This LA beach town is where Route 66 runs out of asphalt and into the Pacific

Four miles of sand at LA’s edge

Santa Monica sits about 15 miles west of downtown Los Angeles, right where the Southern California coast curves into the Pacific.

Nearly four miles of sandy shoreline stretch along the water here, and the whole city is compact enough to cover on foot.

You get the feel of a laid-back beach town mixed with real urban energy, all packed into a small footprint with ocean views around almost every corner.

This is also where Route 66 ends, the historic highway that starts in Chicago and runs all the way to the California coast. The road stops here, but everything else keeps going.

Tongva roots and five piers that drew the crowds

Long before anyone built a pier here, the Tongva people lived across the Los Angeles Basin for centuries.

Spanish explorer Gaspar de Portola and his party camped near the area in 1769, and by 1874, Nevada Sen. John P. Jones had purchased nearly 10,000 acres to start developing the city.

The Pacific Electric Railroad changed everything in the early 1900s, hauling crowds from across greater Los Angeles straight to the coast. Amusement piers exploded in popularity.

At one point, Santa Monica had five of them lining the shoreline.

The pier started as a sewer line in 1909

Santa Monica’s Municipal Pier opened on Sept. 9, 1909, and its original purpose had nothing to do with fun. The city built it to carry sewer pipes beyond the breakers.

Seven years later, carousel builder Charles Looff added a Pleasure Pier next door with rides and attractions.

The pier survived decades of storms, a near-demolition vote by the city council and a major restoration that started in the 1980s. Today it stretches over 1,000 feet into the Pacific.

The “End of the Trail” sign went up in 2009, marking Route 66’s symbolic finish.

The Ferris wheel runs entirely on solar power

Pacific Park opened in 1996 as the only oceanfront amusement park on the West Coast, and you can walk right in without paying a gate fee. Individual rides cost separately.

The centerpiece is the Pacific Wheel, the world’s first and only solar-powered Ferris wheel. The current wheel went up in 2008, stands 85 feet tall and rises more than 130 feet above the pier.

Over 174,000 LED lights cover it, all powered by solar panels. You also get the West Coaster roller coaster, midway games and food vendors right over the water.

A hand-carved carousel from 1922 still spins inside

The Looff Hippodrome building went up in 1916 and holds the distinction of being Santa Monica’s first National Historic Landmark.

Inside, a hand-carved carousel built by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company in 1922 still turns for riders today. Forty-four wooden horses circle the platform while a calliope provides the music.

You might recognize the setting from the 1973 film *The Sting* with Paul Newman and Robert Redford. The carousel was rebuilt inside the Hippodrome in 1990 and keeps running for anyone who walks through the door.

The fitness craze started right here on the sand

Santa Monica State Beach runs about 3.5 miles along the coast.

North Beach gives you a calmer stretch, while South Beach stays busy with volleyball, surfing and skating.

Just south of the pier sits the Original Muscle Beach, where Southern California’s fitness craze kicked off in the 1930s as a WPA-era project.

Gymnasts, acrobats, stunt performers and weightlifters trained on this sand during the Great Depression and helped launch a national fitness movement.

You can still use the outdoor rings, bars and exercise equipment today, all free and open to the public.

Ride 22 miles of coastline on the Strand

The Marvin Braude Bike Trail, known locally as “The Strand,” runs 22 paved miles along the Los Angeles County coastline.

It stretches from Will Rogers State Beach in Pacific Palisades south to Torrance Beach, passing through Santa Monica, Venice, Marina del Rey and the South Bay beach cities.

The trail stays flat the entire way, so cyclists, joggers, rollerbladers and walkers use it year-round. Head south from Santa Monica and you hit Venice Beach in about 15 minutes.

Bike rental shops near the pier make it easy to hop on without bringing your own gear.

The bluffs were too unstable for houses so they became a park

Palisades Park stretches over 26 acres along 1.6 miles of Ocean Avenue, sitting on top of coastal bluffs with wide-open views of Santa Monica Bay.

City founders Arcadia Bandini de Baker and John P. Jones donated the land in 1892 because the bluffs were considered too unstable for building homes.

Originally called Linda Vista Park, it became Palisades Park in 1915.

Walk the palm-lined paths past a rose garden, public art and benches, and look for the Camera Obscura, a working optical device built in 1898 that projects live 360-degree images onto a viewing disc inside a small dark room.

A parking lot turned into an award-winning park

Tongva Park covers about six acres just a couple of blocks from the pier on Ocean Avenue. Before it opened in October 2013, the site was a flat asphalt parking lot.

James Corner Field Operations designed it, the same firm behind New York City’s High Line.

The park splits into four areas: Garden Hill, Discovery Hill, Observation Hill and Gathering Hill, each with different draws from playgrounds and splash pads to ocean-view overlooks.

Rolling hills, braided pathways, native drought-tolerant plants and cascading water features all draw from the Southern California arroyo landscape.

Three car-free blocks and a farmers market twice a week

Third Street Promenade runs three blocks through the heart of downtown Santa Monica, from Wilshire Boulevard to Colorado Avenue, and no cars are allowed.

It first opened as a pedestrian mall in 1965, one of the first in the country, and went through a major renovation completed in 1989. You walk past shops, restaurants, street performers and movie theaters all in a row.

Every Wednesday and Saturday, the Downtown Santa Monica Farmers Market sets up here with dozens of farm stands selling locally grown produce, baked goods and artisan items.

The Saturday market, running since 1991, carries the largest percentage of certified organic growers among Santa Monica’s four farmers markets.

William Randolph Hearst’s beach estate is now free to visit

The Annenberg Community Beach House sits on five oceanfront acres that William Randolph Hearst originally developed in the 1920s for actress Marion Davies.

The Davies estate once held a mansion of over 100 rooms, designed in part by Julia Morgan, the same architect behind Hearst Castle.

That mansion came down in 1956, but the original guest house and an ornate tiled swimming pool by Morgan survived.

After the 1994 Northridge earthquake damaged what remained, the Annenberg Foundation gave a $27.5 million grant to restore the site for public use.

It opened to everyone on April 25, 2009, with a pool, splash pad, playground, beach volleyball courts and a gallery. No membership required.

An old rail station full of galleries and an aquarium under the pier

Bergamot Station takes its name from the wild bergamot flowers that once grew in the area.

The arts complex sits in a former railroad station that served trains from 1875 to 1953 and reopened as a gallery space in 1994.

About 18 galleries now fill the converted industrial buildings with painting, sculpture, photography and performing arts.

Down at the pier, the Heal the Bay Aquarium operates beneath the deck, run by the nonprofit Heal the Bay since 2003.

Over 100 species of local marine animals and plants from Santa Monica Bay live inside, including sharks, sea stars, jellyfish and moray eels, with hands-on touch tanks you can explore.

Visit Santa Monica on California’s coast

You can reach Santa Monica by car on Interstate 10 or Pacific Coast Highway, or take the Metro E Line straight from downtown LA. The city sits on the coast of Los Angeles County, about 15 miles west of downtown.

Once you arrive, most major attractions stay within a short walk of each other along the coast and through the downtown area.

The mild Mediterranean climate keeps temperatures comfortable year-round, with warm, dry summers and mild winters, so there’s no bad time to show up.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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