2026 Los Angeles Travel Cost Study
Is Los Angeles expensive to visit?
A mid-range trip of 4 nights in Los Angeles costs two people about $1,548 by our calculator, before flights and hotel tax. Change the trip below to see your own total.
Los Angeles trip cost calculator
Choose how many nights, who is going, your style and the month. The hotel line uses the prices we measured for your month and star class. Food and car figures come from published guides. Copy the link to share your budget.
Your trip
$1,548
$774 per person · $194 per person per day
| Hotel | $600 |
|---|---|
| Eating out | $656 |
| Activities | $201 |
| Car hire | $0 |
| Metro fares | $40 |
| FlyAway bus | $51 |
| Hotel tax | 0not counted |
Short answer It can be, and the hotel decides most of it. Two people on a mid-range trip of 4 nights spend about $1,548 in total by our calculator. That works out at $194 each per day. A budget trip comes to about $996 ($125 each per day). A comfort trip comes to about $4,378 ($547 each per day). Hotels and eating out are most of the bill. A 4-star hotel night had a median of $119 for November 2026 and $160 for July 2027. Flights, hotel tax and a rental car are extra.
How to spend less in Los Angeles
- Look at November first. It was the cheapest month we sampled: a 4-star room was advertised at a median $119 a night for November 2026, against $160 for July 2027. Rooms further ahead were also advertised higher, so part of this gap may be timing, not season.
- Book a 3-star hotel. A 3-star night had a median of $116 per room, against $150 for a 4-star night. Hotels in Hollywood were among the cheaper ones Google listed. See where to stay in Los Angeles for areas and hotels.
- In a 3-star hotel, stay Tuesday rather than Saturday. The same 3-star hotel cost a median 14% more on a Saturday than on the Tuesday of that week (93 hotel pairs over 11 weekends). For 4-star hotels the gap was 6.9%, for 5-star 1.1%.
- Tap a TAP card on Metro. A ride costs $1.75, and LA Metro caps what each rider pays at $5 a day when you tap. By our sum, you reach the cap on ride number 3, so later rides that day cost nothing. For a week, the 7-day cap is $18. Cash fares have no cap.
- Rent a car only for the days you need it. Rental sites put the average day at $23 to $97. One way to save: use Metro on city days and rent a car only for the beach or a day trip.
- Mix paid days with free museums and views. The Getty Center art museum, Griffith Observatory, the beaches and Universal CityWalk Hollywood have no entry fee, though parking and shows can cost extra (Getty Center parking is $25 per car). A guided Hollywood Sign hike starts at $30 per person.
This study leaves flights out. What you pay to fly depends on your home airport and your dates.
What a trip to Los Angeles costs for two
Two people on a mid-range trip spend about $1,224 over 3 nights, about $1,548 over 4 nights, and about $1,872 over 5 nights. That is before flights, hotel tax and a car. Each person should budget about $936 for 5 nights.
Here is the same 4-night trip in three styles, at the median across the 11 months we read (October 2026 to August 2027). It counts the hotel, 2 meals out per person a day and 2 activities. It also counts Metro at the daily cap and the FlyAway bus both ways. It has no car and no hotel tax. The 5-star line uses an extra Google Hotels search filtered to 5-star hotels (27 hotels), because the main list showed too few.
| Style | Hotel | Eating out | Activities | Metro and airport bus (no tax) | Total | Per person per day |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Budget 3-star hotel, cheap meals | $464 | $240 | $201 | $91 | $996 | $125 |
| Mid-range Our default 4-star hotel, mid-range meals | $600 | $656 | $201 | $91 | $1,548 | $194 |
| Comfort 5-star hotel, one fine dinner a day | $2,558 | $1,528 | $201 | $91 | $4,378 | $547 |
By length of stay (mid-range, two people)
Hotel prices in Los Angeles by month
A hotel night in Los Angeles had a median price of $116 (3-star), $150 (4-star) or $640 (5-star) per room for 2 adults. For a 4-star room, November 2026 was the cheapest of the 10 months we ranked ($119), and July 2027 the priciest ($160).
We read 2,247 prices from 332 hotels on Google Hotels on 22 October 2026. We took one Tuesday and one Saturday night each month, from October 2026 to August 2027, for 2 adults in one room. Across every hotel in the main search, the median night was $105 (1,660 prices). That figure includes one- and two-star hotels and hotels with no rating. The middle half of 4-star nights cost $123 to $188.
By month and star class
Google shows a different set of hotels for each date. Comparing within one star class reduces that effect, but does not remove it, so treat small gaps as noise. July 2027 had the highest 4-star median ($160), with April 2027 ($157) and August 2027 ($157) close behind. October 2026 was read just days ahead, so it is shown but not ranked. These are the prices advertised on one day, not a forecast: they can change before you book.
| Month | 3-star | 4-star | 5-star |
|---|---|---|---|
| October 2026 read 5 days ahead, not ranked | $104 | $189 | $684 |
| November 2026 | $93 | $119 | $500 |
| December 2026 | $82 | $134 | $535 |
| January 2027 | $112 | $130 | $528 |
| February 2027 | $121 | $139 | $686 |
| March 2027 | $118 | $156 | $622 |
| April 2027 | $121 | $157 | $737 |
| May 2027 | $136 | $146 | $719 |
| June 2027 | $135 | $154 | $657 |
| July 2027 | $142 | $160 | $659 |
| August 2027 | $153 | $157 | $675 |
Medians per room per night for 2 adults, as advertised on Google Hotels on 22 October 2026. Star classes are Google's. The star-class prices also use an extra search filtered to that class, because Google's main list showed very few 5-star hotels. Each 3-star month rests on 23 to 34 prices, each 4-star month on 21 to 75, and each 5-star month on 46 to 54 from 27 hotels. Google showed no prices yet for the month after August 2027, so the table ends there.
Weekends
We set each hotel's Saturday price against its own price on the Tuesday of that week, over 11 weekends. A 3-star hotel cost a median 14% more on the Saturday (93 pairs). A 4-star hotel cost 6.9% more (79 pairs). For 5-star hotels the gap was small: 1.1%. The gap changed a lot from month to month, and some weekends had events such as Halloween.
By area: where Google's list was cheaper
In our sample, hotels in Koreatown and Hollywood had the lowest median nights ($60 and $97 per room), and Santa Monica and Venice the highest ($250). Downtown Los Angeles came in at $151, often in 4-star hotels.
| Area | Median night | Prices · hotels |
|---|---|---|
| Koreatown | $60 | 83 · 8 |
| Hollywood | $97 | 165 · 29 |
| Near LAX airport | $121 | 223 · 27 |
| Downtown Los Angeles | $151 | 185 · 30 |
| Santa Monica and Venice | $250 | 125 · 19 |
All hotels in Google's main list for each area, across the 10 ranked months, per room per night for 2 adults. Each area has its own mix of hotels, many with no star rating, so this shows where the listed hotels were cheaper, not that the same room costs less there. Beverly Hills, West Hollywood and Universal City had too few hotels in the main list to compare.
Hotels we checked
- Loews Hollywood Hotel Hollywood
A large hotel with a rooftop pool, right next to the Dolby Theatre and the TCL Chinese Theatre.
- Omni Los Angeles Hotel Downtown Los Angeles (DTLA)
A large hotel on Bunker Hill with a heated outdoor pool, right next to the Museum of Contemporary Art.
- Huntley Santa Monica Beach Santa Monica & Venice
A modern hotel with a rooftop restaurant, less than a 5-minute walk from the Third Street Promenade and the beach path.
- Beverly Wilshire, Beverly Hills, A Four Seasons Hotel Beverly Hills & West Hollywood
A luxury hotel across the street from Rodeo Drive, with a Mediterranean-style pool.
We picked these among hotels rated 8 or more on Booking.com. We have no price data for them. On a budget, a 3-star hotel near a Metro station can let you skip the car on city days (check the Metro map before you book). More areas: where to stay in Los Angeles.
Booking.com ratings as shown on 22 October 2026.
How much eating out costs in Los Angeles
A cheap meal in Los Angeles costs about $15 per person, a mid-range restaurant meal about $41 and fine dining about $150, according to published guides.
These figures come from food guides and restaurant sites, not from our own measurement. Each is quoted word for word below. The sources do not say if tax and tip are included. In US restaurants, sales tax and a tip usually come on top of menu prices.
| Meal | Used in the calculator | Published figures |
|---|---|---|
| Cheap meal street food, food halls and casual counters | about $15 median of 3 sources |
|
| Mid-range restaurant a main course or a full meal, per person | about $41 median of 3 sources |
|
| Fine dining tasting menus and special-occasion meals, per person | about $150 median of 3 sources |
|
Drinks
A beer at a bar costs about $8.71 in Los Angeles, and a regular coffee about $4.65, according to published prices.
| Drink | Middle figure | Published figures |
|---|---|---|
| Beer a pint or a domestic beer at a bar | about $8.71 |
|
| Coffee a regular coffee at a café | about $4.65 |
|
Food halls such as Grand Central Market in Downtown Los Angeles have many counters in one place. To taste several spots with a guide, see our Los Angeles food tours.
What activities cost in Los Angeles
Tours and tickets in Los Angeles cost from about $21 (Getty Center tours) to $244 (helicopter tours) per person, as the median from-price of each type. A Universal Studios Hollywood ticket had a median of $143, and the WB Studio Tour Hollywood $88. These are our own figures: the from-price of every tour and ticket listed on our pages, as GetYourGuide showed it on 22 October 2026. Types with only two or three tours are a rough guide. The calculator offers the most-booked tour of each page, so its price can differ from the type's median. A group tour is charged once per group.
| Type | Median |
|---|---|
| Universal Studios Hollywood tickets | $143 $89–$217 |
| Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood | $88 $70–$91 |
| Hollywood Sign hike and viewpoints | $55 $31–$79 |
| Griffith Observatory and Griffith Park | $42 $38–$46 |
| Santa Monica and Venice Beach | $65 $48–$73 |
| Catalina Island day trip from Los Angeles | $243 $42–$444 |
| Hollywood and Beverly Hills tours, with celebrity homes | $35 $28–$54 |
| Downtown Los Angeles: Little Tokyo, Grand Central Market and the Arts District | $39 $34–$40 |
| Hollywood Walk of Fame and Hollywood Boulevard | $25 $23–$29 |
| Los Angeles city tours and hop-on hop-off buses | $60 $52–$80 |
| Whale watching from Los Angeles | $55 $40–$70 |
| Getty Center and Getty Villa tours | $21 $7.12–$35 |
| Malibu beaches and day trip | $35 $28–$88 |
| La Brea Tar Pits, LACMA and Museum Row | $48 $37–$120 |
| Petersen Automotive Museum tickets | $32 $19.58–$45 |
| Los Angeles helicopter tours | $244 $168–$311 |
| Horseback riding in Los Angeles | $89 $67–$111 |
| Los Angeles sightseeing passes | $150 $84–$217 |
| SoFi Stadium and Intuit Dome tours | $49 $44–$53 |
| Long Beach: Battleship Iowa, Aquarium and harbor | $40 $27–$45 |
| Day trips from Los Angeles | $42 $35–$88 |
| Los Angeles food tours | $86 $77–$96 |
| Surf lessons in Los Angeles | $89 $63–$118 |
| Boat tours and harbor cruises in Los Angeles | $93 $29–$105 |
| Bike and e-bike tours in Los Angeles | $78 $34–$96 |
| Los Angeles ghost tours | $29 $25–$45 |
Middle half: the 25th to 75th percentile of from-prices. Prices and ratings as shown on GetYourGuide on 22 October 2026.
- Universal Studios Hollywood: Halloween Horror Nights from $79 per person
- Los Angeles: Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood from $70 per person
- Los Angeles: Hollywood Sign Hike (Front & Back Access) from $30 per person
- Los Angeles: Hollywood Night Tour with Griffith Observatory from $44 per person
- LA: Santa Monica & Venice Beach Guided Bike or eBike Tour from $68 per person
- Newport Beach: Ferry Ticket to/from Catalina Island from $42 per person
How much a rental car costs in Los Angeles
Rental sites put the average day of car hire in Los Angeles at $23 to $97, with $59 in the middle.
These figures come from rental sites, not from our own measurement. They differ a lot, because each site averages different cars, dates and pickup points. The calculator uses the low figure for budget trips, the middle one for mid-range and the high one for comfort.
- $59 a day:
costing $59/day on average
kayak.com - $23 a day:
The average price to rent a car in Los Angeles is $23/day
momondo.com - $48 a day:
Based on the average daily cost of $48
booking.com - $65 a day:
On average, car rentals in Los Angeles cost around USD $65 per day
roadgenius.com.au - $97 a day:
average daily price of $97
skyscanner.com
Advertised minimums, not typical prices: from $11 a day (expedia.com) · from $9 a day (kayak.com).
LA is spread out, and many visitors drive for at least part of the trip. Fuel, insurance extras and parking come on top: the Getty Center, for example, charges $25 per car (getty.edu, read 22 October 2026), and hotels often charge for parking too. The calculator starts with no car days, so move the car slider to add them.
Hotel tax, Metro fares and the airport bus
The City of Los Angeles says: “the current TOT tax rate in the City of Los Angeles is 14%” (TOT: transient occupancy tax, the city's hotel tax). Santa Monica, Pasadena, Burbank and other cities set their own rates. We could not tell if the Google Hotels prices we read already include it, so check the final price before you pay. Resort and parking fees are not in our totals either.
Key findings of the 2026 Los Angeles Travel Cost Study
- For stays advertised on Google Hotels on 22 October 2026, a 4-star night in Los Angeles cost a median $160 in July 2027 against $119 in November 2026, 34% more (per room per night, 2 adults; one Tuesday and one Saturday per month, 10 months ranked up to August 2027, each read once).
- For 3-star hotels the advertised monthly median ran from $82 per room per night (December 2026) to $153 (August 2027), 2 adults; with 23 to 34 prices a month, single months move a lot.
- The 27 five-star hotels priced in our sample were advertised at a median $640 per room per night for 2 adults across 22 nights from October 2026 to August 2027, against $150 for a 4-star night (each class from a search filtered to it where Google's main list held too few).
- Over 11 pairs of a Tuesday and the Saturday after it, the same 3-star hotel cost a median 14% more on the Saturday (93 hotel pairs, per room per night); the premium varied widely from month to month, and for 5-star hotels it was 1.1%.
- Published guides put a cheap meal in Los Angeles at about $15 per person, a mid-range restaurant meal at about $41 and a fine-dining menu at about $150 per person (medians of a small set of cited sources, not our measurement).
- On Metro you pay for at most 3 rides of $1.75 a day when you tap to ride, never more than $5 a day (cash fares are not capped), and the FlyAway bus from LAX to Union Station costs $12.75 one way per person (official fares).
Source: 2026 Los Angeles Travel Cost Study, things-to-do-in-los-angeles.com (CC BY 4.0)
Free to reuse under CC BY 4.0: download the data · embed the chart
Method, data and reuse
What we measured ourselves
- Hotels: 2,247 prices of 332 hotels on Google Hotels, read on 22 October 2026. One Tuesday and one Saturday night per month, October 2026 to August 2027, 2 adults, one room; paid ads, listings without a price and duplicates left out. These are the prices advertised for those dates when we read them, not what guests later paid. Months are compared within a star class because Google shows a different set of hotels for each date. October 2026 was read at short notice; both are shown but not ranked. Star classes: Google's default hotel list for Los Angeles holds about 1-3 five-star hotels per night, too few to compare months within the 5-star class (and 16 four-star prices for October 2026); so we added one extra Google Hotels search per night filtered to the star class (5-star for every night, 4-star for 27 October 2026), same dates, 2 adults, one room; hotels already in the main search for that date are not counted twice (587 of the 2,247 prices). These count for the star-class figures only; the all-hotel figures and month sample sizes use the main search alone: the all-hotel median rests on 1,660 prices. 2027-09 is not in the sample: the Saturday 18 September 2027 was beyond the dates Google Hotels prices yet (80 hotels listed, none with a price, read twice), so September 2027 has no weekend night; rows kept in raw/hotels-2027-09-not-used.csv.
- Activities: the "from" prices of the 124 tours and tickets on our 26 activity pages (the table above), as shown on GetYourGuide on 22 October 2026; the calculator offers 12 of them, the most-booked one per page.
What we cite
- Meals, drinks and car hire: figures published by travel guides, food-tour companies and rental platforms, found in Google results in the United States and quoted word for word with their date. A range counts with its midpoint, each source once per group. No figures from forums or social media, and none whose page shows a date in 2022 or earlier; many pages show no date at all.
- Tourist tax, fares: the City of Los Angeles, LA Metro.
How the calculator adds up
- Our default trip: 4 nights, 2 people in one room, mid-range, at the median across all months we read. It includes Los Angeles: Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood and Los Angeles: Hollywood Sign Hike (Front & Back Access) at their from-prices, and no car. Meals and Metro count once per night. Drinks, tips, sales tax, resort fees and parking are not counted.
- Hotel: nights × rooms (one per two travellers) × the median for the style's star class in that month (or the whole year).
- Eating out: nights × travellers × meals a day at the style's meal price; in comfort, one fine dinner a day and the other meals at mid-range prices.
- Car: days × the style's daily price. Activities: the from-price per person or per group.
- Hotel tax: not counted. It is a share of the room rate that differs by city, and we do not know if the prices we read include it.
- Transport: nights × travellers × the Metro daily fare cap, per rider. Fewer rides cost less. On stays of a week or more, the 7-day cap ($18) makes Metro cheaper than the calculator shows. Airport: the FlyAway bus between LAX and Union Station, once each way per traveller. The trip from Union Station to your hotel is not counted. Rooms: one per two travellers.
Each line is rounded to whole dollars.
Plan your Los Angeles trip
Los Angeles travel costs: questions
How much does a trip to Los Angeles, California cost?
A mid-range trip of 4 nights for two costs about $1,548, before flights, hotel tax and a car. That covers a 4-star hotel, two meals out per person a day, 2 activities, Metro and the FlyAway bus. On a budget it is about $996, in comfort about $4,378. Work out your own trip.
Is Los Angeles expensive to visit?
It can be, and your hotel decides most of it. A 4-star hotel night had a median of $150 per room in our study, a mid-range restaurant meal costs about $41 per person, and published car rental averages run from $23 to $97 a day. A 3-star hotel, free sights and a Tuesday night instead of a Saturday all bring it down.
How much money do I need per day in Los Angeles?
Plan on about $194 per person per day at mid-range, sharing a room for two. On a budget it is about $125, in comfort about $547. A rental car adds $23 to $97 a day, and flights and hotel tax are extra.
Where to stay in Los Angeles on a budget?
In our sample, the hotels Google listed in Koreatown and Hollywood had the lowest median nights ($60 and $97 per room), and Santa Monica and Venice the highest ($250). A 3-star hotel had a median of $116 a night, against $150 for 4-star. A Tuesday night was often cheaper than a Saturday. See prices by area or where to stay in Los Angeles.
What is the cheapest month to visit Los Angeles?
In our sample, November 2026 had the lowest 4-star median ($119 a night) and July 2027 the highest ($160). At 3-star level, December 2026 was lowest ($82) and August 2027 highest ($153). We read all months on one day, and rooms further ahead were advertised higher, so part of the gap may be timing.
How much is a rental car in Los Angeles per day?
Published average prices run from $23 to $97 a day, with $59 in the middle. Fuel, parking and insurance extras come on top, so compare car prices for your dates at LAX.
Is the hotel tax included in Los Angeles hotel prices?
We could not tell whether the prices we read include it, so check the final price before you pay. The City of Los Angeles says: “the current TOT tax rate in the City of Los Angeles is 14%”. Other cities, such as Santa Monica or Pasadena, set their own rates. Our totals leave the tax out.
How much does parking cost in Los Angeles?
It depends on where you park, and we did not measure hotel parking, so it is not in our totals. As one official example, the Getty Center charges $25 per car, though the museum itself is free. Many hotels also charge for parking, so check before you book if you rent a car.
How much is the Metro in Los Angeles?
A ride costs $1.75. When you tap a TAP card, you never pay more than $5 a day or $18 in seven days, so there is no pass to buy: the cap works like one. Cash fares have no cap. The FlyAway bus from LAX to Union Station costs $12.75 one way per person.
Sources
Meal and drink prices (cited)
All read 22 October 2026
Car hire prices (cited)
All read 22 October 2026
Official sources
All read 22 October 2026
- Hotel tax rate (City of Los Angeles): finance.lacity.gov
- Metro daily fare cap: metro.net
- FlyAway bus, LAX to Union Station: lawa.org
- Getty Center parking: getty.edu