What should I pack for Los Angeles?

Los Angeles's biggest packing trap is assuming "Southern California" means one temperature. On a mid-June morning, Santa Monica beach might sit at 17°C under a thick grey marine layer. The locals call it "June Gloom," and it tends to burn off by noon. Drive 30 minutes east to Pasadena or the San Fernando Valley and you'll hit 33°C by 2 PM. That's a 16-degree swing in the same metro area, on the same day. The fix is simple. Pack a light jacket or hoodie you can tie around your waist, plus a couple of t-shirts. Cotton works fine here because the humidity rarely climbs above 40% inland, though coastal areas hover closer to 60%. You won't sweat through your clothes the way you would in Miami or Bangkok. The dry air is the thing nobody warns you about. Your lips will crack by day two. Your sinuses might feel raw by day three. Toss a good lip balm and a small tube of moisturizer in your carry-on.

Walking shoes matter more than you'd expect in a car city. The Getty Center, which opened in 1997, sits on a hilltop in Brentwood, and the walk from the tram drop-off through the Richard Meier-designed gardens covers about 2 km of smooth stone and gravel. Griffith Observatory's trail from the parking lot is a 1.5-km uphill climb on loose dirt. The Hollywood Walk of Fame runs 15 blocks along Hollywood Boulevard, and that sidewalk concrete radiates heat by midday. Flip-flops work at Venice Beach. They don't work anywhere else. One pair of broken-in sneakers and one pair of sandals will cover every situation you'll encounter. Sunscreen is the other thing you cannot skip. Los Angeles sits at 34°N latitude with roughly 300 clear days per year, and the UV index hits 9-10 in June. You'll burn standing in line outside the Dolby Theatre, which opened in 2001 and hosts the Academy Awards each year. You'll burn sitting in traffic with the window down. SPF 50, reapply every 2 hours. Sunglasses with UV protection are worth bringing from home rather than gambling on boardwalk vendors.

Los Angeles is possibly the most casual major city in the US. You might notice tech executives at restaurants in Culver City wearing shorts and sneakers. Silver Lake coffee shops see more vintage band tees than button-downs. Leave the blazer at home unless you have a reservation somewhere like Bestia in the Arts District or Providence in Hollywood, where smart-casual still means clean jeans and a decent top, not a suit. To be fair, even those spots won't turn you away for wearing a nice t-shirt. Pack one outfit that looks put-together for a possible nicer dinner. That's it. Bring a reusable water bottle. LA tap water is drinkable but has a warm, flat, slightly chlorinated taste at most hotels. Fill up at water fountains in Griffith Park or the Getty. A portable phone charger is worth the bag space because Google Maps navigation drains batteries fast across a city that stretches 70 km from Malibu to Pasadena.

Skip packing an umbrella for a June visit. Los Angeles averages less than 1 mm of rain in June, and many years record zero. If you're visiting December through March, that changes. LA's rainy season drops about 380 mm total, concentrated in short heavy downpours that flood the wide boulevards within minutes. Winter visitors should bring a packable rain jacket and a waterproof phone case. For summer, pack a hat with a brim, a swimsuit for Santa Monica or Zuma Beach in Malibu, and a light cover-up for the walk from sand to restaurant. The sand at Venice Beach gets hot enough by 1 PM to burn bare feet, so cheap flip-flops for the beach walk are worth the suitcase space. Mind you, the Pacific Ocean off Los Angeles stays cold year-round, roughly 18°C even in August. It's a shock the first time you wade in. That cold salt smell mixed with sunscreen and the gritty sand between your toes. Those are the sensory details of an LA beach day, not the warm bath most first-time visitors picture.