SANTA MONICA

If it ain’t named after a saint then it’s not worth visiting.  Believe it or not, pretty much every town round these parts is named after one. We’re now in Santa Monica, the patron saint of celebrities and vagrants. 

The famous Santa Monica Boulevard

And talking of celebrities, we swung by Malibu beach to see if we could spot any down by the pier but no luck.  

Malibu Pier and Beach

Malibu beach

Malibu Pier

In Malibu everyone drives a Porsche but probably can’t afford to shop unless they’ve got a fistful of coupons.  The other half, the petrol-head equivalent of a ‘twitcher’ was almost noting down make/models on his ‘life list’ there were so many maseratis, lamborghinis and porsches carelessly parked by the roadside. 

Pacific Park on Santa Monica Pier

Santa Monica is like the Weston-Super-Mare of the Californian coast before the pier burnt down.  Amusement arcades, fairground rides and tacky tourist shops jostle for space on a pier bordered by beaches that stretch further than the eye can see.  

In case you need a snack break

You almost need a bus to go for a paddle, the beach is so wide.

Santa Monica's beaches go on for miles

Sea front walkway takes you down to Venice Beach

Like the crazy British tourists we are, we decided to walk along the sand to Venice beach almost 1.4 miles, amusing ourselves along the way by taking photos of lifeguard towers, seagulls and other random seaside stuff.

Cute little sea birds

Venice Beach is either full of cool, wacky stuff (if you want to go with what’s in the guide books) or a holiday haven for aged hippies and homeless pot-heads.  Fun to stroll through but nothing more, unless of course you’re a hippy or a pot-head then you’ll probably want to live here as you’d think it was the coolest place on earth.  Still, when in Santa Monica you must do Venice Beach.

Venice Beach

It's all tacky tourist shops and tattoo parlours

If you’re not impressed with Venice Beach, you will be by the sunsets.  Tonight’s sunset must be the most colourful and spectacular one I’ve seen in a long time.  It was almost impossible to capture the blue to purple-orange tones silhouetted with palm trees of the sea front but these shots will hopefully give you some idea of sunset over Santa Monica.

Sunset across the sea front

The sky turned vivid orange, purple and blue

The pier by night

Hard to believe we’ve completed the first week of our holiday.  We’ve already travelled approx 476 miles in this short time frame.  Our resting place tonight is good old Travelodge on Pico Boulevard.  

Santa Monica Travelodge - Pico Boulevard

Room 107

Tomorrow we arrive in Los Angeles for the next of our 2 day stopovers.