Commuting and Jobs in Laguna Beach

The roads in

Laguna Beach has two ways in by state highway. Caltrans describes State Route 133, Laguna Canyon Road, as one of two state highways that connect the city to the rest of Orange County. The other is State Route 1, Pacific Coast Highway. Visit Laguna Beach names the 405 as the closest freeway, Highway 133 as the exit and Toll Road 73 as the closest toll road. Caltrans notes that the northern part of SR-133 is a toll road that lets drivers reach Irvine.

The Census Bureau puts mean travel time to work at 29.0 minutes for 2020 to 2024. This page gives no single drive time, because the hour of day and the route change it. Test your own route at the time you would leave.

Distances by road

These are approximate driving distances from Ocean Avenue by Main Beach, measured with OSRM routing on OpenStreetMap data. They are not official figures.

Destination	Distance by road
Fashion Island, Newport Beach	About 7.9 miles
Irvine Spectrum	About 9.8 miles
John Wayne Airport	About 15.0 miles
South Coast Plaza	About 15.8 miles
Disneyland	About 24.8 miles
Downtown Los Angeles	About 50.5 miles

Buses and trolleys

Two OCTA routes, Route 1 and Route 89, list stops in Laguna Beach in schedules effective August 9, 2026. OCTA’s blog describes the bus depot on Broadway as the place to connect to OCTA buses that continue to other cities.

• Route 1 runs from Long Beach to San Clemente along Pacific Coast Highway.
• Route 89 runs between Laguna Beach and Rancho Santa Margarita along Laguna Canyon Road, El Toro Road and Santa Margarita Parkway, with a stop at the Laguna Hills Transportation Center.

OCTA’s fact sheet counts four bus routes and 72 bus stops in the city as of June 30, 2026, and more than 130,800 bus boardings in fiscal year 2025-26. Check octa.net for routes beyond these two.

The city runs its own free service. The Coastal Route trolley follows Coast Highway from North Laguna to Dana Point, the Canyon Route and Summer Breeze cover Laguna Canyon Road, and the free on-demand Laguna Local picks up in residential neighborhoods. Transit dispatch is (949) 497-0766. Seasonal hours change, so read the city’s trolley page. See getting around and parking.

John Wayne Airport and trains

Of the four airports on the facts page, John Wayne Airport is the closest by road, about 15 miles. Check OCTA’s schedules for bus connections.

Metrolink stations nearest by road, measured from Main Beach with OSRM routing:

• Laguna Niguel/Mission Viejo, 28200 Forbes Road, Laguna Niguel: about 10.6 miles.
• Irvine, 15215 Barranca Parkway: about 10.8 miles.
• San Juan Capistrano, 26701 Verdugo Street: about 13.6 miles.

Largest employers

The city’s Annual Comprehensive Financial Report for the year ended June 30, 2025 lists its principal employers for 2024-25, based on direct correspondence with local businesses. The table follows the report’s order and names. Its percent of total employment uses a city labor force the report puts at 11,800, from state labor force data.

Rank	Employer	Employees	Percent of total employment
1	Montage Laguna Beach Hotel	621	5.26%
2	Laguna Beach School District	365	3.09%
3	Providence Mission Hospital, Laguna Beach (Laguna Beach campus only)	340	2.88%
4	City of Laguna Beach	331	2.81%
5	Surf & Sand Resort	248	2.10%
6	Laguna College of Art & Design	224	1.90%
7	Las Brisas Restaurant	162	1.37%
8	Anneliese Schools	114	0.97%
9	Pavilions	94	0.80%
10	Mozambique Restaurant	87	0.74%

The ten together employ 2,586 people, or 21.92 percent of the labor force. The same report lists a fiscal year 2025 unemployment rate of 3.1 percent, taken from state labor data. The city’s website has a Job Openings page for its own positions. See laguna beach facts for more basics.