Green Hills Memorial Park

Amid the glitz and sprawl of Los Angeles, the port town of San Pedro (San Pee-dro) keeps it real. A slice of 1960s small-town America, its high street is devoid of chain-store clutter, down-to-earth locals ask how you're doing and actually mean it, and restored vintage cars time-warp you back to American Graffiti days. Despite some sprucing up, especially along 6th and 7th Sts in the historic downtown, an air of working-class grit remains, and so do many of the dive bars where Charles Bukowski probably ruined his liver. LA's late, great bad-boy poet now rests in Green Hills Memorial Park .