My boyfriend and I recently went for a long weekend (4 days, Thursday-Sunday) exploring Los Angeles, the largest city in California. Throughout our weekend we packed in some of the most touristy items on the list of things to do in LA, alongside also discovering things that we didn't even know were there. We included, watching the sunset from the observatory, walking the walk of fame, an evening on Santa Monica pier and a day at Venice beach. This guide will provide a breakdown of MY (1 person) costs for the full 4 days and provide advice on how to stick to a reasonable budget in the most expensive city in California.
Before beginning, it's best to say that whilst we travel super cheap - we stay in backpackers hostels and take public transport/walk everywhere (no Ubers here) - we still could have made this trip even cheaper - if that's what you're after!!
One of the main ways that we could have cut down our budget was through meals and eating out; we ate out for all of our meals (except breakfast which was included with our hostel) and this easily ate up a large part of our spending as we could have saved and cooked in the hostel facilities - home cooking is always cheapest! But, in saying that, food and exploring local delicacies is a large part of travelling; it is a way to discover new places and cultures through their tastes, smells and ingredients, and so we don't mind adding a little extra to the budget to add something more to our experiences. I really don’t mind spending $15 on 2 beers when my view is of a gorgeous sunset on Santa Monica pier, people watching and enjoying the atmosphere!
Another option that we could have ‘cut down on’ was transport. We used the Amtrak train system to get from San Diego to Los Angeles. This took us around 3 hours and we had to change transport twice, going from train, to coach, to train. These transfers were super easy and organised by the company to make sure everybody transferred smoothly. The Amtrak train service was great and is a popular form of transport for many to travel all over the states. However! We could have saved money and used other options including the flixbus or greyhound bus services. I knew of the flixbus service because it's popular in Europe and I've heard that they're super affordable, fairly comfortable coaches and are often used alongside the interrail system to backpack across Europe. I didn't realise the company was also in the US until I saw one drive past us in LA! I looked over their website and had a look at how it would have affected our journey and it’s definitely worth looking at these companies as options over the Amtrak train because we could have saved about $20-$30 each had we of known (both coach companies also take roughly the same time as the train, 2.5-3 hours of travel).
So now we've come to my budget; it has been down into days and separate categories: food, accommodation, travel and other. Other includes, money spent on the Santa Monica pier arcade and attractions - we kept having rematches at air hockey! Alongside, souvenirs and a few little things that were missed/not accounted for.
Day 1: Thursday 8th December
Accommodation: $34 (cost for 1 nights stay at the Banana Bungalow hostel)
Transit: $42
Food + drink: $34.90
Other: $4.45
Total: $133.35
The first half of the day was travel; we took the Amtrak train from San Diego Old Town to Los Angeles Union Station. A return ticket for 1 person costs $70 so I've added $35 to the first and last day to account for each journey of the trip. The journey took around 3 hours with 2 transport changes and we arrived in central LA just after midday. We went straight to our accommodation which was just a short metro ride away, dropped our bags as we couldn't check in yet and left for the day to explore. We bought a day pass for the metro system which cost $5 each making today's total for transit $40. Just like the Oyster card system that's used all over London (England), LA uses the TAP card system for its buses and metro lines; the extra $2 on today's transit budget comes from the payment for the TAP travel card - you need to pay for a physical card before you can add fares to use - this is a fairly common system in cities for their transit. However, the TAP system also has an app system for the phone, this might be worth a look into if you want to avoid the $2 fee or having a physical card to hold onto. (https://www.taptogo.net/TAPPurchase)
Day 2: Friday 9th December
Accommodation: $34 (cost for 1 nights stay at the Banana Bungalow hostel)
Transit: $5 (day pass on my TAP transit card)
Food: $10 (1 burrito from Chipotle, it was huge and lasted me for lunch, snacks and dinner!)
Other: $5 (1 tourist magnet)
Total: $54
Day 2 spending was definitely a lot different to day 1! I was able to save on food costs as breakfast was provided by the hostel - a nice spread of coffee, pastries and fruit - lunch was huge and lasted me a while, and we had a free BBQ at the hostel in the evening so that was dinner sorted too.
Our hostel, the Banana Bungalow, has two sites across LA and on night two of our stay we were invited to free drinks and BBQ social event at the West Hollywood location. How do you say no to that?! This was an amazing event, we made new friends, played ping pong and drank a whole lot of tequila!
Day 3: Saturday 10th December
Accommodation: $27 (cost for 1 nights stay at The Venice Beach hostel)
Transit: $3.50 (2 bus tickets at $1.75 each)
Food: $18.20
Other: $10
Total: $58.70
For our third day in LA we decided to change hostels and check into The Venice Beach hostel - we had pre-planned this before our trip as we didn't want to travel back to Hollywood LA and navigate public transport late at night, instead we wanted to stay in central Venice Beach to make the most of all that the area offered by falling asleep and waking up right in the middle of it all. This worked well because we were able to watch the England vs. France Fifa World Cup semi-final in the morning whilst enjoying breakfast at the hostel before taking two buses ($1.75 fare each, my only transit costs on this day) across to Venice Beach to find our new hostel and enjoy the day.
Whilst The Venice Beach hostel was nice - I would also recommend the Samesun hostel as it was just a lot more central and was just off of the main boardwalk. Samesun hostels have a great reputation and are more often than not, great sociable places to stay (we chose the other one because it was about $5 cheaper, but in hindsight we should have looked location as our priority as this was the whole reason for changing hostels!).
Day 4: Sunday 11th December
Transit: $38.50
Food: $28
Total: $66.50
Transit costs today comes from the two bus fares ($3.50) to get from Venice Beach to Union station where we would take the Amtrak train ($35) back to San Diego.
Food costs could have been kept lower but I chose to enjoy an Impossible burger on the beach before leaving (approx $10) and bought snacks from the train cafe ($15, we could have bought food before and saved a lot here - it was as expensive as buying snacks on a plane or in a cinema).
Totals across all the days for 1 person: $292.55
Accommodation: $95
Transit: $87
Food: $91.10
Other: $19.45
All in all, not bad for a 4 day trip to the second most expensive city in all of the US! As I've mentioned, there were times where we could have cut costs, or ended up paying more because we didn't research or spend time looking for other options. So, I hope that this guide offers you the advice to enjoy LA to its fullest whilst not forking out hundreds in activities! LA has many attractions that are fun and come very highly recommended, including a waxwork museum of all your favourite celebs, a Ripley's Believe it or Not museum, and a DisneyLand right on its doorstep (to name a few) - but, of course, if you add any of these to your trip, you need to allow the budget (and time) for this as all these activities cost money! We chose the free, 'walk and explore' style of travelling LA and it did not disappoint!
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