Hourly chauffeur service in Santa Monica

Most Santa Monica stops are close together. Third Street Promenade to Main Street is about 1.5 miles, Main Street to Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice about 1.3 miles, and the Promenade to Montana Avenue about 2 miles. Each hop is short, but finding a curb is not, which is why an hourly booking, where the chauffeur keeps the vehicle close and meets you at the next stop, suits a beach-town day better than a string of one-way rides.

Downtown is the hub. Third Street Promenade is a pedestrian street closed to cars, so a car cannot stop on it, and pickups work better on a cross street or at your hotel entrance. The Metro E Line ends at the Downtown Santa Monica station at 4th Street and Colorado Avenue, which helps if someone in your party is arriving by train.

Ocean Avenue at Colorado Avenue, above the Pier, is often congested. The Santa Monica Pier Corporation suggests setting rideshare drop-offs to 1550 Appian Way, the beach parking lot by the Pier, to avoid the congestion of Ocean Avenue and the Pier bridge. From there, stairs and ramps lead up to the Pier deck, and cars can head straight back to Pacific Coast Highway and I-10, so the same address makes a sensible meeting point for a chauffeur.

The Pier is also getting a new bridge, and the Pier Corporation warns of altered traffic patterns and some limits on parking while the work continues. Before a Pier visit, confirm the pickup point with your chauffeur and allow extra time on Ocean Avenue.

The Downtown Farmers Market sets up at 155 to 199 Arizona Avenue, next to the Promenade, every Wednesday and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., rain or shine. The Wednesday market dates to 1981 and draws chefs as well as residents and visitors. Downtown streets are busier on market mornings, so choose a pickup point a block or two away from Arizona Avenue.

Main Street, just south of the Pier, and Montana Avenue, a 10-block stretch between 10th and 17th Streets with more than 150 shops and restaurants, are busy retail streets with limited curb space. Give the chauffeur an exact corner for each pickup, and a short message as you leave a shop is usually enough for the car to be there when you step out.

Santa Monica is the natural starting point for a coastal afternoon. The Getty Villa, at 17985 Pacific Coast Highway in Pacific Palisades, is about 6 miles from the Pier. It needs a timed-entry reservation, is closed on Tuesdays, and asks drivers to pull into the entrance gate, where staff check that each passenger has a ticket, rather than drop visitors outside.

Malibu Pier is about 12 miles up Pacific Coast Highway from the Santa Monica Pier. Caltrans repair work after the 2025 Palisades Fire has brought weekday lane closures to the stretch between Santa Monica and Malibu through much of 2026, so check Caltrans QuickMap before you set times, and see hourly service in Malibu for beach and dinner planning.

Hourly bookings start at a 3-hour minimum online. A Downtown and Main Street morning with lunch fits 3 hours; add Venice, the Getty Villa or a Malibu dinner and the day grows to 5 or 6. Time past the booked hours is billed at the hourly rate of the vehicle booked, so round up. The sample day below starts and ends at an Ocean Avenue hotel.

Visiting for meetings rather than the beach? Our Santa Monica corporate page covers offices, the E Line corridor and roadshow days. For those trips, LAX is about 9 miles south, usually 20 to 50 minutes depending on traffic, and waiting between meetings is covered by the hours booked.

• 10:00 a.m. pickup at an Ocean Avenue hotel
• 10:15 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Downtown Farmers Market (Wednesday or Saturday) and the Promenade
• 12:15 to 2:00 p.m. lunch and shops on Main Street, about 1.5 miles away
• 2:15 to 3:30 p.m. Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice, about 1.3 miles away
• 3:50 p.m. back at the hotel, about 3 miles: just under 6 hours, so book 6

Beach days carry more than people: beach bags, a stroller or a change of clothes. A Luxury SUV carries up to 7 passengers and 6 bags and is the practical choice for a family day, and rear-facing child seats and booster seats can be added when you book, up to 3 of each type. For one or two people, a Comfort Sedan or Executive Sedan carries up to 3 passengers and 3 bags. Larger groups can use the Mercedes Sprinter Van, up to 16 passengers, though the Getty Villa cannot park vehicles taller than 6 feet 10 inches.