What to Do in Your First 30 Days After Moving to Los Angeles — The Local's Playbook
Your first month in Los Angeles will feel equal parts exhilarating and overwhelming. The city is vast, the freeways are confusing, and you'll wonder why nobody told you about the parking signs. But month one is also when you set the foundation for your LA life — the routines, the places, and the people that turn a new city into home. Here's the playbook, week by week.
Week 1: Survival Mode (Days 1-7)
The Essentials
Day 1-2: Get your home functional. Unpack the kitchen and bedroom first. If you haven't already, set up LADWP (electricity/water) at ladwp.com and SoCalGas at socalgas.com. Schedule internet installation with Spectrum or AT&T Fiber — expect 3-5 day lead times.
Day 2-3: Find your grocery anchors. Locate the nearest:
- Trader Joe's — affordable staples, everywhere in LA
- Ethnic market — H Mart in Koreatown, Vallarta Supermarkets in the Valley and Eastside, Ranch 99 for Asian groceries
- Farmers market — find your neighborhood's market day (the Mar Vista Sunday market and Highland Park Tuesday market are great starting points)
Day 3-5: DMV and car registration. California requires you to register your out-of-state vehicle within 20 days. Book a DMV appointment immediately at dmv.ca.gov — walk-in waits can exceed 3 hours. You'll also need to get a California driver's license (written test required for out-of-state transfers). Don't procrastinate on this.
Day 5-7: Download the essential apps.
- Waze — navigation (better than Google Maps for LA traffic)
- Metro — transit planning and TAP card management
- ParkMobile — pay for metered parking without coins
- Nextdoor — your neighborhood's social network (great for local recommendations)
- MyShake — California's earthquake early warning system
Explore Your Immediate Neighborhood
Walk a 1-mile radius around your home. Find the coffee shop that will become your "office," the taco spot for lazy dinners, the park where you'll decompress, and the dry cleaner you'll need eventually. In LA, your 1-mile radius becomes your world on weekday evenings, so invest in knowing it.
Week 2: Getting Oriented (Days 8-14)
Establish Healthcare
Don't wait for an emergency. Within week 2, you should:
- Pick a primary care doctor — Kaiser Permanente is the easiest setup for families (many locations, integrated system). UCLA Health and Cedars-Sinai serve the Westside/Hollywood corridor. Providence has facilities citywide.
- Find your nearest urgent care — you'll need it eventually for a kid's ear infection or a sprained ankle
- Transfer prescriptions to a local pharmacy (CVS and Walgreens are everywhere; Costco pharmacy is cheapest)
Start Learning the City's Geography
Spend one afternoon driving (or Metro-riding) the city's major corridors:
- Sunset Boulevard east to west — from Echo Park through Silver Lake, Hollywood, West Hollywood, and to the ocean
- Ventura Boulevard through the Valley — Studio City, Sherman Oaks, Encino, Woodland Hills
- Metro B Line — ride from North Hollywood to downtown. It takes 25 minutes and teaches you the central spine of the city
- Pacific Coast Highway — drive from Santa Monica south through Westchester-adjacent Playa del Rey to San Pedro
This isn't tourism — it's building a mental map that will serve you for years.
Get a Library Card
The Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL) system is one of the best in the country. Any branch will issue a free card with proof of address. Benefits: free ebook and audiobook access (Libby app), museum passes for LACMA, the Natural History Museum, and more, plus co-working-friendly spaces with free WiFi.
Week 3: Building Roots (Days 15-21)
Join Something
The single most important social move in your first month: join an activity-based group. LA friendships form through shared activities, not proximity.
Options by neighborhood:
- Hiking groups — LA has dozens. The Sierra Club's local chapter, Meetup hiking groups, and informal neighborhood groups in Los Feliz, Eagle Rock, and Highland Park are easy entry points
- Fitness communities — CrossFit, climbing gyms (Sender One in DTLA/Santa Monica), yoga studios, running clubs (LA Road Runners)
- Neighborhood Council — LA has 99 neighborhood councils that meet monthly. Attending a meeting is the fastest way to meet engaged neighbors and learn about local issues
- Co-working spaces — WeWork, Industrious, and neighborhood co-working spots in Silver Lake, Highland Park, and Culver City create natural social connections for remote workers
Visit Your First Farmers Market
Pick the market closest to your home and go. Talk to vendors, taste the samples, buy something you've never cooked before. LA's farmers markets are community institutions — regulars see the same faces every week, and it's one of the easiest ways to feel rooted in your neighborhood.
Have Your First "LA Moment"
Do one thing that's uniquely, unmistakably Los Angeles:
- Hike to the Griffith Observatory at sunset from Los Feliz
- Get midnight Korean BBQ in Koreatown
- Walk the Silver Lake reservoir loop on a Saturday morning
- Eat a Hollenbeck Burrito at El Tepeyac in Boyle Heights
- Watch the sunset from Point Fermin Park in San Pedro
- Catch a Dodger game and walk back to Echo Park
These moments anchor you emotionally to the city. They give you a story to tell when someone asks "How's LA?"
Week 4: Expanding Your Radius (Days 22-30)
Explore Beyond Your Neighborhood
Now that your daily routines are set, spend weekends exploring neighborhoods you might want to visit regularly — or even move to next year:
- If you live in the Valley, spend a Saturday in Silver Lake or Highland Park
- If you live on the Eastside, drive to the beach through Mar Vista and explore the Westchester coast
- If you're on the Westside, take the Metro E Line downtown and explore the Arts District and Grand Central Market
Set Up Your Financial Life
- Banking — if your current bank has LA branches (Chase, Bank of America), you're set. If not, open a local account or use Kinecta or Logix Federal Credit Union
- Register to vote at registertovote.ca.gov — California makes it easy
- Update your address with USPS, your insurance, and your employer
- Review your car insurance — CA rates are higher than most states. Shop quotes from Geico, Progressive, State Farm, and AAA
Create Your "LA Top 5" List
By day 30, you should have a personal top-5 list of:
1. Your go-to coffee shop
2. Your default weeknight dinner spot
3. Your favorite grocery store
4. Your preferred park or outdoor spot
5. Your "happy place" — the spot you go when you need to feel good about living here
These five places form the nucleus of your LA life. Everything else builds outward from there.
The Month-One Mindset
Two things to remember throughout your first 30 days:
1. It's okay to feel overwhelmed. LA is enormous and unfamiliar. The freeways are confusing. You'll get lost. You'll miss home. This is normal and temporary.
2. Be intentional, not passive. LA doesn't deliver community to your doorstep the way smaller, denser cities do. You have to go out and find it — join the hiking group, show up at the neighborhood council meeting, become a farmers market regular. The people who thrive in LA are the ones who actively build their world here.
By day 30, you won't feel like a local yet — that takes 12-18 months. But you'll have the infrastructure of a life that's starting to feel like yours. And on a Tuesday evening, sitting on your favorite taco spot's patio in the warm air, watching the palm trees silhouette against a ridiculous sunset, you'll have a moment where you think: "Okay. I get it. This is why people move here."