LAX - Los Angeles

The largest airport on the west coast, and offering sensible links to Asia, this airport saw 75 million passengers in 2023. Its website is www.flylax.com/

Parking 

There are a number of car park areas, mostly based on the terminals, as well as economy options.

P1-P7 - five minutes walk, $48 for 24 hours

Economy - one mile from the terminal via free shuttle, $15 per day

Valet Terminal - two minutes walk, P1, P3, P4 and P7 only, $75 per day

Van Nuys Flyaway - twenty-four miles from the airport at Van Nuys airport, $6 per day, shuttle bus $9.75

Budget - two and a half miles from the terminal via free shuttle $20 per day

EV Terminal - five minutes walk, charging point spaces in P1-P6

Premium EV Terminal - three minutes walk, P1 only (coming to P2A, P3, P5, P6, P7), $70 per day

There is a booking tool here https://parking.flylax.com/

Drop Off 

Drop-off can be done at the Upper/Departures level, and pick up on the outer curb on Lower/Arrivals outside of baggage reclaim. There is no waiting allowed so pick up drivers should use the LAX Cell Phone Waiting lot.

Alternatively you can use one of the car parks as they have a one-hour fee. There is conflicting information that these might be free for fifteen minutes but that is not confirmed.

P1-P7 $9

Economy $8

Security

The airport uses TSA PreCheck. There is also a pilot scheme for pre-booked security fast lanes at Terminals 7 and 8 that is free, although it will negate any TSA pre-check.

There is a limited amount of general security information here www.flylax.com/travelsafely

Restaurants and Bars

There are a large number of restaurants across the terminals.

Terminal 1 - Ace Tacos, Betcha Burger, California Pizza Kitchen, Chick-fil-A, Einstein Bros. Bagels, Panda Express, Reilly's Irish Pub, Rock & Brewers Concert Bar & Grill, The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, Urth Caffe and Bar, Wetzel's/Quench

Terminal 2 - Barneys Beanery, Breeze, Built Custom Burgers, Fresh Brothers Pizza & Sandwiches, Jersey Mike's, Pick Up Stix, Sealegs Wine Bar, Slapfish Modern Seafood Shack, Starbucks

Terminal 3 - Alfred, Chicken + Beer, Fat Sals, Homeboy, Jamba, Native, Yakumi Sushi

Terminal 4 - Campanile, Dunkin' Donuts, LA Life Markey Kiosk, Sammy's Woodfired Pizza, Starbucks

Terminal 5 - Coffee Corner, Farmers Market Grill, Ford's Filling Station, Lemonade, Loteria! Grill, Monsieur Marcel Gourmet Market & Bistro, Rock & Brews Concert Bar & Grill, The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf Terminal 6 - California Pizza Kitchen, Club 42 Tequila Bar & Bites, Earthbar, Peets Coffee, Point The Way Cafe, Starbucks, The Habit Burger Grill, The Kitchen by Wolfgang Puck, The Wine Bar by Wolfgang Puck, Wahoos Fish Taco, Wpizza by Wolfgang Puck

Terminal 7 - Ashland Hill, B Grill by BOA Steakhouse, BLD, Dunkin' Donuts, Klatch Coffee, LA Life Quick Market, LA Life, Loteria! Grill, Randys Donuts and Hilltop Coffee + Kitchen, Rolling Stone Bar & Grill, The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, The Counter Custom Built Burgers, Wolfgang Puck Express

Terminal 8 - Carl's Jr, Engine Co. No. 28, Panda Express, Stella Bar, The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf

TBIT Terminal B - 800 Degrees Pizza, Asian Street Eats, Beecher's Handmade Cheese, Border Grill, Burger King, Chaya Sushi, Chicken Guy, Earl of Sandwich, ink.sack, KFC, Lamill Coffee, Navarre, Panda Express, PF Changs, Planet Hollywood, Playa Cafe, Pret a Manger, Santa Monica Brew Works, Santouka Ramen, Starbucks, The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, The Playa Vista, Treat Me Sweet, Umami Burger, Vanilla Bake Shop, Vino Volo, Wpizza by Wolfgang Puck

Shops

There are a large number of shops across the terminals. Full details can be found here www.flylax.com/lax-dining-and-shopping by applying filters.

Terminal 1 - Be Relax, Brookstone, I Love LA, Kiehl's, MAC Cosmetics, SOL Surf, Stellar News Express, The New Stand, Treat Me Sweet

Terminal 2 - CNBC Smartshop, DFS Duty Free, InMotion, SPANX, Univision Terminal 3 - A/K Boulevard, DFS Duty Free, Gameway, Hudson Evolve, Hudson News, InMotion

Terminal 4 - Destination LA, Entertainment Weekly, Hudson Booksellers, See's Candies, Sunglass Hut, Tech on the Go

Terminal 5 - DFS Duty Free, FAO Schwarz, Hollywood Reporter, I Love LA, LA Times Newsstand, Magic Johnson Sports, Rip Curl, See's Candies

Terminal 6 - Access Hollywood, Belkin, DFS Duty Free, Gameway, Los Angeles Magazine News, MAC Cosmetics, Market 8600, M. Fredric, See's Candies, Sunset News

Terminal 7 - Bartel's Harley Davidson Store, Book Soup, DFS Duty Free, Hudson News, Hugo Boss, Pier No. 7

Terminal 8 - E! News, People News

TBIT Terminal B - Allsaints, America!, Be Relax, Bliss, Book Soup, Burberry, Bvlgari, CNBC, CNN Los Angeles Newsstand, DFS Duty Free, Gucci, Hermes, Hollywood Reporter, Hudson News, Hugo Boss, InMotion, iStore Boutique, Jocale, LA Confidential, Lego, Los Angeles America!, Moncler, New Beauty, PGA, Pier Provisions, Pop Sox, Relay, See's Candies, The Economist, TMS, Travel Market, Treat Me Sweet, Tumi, USA Today Travel Zone, Victoria's Secret, Wilshire and Fairfax

Lounges

Most of the lounges are linked to an airline but some do offer access to other passengers. There is also an USO lounge for service personnel. There are no details on the airport website.

Assistance

It is recommended that you contact your airline or tour operator at least 48 hours before trouble.

Some information is available here www.flylax.com/lax-americans-with-disability-act

The airport website has an accessibility button that can be selected.

Hotels

There are a huge number of hotels fairly close to the airport and they include the following.

Northeast

Hyatt Regency

H Hotel Homewood Suites by Hilton

Courtyard by Marriott

Sheraton Gateway

Hyatt Place

Hyatt House

Residence by Marriott Sonesta

Embassy Suites by Hilton

Renaissance

Four Points by Sheraton

Marriott

Hilton

South

Embassy Suites by Hilton

Hampton Inn & Suites

Travelodge by Wyndham

Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott

Extended Stay America Aloft El Segundo

Hilton Garden Inn El Segundo

Doubletree by Hilton

Residence Inn by Marriott Cambria

Hyatt Place El Segundo AC Hotel by Marriott

Sonesta Select

Most of the hotels offer a shuttle service. These can be found on the Upper/Departures level with red curbside signs and are marked on the Ground Transportation map (see the Maps section) by a white bus on a red circle.

For more on hotels at the airport just click the image below.

Shuttles

As mentioned above there are a number of hotel shuttles.

There is a shuttle service that is free and connects the terminals with LAX City Bus Center, LAX Economy Parking, Metro C line at Aviation station and the employee parking. Follow pink LAX shuttle signs at Lower/Arrivals level.

The services are as follows.

A - terminal connections, 24 hours

C - parking lot south and LAX City Bus Center, 0400-0200

E - LAX Economy parking, 24 hours

G - Metro C line, 24 hours although limited 0100-0400, otherwise three or four per hour

X - employee parking

Immigration

For any information about visas for the United States of America you should only refer to the official government information to ensure you are checking the most up to date information here www.cbp.gov/travel with further information about ESTA here www.esta.cbp.dhs.gov/esta

Reclaim

In the reclaim area check the boards for which carousel you need to attend. In the event of lost baggage you can find contact details for airlines here

Customs - For any information about bringing things into the United States of America you should only refer to the official government information www.cbp.gov/travel/clearing-customs

Taxi

Taxis are able to drop off passengers on the Upper/Departures level.

For pick up there are three locations.

• LAX-it next to Terminal 1 (walk there or use the free LAX-it shuttle that departs from the Lower/Arrivals level with green LAX-it signs.

• P3 between TBIT Terminal B and Terminal 3.

• outside baggage reclaim Terminal 7 (close to Terminal 8)

Lyft, Opoli and Uber are all authorised to operate at the airport and depart from LAX-it.

Buses and Coaches

There is one main bus option at the airport.

FlyAway - non-stop bus to Union station and Van Nuys, drops off at Upper/Departures level, picks up at Lower/Arrivals level. routes shown by a blue FlyAway sign, one way $9.75.

Many bus and coach options are available from LAX City Bus Center including LA Metro, Santa Monica Big Blue Bus, Torrance Transit and Beach Cities Transit.

Rail and Trams 

The nearest station is Aviation and the free shuttle can be used to reach it. There you will find Metro line C (green line).

Routes

The airport does not list its destinations but as you would expect from such a large airport it connects with a huge number of destinations both domestically and further afield. It is the busiest entry point in the United States for international travellers. Future flights can be found here tracker.flightview.com/customersetup/Laxairport/internettimetable/

Maps

There are numerous map options.

Fully interactive map. maps.lawa.org/

Ground Transportation options can be found here www.flylax.com/-/media/flylax/ground-transportation/ground-transportation-waiting-areas.ashx

Car parks can be found towards the bottom of this page parking.flylax.com/

Terminal Transfer 

The free LAX A shuttle bus makes connecting two terminals easy. Should you need to go to the remote American Eagle terminal then you can get a separate shuttle from Terminals 4 and 5.

It is possible to walk to transfer with a total distance of 2 miles from Terminal 1 to Terminal 8. The terminal order is T1 - T2 - T3 - TBIT B - T4 - T5 - T6 - T7 - T8.

Car Hire 

The car hire area is off-site and the companies use shuttles to pick-up and drop off, using an area marked by purple signs on the Lower/Arrivals level.

Companies are as follows.

Alamo, Avis, Budget, Dollar, Enterprise, Fox, Hertz, National, Sixt, Thrifty