Malibu Trip | The Getty Villa

One of the highlights of our trip to Malibu was visiting the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades.  We had been to The Getty Center in LA years ago and it was really fun.  So on Friday 9/13, we reserved 10am entrance to the Getty Villa.  Admission is free, but you have to reserve a date and time ahead of arrival.  Parking is $20.  The entrance to the driveway is off the Pacific Coast Highway 1, northbound.  It is unassuming and you would never know entering the narrow driveway that it becomes a stately grand driveway uphill to the museum.

Both the Getty Center and Getty Villa are both part of the J Paul Getty Trust, one of the world’s wealthiest art institutions with an estimated endowment in 2017 of $6.9B USD. 

We were there for two hours and saw a lot of the exhibits and gardens.  There are self-guided audio headsets available, as well as guided group tours.  We decided to explore on our own.  The Villa is a recreation of an ancient Roman country house.  Except it’s huge and has rooms upon rooms of exhibits of ancient Roman and Greek antiquities. 

There’s an amphitheater for events, and a cafe for drinks and bites. 

There was a courtyard enclosed by the building, which housed a long fountain pool and statues, along with plant life.

Outside the building, there’s a huge garden with a huge pool and many different Mediterranean plant life.

Looking towards the ocean.

Looking towards the mountains.

The antiquities exhibits were in many different rooms and grouped by origin and time.  Sometimes whole rooms were dedicated to statues.

This was a statue of Jupiter.

Each item had its own explanation to read.  If you’re taking the self-guided audio tour, it has the number to press for the audio.

There was also several big sarcophagi (stone coffin) of Roman origin.

Lots of busts of ancient Roman real people.

Vessels of antiquity.

And also a room of different types of Roman coins.  These top ones were bronze, while the bottom ones were gold.

We saw a lot of exhibits in two hours, but we didn’t see everything.  The grounds alone was beautiful and worth a visit.  If you are ever near Malibu, go see the Getty Villa for sure!  We definitely could have spent more time there.