With the Pacific Ocean as its backdrop, Santa Monica is the perfect destination with its blend of sunny beaches, acclaimed shopping areas, and star gazing for A-list celebrities.
Located just minutes from downtown Los Angeles, and just steps from the beach, Santa Monica is an ideal beachside resort for all sorts of excursions, including guided tours of nearby Hollywood studio lots, a walk along the historic boardwalk or Santa Monica Pier
Amother popular place to walk is the pedestrian-only Third Street Promenade that is often filled with artists, musicians and a variety of other street performers.
With so much to do, Santa Monica creates the perfect setting for a romantic daytrip or family outing.
A great way to start your visit to Santa Monica is by visiting the California Heritage Square Museum located in the heart of fun and funky Main Street. Housed in a 19th-century Victorian style home, this museum offers a unique glimpse at local history with a series of period rooms depicting the Santa Monica way of life from the 1890s through the 1930s.
The Main Street Farmers' Market is also held in the museum's parking lot on Sundays.
Once you've learned a little about the Santa Monica lifestyle, it's time to experience it, and there is no better way than by taking a stroll down the Ocean Front Walk, a wide, paved footpath lined with palm trees, shops and restaurants that weaves its way along the sandstone bluffs overlooking the Pacific between Palisades Park and the pier.
Santa Monica California
Starting at the north end of the walk, with its amazing view of the ocean, running trails, bike paths is Palisades Park. This recreational area has been featured in many movies and TV shows and is truly a hidden gem in the bumper to bumper concrete jungle of west LA.
Continuing south, you will stumble upon the Marion Davies Guest House. This iconic structure built in the 1920s is the last remaining building on what was once William Randolph Hearst's fabulous ocean front estate, where Charlie Chaplin, Greta Garbo, Clark Gable, Leslie Howard and other stars of the day all enjoyed themselves at one of Marion's famous parties. A free tour of the house offers another fantastic peek into the history of Santa Monica.
Traveling towards the pier, Santa Monica State Beach Park provides a great place swimming, tanning, making sand castles or viewing of one of the magnificent sunrises or sunsets. Here you will find sandy beaches with plenty of lifeguard stations, some nice wave action, kiddy playgrounds, public restrooms and showers.
If you keep on following the cement pathway, a couple blocks away is Third Street Promenade.
Developed in the late 1980s by the City of Santa Monica in an effort to rejuvenate the waning downtown area, Third Street Promenade is the area's most popular pedestrian shopping precinct.
Located a mere three blocks from the Pacific Ocean with its enormous flagship stores
movie multiplexes, and restaurants, it is a day of fun for both adults and kids who love to play in the many fountains designed as giant dinosaurs placed throughout the four-block stretch. This is a part of town where you are sure to shop 'til you drop, and you can make an entire day out of it by visiting the nearby Santa Monica Pier with its myriad of carnival rides shops and attractions.
For a more relaxing activity, visit legendary Chess Park just south of the pier off the Santa Monica Bike Path, with its public chess tables and a human-scale chessboard set into the sidewalk.
Third Street Promenade Santa Monica
Santa Monica Pier
Finally, for an aeronautical adventure, the Santa Monica Airport -- the oldest operating airport in Los Angeles County --located just three miles southeast of Chess Park is an absolute must see.
Unlike most municipal airports, this historic airfield is more than just a landing strip.
It boasts two public observation decks, a pair of highly praised restaurants, a theater, art studio, soccer field, dog park, picnic and play areas, and an outdoor antique market on the first and fourth Sundays of each month.
The Runway View Deck and the Public Sky-deck are located on the east and west ends of the Airport and are free to view landing and departing aircraft and take photographs while listening to the air and ground activity broadcasts from the control tower over loudspeakers overhead. Santa Monica Visitors can also enjoy a picnic on the view deck as well as on the grassy area in front of the Airport Administration building can view a different angle by heading over to Clover Park at the corner of 25th Street and Ocean Park Boulevard - where there is a viewing area with a telescope focused on the runway.
Santa Monica a is located just off the 10 Freeway approximately 15 miles from downtown Los Angeles and 55 miles from southern Orange County.