Planning a multi-stop hourly day in Los Angeles

With hourly service you reserve the chauffeur and vehicle for a block of time, and the chauffeur waits with the car between stops. That fits a day of sightseeing, shopping or visiting family far better than a string of one-way rides, because nobody has to book a new car at each stop or stand on a curb with bags. Hourly bookings start at a 3-hour minimum online, and time past the booked hours is billed at the hourly rate of the vehicle booked. The hourly chauffeur page covers the basics; this guide is about building the day itself.

Before you build the order, confirm opening days and any reservations. Two of the city's most visited stops close on Mondays: the Getty Center, which is free but requires a timed-entry reservation, and Griffith Observatory, which is free to enter. The Getty is open 10:00 am to 6:30 pm most days, with later hours to 9:00 pm on Saturdays, while the Observatory opens at noon on weekdays and 10:00 am on weekends and closes at 10:00 pm.

Reservations and timed tickets anchor the day, so put them in first and fit everything else around them. Griffith Observatory says its building is busiest on weekends, in summer and holiday periods and at sunset, which is exactly when many visitors want to be there. A weekday visit, or an earlier slot, usually means a calmer stop.

Los Angeles rewards a route that keeps moving in one direction. The sample day below starts and ends at a Beverly Hills hotel, heads west to the Getty and the beach first, then sweeps east to Hollywood and up to the Observatory before returning. The distances are for the usual route between stops, and the times assume the buffers described in Step 3. If your hotel is elsewhere, keep the same shape: start with the stop farthest from your base and work back toward it.

• 10:00 am: pickup at a Beverly Hills hotel
• 10:20 am to 12:30 pm: Getty Center, about 6 miles away
• 1:00 to 3:00 pm: lunch and the pier in Santa Monica, about 8 miles from the Getty
• 3:45 to 5:00 pm: Hollywood Boulevard, about 14 miles from Santa Monica
• 5:30 to 6:45 pm: Griffith Observatory, about 5 miles from Hollywood
• 7:15 pm: back at the hotel, about 10 miles away

Add 15 to 30 minutes to each drive for traffic and slow approaches, and more for any leg that crosses the city on a weekday afternoon. Then add the time at each stop, total it and round up to the next full hour. The sample day runs from 10:00 am to 7:15 pm, 9 hours 15 minutes, so a 10-hour block leaves room for a long lunch or one extra photo stop.

If the total lands between two blocks, take the larger one, because time past the booked hours is billed at the hourly rate of the vehicle booked. When stops are far apart and you plan to spend most of the day at one of them, compare the hourly quote with two one-way rides before you decide.

Each stop has its own curb rules, and a little research saves circling. At the Getty Center, the public entrance is at North Sepulveda Boulevard and Getty Center Drive, and cars or vans carrying 15 or fewer passengers drop off and pick up at a designated turnaround outside the parking structure. The Getty also warns that there is no cell reception or Wi-Fi in its parking structure, so agree on a pickup time before you go in.

Griffith Observatory has paid parking closest to the building and is busiest at sunset and on weekends, so agree in advance where the chauffeur will meet you when you walk out. In busy districts such as Hollywood Boulevard or the Santa Monica Pier area, a hotel entrance or a quieter side street usually makes a calmer meeting point than a crowded boulevard curb.

Reply to your confirmation e-mail with the stop list, and keep the phone number on the reservation reachable all day. You receive the chauffeur's details and a live tracking link before pickup, which makes it easy to call the car when a stop runs short or long. The order of stops can change during the day as long as it fits the hours booked, so swap stops if a line is too long or the light is better somewhere else. Shopping days add bags as the hours go by, so pick a vehicle with room to spare using our vehicle class guide.

• Every stop open on your date, with timed tickets reserved
• Address and the exact entrance for each stop
• Drive time plus a 15 to 30 minute buffer for each leg
• Block rounded up to the next full hour, 3 hours minimum online
• A vehicle with room for shopping bags or a stroller
• A meeting point agreed for every pickup