Santa Monica

What to Know About Santa Monica

Where the workday ends early, and the ocean is the reason for everything.

You can tell you've crossed into Santa Monica before you ever see the water. The pace drops, the streets tilt west, and everything from the lunch line to the traffic seems to assume you have somewhere better to be by four o'clock. We've helped buyers land on every side of this city, and that easy rhythm is usually what they fall for first.

Santa Monica at a Glance

• Location: Coastal Los Angeles County, roughly eight square miles wrapped around Santa Monica Bay
• Character: Hip, pedestrian-friendly, and unhurried, with a beach-town streak that survives the crowds
• Housing: Craftsman bungalows in Sunset Park, 1920s Spanish revival north of Montana, and oceanfront condos along Ocean Avenue
• Landmarks: Santa Monica Pier, Third Street Promenade, Palisades Park, and Bergamot Station

What Are the Best Things to Do in Santa Monica?

The Pier will always get the postcard, but it isn't where you'll actually spend your time. Once you live here, the city gets much smaller and much better.

Best Entertainment Spots in Santa Monica

• BroadStage: A 500-seat theater at Santa Monica College, intimate enough that you'll hear a cello breathe, with dance, opera, and jazz on the calendar
• Aero Theatre: The Montana Avenue movie house programmed by American Cinematheque, where classics and repertory runs are worth the ticket for the room alone
• Bergamot Station Arts Center: A former rail stop on Michigan Avenue turned into galleries you can wander for a full afternoon without a plan
• Santa Monica Playhouse: A Fourth Street institution running live theater, comedy, and family shows, with acting classes if you'd rather be onstage
• Pacific Park: The Pier's amusement park, home to the solar-powered Ferris wheel you can pick out from Palisades Park at dusk

Best Recurring Events in Santa Monica

• Downtown Santa Monica Farmers Market: Wednesdays and Saturdays on Arizona Avenue, where Wednesday is the chefs' market, and Saturday is where you'll bump into everyone you know
• Main Street Farmers Market: Sunday mornings in Ocean Park, smaller and slower, and much easier with a stroller or a dog
• Santa Monica Classic: A 5K and 10K every September that finishes steps from the Pier, with a kids run and a festival on the deck afterward
• Tongva Twilight Sounds and Cinema Series: Free summer evenings of music and film in Tongva Park, close enough to the water to make a night of it

Outdoor Activities Locals Love in Santa Monica

• Palisades Park: Twenty-six acres of bluff-top lawn along Ocean Avenue, with a rose garden and the best sunset bench in the county
• Santa Monica Beach: The sand where two-player beach volleyball was invented, with public courts near the Pier still in constant use
• Marvin Braude Bike Trail: The paved beach path running past the Pier, long enough for a serious ride and flat enough for a lazy one
• Tongva Park: Six acres of lookout hills, fountains, and shade a block off the water, easy to reach from downtown
• Annenberg Community Beach House: The public beach club on Marion Davies' former estate, with a historic pool and courts anyone can reserve

Where to Shop in Santa Monica

• Third Street Promenade: Three car-free blocks downtown with weekend street performers and six decades of history as the city's front porch
• Montana Avenue: More than 150 boutiques and cafes between 7th and 17th, the stretch you'll stroll when you want to browse rather than buy
• Santa Monica Place: The open-air center at the Promenade's south end, redesigned by Jon Jerde and reopened in 2010
• Main Street: Ocean Park's retail spine, where surf shops and vintage racks keep the whole strip from feeling too polished

What Are the Best Restaurants in Santa Monica?

Dining here splits between the old-guard Italian rooms tucked into Santa Monica Canyon and the newer places downtown. You can't really understand the city without trying one of each.

Local Eats and Fine Dining in Santa Monica

• Giorgio Baldi: The Channel Road trattoria drawing a famously private crowd since 1990, worth the patience its reservation line demands
• Caffè Delfini: A brick-lined room a few doors up West Channel Road, family-run for more than three decades and back open since spring 2025
• Tartine: The Arizona Avenue bakery inside a converted 1920s Tudor Revival building, with country bread and morning buns by day and sourdough pizza at dinner
• R+D Kitchen: The Montana Avenue standby from the Hillstone group, indoor-outdoor and reliably right for a long lunch

Top Spots to Grab a Drink in Santa Monica

• The Golden Bull: A Channel Road fixture that reopened after the fire and still keeps later hours than most of this city
• Chestnut Club: A craft cocktail room on a quiet inland block, mobbed on weekends and calm enough midweek to actually hear each other
• Basement Tavern: Downstairs in a Main Street Victorian, with live music most nights and no pretense about it
• Library Alehouse: The Main Street beer garden with a back patio you'll sit on far longer than you planned
• Harvelle's: A Fourth Street blues club that's been booking live music for decades

FAQs

Why is Santa Monica a good place to live in?

You get a real city that still behaves like a beach town, with groceries, doctors, theater, and three farmers markets inside eight square miles. Families have Franklin and Canyon Elementary, Santa Monica High School, and New Roads close by, plus Santa Monica College for anyone taking a class or starting a transfer track. What keeps people here is that the ocean isn't a weekend destination; it's just where your street ends.

What is Santa Monica best known for?

The Pier, first and always. It's the end of Route 66, the image everyone recognizes, and the only Ferris wheel most people can name. Past that, we'd point you to the volleyball courts near the Pier where the two-player game started, and to the private clubs like the Jonathan Beach Club that have lined Palisades Beach Road since the 1920s.

What is the housing market like in Santa Monica?

Expect real variety and real competition. Craftsman and Spanish revival bungalows fill Sunset Park and Ocean Park, the blocks north of Montana hold the largest estates, and downtown and Ocean Avenue carry most of the condo inventory. There's nowhere left to build, so anything well located tends to move quickly at every price point.

Moving to Santa Monica?

We've worked this coastline long enough to know which blocks stay quiet, which ones catch the afternoon wind off the bay, and what proximity to Montana is actually worth. Whether you're deciding between Sunset Park and Ocean Park or you already know the street you want, we'll tell you what we'd tell a friend. Reach out to us — learn more about our work in Santa Monica, and let's start a conversation.