Where to Stay in Inglewood, California

What is Inglewood known for?

Inglewood is a city of arenas and stadiums on the plain of the Los Angeles Basin, ringed by the wider sprawl of Los Angeles. Sport and music define it. The Kia Forum draws concerts and crowds to the flat ground near the coast, and a new district of stadiums has risen on the old Hollywood Park racetrack land beside it.

The city sits close to the Pacific and to the runways of Los Angeles International Airport just to its west. Low residential streets fill the blocks between the venues on the level basin floor.

What are the main landmarks in Inglewood?

Inglewood's landmark is the Kia Forum, the round concert arena that has drawn music crowds to the basin floor for decades. It stands west. On the far side of the city it rises close to the new stadium grounds laid out over the old Hollywood Park racetrack land, anchoring the sports-and-music district that gives Inglewood its name across the wider region of Los Angeles.

Low commercial blocks and civic buildings fill the streets around it. The runways of Los Angeles International Airport lie just beyond the western edge on the flat coastal plain.

What is the history of Inglewood?

Inglewood was laid out in 1888 on the ranch lands of the Los Angeles Basin, one of the early townsites founded as the region around Los Angeles filled with settlers. It began as a farming and dairy town on the flat plain west of the growing city. Horse racing came early, and a racetrack drew crowds to the level ground and shaped the district that would later hold the arenas.

The town spread in low streets across the basin floor through the first half of the twentieth century. The arena era changed it. A large concert and sports venue, now the Kia Forum, rose on the west side of the city and made Inglewood a fixture of the region's sporting life.

The airport built beside it drew hotels and workers to the western edge. Newer stadium grounds later rose on the old racetrack land, drawing crowds back to the basin. Racing, then arenas, shaped the city on the coastal plain.

Where is Inglewood?

Inglewood lies on the coastal plain of the Los Angeles Basin in California, west of downtown Los Angeles and close to the Pacific. The ground here is flat. Level basin floor spreads across the city between the ocean to its west and the built-up expanse of Los Angeles to its east, with only low rises breaking the plain.

Runways of the international airport border its western edge. Warm dry air and clear ocean light hold over the coastal ground through much of the year.

What is the climate of Inglewood?

Inglewood has a mild Mediterranean climate, with warm dry summers and short mild winters on the coastal plain. Rain falls in winter. The Pacific tempers the heat of the Los Angeles Basin, and sea breezes and coastal fog often reach the city from the ocean just to its west.

Summers stay warm and dry under long clear skies, and hard frost is almost unknown on the level basin floor. The ocean air keeps the coastal ground even through the seasons.

How do you get to Inglewood?

Inglewood sits beside Los Angeles International Airport on the western side of the Los Angeles Basin, the closest city to its runways. Flights land next door. The Century Freeway runs along its southern edge toward the airport, and the San Diego Freeway crosses close by, carrying road traffic from across Los Angeles and the wider coast to the arena district on the plain.

Light rail runs through the city, linking it to downtown Los Angeles and the venues along the line. Surface streets grid the flat basin floor in every direction from the centre.