Transportation Tips

Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) is approximately 50 minutes from Downtown. An Uber ride downtown will cost you around $100. If you want to save as much as possible, we recommend using FlyAway. FlyAway is a bus service that takes you from LAX Airport to Union Station and vice versa. The bus runs every half hour and runs through various terminals and gates. It costs $9.75 dollars and the tickets are valid for 30 days from the date of purchase. It’s a great way to save. Here is the link to your page.

Getting Around

Los Angeles is a huge city and if you want to visit different places on your trip, you better rent a car or use its extensive public transportation network (buses and subway). If you bet on walking, you will surely get very tired and paying a taxi will be expensive in the long run. The Los Angeles subway network covers a large part of the city and in it, you can reach Santa Monica, Universal Studios Hollywood, the Griffith Observatory area, Downtown, Chinatown and more. Here you can see the subway map.

Safety Concerns

Although the subway is quite useful for getting around Los Angeles, you have to know that there are many homeless people who roam or sleep in the stations and carriages. Many of them are drugged and some suffer from mental illness, so they have strange behaviors and yell at the passengers. If you don’t mess with them, surely nothing will happen, but it is always better to keep your precautions. The case of the homeless has become a major crisis for the city of Los Angeles. According to a year-long count by RAND Corp, the homeless population in Hollywood, Skid Row, and Venice has increased by an average of 18%. “LAHSA’s 2022 count revealed 41,980 homeless people in the city of Los Angeles,” says ABC7. You will find yourself homeless almost everywhere, and especially in Downtown.

Itinerary and Attractions

Since Los Angeles is a very large city, we recommend organizing your itinerary by geographical area. For example, dedicate the first day to Downtown, the second to Beverly Hills, the third to Universal Studios Hollywood, the fourth to Hollywood and the Griffith Observatory, and the fifth to Santa Monica and Venice Beach. If you want to go to Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, and Downtown in one day, you will lose time in transfers, and it will be very tiring. Some of the best attractions in Los Angeles are free. Griffith Observatory and The Broad Museum of Art require a time reservation. Santa Monica and Venice Beach are free access beaches. You can also tour the Walk of Fame and Beverly Hills for free.

Food and Entertainment

Los Angeles has great restaurants and markets to try international food, but if you want to save on food costs, it is best to go to a supermarket on the first day and buy food and water that you can consume before you go out and on your tours. Buy bottled water, energy bars, bread, fruit, yogurt, and meat that you can easily prepare. The Walk of Fame is very frequented by tourists, and for this reason, there are traps, such as costumed characters who come up for you to take a picture with them and then charge you money or tours to see celebrity homes where you rarely see anything else than its great fences. Be careful with this and, another thing: the Walk of Fame can be disappointing if you don’t like movies. The area is neglected.