That is heavy traffic time. Time wise I would guess a little more then an hour.There are two easy routes for you to take. If you have three or more people in your car, use the CAR POOL(express lane) in the first route. If not either route will do.#1 Leave LAX to405 SOUTH to105 EAST to110 NORTHOnce you arrive in the downtown area you can follow the signs to either the Staples Center or Convention Center#2 Leave LAX to405 NORTH to10 EASTOnce you arrive in the downtown area you can follow the signs to either the Staples Center or Convention CenterYou should plan this trip to take 2 hours. It should not take that long, but all it takes is an accident and your stuck for a while.Edit..Just so you know there are many routes to get to your location and everyone has their favorite routes. But what many people don t know is that these routes are easy because they use them often. For a person to navigate directions in an effective manner they must be simple. Even with a GPS you still will take a lot of time in your route because you are not familiar with your surroundings. If you are not familiar with the LA streets, then I would not try any routes that navigate through the streets. You can easily end up in places you have no business being in, and you can wreck when trying to follow a GPS while driving..I could of given you many directions that cut through streets. But then I would be assuming you know how to navigate these streets and that is not a wise thing to do. Because you asked for directions in the first place, I assumed you do not know the area which is why basic and simple directions are given to you by me..
There are about 20 other ways besides the freeways that will take you less than an hour, and are actually VERY easy. If you own a G P S, look these up and see how they work:Leaving the airport, go north on Sepulveda Blvd. about a mile to La Tijera. Turn right on La Tijera (pronounced la-tee-hair-a ) and follow it for a quick mile or two across to La Cienega Blvd. Turn left (just follow traffic, as this is a VERY big intersection with three left turn lanes onto La Cienega.) Follow La Cienega down the big hill about 4 or 5 miles to Washington Blvd (past Target, past the new construction for the light rail). Turn right on Washington, and follow it across to downtown and Figueroa Street, which is only about 6 or 7 miles from La Cienega. Turn left on Figueroa and follow the traffic to Staples, which will be on your left about 2 or 3 blocks from Washington.I m a driver who follows this exact route frequently, and I ve done it in rush hour in 45 minutes. La Cienega Blvd is like it s own little freeway, and Washington Blvd flies. Taking this route, you ll pass over the 405 while you re on La Tijera, and you ll see what you re bypassing. Also, right at Washington and La Cienega, you ll pass under the 10 and have another quick look at what you re missing (read: horrific bumper to bumper non-moving traffic).This route involves four streets: Sepulveda Blvd, La Tijera, La Cienega and Washington. Well ... ok, 5 if you count Figueroa, but it really is quite easy.My one big concern is that La Cienega might have some heavy traffic on it towards the bottom of the hill because of the construction of the new rail. If that s the case (and you ll know way ahead of time), you may wish to turn right on Rodeo Road at the bottom of the big hill, and follow Rodeo all the way across to Figueroa St., instead of sitting in the traffic looking for Washington. (Rodeo Road changes names once, to Exposition Blvd, but don t let that confuse you. Just keep heading East, and you will hit Figueroa no matter what large, 4 lane street you take. That part of town, it s all one big grid with all larger streets intersecting with all others).Anyway, feel free to look this up and see if it works for you.Best of luck !!
On leaving the airport take the Sepulveda Avenue just east of the United Airlines terminal to the onramp for I-105 East (Norwalk). Follow that to the I-110 North (Los Angeles). Both of these freeways have carpool lanes if you have more 2 people or more. Since this is roughly during rush hour and considering the congestion around Staples I d estimate about an hour or less.Once you are downtown I think the best option is to take the offramp to I-10 (West) but get off at the Pico Avenue exit, but instead of turning onto Pico go straight ahead and that will take you to Parking Structure B (on your left) where you can park and it s about a one plus block walk to the Staples Center (partly under the LA Convention Center assuming you are headed for a game or an event at Staples). There is also Convention Center Parking directly under the Convention Center and closer to Staples but it is a bit more expensive. If you aren t going there for an event there is plenty of parking across the street in front of Staples some offering short term parking. And if you park on the street be careful because of the metered parking and rush hour parking restrictions.Don t even consider the I-405 it s like a parking lot of cars that time of day.