Crypto.com Arena Staples Center Downtown Los Angeles California

Touring The Home Of The Los Angeles Lakers

I don’t watch sports, but I love to tour sporting venues such as Crypto.com Arena, home to the Los Angeles Lakers NBA team. Sports venues, theatres, and other buildings that have tour make me so happy. Seeing an event somewhere is cool, but I love an empty building.

On tours, it is most often only a group of 20 or less. This gives you a chance to listen to the tour guide and to ask questions of the guide. The thing I like the most is taking photos of the empty venue. I love to photograph the symmetry of the venue from the various sections. Occasionally, I get to to onto the venue floor.

For the Crypto.com Arena tour, we had a group of 10 guests and 2 guides. We also had headsets. For a group of our size, this was overkill. The guides were knowledgeable and were great at answering questions. We got access to a lot of areas of the arena, which of course made me happy.

How The Tour Crypto.com Arena Tour Differs From The Intuit Dome Tour

This tour sort of billed itself as the gold standard of venue tours. It was no different than the others. The guides were very proud of the building’s history. In contrast, Intuit Dome just opened, so the history is non-existent. Intuit’s guides spent most of the tour talking about the technology of the arena, which was fine. I love tech more than most, but the biometric stuff creeped me out.

All-in-all, it both tours were good. These were well worth the price, and I was very satisfied.

Uneasy Feeling Downtown

Normally, I don’t feel uneasy or unsafe in any downtown, let alone a touristy area such as near Crypto.com Arena. There are a few unfinished and graffiti’d condo towers across the street. I kept getting a post-apocalypse vibe, and I didn’t like it. The area driving to the arena was less than desirable, much like any big city.

I love being able to advance my professional travel photography skills on trips like this.