The price for a trip to Los Angeles: expenses to plan for
Are you planning to leave soon for a stay in Los Angeles, but you don't really know yet what the price of a trip to Los Angeles is? To help you prepare for this trip, I suggest you take a look at all the different expenses to plan for during your stay. You will also find some tips for saving money and all the useful information to plan your travel budget for Los Angeles
On the agenda of this article
- Travel budget for Los Angeles: the different expenses
- The price of plane tickets to Los Angeles
- How to save on the price of your plane tickets to Los Angeles?
- The price of accommodation in Los Angeles
- Stay in an apartment or hostel
- The price of activities and leisure in Los Angeles
- Save money with CityPasses
- Los Angeles: Go City Pass All-Inclusive
- Los Angeles: Go City Explorer Pass
- The price of meals in Los Angeles
- The price of travel in Los Angeles
- Car rental in Los Angeles
- The Big Bus tourist bus
- The overall budget for a trip to Los Angeles
Travel budget for Los Angeles: the different expenses
In California and especially in Los Angeles, life is expensive. On average, the cost of living is almost 40% higher than in France. This is why it is important to know as best as possible what to expect in order to plan an adequate travel budget. The first thing to do to make a good estimate of your budget is to take into account all the elements that will impact your budget during your stay in Los Angeles.
The price of plane tickets of course occupies a far from negligible place in a travel budget. The prices vary greatly depending on the airline, the airport of departure and arrival, and especially the time of year in which you will be traveling.
The price of accommodation in Los Angeles represents the second major point of expenditure. A large number of options are available in the city, and the budget to devote will obviously be very different depending on the type of establishment chosen (youth hostel, star hotel, apartment, luxury hotel, etc.), but also depending on the location.
The cost of travel is also not to be neglected. Los Angeles is a very large city, and it's a safe bet that during your stay, you will also want to leave the city and discover other Californian sites. Whatever the means of transport chosen (bus, metro, taxi, car rental, etc.), all these trips will necessarily represent a cost that must be included in the estimate of your travel budget.
The price of meals is also to be taken into account. Here too, you will see that the prices are much higher than in France, even if solutions remain accessible to save some money. Fast Food, Mexican restaurants, fusion cuisine, gourmet restaurants... the options are many and varied, and the budget to be expected will of course be very different depending on your desires
The price of activities and visits to Los Angeles can also represent a good part of your budget. If it is possible to make many discoveries for free or almost, conversely, some activities are very expensive. The amount of money needed to practice activities and discover many attractions during a stay in Los Angeles is therefore very dependent on the desires of each traveler.
The price of plane tickets to Los Angeles
As is often the case when traveling, and even more so when planning to leave almost 10,000 km away, the price of plane tickets represents a heavy expense.
The average price of a flight to Los Angeles ultimately varies relatively little throughout the year. If you do your research early enough, you can easily find Paris Los Angeles return tickets for $550to $600 If you plan to leave in July or August, you will have to plan for 750 $ to 850 $ instead.
These rates are of course variable depending on the companies chosen and the booking period.
How to save on the price of your plane tickets to Los Angeles?
By adopting several good reflexes, you can often make great savings on the price of your plane ticket:
Book your tickets well in advance. For all flights, the first tickets sold are almost always the cheapest. If you wait too long, the price will be higher and for flights booked at the last minute, the price will be even less attractive. It may happen that last minute tickets are sold at very interesting prices, but it is only when free places are still available, which is very far from always being the case. It is therefore much more reasonable to buy your tickets well before your departure (usually 6 to 12 weeks in advance)
Be flexible on your dates of stay. If you don't know when to go to Los Angeles and you can afford to choose when to go, you can save a lot of money by going outside of peak periods. This is all the more interesting in Los Angeles, where the climate is favorable for travel throughout the year. The very high tourist season extends from June to September, and the low season is in November and from January to March. July and August are the 2 months to really avoid if you want to pay less for your plane tickets.
Go during the week. Flight prices are almost always higher on Fridays and weekends.
Use a flight comparator in private browsing and with a VPN. The sites that compare the prices of the different airlines are very practical, but they often adjust their prices in real time according to the searches previously carried out on the Internet, but also according to the country from which their searches are made. By clearing your browser cookies and using private browsing, you prevent these sites from tracking your previous searches. Thanks to a VPN, you can even geolocate yourself in another country. These 2 measures, which can be implemented in a few minutes, can sometimes allow you to make very big savings on the price of your plane tickets, and this applies to all destinations!
Be flexible about your departure airport. It is often from Paris that flights to Los Angeles airport (LAX) are the cheapest, but sometimes it is more interesting to depart from Lyon, Marseille, Nice, Toulouse or Brussels.
The price of accommodation in Los Angeles
It is impossible to plan a travel budget with any precision without having a fairly precise idea of the type of accommodation you are looking for. As with airfare, hotel rooms and accommodation are cheaper during the low tourist season, and booking as early as possible will always be a good idea. If you are looking for where to sleep in Los Angeles, the Booking.com platform will allow you to compare offers and check traveler reviews. It is only by making your reservation at least 4 to 5 weeks in advance (and sometimes even much more) that you will be able to have room in the establishments which offer the rooms at the best value for money.
With an average budget, you can get by by planning 150 $ per night, for a room for two people or a small apartment rather well located. If you are ready to sacrifice a little of your comfort and privacy, you can save money on your accommodation budget by spending your nights in a youth hostel.
Rates vary greatly depending on the neighborhood, in some very upscale areas like Beverly Hills or Malibu, you will have a hard time finding suitable accommodation for less than $213 a night. In other trendy and lively neighborhoods such as Venice Beach, Santa Monica or even Hollywood, it is however possible to find more accessible accommodation, sometimes even for less than 100 € per night.
Accommodation is probably the expense item where you will have the most leeway to adjust your travel budget to Los Angeles. Overall, depending on the standard of accommodation you choose, you will have to spend between $85 and $270 per day for 2 people
Stay in an apartment or hostel
A little further from downtown Los Angeles, the Glendale Hotel offers spacious rooms with sitting areas. You will be 5 km from Griffith Park and the Los Angeles Zoo and 13 km from Hollywood Burbank Airport. Count around 140$ per night in a double room.
HI Los Angeles - Santa Monica Hostel is the largest hostel in the United States. Very well located, a few steps from the beaches of Santa Monica, Malibu and Venice, you will find accommodation available from $100 per night. Close to several bus lines, it's the perfect location to visit all the places of interest in Los Angeles
Stay in upscale neighborhoods
Located in Downtown Los Angeles, the Freehand Los Angeles is a high standard hostel. The 4-star establishment has a swimming pool and a bar on the roof terrace offering a 360° view of the city. Depending on your budget and your desires, you will have the choice between private rooms or dormitories with bunk beds. For a night in this hostel, count on average $235.
Located in downtown Los Angeles, the E Central Hotel Downtown is a 4-star boutique hotel. You can stay in spacious and bright rooms and enjoy spa services and 2 on-site restaurants. The hotel is 1 km from the Los Angeles Convention Center. For one night in this establishment count at least 280$.
In some other neighborhoods, you can even find even more affordable prices. However, these are often quite remote areas or even quite disreputable neighborhoods, which is why it is advisable to focus your research on the more touristy areas
Save money with City Passes
If you want to do as much discovery as possible during your vacation, passes for Los Angeles are a great solution to save money, while saving time! These combined tickets offer access to many attractions, sometimes they even allow you to take advantage of a skip-the-line ticket so as not to waste time in the queues
Los Angeles: Go City Pass All-Inclusive
The Los Angeles: Go City Pass All-Inclusive is a very complete combo ticket, which allows access to more than 40 attractions in and around Los Angeles, including Universal Studios, Madame Tussauds Hollywood, the Aquarium of the Pacific and many more. This ticket, valid for 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 7 days, is available from around $105.
Los Angeles: Go City Explorer Pass
The Los Angeles: Go City Explorer Pass is another City Pass that works differently, since it offers the choice of 2, 3, 4, 5 or 7 activities from a list that includes more than thirty of the most popular attractions in Los Angeles. (Madame Tussauds, movie studios, Big Bus, cruises, whale watching…). Its price varies according to the number of activities chosen, it costs between 85$ and 170$ approximately.
The price of meals in Los Angeles
Food is also one of the expense items where you can manage to make quite significant savings by making a few concessions. The price of food is high in California (the average price in restaurants is about 30% higher than in France), but the wide variety of establishments still allows you to eat for a fairly reasonable price
Always keep in mind that the prices displayed on restaurant menus are exclusive of tax, and that you will also have to add the tip. This tip is 15% to 20%, it is mandatory only if table service is offered. In establishments where you order at the counter, no tip is required, although it is good practice to leave a little something in the jar provided for this purpose. You will therefore have to pay between 25% and 30% more than the price indicated on the menu.
It should be noted that in Los Angeles, prices in restaurants are therefore more expensive than in France, but the price difference on food products is even more noticeable in supermarkets, since the prices there are almost twice as high. students. This is why unlike many other destinations, if you stay in an apartment or in a hostel, having a kitchen available to make your own meals will allow you to save a lot of money
The price of travel in Los Angeles
If there is one thing that is beyond doubt, it is that you will need to move around a lot during a trip to Los Angeles. Unfortunately, the public transport network, although very well developed, is not the most practical. You can use the metro and buses to go everywhere, but only if you are not in a hurry!
Rides are quite affordable, with the company handling the metro and major bus lines offering unlimited day passes for $3-$5 and unlimited week passes for $20.
Car rental in Los Angeles
But you will quickly find that Los Angeles is a city made for driving, and that taxi rides are quickly quite expensive. The personal vehicle really means freedom in California, which is why the best solution is often to rent a car.
And the good news is that L.A. is one of the cheapest car rental cities in the whole country. Depending on the vehicle you choose and the number of miles you plan to travel, you can rent a car from around $30 per day.
Just like for plane tickets, I recommend that you use an online comparison platform and make your reservation before you even leave. This will allow you to find the best rates, to pay in euros, and to be able to benefit from the assistance of the professionals of the platform in case of concern
The Big Bus tourist bus
Another very convenient way to easily get from one point of interest to another during a stay in Los Angeles is to take the hop-on hop-off tourist bus. This open-top bus travels through neighborhoods like Hollywood, Santa Monica, Venice Beach, and Beverly Hills, passing dozens of stops near many of the city's top attractions. By purchasing a ticket for the Los Angeles hop-on hop-off bus, you can travel as much as you want on the 3 tours offered, hopping on and off where you want, and benefiting from the information and expert advice of a professional guide These tickets are valid for 1 to 3 days, for a price ranging from around $53 to $85.
The overall budget for a trip to Los Angeles
Making an overall estimate of the price of a trip to Los Angeles is therefore very complicated, since the different expenses will really vary too much from one traveler to another. On average and taking all expenses into account, for a 2-week stay in Los Angeles for two people, you will need:
$3200 for a stay on a very tight budget, with nights in a cheap hotel or youth hostel, meals in fast food outlets and doing a majority of free activities.
$5300 for a more classic tourist stay, with meals in affordable restaurants, nights in a well-located 2 or 3-star hotel and a good margin for paid activities.
$9500 for a stay with a very comfortable budget, with a direct flight and in the middle of the tourist season, nights in a top-of-the-range hotel, meals in popular restaurants and a high budget for all activities.
But these are only general estimates, and it is only by taking into account your desires concerning all the different categories presented in this article that you can really succeed in determining what budget to plan for your stay in Los Angeles.
Well, I think I've covered everything you need to know to plan a budget for a stay in Los Angeles! I hope that the article was useful to you and that thanks to this information you can leave serenely If in addition to the visit of the city you are looking for the most beautiful beaches of Los Angeles, you can consult our article at this topic to find the most beautiful places.
