What to do in Santa Monica & Venice Beach

We are in Santa Monica, CA for the first time!  We have planned our day based on our research of what to do in Santa Monica and Venice Beach.  On the agenda for today, we decide to explore the Third Street Promenade, hang out at the Santa Monica Pier and walk the beaches of Santa Monica and Venice Beach.  And of course, to see the Pacific Ocean for the first time!!!

Third Street Promenade

After checking into our hotel, we head to the famous Third Street Promenade. We enter through a shopping area which is three floors of all completely fantastic shops! Santa Monica Place is a mix of inside and outside shops.  We walk up to the second level to take in the view and from here we can see down the promenade.  After popping into a couple of the stores, we cross the road onto the pedestrian walkway is known as the Third Street Promenade. This area is full of high-end shopping and fantastic restaurants.  We see stores that we don’t have in our area like Barney’s and Bloomingdales and there is food everywhere! 

Lunch at Cabo Cantina

Jason is ready for a beer so we pop into Cabo Cantina. Of all of the cookie-cutter shops and restaurants, this place stands out!  It doesn’t look like it belongs among the high-end shops but should be on a beach in Mexico.  The vibe in here is great and the bartender, Jason calls him Patrick Swayze, is really friendly! As we get ready to leave… it’s raining! So we decide to stay put and have some lunch… and more beer for Jason. Fish tacos in walking distance from the Pacific Ocean, um yes!!!  They were very, very good, as were the chips and salsa.  Jason cracked me up as he remarks on how epic the music is and that he ‘can’t stop eating’ to Journey’s ‘Don’t Stop Believing’.  Maybe you had to be there??? My mouth was on fire from that salsa and the habanero sauce that accompanied the tacos!

We enjoy our break but once the rain stops we head back out and start walking towards the water.  But before we leave the Promenade, we stop in the most interesting shop we saw which was the Tesla car shop where you can custom build a quarter million dollar car… yeah we don’t have that in Alexandria, Louisiana!  

Our first view of the Pacific Ocean

We keep walking and it gets colder and colder the closer we get to the water.  The wind/breeze coming off the Pacific was cold!  Did I mention the sun was not out yet because we were there during ‘June gloom’?  Basically, the sun doesn’t decide to show itself until mid-afternoon.  It was truly amazing to us to see this!  We have seen the Atlantic and we have been to the Caribbean, but each body of water has its own feel.  Our first impression is ‘holy crap!’  We can smell the salt and the see the mountains in one direction and the pier in the other with endless beaches!   

At this point was were across the street from the beach.  We are walking down this path that is literally at the top of a cliff and overlooks the PCH – Pacific Coast Highway. So if you go left you will go to Venice Beach and if you go right down the PCH you will find Malibu.  Did I mention how beautiful this is???  Green plants, palm trees and lots and lots of sand!

Santa Monica Pier

We keep walking until we get to the crosswalk to the Santa Monica Pier.  Here we cross the bridge of the PCH and onto the boardwalk, which is actually old school and made from wooden planks.  First up on our left is the carousel building which houses a very old, beautiful and ornate musical carousel and an ice cream shop.  As good as the ice cream looked we decided to wait since it was quite chilly out.  We walk a ways down the pier to the end of Route 66.  A picture with the sign is a must!  We do not spend much time here as we plan to come back at night.

Time to hit the beach!

We walk off of the pier and start walking down the beach.  Just as every body of water has it’s own feel, so do the beaches that accompany them.  This is by far the largest beach I have ever seen!  And luckily it was not busy at all so we were able to walk around at our leisure with no crowds.  We find a beach access path which is a walkway of wooden planks and head down towards the waves.  Perfect for us there is a solitary bench at the end of this walkway… Jason & I love our benches and sat here for quite a while taking in the beauty.  We sat here so long, the sun decided to come out for us!!!

We had to make our mark on the beach and carve EECC Travels into the sand… this is a tradition for us.  After consider putting our feet into the water, we realize nothing to dry them with so think better of that idea.  The only people in the water today are surfers in full body wetsuits.  The wind makes the waves perfect for surfing and sailing as we see several sailboats out as well.  

Walking to Venice Beach

We embark on the approx. 1 1/2 mile trek from the Santa Monica Pier to the Venice Beach Boardwalk. It is such a beautiful walk! The sun finally came out and warmed up the day. We could see the sunlight glinting on the Pacific Ocean with a cool ocean breeze blowing on us.  Along the way, we find some really interesting activities like kids in giant balls bouncing into each other and a bicycle made for six called the ‘Santa Monica-Venice Beach Shuttle’.

Walking onto the Boardwalk immediately has a different feel than Santa Monica! It is very bohemian with unique shops and artists everywhere!  There are artists selling paintings, shops full of unique metal works (shaped into every movie character you can think of), musicians playing and amazing smells of food wafting out from everywhere!

Venice Beach Skate Park

When in the area, one must visit the famous Venice Skate Park where skateboarding was born. This was special for Jason because he grew up with a skateboard under his feet! These guys and girls are fantastic! And we were super impressed with a kid of about 8 years old who could skate as well, or better, than many adults! We stayed here for about an hour watching these amazing skaters.  If I tried to do that, I would break something!!! 

Not far from the skate park is a graffiti park – at least this is what I am calling it – with amazing graffiti art and we even saw an artist at work.

Muscle Beach

Of course, we had to visit Muscle Beach as we had seen it so many times on tv. There are some very talented, very in shape people, showing off here!  It is much bigger than we thought as what was always featured on MTV was the outdoor weights/gym.  But there are huge basketball courts, handball courts, tennis courts, volleyball courts, etc all with stadium seating so you can pop a squat and watch some people work out.

When we decide to head back, we stop for some snacks. Jason grabbed some chicken teriyaki on a stick, which was excellent, and I opt for a slice of pizza as big as my head.  The food here is really good and cheaply priced!  The chicken on a stick was only $4 and the pizza only $5!  Then a beautiful walk back! 

Back in Santa Monica, we discover there are TWO Muscle Beaches… one in Venice Beach (the famous one) and one in Santa Monica (the original one).  This one doesn’t have the weights but instead a yoga field.  These people are crazy in shape!!!

A wonderful Italian meal

For dinner, we only venture a block away from our hotel to Fritto Misto Italian Cafe, which came highly recommended to us. It is a small family owned Italian restaurant and we were lucky enough to get one of the few tables in this quaint little place. And the food was fantastic!!! Not only was it delicious, the portions were huge and reasonably priced. Jason had the Italian Sausage & Roasted Peppers described as Sliced Italian turkey sausage, marinara sauce and caramelized onions on linguini (spicy) and I ordered the Santa Fe Ravioli which is Chicken ravioli tossed in garlic cream sauce, topped with pico de gallo.  What a fantastic meal!!!

A quiet evening

After a day of walking all over Santa Monica, we are ready for a quiet evening. We check into our hotel at the Hampton Inn & Suites and are blown away by our room! We only booked a regular room but were upgraded to a suite with an amazing view of all of Santa Monica all the way down to the Pacific Ocean. It is absolutely beautiful!!!

To further relax, we decide to put on our swimsuits and go check out the pool. This is unique in that it is on the second floor but is outside! We truly enjoyed relaxing in this area which has many lounge chairs, a heated pool, a hot tub and at the edge is a long fire pit surrounded by comfy seating where you can feel the breeze from the ocean and the warmth from the fire. What a way to end the day!

Santa Monica Pier at night

Day two we spend in LA and Hollywood but come back in the evening to see the Santa Monica Pier at night.  We arrive after the sun has set and we were determined to walk down and put our feet in the Pacific Ocean before we leave California!!!  We came prepared this time and shuck our shoes and walk out into the really cold water!  There were several kids playing in the waves but I could not imagine dunking more than my lower legs into this water!  But it was an experience not to miss!!!

We dry off our feet and walk up the stairs to the pier.  I am so glad we saved this for night time, all lit up it is so beautiful!!!  

Want to see our adventures???

If a picture says a thousand words, then a video says a million!  Check out our videos from this day in Santa Monica & Venice Beach:

What do you think of our awesome custom music??? That is Californication performed by Fall of Isaac… Jason’s band!

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Thanks,

Alisa 

EECC Travels