Los Angeles City Guide: The Beaches - Travel & Discovery

Santa Monica is 5.6 kilometers of well-maintained California beachfront, and enjoys on average 340 days of sunshine a year, plus a nearly constant gentle ocean breeze. Cycling, movie shoots, beach volleyball games, and the finest of people watching all happen here, and it's no wonder. People love to gather at this California beach, in part because it is so pristine. Santa Monica Beach in particular is a natural asset that local residents take great care to preserve. 10 picturesque hectares stretching 2.5 kilometers on the bluffs overlooking the Pacific in Santa Monica provide a green buffer zone between sand and city, beginning at the Santa Monica Pier. Offering direct contact with the beach and ocean, the famous Santa Monica Pier is home to a ferris wheel and full over-the-water amusement park, while Palm Tree-lined Ocean Avenue has an array of prized ocean view restaurants and hotels. The pier's carousel, with hand-carved wooden horses, originally designed and built in 1916, offers good old-fashioned entertainment. Today the pier is a popular recreational destination, as well as a vibrant reminder of the past. As vital as it has ever been, it draws over 4 million visitors annually. The Santa Monica Pier celebrated its centennial on September 9, 2009, making it one of California's oldest pleasure piers. Ocean Avenue is the westernmost street in Santa Monica, and for most of its course runs parallel to Palisades Park, whose sandstone bluffs overlook the Pacific Coast Highway and Santa Monica State Beach. Santa Monica Beach is bordered with the winding walkways, manicured lawns, and gnarled trees of Palisades Park. This popular public park with its green lawns, tall palm trees, public art, and paved walking trails is situated at the top of Santa Monica's cliffs, offering panoramic views over the beach and Pacific Ocean. With a world-class rose garden, ornamental sculpture, benches, and running pass, Palisades Park has something to offer just about everyone, and all in view of the Pacific Ocean. Sunsets over the Pacific are justly famous, and Santa Monica Beach is a great place to watch them. At night, the solar-powered ferris wheel lights up Pacific Park on the Santa Monica Pier.