Lincoln Boulevard
The instinctive choice and the most variable. Signals, left turns and cross traffic all the way down, which is fine at five in the morning and punishing at five in the afternoon. Good when the freeway has stopped altogether.
Route 03
Santa Monica to LAX, the short run people misjudge.
Close enough to the airport to feel like nothing, near enough to the 405 to become something. One fare from $125, agreed in writing, and the road picked on the morning you travel.
01 — Three ways south
The shortest distance is regularly the slowest drive.
This is the only run on our list where the map actively misleads people. Santa Monica sits so close to LAX that guests assume fifteen minutes and book accordingly. What the map cannot show is that two of the three sensible roads spend their day queueing, and that the queue moves from one to another depending on the hour. Here is what the chauffeur is choosing between while your bags are still in the hall.
The 405 south
Quickest when it is moving and immovable when it is not. On a clear mid-morning it is the obvious answer; in a build-up it can lose more time than every traffic light on Lincoln put together.
Sepulveda
The parallel option, running alongside the freeway rather than on it. It looks longer written down and is frequently the sane choice when the 405 has gone red and Lincoln is holding at every junction.
Usually twenty-five to fifty-five minutes, and the hour of the day decides which end of that you get. Traffic is the variable we cannot control, so we plan for the wrong end of the band rather than the right one.
02 — Where the car waits
Ocean Avenue forecourts, and the quiet streets behind them.
Beach-city pickups have their own small problems: doormen who control the forecourt, one-way streets that add three minutes if taken the wrong way round, and parking restrictions that decide where a car may legally stand at six in the morning. Agreeing the meeting point when you book removes all of it.
- Hotel forecourts on Ocean Avenue. Busy and usually managed by a doorman. Give us the hotel and the name the booking sits under and the car is announced rather than circling.
- Residential streets and apartment buildings. If the service entrance is easier with cases than the front steps, say so and the car waits there instead.
- Pickups before dawn. The easiest booking of the day. The chauffeur is in position early and waits without ringing the bell or leaving the engine running.
- Offices near the Third Street area. Early flights out of a meeting are routine here; the car can hold at the loading bay rather than the main door.
- Neighbouring addresses. Venice, Brentwood or Pacific Palisades are quoted individually rather than folded into this fare, and the figure still comes back in writing first.
- The return leg. Coming back into town, arrivals carry thirty complimentary minutes from wheels-down — see LAX arrivals for how that works.
One address, one meeting point, agreed before the day. It sounds obvious; it is the single change that removes most airport-morning stress.
03 — The figure
From $125, short drive or slow drive.
A set price on a short route matters more than it does on a long one, because a metered car punishes you precisely when the traffic is at its worst. Here the figure is agreed first and the traffic is our problem afterwards.
Fixed before you travel
One pickup in Santa Monica, one drop at the terminal that suits your airline, in the vehicle class quoted. Chauffeur, fuel, tolls and bottled water are in the figure. It is confirmed in writing before the booking is accepted, and a queue on Lincoln does not change it.
What would change it
A bigger class for luggage or headcount. An address outside Santa Monica, quoted on its own. Holding the car rather than travelling between two points, which is the hourly rate from $85. Each of those is priced before it is added, never after.
We own the cars and answer the telephone ourselves, which is the only reason a short run can carry a fixed figure at all. The reasoning is set out on why book direct.
04 — Boards, clubs and cases
A beach city departure rarely travels light.
Two or three people, ordinary luggage
The Mercedes-Benz S-Class takes three passengers and two large cases and is what the from-price assumes. The BMW X5 takes four and is the usual step up when a fourth passenger appears or the cases are the deep sort.
Both are quiet enough to make a telephone call from on the way down, which on an early flight is often the point.
Equipment, or a family
Golf clubs and board bags need height rather than seats. The Cadillac Escalade ESV and the GMC Yukon Denali each take six, the Chevrolet Suburban seven, and any of the three will swallow equipment a sedan cannot.
For a whole party leaving together the Mercedes Sprinter seats fourteen with luggage, which is one vehicle instead of three and one fare instead of three.
Tell dispatch what is coming with you, not just who. The class is chosen around the awkward item. Specifications sit on the fleet page, and the larger classes have their own pages at luxury SUV service and hourly chauffeur.
05 — How much buffer
On a short run, the buffer is for the terminal, not the road.
Guests here often want to leave forty minutes before check-in closes because the drive is short. The drive is short. The queue at the bag drop is not, and neither is the walk from the kerb to a distant gate. So we plan the pickup around the airport rather than around the mileage: an early domestic flight is comfortable with something over two hours between the pickup and departure, an international one wants three, and both leave room for the worst version of the road rather than the best.
Give dispatch the flight and let us suggest the time. If it turns out we were pessimistic, you have twenty spare minutes in a terminal with a coffee. If we had been optimistic, you would have had a different morning altogether, and no fixed fare makes up for that.
We will give you a band and the reasoning behind it, never a guaranteed arrival time. Traffic on the 405 and along Lincoln is the one part of this nobody can promise.
06 — Before you book
Five questions this particular run always raises.
Because the map is measuring distance and you are buying arrival. Santa Monica sits close enough to LAX to feel trivial, and that closeness is exactly what catches people out: Lincoln Boulevard carries traffic lights and left turns, the 405 south can be slower than a surface road at the wrong hour, and the terminal kerb takes its own few minutes. The drive is usually twenty-five to fifty-five minutes, and the hour of the day decides which.
Yes, and from the residential streets behind them. Forecourts on Ocean Avenue are busy and often controlled by a doorman, so the meeting point is agreed when you book rather than improvised on the morning. If your building has a service entrance that is easier with luggage, tell us and the car waits there instead.
It is the easiest booking of the day. Dispatch is answered every hour, four in the morning included, and the roads west of the 405 are as quiet as they ever get. The chauffeur is in position before the booked time and waits without ringing the bell or running the engine.
Those are different addresses, so they are quoted individually rather than folded into this route. The Santa Monica figure starts at $125 for one pickup and one drop in the vehicle class quoted. Send the exact address and the number comes back in writing before anything is booked.
Say so when you book and the class is chosen around it. A sedan takes three passengers and two large cases, which is not a board bag. A BMW X5 at four passengers or a full-size SUV at six gives you the height and the boot, and a Suburban at seven is the sensible answer for a family with equipment.
07 — Reserve
Short drive, planned like a long one.
Santa Monica to LAX from $125, one figure for the car, confirmed in writing before the booking is accepted. Tell us the flight and we will tell you when to be outside.
(323) 799-3190Dispatch is answered at every hour, four in the morning included.