Santa Monica

Santa Monica is a city in Western Los Angeles County, right on the coast where the USA meets the Pacific Ocean, and it is one of LA's most famous beach cities. Easily reachable by public transport, Santa Monica is a pleasant area to visit, and has everything from shopping to sand. I visted Santa Monica twice a couple of weeks ago, so I feel qualified now to write a review on the place. It's definately somewhere everyone should check out whilst in Los Angeles. There are a number of ways to get to Santa Monica. I personally was not travelling with a car, so I can only really tell you about public transport. There are two options that I am really familiar with. ...  Read the complete review

I had opted to stay in Santa Monica when I travelled to California on a recent fly-drive. From here, I figured, I could see most of Los Angeles, before heading inland to stay at Anaheim, to meet The Mouse and his friends. Despite it being part of Greater Los Angeles, if you want to stay in LA, where you stay will probably come down to three neighbourhoods: Hollywood (which despite the heritage is really quite down at heel and grubby); Anaheim (to visit Disneyland) or here. Judging from what I saw, a large part of the income in Santa Monica itself is based on tourism. Either in the amount of restaurants and cafes and bars there are, and the hotel/motel ...  Read the complete review

Santa Monica was one of the towns we ended up in on our day trips from the slightly-up-the-coastal town of San Pedro during my one and only trip out to the west coast of America. As other reviewers have said, it's a great place! We went in December, in fact we spent the day before Christmas Eve there, and it was a wonderfully relaxed place after the hustle and bustle of Los Angeles. There were quaint little shops, dinky little waterfront cafes and of course, the widely talked about pier. For me though, the best bit had to be sitting on the beach - the very same beach that they filmed Baywatch on! If I went now it might not be as exciting, but let ...  Read the complete review

The Santa Monica that is often portrayed on films is the pier, to give a description you walk along it and to either side of you their is some Henna Tattoo artists, carts selling the latest gadget (Scooters last time I went) and then you get to the fair, it is your average quality fair a little more expensive because of the location. Even more expensive are the shops and venders surrounding the pier charge up to $7 for fries in the summer. Now one of the worst things about Santa Monica is its Beach. The beach is dirty, the water is cold, it is sooo crowded and somebody is always trying to sell you something (Not what they show you on Baywatch). The last ...  Read the complete review

If your going to stay in and around L.A why not hang by the beach in a relaxed safe environment of Santa Monica.Most of the beach areas in The City Of Angels are gang territory by night from the Colorful Venice to the tip of Huntington down in Orange county. You are also near the safest bus station around and fairly close to Hollywood and the Glam stuff with regular buses running out that way with connections to the spanking new metro system. Amazingly the beach where they filmed Baywatch is generally empty in the week with just the local loons and health geeks doing the Yoga and stuff. If you look right up the coast one will see the Headland in just about all beach ...  Read the complete review