Los Angeles
Los Angeles is not a city you walk but a county you drive across, a set of neighbourhoods with no centre, where traffic rather than distance is the constraint. Two or three nights, one area picked for the trip you are taking, and nothing left visible in the car.
Los Angeles in a nutshell
Los Angeles: what to expect
We read 450,000+ planned stops in the United States on Stippl to see how Los Angeles really gets planned.
Two nights is the Los Angeles norm, and the city earns them before the road takes over. Hollywood, Santa Monica and Downtown are twenty to forty minutes apart without traffic and considerably more with it, so the list is short and spread: Griffith Observatory at dusk, the Getty on its hill, Venice Beach's boardwalk and the canals behind it, a studio tour, Koreatown and East LA for the food, and the Pacific Coast Highway north to Malibu. Most travellers give Los Angeles 2 nights on Stippl.
Los Angeles is planned as a leg rather than a destination, and the trips show it. Only 11.0% of Los Angeles trips planned on Stippl carry no other American stop, against nearly half for New York, while the city opens 36.5% of the trips it appears on, which is the western road trip starting at the airport.
Pick the area for the trip you are actually taking, hire the car, and never plan the beach and Downtown into the same afternoon. A beach trip sleeps in Santa Monica or Venice, a nightlife trip in West Hollywood, a museum trip Downtown, and the drive between them costs an hour a day. Skip Los Angeles without a car unless the trip stays on the Hollywood to Downtown to Santa Monica rail line, and skip leaving anything at all in view in a parked car, because the break-in is the one risk a visitor actually meets.
Plan Los Angeles in Stippl
Day-by-day planning, stays and budget in one app, with every place from this guide already on the map.
Download the appWho Los Angeles is for
First-timers to California
Los Angeles is where the trip starts and it earns two or three days before the road does the rest, with the airport as the reason.
Foodies
The best Mexican, Korean and Thai food in the country, at prices well below the restaurant scene's reputation, from a taco truck to Koreatown at midnight.
Beach travellers
A continuous urban coast from Malibu to Long Beach, with lifeguarded swimming most of the year and the Venice boardwalk in the middle of it.
Film-industry fans
Studio tours and the industry itself are here, the one thing no other American city offers, and Griffith's view has the sign on the ridge.
Road-trip starters
Los Angeles opens 36.5% of the trips it appears on, of everyone who plans it on Stippl, which is the western circuit starting at LAX.
Leg-not-destination travellers
Only 11.0% of Los Angeles trips on Stippl carry no other American stop, so two or three nights then the road is the normal shape.
Maybe not for you: anyone unwilling or unable to drive, since the rail reaches one axis of the county; travellers who want a walkable city centre, because there is no centre; and short-stay visitors trying to see it all in two days.
The best time to visit Los Angeles
The dry season
April to October
Seven months with under three rain days each, which is what the city's reputation is built on, with June's morning marine layer over the beaches the one grey note.
The autumn window
September and October
Warm ocean, dry air and thinning crowds, the best combination the calendar offers, and the Santa Ana winds that bring the clearest skies and the fire risk.
The wet season
November to March
Still mild at 20 degrees and genuinely rainy by local standards, the cheapest and quietest half of the year, with the hills green by February.
Fire season
June to November
Not a season to plan around so much as one to watch: smoke and air-quality alerts affect the whole basin, not only the fire area, and a plan can close at short notice.
- Most travellers give Los Angeles 2 nights on Stippl, and 25.6% of stops are a single night. Two covers Hollywood and a beach, three adds Downtown or the Getty, and the road takes the rest.
- Fire season runs roughly June to November and increasingly beyond it. It is the single most disruptive thing that can happen to a Californian itinerary, and the air-quality alerts reach the beaches.
- The Academy Awards close the blocks around the Dolby Theatre for days in late winter. Hollywood Boulevard is fenced for the week, and the hotels nearby price for it.
- Día de los Muertos on 1 and 2 November is marked seriously across East LA and at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. The cemetery's celebration is ticketed and sells out.
- Independence Day fireworks run along the coast and at the Rose Bowl. The beaches are at capacity and the coast road jams from the afternoon.
- The LAX rail link is not finished, whatever the map shows. The Metro transit centre is open, but the people mover into the terminals is not, so the airport arrival still ends in a shuttle or a car.
Add your Los Angeles dates and we'll flag the weather
Stippl shows the season, crowds and prices for every stop on your route.
Describe your trip, get a Los Angeles itinerary in seconds
Everything in this guide is already in Stippl. Tell the planner how long you have and what you like: it builds the route, the days and the travel times, and you edit whatever you want.
Things to do in Los Angeles
Photo by Vera Azevedo via Pexels
Photo by Steve Gribble via UnsplashGriffith Observatory at dusk
Free to enter, with the view running from Downtown to the Pacific and the Hollywood sign on the ridge behind; the car park fills, so the shuttle from the park's foot is the way up.
The Getty
Free admission, a tram up the hill, and a garden and a view that are worth the trip on their own before a painting is looked at; the parking is the only charge.
Venice Beach into the canals
The performers and the skate park on the boardwalk, then five minutes inland to the quiet waterways almost nobody walks to.
A studio tour
Warner Bros or Universal, and the only place a visitor sees the industry the city is named for; the Warner tour is the working lot, Universal the theme park.
Eating across Koreatown or East LA
Korean barbecue at the table in Koreatown, tacos from a truck in Boyle Heights, the part of the city that changes what someone thinks Los Angeles is.
The Pacific Coast Highway to Malibu
An hour of coast road north from Santa Monica, past the surf beaches to the pier at Malibu, and the drive that explains why people live here.
The neighbourhoods of Los Angeles
Santa Monica
A beach with a downtown
The pier, the pedestrian promenade and a bike path running south to Venice, with lifeguarded sand and the most hotels on the coast. For families and a beach trip.
The beach at the door and a walkable centre, at coast prices and an hour's drive from Hollywood.
Hollywood
Film history, on the metro
The Walk of Fame, the Chinese Theatre, the hostels and the one visitor area the subway reaches, with Griffith Park above it. For first visits and cheap central beds.
The metro and the cheap beds, in a boulevard that every visitor finds less than the photographs.
West Hollywood
The Sunset Strip
The densest concentration of music venues, rooftop bars and restaurants in the county, walkable in itself and central to everything else. For nightlife.
The best nights out and a central base, and rideshare home from everywhere.
Venice
The uninhibited boardwalk
Two and a half miles of performers, skaters and muscle beach, plus the quiet canals inland and the cafés of Abbot Kinney, between Santa Monica and the marina. For beach mornings and people-watching.
The boardwalk and the canals, with the beach scene running late and loud at weekends.
Silver Lake
The east side's answer to Brooklyn
Independent coffee, plant-forward kitchens and painted stairways with a view over the reservoir, with Echo Park and Los Feliz next door. For creatives and a longer stay.
A neighbourhood to live in, and a drive to the beach and the studios.
Downtown Arts District
Warehouses turned galleries
Hauser and Wirth in a flour mill, Sunday Smorgasburg, street murals and the breweries, with the museums and Grand Central Market a short ride away. For art and Downtown.
The galleries and the market, and a Downtown that empties at night outside its blocks.
See every Los Angeles neighbourhood on one map
Save the areas you like and Stippl plots your days so you're not crossing the city twice.
Where to stay in Los Angeles
Pick the area for the trip you are actually taking, because the drive between them costs an hour a day: Santa Monica or Venice for the beach, West Hollywood for the nights, Downtown for the museums, and Hollywood for the cheap central beds and the only visitor area with a subway stop. Most travellers give Los Angeles 2 nights on Stippl, and hotel parking is charged separately.
Santa Monica
€200–360
Beach hotels and the coast's mid-range chains, €180 to €400 a double, plus parking.
Hollywood
€130–240
The hostel cluster and mid-range hotels on the boulevard, €90 to €220 a double.
West Hollywood
€180–330
Boutique and design hotels on and off Sunset, €200 to €450 a double.
Venice
Small hotels and apartments behind the boardwalk, €150 to €320 a double.
Silver Lake
€140–250
Apartments and a few guesthouses on the east side, €120 to €250 a double.
Downtown Arts District
Loft hotels and hostels in converted warehouses, €130 to €300 a double.
What to eat in Los Angeles
Corn tortillas, grilled meat, onion and coriander, from a truck
Meat grilled at the table, with banchan
Eggs, potato and salsa in a flour tortilla
Dark, spiced beef broth with rice noodles
Roast beef on a roll dipped in its own jus
Battered or grilled fish, cabbage, crema
Discover food spots in Stippl
Find restaurants and markets on the map, save them to your itinerary, works offline too.
Los Angeles customs and what not to do
Everyone is late
Traffic is the accepted excuse and the accepted subject, and nobody takes an hour's delay personally.
Tipping is the wage
Fifteen to twenty percent in sit-down places, a dollar or two a drink and the valet at the door, exactly as everywhere else in the country.
Spanish is a working language
A third of the county speaks it at home, and using a few words is normal rather than performative.
The industry is a normal job
Treating a working actor or crew member as a spectacle is the local faux pas, and the studio tour is where the looking is allowed.
Beaches close at night
Most county beaches are closed from midnight to sunrise and it is enforced, so the bonfire is in the daytime pits at Dockweiler.
Rideshare after a drink
The drink-driving law is strict and enforcement is routine, so the night out ends in a rideshare rather than the rental car.
Do
- Check the drive time at the hour you plan to travel, not the distance
- Leave nothing visible in a parked car, ever
- Tap a contactless card on Metro rather than buying a paper ticket
- Swim between the lifeguard flags, which mark the safest water rather than the busiest
- Book the Griffith shuttle or arrive before the car park fills
Don't
- Plan the beach and Downtown into the same afternoon
- Leave bags, chargers or anything at all in view in a rental car
- Expect the Hollywood Walk of Fame to be the highlight; it is not
- Drive after drinking; rideshare is cheap and enforcement is not lenient
- Assume the LAX train reaches the terminals yet; it does not
What a Los Angeles trip costs
Budget
€70–105
A hostel bed in Hollywood, Metro on its daily cap, taco trucks and free beaches, the free Getty and Griffith.
Mid-range
€110–190
A hostel or a cheap hotel, a rental car with its parking, eating well in Koreatown, a studio tour.
High-end
€250+
A beach hotel in Santa Monica or a design hotel in West Hollywood, restaurant dinners, a private studio tour.
Track what you actually spend
Set a daily budget per country and log expenses in any currency while you travel.
Fun facts about Los Angeles
Los Angeles sits on the largest urban oil field in the world. It is still producing beneath Beverly Hills, behind screens and inside buildings designed to hide the pumps.
More than 200 languages are spoken across Los Angeles County. About a third of households speak Spanish at home, which is why it is a working language rather than a foreign one.
Griffith Observatory has never charged admission since 1935. The donor's will required it, and the view and the telescope are still free.
The Venice canals were dug in 1905 to sell houses. Abbot Kinney built a Venice of America with gondolas, and six of the canals survive five minutes from the boardwalk.
The Hollywood sign originally read Hollywoodland. It was put up in 1923 to advertise a housing estate, and the last four letters came down in 1949.
Los Angeles has no rail link into its own airport yet. The station is built and the people mover into the terminals is not, so LAX still ends in a shuttle.
Local tips for Los Angeles
Most people need the car
The itineraries that work without one stay on the Hollywood to Downtown to Santa Monica axis, which is where the rail actually goes; anything wider does not.
Metro is cheap and capped
About €1.50 a ride and never more than €4.50 in a day, paid by tapping a contactless card, and it reaches Hollywood, Downtown and the Santa Monica pier.
Parking is a line item
A typical logged parking expense runs about €13 a day, and hotels charge separately for it, sometimes as much as a cheap room elsewhere.
The break-in is the risk
Vehicle theft and break-ins are about a fifth of all crime in the city, and a rental car with luggage in view is the one risk a visitor actually meets.
The ocean is the real danger
Lifeguards perform hundreds of rescues on a hot weekend and rip currents are the mechanism, so swim between the flags, which mark the safest water.
Two nights, then the road
Most travellers give Los Angeles 2 nights on Stippl and only 11.0% of its trips carry no other American stop, so the city is the door to the coast and the desert.
Los Angeles questions, answered
Two or three: most travellers give Los Angeles 2 nights on Stippl and 25.6% of stops are a single night. Three covers Hollywood, Downtown and the beach without rushing, and almost every trip carries another destination after it, because the city is the start of the road.
For a trip that stays on the Hollywood to Downtown to Santa Monica rail line, yes, on Metro for under two euros a ride with a daily cap; anything wider does not. The county is driven, the drive between the beach and Downtown costs an hour, and the rental with its parking is the real cost of the trip.
At the start of the western circuit: Los Angeles opens 36.5% of the trips it appears on and only 11.0% carry no other American stop, of everyone who plans it on Stippl. Put LA first in Stippl with two nights, then the coast road or the desert, and ask people who have driven it, in subreddits like r/roadtrip, which way round.
Not yet all the way. The Metro transit centre by the airport is open, but the people mover into the terminals is not, so the rail journey still ends short and needs a shuttle bus. A rideshare or the FlyAway bus to Union Station is the practical arrival, and the rental car counter is the usual one.
The realistic risk is a break-in to a parked car, which the police department's own figures make the city's signature property crime, so carry nothing you cannot take with you and leave nothing in view. The visitor areas are safe to walk by day, the ocean's rip currents are the underrated hazard, and reported crime has been falling.
As a leg, yes: two or three days of the observatory, the Getty, the boardwalk and the food, then the road. It is not a destination people settle into, and the trips on Stippl say so, with 26.9% of Los Angeles stops running to four nights or more; but the tacos, Koreatown and the coast at dusk are worth the drive between them.
Every guide is written by the Stippl editors and checked against the trips our travellers actually plan. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.
Plan Los Angeles in Stippl
Day-by-day planning, stays and budget in one app, with every place from this guide already on the map.
Download the app