July 2024 · 15 nights · two adults, two children · every euro
The short answer
€8,689. That is what fifteen nights in Los Angeles cost the four of us in July 2024 — flights, hotels, food, transport, a basketball camp and one boat trip.
€9,652 actually left our account, because we also spent €963 on Apple products while we were there. That is shopping, not travel, so it sits outside the total. I am telling you both numbers because you would find the gap anyway.
Per person that is €2,172, or €145 per person per night.
But I want to be straight with you about that figure before you plan against it. Both hotels were booked at travel-agent rates through my work, and the Biltmore was also running a 50% promotion that week. Strip that promotion alone and the same trip costs at least €9,560. That is the number to budget with; €8,689 is the number we happened to pay.
Two things about this trip were unusual and they are the reason it is worth reading: our children were at a basketball camp, which is where a sixth of the money went. And we did not hire a car — two weeks in Los Angeles on Uber, Lyft and public transport, for €600.
⚠️ One honest caveat before the numbers. I work in the hotel industry and both hotels were booked at travel-agent rates. You will probably not find the same prices publicly. Everything else on this page — flights, camp, food, transport — is a normal price anybody would pay.
What the trip actually was
We flew from Barcelona on 12 July and came home on 27 July. The trip split cleanly in two:
12–20 July — Orange County. Our boys had places at Camp Lakers, the Lakers’ own youth basketball camp, which is held at the AIM Sportsplex in Seal Beach — not, despite the name, in Los Angeles. We stayed at the Best Western Westminster Inn, about twenty minutes away, and built the week around a 9am drop-off.
20–27 July — downtown Los Angeles. We moved to the Millennium Biltmore and did the city properly.
Everything, in one table
| € | Share | |
|---|---|---|
| Flights, 2 adults + 2 children | 3,576.00 | 41% |
| Best Western Westminster Inn, 8 nights | 918.08 | 11% |
| Millennium Biltmore, 7 nights | 870.90 | 10% |
| Camp Lakers, $750 × 2 children | 1,378.75 | 16% |
| Groceries | 766.23 | 9% |
| Restaurants | 454.00 | 5% |
| Uber, Lyft and public transport | 600.00 | 7% |
| Whale watching | 90.00 | 1% |
| eSIM, unlimited data | 35.04 | 0.4% |
| Total | 8,689.00 | |
| Apple products (shopping, not travel) | 963.00 | |
| Total spent | 9,652.00 |
Flights: €3,576, and 41% of the whole trip
€894 per person, return, booked in February for July — five months ahead, for peak season.
This is the number that decides whether the trip happens. It is more than double what we paid for the camp and twice what we spent on fifteen nights of hotels. Everything else on this page is a rounding error next to it.
Hotels: €1,788.98 for fifteen nights, and a genuine surprise
| Nights | Total | Per night | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best Western Westminster Inn | 8 | €918.08 | €114.76 |
| Millennium Biltmore, downtown | 7 | €870.90 | €124.41 |
The historic landmark hotel in downtown Los Angeles cost less than ten euros a night more than the roadside hotel in Orange County — and I want to explain exactly why, because you will not walk onto Booking.com and find that price.
The Best Western rate was an agent rate and it included a full breakfast for four every morning. The Biltmore was an agent rate on top of a 50% promotion the hotel was running that week. Two discounts, stacked.
Without that promotion, those seven nights would have cost at least €1,742 instead of €871 — and this whole trip would have been at least €9,560 rather than €8,689.
I did not expect the near-parity when I booked it, and it changed how I think about the second half of the trip
Camp Lakers: €1,378.75 for two children
$750 per child, for five days, in July 2024.
The price and the format have both changed since. The camp now runs as three-day sessions at $500 per child. So it costs less in total and slightly more per day — $150 a day when we went, about $167 now.
Camp Lakers is 16% of this trip and it is the reason the trip existed. Everything else — the hotel in Westminster, the beaches we filled the mornings with, the supermarket lunches — arranged itself around a nine o’clock drop-off in Seal Beach.
Getting around: €600, and no hire car
We did not hire a car.
Fifteen nights in Los Angeles — including a daily run from Westminster to Seal Beach and back for a week — on Uber, Lyft and public transport, for €600. That is about €40 a day for four people.
Every guide to Los Angeles will tell you a car is compulsory. Ours cost nothing, and the €600 is the whole of it — no fuel, no insurance excess, no parking, and nothing to leave in a downtown garage overnight.
We did it without renting a car, but for sure, next time we would rent one as we really depended the uber and lyft in the place we were. For example, one evening there were no uber available from Malibu to Santa Monica, and we waited like 1h for the bus, and it wasn’t one of the most pleasant rides during night time.
Food: €1,220 for four people over sixteen days
| € | ||
|---|---|---|
| Groceries | 766.23 | 63% |
| Restaurants | 454.00 | 37% |
| Total | 1,220.23 |
That works out at €19.07 per person, per day, in the United States, in July.
It is a low number and it was deliberate — and it had help. Breakfast was included at the Best Western for the first eight mornings, which is thirty-two breakfasts for four people that never touched this budget. A family paying for those would spend more.
The rest of it was deliberate. Both hotels had a fridge and a microwave, and we shopped rather than ate out — including the Whole Foods hot bar, where you fill a container, pay by weight, and every child chooses their own food with no ordering and no tipping.
Activities: €90
In sixteen days in Los Angeles we paid for exactly one thing: a whale-watching trip in Newport Beach.
That is not an oversight, it is what the city is like when you plan it properly. The Griffith Observatory is free. Venice Beach, Santa Monica Pier, the Walk of Fame, Rodeo Drive, the Kobe statues outside Crypto.com Arena, Seal Beach, Laguna, the beaches — free. The Getty Villa is free to enter.
The expensive parts of Los Angeles are the ones you fly to and sleep in. The city itself is close to free if you skip the theme parks.
We did not do Disneyland or Universal, and that is the single biggest reason this total is €8,689 rather than well over €10,000.
The eSIM: €35.04
One unlimited-data eSIM for the whole trip.
Worth mentioning because it is the cheapest line on this page and the one people most often get wrong — a fortnight of roaming on a Spanish contract would have cost several times that.
What we bought: €963 of Apple products
This is not the cost of the trip and I have kept it out of the total. But it happened, and if you are a European family going to the United States you have probably already thought about it.
What I would do differently
I think 15 days was a little bit long time for us, already in the last 2 days we didn’t move too much. We were tired.
Probably, one of the reasons that we were tired was not renting a car. And we always depended of schedules of the buses, metro in downtown, and the availability of uber and lift in Orange County. I think having a car, would have changed a lot our daily activities.
We didn’t go to Universal Studio, as we went to one in Osaka a year prior. But maybe, now, after several years and with grown up kids, we would definetely add it to our list while in Los Angeles.
And even if the camp changed the program, we would still do it. Kids loved it. So we would organize another activities during the evening time.
Who this budget is and is not for
This total works if: you are happy in a mid-range hotel, you cook and shop rather than eat out, you skip the theme parks, and you have a reason to be there that is not sightseeing.
It does not work if: you want Disneyland and Universal, you want to eat in restaurants every evening, or you are travelling in a way that needs a car for a family of five or more.
And the honest headline for anyone comparing: flights and one basketball camp were 57% of this trip. The Los Angeles part — fifteen nights of beds, food, transport and one boat — came to €3,734, or about €62 per person per day.
One last time, because it matters: we paid €8,689, on two discounted hotel rates with eight breakfasts included. Budget at least €9,560 for the same fifteen nights, and more if you want to eat breakfast out.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a family trip to Los Angeles cost?
Our fifteen nights in Los Angeles in July 2024 cost €8,689 for two adults and two children, which is €2,172 per person or €145 per person per night. That included return flights from Barcelona, two hotels, all food, transport and a five-day basketball camp for both children, and excluded theme parks, which we skipped. Both hotels were discounted, so budget at least €9,560 for the same trip at public rates.
How much are flights from Barcelona to Los Angeles for a family?
We paid €3,576 for two adults and two children, booked five months ahead in February 2024 for a peak July departure. That is €894 per person return, and it was 41% of the entire trip.
Do you need to hire a car in Los Angeles?
No. We spent fifteen nights in Los Angeles without hiring a car, including a daily run between Westminster and Seal Beach, and spent €600 in total on Uber, Lyft and public transport. That is around €40 a day for four people, with no fuel, insurance or parking on top.
How much does food cost in Los Angeles for a family?
We spent €1,220 on food over sixteen days for four people, which is €19 per person per day. Roughly two thirds of that was groceries rather than restaurants. Having a fridge and a microwave in the room, and using supermarket hot bars, is what kept it that low.
How much is the Los Angeles Lakers camp?
We paid $750 per child for a five-day session in July 2024. The camp now runs as three-day sessions at $500 per child. Check the Lakers’ own registration page for the current year’s price, because it is set annually.
How much are hotels in Los Angeles for a family of four?
We paid €114.76 a night for the Best Western Westminster Inn in Orange County, breakfast for four included, and €124.41 a night for the Millennium Biltmore in downtown Los Angeles. Both were travel-agent rates through my work, and the Biltmore was also running a 50% promotion that week. Without that promotion alone those seven nights would have cost at least €1,742 rather than €871, so treat our accommodation figure as a floor.
What is the most expensive part of a Los Angeles trip?
The flights, by a distance. At €3,576 they were 41% of our total, more than double what we paid for the basketball camp and twice what fifteen nights of hotels cost.
Is Los Angeles expensive with kids?
Less than you would expect, if you skip the theme parks. The city itself is close to free — Griffith Observatory, the beaches, the Walk of Fame and the Getty Villa cost nothing to enter — and we paid for exactly one activity in sixteen days. The money goes on getting there and sleeping there, not on being there.
1. Camp Lakers, and what it is actually like
2. where we stayed for the camp week
3. the Millennium Biltmore downtown
5. eating from the Whole Foods hot bar
7. the whale watching in Newport Beach
8. Griffith Observatory, which is free
9. the beaches we filled the mornings with
13. the Kobe statues at Crypto.com Arena
14. the Getty Villa, free to enter