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Distance between Santa Monica and Los Angeles

Driving non-stop from Santa Monica to Los Angeles

How far is Los Angeles from Santa Monica? Here's the quick answer if you make this quick drive without any stops. Of course, traffic is going to make a big difference so make sure you check that before leaving.

Nonstop drive: 16 miles or 26 km

Driving time: 25 minutes

Even on a short drive, it might be more interesting to stop along the way and explore the local area. You can scroll down to see the calculation if you drive with stops.


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Flying non-stop from Santa Monica to Los Angeles

Now let's assume you have a private jet and you can fly in the fastest possible straight line between Santa Monica, California and Los Angeles, California. Because of the curvature of the Earth, the shortest distance is actually the "great circle" distance, or "as the crow flies" which is calculated using an iterative Vincenty formula.

Flight distance: 14 miles or 23 km

Flight time: 32 minutes

The straight line flight distance is 2 miles less than driving on roads, which means the driving distance is roughly 1.1x of the flight distance.

Your plane flies much faster than a car, so the flight time is about 1/1th of the time it would take to drive.

This is a relatively short flight in a private plane, but you might be planning to book a commercial flight. In that case, your travel time would really need to include how many minutes to get to your local airport, wait for security, board and taxi on the runway, land at the other airport, and get to your destination.





Santa Monica to Los Angeles road trip

Let's say you're actually planning a road trip to Los Angeles, and you want to stop on the way to explore. If it's a real road trip, you might want to check out interesting places along the way, or maybe eat at a great restaurant. That's what Trippy is perfect for, helping you figure out travel plans in detail.

Road trip: 1 day of driving

With the full itinerary planned out, we can estimate your total travel time for this trip.

Travel time: 51 minutes on the road


Itinerary

Start in Santa Monica.

Drive for about 11 minutes, then stop in Venice Beach and stay for about 1.5 hours. Next, drive for another 15 minutes then stop in Culver City and stay for 1 hour. Drive for 8 minutes then stop at LACMA and stay for 1 hour. Drive for 14 minutes then stop at Downtown Los Angeles and stay for 1 hour.

Finally, drive for about 5 minutes and arrive in Los Angeles.


To see all the details on this itinerary, including recommended restaurants, hotels, and things to do along the way, check out the full road trip planner:





Plan a trip to Los Angeles

Trippy has a ton of information that can help you plan your trip to Los Angeles, California. Start by reading the Trippy page on where to stay in Los Angeles, or find out how many days in Los Angeles to visit. Trippy has an entire Q&A community where you can post questions and get answers from expert travelers or locals who know the area. For instance, you might be interested in the answers to this question: Is the Santa Monica Pier worth seeing?. If you're looking for a place to stay, you might want to check out Shutters On the Beach. A great place to eat might be Gjelina. Trippy members can suggest things to do in Los Angeles like Santa Monica Pier. Check out some of the questions people have asked about Los Angeles like Where are the top 5 places to see a celebrity in L.A.?. Click the button below to explore Los Angeles in detail.





How far is it the other way?

The distance is the same either way if you're flying a straight line (or driving the same roads back and forth). But for a real trip, there can be plenty of differences so go ahead and check the reverse directions to get the distance from Los Angeles to Santa Monica, or go to the main page to calculate the distance between cities.

If you happen to know Santa Monica, don't forget to help other travelers and answer some questions about Santa Monica!





At a Glance
without making any stops
total driving distance is 16 miles
driving time of 25 minutes
flight distance is 14 miles
flight time of 32 minutes
229 Santa Monica travel answers
648 Los Angeles travel answers








   
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