Perhaps the most popular beach city in LA. (Santa Monica)

Member Name: CokaCola

Product:	Santa Monica
Date:	18/09/09 (41 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great Beach Location, Shopping, Eating, Relaxing

Disadvantages: Broken Glass in the sand!

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. Firstly, you can take the metro red line, which is quite accessible all over the popular Los Angeles areas like Union Station in downtown, right the way up through hollywood to a stop called "West Lake/McArthur Park" station. From here, you can take a metro rapid bus, which I believe was the 720 all the way to Santa Monica Pier. The bus travels along Wilshire boulevard to the coast, through Beverly Hills and passed Rodeo Drive if you fancy doing some shopping. The second option is to get the metro to Union Station in downtown Los Angeles and get the Santa Monica "Big Blue Bus", which is based in Santa Monica and will take you there. The Big Blue Bus is a seperate company from the LA metro, so I believe you cannot use your Metro day passes for services of this type.

The beachfront at Santa Monica is about average I would say. It is a sandy beach, however it is very packed during the day with tourists and locals looking to improve their tans. There are traders on foot looking to flog mangoes, melons and body boards and the worst part is probably that I saw a lot of broken beer bottles and smashed glass in general laying in the sand. Security on the beach is not bad, with lifeguards viewing the water from little raised huts and a helicopter passing low over the sands every couple of minutes, watching for any trouble.

Santa Monica Pier is the centerpiece of all the action. Not only does it allow you to walk out over the ocean, but there are several other activities and amenities on the pier. At the end of the pier is a miniature theme park, with a roller coaster and ferris wheel. I think that this is largely desgined for children, however I'm not sure I'd allow my own children to go on say the roller coaster, it looked to me a little tacky and unsafe. Santa Monica is also famous for it's indoor merry go round (Carousel).

Also located on Santa Monica Pier are a couple of gift shops selling the normal Los Angeles/Hollywood and even a small range of Santa Monica souvenirs. There are several food outlets, including "Bubba Gump Shrimp" and a typical American fast food place selling cheese burgers and fries. There are lots of little "stall" type setups with Churos, Candy Floss and bottled water for sale too. The pier has restrooms, and it is amusing to see how large the female restroom is in comparison with the men's room.

Traffic crossings in Santa Monica are very efficient in my opinion, and they seem to change almost immediately after you push the little button. Some of the crossings don't even have buttons, and have like little laser beams that you put your finger over, and they bleep loudly to register that a crossing has been requested. The streets that I walked on Santa Monica were all very safe feeling and generally very clean aswell. The shopping in Santa Monica seemed to me to be fairly upmarket in general, with expensive clothes and jewellery outlets, although there were less prestigious stores selling homewares and the like. I saw many a restaurant in this popular tourist area, so in theory getting something to eat shouldn't really be a problem.

Santa Monica is only a 45 minute walk away from Venice Beach, another popular beach city. Overall, I'd definately recommend it as a good beach in LA, and there is plenty of parking if you have a car, right by the beach, for about $10 with no skanky time limits.

Summary: Check out Santa Monica, and walk down to Venice Beach while you're there!