4 Days in Los Angeles: First-Timer Itinerary
Four days is where LA starts to make sense: Hollywood, the coast, Downtown, and now Beverly Hills and the Getty Center folded in for a fourth. That’s a real city arc, not a highlight reel. Shorter trip? Try 2 or 3 days . Longer? Step up to 5 , 6 , or 7 days .
Book these before you go
- Hotel: check Santa Monica or Hollywood availability on Booking.com
- Rental car for four spread-out neighborhoods: compare rates on Discover Cars
- A Beverly Hills celebrity homes or Rodeo Drive tour: browse options on Viator
| Day | Focus |
|---|---|
| Day 1 | Hollywood Walk of Fame, Griffith Observatory at sunset |
| Day 2 | Santa Monica Pier, Venice Beach and Canals |
| Day 3 | Grand Central Market, Arts District, The Broad or LACMA |
| Day 4 | Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills, the Getty Center |
Day 1: Hollywood, then Griffith at sunset
Morning
Walk the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the TCL Chinese Theatre forecourt, thirty to forty-five minutes, no more. It’s a working commercial strip with cracked sidewalks and costumed characters angling for tips, and the “star maps” hawked on the corner aren’t official anything.
Afternoon
Griffith Observatory : free admission, free parking if you land there before 10am, and the best single frame of the skyline and the Hollywood Sign together, since the sign can’t be visited up close from any trail. Time it for sunset, the lot fills fast right when the light gets good.
Evening
Dinner in Los Feliz or Silver Lake, minutes from the Observatory and a sharper food scene than Hollywood Boulevard’s chains.
Day 2: The coast
Morning
Santa Monica Pier via the Metro E line, the one LA transit corridor that genuinely beats driving, $1.75 a ride with a $5 daily cap. Walk the pier, ride the Ferris wheel at Pacific Park.
Afternoon
Venice Beach boardwalk, ten minutes south on foot, then one block inland to the Venice Canals for a quiet five minutes almost nobody bothers with. Rent a bike for the beach path if you want to cover more ground.
Evening
Dinner near the boardwalk, then head out before the 10 freeway fills with rush-hour traffic.
Day 3: Downtown
Morning
Grand Central Market for breakfast, a dozen counters under one roof, no reservation, honest prices. Walk the Arts District after for murals and coffee roasters.
Afternoon
The Broad, free with a timed ticket released monthly on thebroad.org or the standby line around 4pm. Or LACMA, $15 general admission ($10 seniors and students, free for LA County residents after 3pm weekdays), though know going in that the classic Wilshire-era buildings are gone, replaced by the new David Geffen Galleries.
Evening
Dinner in the Arts District, or drive twenty minutes to Koreatown if you want the better meal.
Day 4: Beverly Hills and the Getty
Morning
Rodeo Drive for window shopping, thirty to forty-five minutes is plenty unless you’re actually buying. It’s a fun stroll regardless.
Afternoon
The Getty Center: free admission, timed reservation recommended on getty.edu , and a tram ride up the hill that feels like part of the experience. The thing nobody mentions until they’re at the gate, parking is $20 a car ($15 after 3pm), rising to $25 during the mid-June through late-July peak window. Free museum, not-free lot, budget accordingly.
Evening
Dinner near Brentwood or back toward your hotel, this is a lighter final evening on purpose, since Day 4 travel adds up.
Should you add Beverly Hills and the Getty to a 3-day LA trip?
Yes, if you have the fourth day. Rodeo Drive alone isn’t worth a special detour, but pairing it with the Getty Center makes the whole day earn its place, free admission, one of the best views in the city, and a genuinely different pace from Hollywood or Downtown.
How much does the Getty Center actually cost?
Admission is free with a timed reservation, but parking is $20 a car standard, $15 after 3pm, and jumps to $25 during the mid-June through late-July summer peak. Treat that parking fee as your real ticket price when budgeting the day, it stops feeling like a surprise at the exit gate.
Where to stay
Santa Monica keeps Days 2 and 4 walkable-adjacent and puts you a reasonable drive from Hollywood and Downtown. A Hollywood or Los Feliz base flips that logic if Day 1 and Day 3 matter more to you. Pick one base for all four nights, hopping hotels costs more time than it saves in a city this spread out.
Getting around
Rent a car. Four days across five distinct areas of a nearly 500-square-mile city is not a rideshare-only trip, LA’s Metro rail covers corridors, not a grid, so cross-town transit trips mean transfers and 90-plus minutes where a car takes 30-45 off-peak. Traffic runs hardest 7-10am and 3-7pm, build your drive times around those windows, especially the Griffith-to-coast and Getty-to-Downtown legs.
Practical notes
Disneyland is in Anaheim, not LA proper, 45-90 minutes away depending on traffic, it doesn’t fit cleanly into this four-day loop and deserves its own trip, see our Los Angeles California guide . Parking runs $10-20-plus near the beach, $20-40 in Hollywood, Downtown, or Beverly Hills. Spring and fall bring the mildest weather, late May into June brings a gray coastal morning locals call June Gloom, usually gone by early afternoon.
Book your Getty timed entry before you land, same-day slots do run out on busy weekends.