Los Angeles before you book: the practical facts we checked

LAX has eight terminals in use: Terminals 1 to 4 and 6 to 8, and the Tom Bradley International Terminal, also called Terminal B. Terminal 5 closed on 28 October 2025 to be rebuilt, with reopening planned just before the 2028 Games. App cars and most taxis pick up at LAX-it, the lot east of Terminal 1: walk there, or take the free green LAX-it shuttle from the inner kerb of the arrivals level. The times below are routed by car from LAX-it with the roads clear. At rush hour allow far more: the airport's own traffic guide shows the roads into it taking up to nearly four times as long in the evening as overnight.

SkyLink, the airport's people-mover train, had not opened by October 2026, and the airport gives no opening date. Until it runs, free LAX Shuttle buses leave every 10 minutes from the pink signs on the arrivals level for the LAX/Metro Transit Center, where the K Line runs north to Expo/Crenshaw for the E Line to Downtown and Santa Monica. One $1.75 fare covers the trains and any change within two hours. FlyAway buses, $12.75 one way, leave from the blue FlyAway signs outside each terminal for Union Station and Van Nuys.

Hollywood Burbank Airport is closer to the Valley, Hollywood and the Eastside. Its new 14-gate terminal opens on 13 October 2026; from the terminal, The Garland is 12 minutes by car, the Roosevelt 17, Silver Lake Pool & Inn 19, Sunset Tower 22 and Hotel Figueroa 24.

For most trips, a car or an app car. Parking is charged at all ten, and at most of them it is by valet, from $35 plus tax a day at Silver Lake Pool & Inn to $90.27 with tax at Santa Monica Proper. The Beverly Hills Hotel charges $70 a day, and The Garland has self-parking from $50 plus tax.

Metro rail is useful for six of the ten. A ride is $1.75, transfers are free for two hours and fares are capped at $5 a day and $18 over seven days. Tap a contactless bank card or phone at the gate, or load a $2 TAP card: the trains take no cash. The B Line stops at Hollywood/Highland, four minutes' walk from the Roosevelt, Vermont/Santa Monica, 13 from Silver Lake Pool & Inn, and Universal City/Studio City, 17 from The Garland, whose free trolley will also drop you there on request. The E Line ends at Downtown Santa Monica, 14 minutes on foot from Shutters and from Santa Monica Proper, and Hotel Figueroa is nine minutes from 7th Street/Metro Center. Sunset Tower is 48 minutes' walk from the nearest station, Hollywood/Highland, and The Beverly Hills Hotel 58 from Wilshire/La Cienega on the D Line.

On foot, keep to a base: Santa Monica Pier to the Venice boardwalk is 47 minutes, the top of Rodeo Drive to The Beverly Hills Hotel 22, and the Walk of Fame along Hollywood Boulevard 29. No train reaches Malibu Beach Inn or Terranea, so there you need a car.

Room rates are quoted before tax, and the tax is set by the city the hotel stands in. The City of Los Angeles charges a 14% transient occupancy tax, and hotels of 50 rooms or more add a 2% tourism marketing district assessment: the Roosevelt, The Garland, Silver Lake Pool & Inn and Hotel Figueroa are all in the city and all that size. Beverly Hills charges 14% and Malibu 15%. Santa Monica charges 15% plus a tourism district assessment set each year by room rate, $7.25 a room a night in 2026 at hotels averaging over $300. West Hollywood charges 12.5% plus a tourism district assessment that rose from 3% to 4% in 2026. Rancho Palos Verdes charges 10%; Measure RS, on its ballot on 3 November 2026, would raise that to 13%.

Then each hotel's own nightly fee, per room. Since 12 May 2025 a Federal Trade Commission rule has required hotels to show a total price that includes mandatory fees like these, with taxes allowed to come at the end, and California's law has required the same since 1 July 2024. The Garland's $37.20 hotel worker protection fee, which it ties to the city's hotel worker minimum wage, is set by the hotel, not a tax. The Beverly Hills Hotel and Malibu Beach Inn charge no nightly fee; at Silver Lake Pool & Inn, allow for a $30 nightly resort fee plus tax and check the total before paying.

By NOAA's 1991 to 2020 averages for Downtown Los Angeles, January is 20°C (68°F) by day and 9.4°C (48.9°F) at night, and August, the warmest month, 28.9°C (84°F) by day and 18.6°C (65.4°F) at night; at LAX, on the coast, August days average 24.8°C (76.7°F). Rain is a winter matter: 362 mm (14.25 inches) in an average year Downtown, most of it from December to March, with February the wettest month at 92 mm (3.64 inches). On late-spring mornings the coast is often under low cloud, what the National Weather Service's Los Angeles office calls May Gray and June gloom.

The Pacific stays cool. NOAA's monthly 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, and stay below 16°C (61°F) from December to April.

Prices follow the calendar. Awards season runs from the Golden Globes on 10 January 2027 to the Oscars at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on 14 March, with the Grammys at Crypto.com Arena on 7 February, the Super Bowl at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood on 14 February and Frieze Los Angeles at Santa Monica Airport from 25 to 28 February. Summer and Christmas cost more again. The Garland's flexible rate for its entry room is $275 on a Tuesday in early December, $289 in late January, $359 in July and August and $399 between Christmas and New Year, so early December and January outside the event weeks are the cheaper stretches.

Prices are in US dollars and shown before sales tax, which is added at the till. Since 1 October 2026, when Los Angeles County's Measure ER added half a point, the rate has been 10.25% in the City of Los Angeles, Beverly Hills and Rancho Palos Verdes, 10.75% in Malibu, 11% in West Hollywood and 11.25% in Santa Monica. Metro's gates and buses take a contactless card or phone, and cash works only on buses.

Tips are expected and are not included. Brand USA, which runs the official Visit The USA site, suggests 15 to 20% for a sit-down meal and 10% at a buffet, $1 a drink or 15 to 20% of a bar tab, 10 to 18% of a taxi fare, $1 to $2 a bag for bell staff, $2 to $5 a night for housekeeping and $3 to $5 for the valet who brings the car back.

Read the bill first. California's honest pricing law, in force since 1 July 2024, requires most businesses to show prices that include every mandatory fee except government taxes, but restaurants and bars may still add a mandatory charge as long as it is shown clearly wherever their prices are shown. Some do: the Carbon Beach Club at Malibu Beach Inn adds an automatic 18% service charge, and some restaurants add one for groups of six or more. Check what the bill already includes before adding a tip of your own.

Visitors from the 42 Visa Waiver Program countries, the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain among them, need an approved ESTA, the Electronic System for Travel Authorization, before they board, for stays of up to 90 days, and an e-passport, the kind with a chip. Every traveller needs one, children included. Apply at esta.cbp.dhs.gov, the official site; other sites charge a fee of their own for submitting the same form.

From 16 October 2026 the fee is $40.62 an application. If the application is refused, only the $10.62 processing charge is kept. Customs and Border Protection asks travellers to apply as soon as the trip is planned, and no later than 72 hours before departure.

An approved ESTA lasts two years, or until the passport expires if that is sooner, and covers any number of trips in that time, each limited to 90 days. A new passport, name or nationality means a new application. A refusal means applying for a visa instead, which in most cases involves an interview at a US embassy or consulate, so hold off on a non-refundable rate until the ESTA is approved.

The changes since the start of 2025, in date order.

On 7 January 2025 the Palisades Fire began, and Pacific Coast Highway closed between Pacific Palisades and Malibu for months. It reopened to the public on 23 May 2025; in September 2026 Sunset Boulevard to Carbon Beach Terrace was still a 25 mph work zone, with lane closures on weekdays. Malibu Beach Inn was not damaged.

On 6 June 2025 the LAX/Metro Transit Center opened on the K and C Lines.

On 30 September 2025 the ESTA fee went from $21 to $40, in January 2026 to $40.27 and on 16 October 2026 to $40.62.

On 28 October 2025 LAX's Terminal 5 closed to be rebuilt for the 2028 Games.

In March 2026 the LAX Rental Car Center opened to all on-airport brands.

On 1 April 2026 West Hollywood's tourism district assessment rose from 3% to 4%.

On 8 May 2026 the D Line reached Wilshire/La Cienega.

On 1 July 2026 the City of Los Angeles's minimum wage at hotels of 60 rooms or more rose to $25 an hour plus $4.25 for health care, and The Garland added a $37.20 nightly fee.

On 14 August 2026 Hotel Figueroa turned 100.

On 1 October 2026 sales tax across Los Angeles County rose by half a point.

On 13 October 2026 Hollywood Burbank Airport's new terminal opens. In November 2026 Malibu's new speed cameras on Pacific Coast Highway, which catch cars 11 mph or more over the limit, begin their warning period, and on 3 November Rancho Palos Verdes votes on Measure RS.