Choose the base first, because in Los Angeles it decides how much of each day is spent in a car. On the coast, Shutters on the Beach is on the sand in Santa Monica, nine minutes' walk from the pier, and Santa Monica Proper is a few blocks inland in the walkable downtown; Venice Beach is 47 minutes' walk down the shore from the pier. Malibu Beach Inn is on Carbon Beach, by Malibu Pier. Inland, The Beverly Hills Hotel stands on Sunset Boulevard, and Sunset Tower is on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood. The Hollywood Roosevelt faces the TCL Chinese Theatre across Hollywood Boulevard. On the Eastside, Silver Lake Pool & Inn is four minutes' walk from Sunset Junction, and Hotel Figueroa is Downtown in South Park, by Crypto.com Arena. In Studio City, The Garland runs a free trolley to Universal Studios Hollywood, and Terranea is a clifftop resort on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, an hour's drive from Malibu.
At LAX, the main airport, app cars and most taxis pick up at LAX-it, a lot east of Terminal 1, reached on foot or by free shuttle from arrivals. Routed from there with the roads clear, Shutters and Santa Monica Proper are 19 minutes by car, The Beverly Hills Hotel and Hotel Figueroa 26, Sunset Tower 27, the Roosevelt 30, Silver Lake Pool & Inn 32, The Garland 34, Terranea 35 and Malibu Beach Inn 38. In the evening rush, the airport's own guide shows the roads into it taking up to nearly four times as long as overnight. Hollywood Burbank Airport is closer to the Valley, Hollywood and the Eastside, and opens a new terminal on 13 October 2026: from the terminal, The Garland is 12 minutes by car, the Roosevelt 17 and Silver Lake Pool & Inn 19.
Most trips are by car or app car, but Metro rail covers part of the map: $1.75 a ride with free transfers for two hours, capped at $5 a day and $18 over seven days, paid by tapping a contactless card or phone. The B Line stops four minutes' walk from the Roosevelt at Hollywood/Highland, 13 from Silver Lake Pool & Inn and 17 from The Garland; the E Line ends at Downtown Santa Monica, 14 minutes from Shutters and from Santa Monica Proper; Hotel Figueroa is nine minutes from 7th Street/Metro Center. From LAX, a free shuttle reaches the K and C Lines. On foot, keep to a base: the Walk of Fame takes 29 minutes end to end along Hollywood Boulevard. No train reaches Malibu or Palos Verdes, so there you need a car.
Rates are quoted before tax, and each city sets its own. The City of Los Angeles charges 14%, plus a 2% tourism district assessment at hotels of 50 rooms or more, and all four of the ten in the city are that size. Beverly Hills charges 14%, Malibu 15%, Santa Monica 15% plus $7.25 a room a night, and West Hollywood 12.5% plus a 4% district assessment. Rancho Palos Verdes charges 10%; Measure RS, on the ballot on 3 November 2026, would make it 13%. Then the hotels' own nightly fees: $75 at Terranea, $60 plus tax at Shutters, $55 plus tax at Santa Monica Proper, $52.43 with tax at Sunset Tower, $37 with tax at the Roosevelt, $35 plus tax at Hotel Figueroa and $38.95 at The Garland, $37.20 of it a fee the hotel ties to the city's hotel worker wage law; allow for a $30 resort fee plus tax at Silver Lake Pool & Inn. Overnight parking runs from $35 plus tax to about $90.
The honest part. Los Angeles is big: Malibu Beach Inn to Terranea is 66 km (41 miles), and every time here is for clear roads. The extras add up, to $150 a night at Terranea with the resort fee and valet. The Pacific is cooler than the sunshine suggests: NOAA's averages for the water at Santa Monica Pier run from 14.7°C (58.4°F) in January to 20.2°C (68.4°F) in August. Late-spring mornings on the coast are often grey, what the National Weather Service calls May Gray and June gloom. Downtown averages 20°C (68°F) by day in January and 28.9°C (84°F) in August, and most of its 362 mm (14.25 inches) of rain falls from December to March.
