in an unexpected way, in Koreatown, a neighborhood long known for its food, but not a destination for a night on the town. It’s here where I meet Mark and Jonnie Houston, known in LA as the “kings of nightlife.” This 1980’s themed bar called Breakroom 86 embodies an authenticity that they tell me was missing for Los Angeles for years.

With venues like this, the Houston brothers aim to cultivate their favorite part of their city: the melting pot of cultures– a mix that includes different ethnicities, the film industry, and a unique landscape that makes the City of Angels an American cultural icon.

CNN’s monthly travel programme, ‘In 24 Hours’, returns to screens in September with a visit to Los Angeles.

From the sun-kissed shores of the California coast to the glittering lights of Hollywood, LA has been luring visitors for decades.

‘In 24 Hours’ host James Williams goes beyond the surface of Los Angeles to experience some of the unique destinations the city has to offer.

Follow James’ adventures on Instagram here, and stay up-to-date with CNN Travel on Twitter.