OZU /UNITED STATES /LOS ANGELES /GUIDE
Day trips from Los Angeles
10 h route4 stopsBest: Joshua Tree in spring or autumn: in summer it’s 40 degreesUpdated July 2026
The golden rule is this: leave before seven in the morning or after ten, and come back before three or after seven. In between, the freeway is a car park. Because leaving Los Angeles is easy on the map and hard on the clock: everything is two hours away and those two hours depend on traffic, which here isn’t an event but the system’s normal state.
That said, the day trips here are genuinely good, because California is enormous and hugely varied: within 200 kilometres there’s desert, mountains, islands and one of the most beautiful roads in the world.
The route, stop by stop
4 STOPS- 01
Joshua Tree · ~2 h 30
The national park sits where two deserts meet, the Mojave and the Colorado, which is why it holds two different landscapes. Joshua trees only grow on the Mojave side, above a certain altitude: they’re giant yuccas, not trees, and they resemble nothing else. Mormons named them because the branches reminded them of Joshua raising his arms.
The other thing is the rounded granite formations, world-famous for climbing and scrambleable by anyone. And at night, the sky: it’s far enough from Los Angeles to see the Milky Way.
Two serious warnings: in summer it passes 40 degrees and it’s dangerous, and inside the park there’s no signal, no water and no fuel. Go in with a full tank and the map downloaded.
- 02
Malibu and the coast road · 1 h
The Pacific Coast Highway leaves Santa Monica and hugs the Pacific, ocean on one side and the Santa Monica mountains on the other. It’s the road you’ve seen in every film, and the plan is to drive it, not to arrive anywhere in particular.
On the way: the Getty Villa, with its rebuilt Roman villa and free timed entry, the Malibu beaches, El Matador among them, with rock arches, and unpretentious seafood places with your feet nearly in the sand.
Half a day, and on a clear day it’s among the best things of the trip.
- 03
Santa Barbara · ~2 h
The exception on this list: here the train beats the car. The Pacific Surfliner leaves Union Station and hugs the ocean for much of the way, so close that in stretches there’s only sand between the track and the water. Sit on the left heading north.
Santa Barbara is a city of Spanish colonial architecture (white walls and tile, by municipal ordinance since the 1925 earthquake) with a mission from 1786, mountains behind and beach in front. You can walk all of it.
It’s where a European gets the strangest sensation: California looking like Andalusia.
- 04
Catalina Island · 1 h by boat
The perfect irony: an hour by ferry from Los Angeles is an island where cars are restricted and people get around in golf carts. There’s a years-long waiting list to own a car there.
Avalon is the town, with its art deco casino from 1929 (never a gambling casino, it was a ballroom) and a bay of clear water. You can dive, there are bison roaming the interior since they were brought over to shoot a film in 1924 and never taken away, and you can see the bottom from the boat.
It’s the easiest car-free trip on this list.
Frequently asked
Can you do Joshua Tree from LA in a day?
Yes, about two and a half hours by car, but it’s a full day and you must leave very early because of traffic. Avoid summer: it passes 40 degrees. Inside the park there’s no signal, no water and no fuel: go in with a full tank and the map downloaded.
How do you get to Santa Barbara from LA?
By train, and it’s the one trip on this list where the train wins: the Pacific Surfliner leaves Union Station and hugs the ocean for much of the way. It’s about two hours. Sit on the left heading north.
Are there cars on Catalina Island?
Very few: they’re restricted and there’s a years-long waiting list to own one. People get around in golf carts. It’s an hour by ferry from Long Beach or San Pedro, and it’s the easiest car-free trip from Los Angeles.