A Walk in Santa Monica

Santa Monica has been drawing people to its shores since the 1880s, when the promise of sunshine and Pacific breezes turned this stretch of coastline into Southern California's favorite escape. On this walking tour, you'll explore the city's most iconic landmarks, from its famous pier to the clifftop park above the Pacific Coast Highway. You'll also hear how Santa Monica carved out its own identity – distinct from the sprawling city of Los Angeles surrounding it.

The tour starts at the corner of Colorado Avenue and Ocean Avenue, beside The Lobster restaurant. You'll make your way down to the beach past the original Muscle Beach, where acrobats and gymnasts still train on the grass, and the Santa Monica Chess Park, where oversized pieces sit waiting on a giant outdoor board. Then you'll climb the pier for views across Santa Monica Bay toward Malibu, Palos Verdes, and – on clear days – Catalina Island, thirty miles offshore.

After walking the length of the pier, you'll descend to the beach, pass under the pier itself, and cross a pedestrian bridge over the Pacific Coast Highway into Palisades Park. You'll follow the clifftop path past the Georgian Hotel, a 1933 Art Deco landmark that once hid a speakeasy, and the western terminus of Route 66. The tour ends at the statue of Saint Monica on Wilshire Boulevard, and you'll learn how a Spanish monk's discovery of a desert spring gave this city its name.

On this 60-minute tour, you'll have a chance to:

• Ride or admire the 1916 carousel, famously featured in the 1973 film The Sting
• Learn how the pier began life in 1909 as a sewage conduit before reinventing itself as an entertainment destination
• Spot the solar-powered Ferris wheel of Pacific Park, the only amusement park on a pier on the West Coast
• Visit the Heal the Bay Aquarium, tucked beneath the pier, dedicated to protecting marine life
• See a 12-foot cannon in Palisades Park, originally stationed on Angel Island and gifted to the city in 1908
• Hear how a grassroots campaign saved the pier from demolition in the 1970s

Lace up your walking shoes – this tour packs a surprising amount of history into one of California's most famous stretches of coastline.