Best Travel Tips to Santa Monica (California)

santa monica pier

Santa Monica is an attractive resort town, part of the urban agglomeration of Los Angeles. It is located on the Pacific coast in northwestern Los Angeles, extending to nearly 4.4 kilometers along the coast, between Pacific Palisades to the north and Venice to the south. One of the biggest attractions in Santa Monica is the coastal promenade. With its tall palm trees it creates sunny and friendly summer atmosphere.

santa monica pierLike Malibu, Santa Monica also has its own pier, which attracts numerous visitors already over a century and is often the center of numerous social and cultural life events, including awards, performances and many other.

Most of the attractions and recreational opportunities in the coastal city are focused here. Santa Monica is an exciting destination for lovers of entertainment.

City’s promenade attracts cyclists, lovers of jogging, inline skates, and just people who want to walk at sunset along the coast.

Santa Monica was one of the places to make biggest contribution in the creation and development of the modern fitness culture.

Santa Monica offers many opportunities for entertainment for all the people who want to visit some interesting museum or art gallery and see some local sculptures and works of art under the open sky.

Population. With its population of nearly 90,000 residents, Santa Monica is one of the largest suburbs of the American metropolis of Los Angeles.

Here you can meet people from all races, cultures and religions, coming from all over the world. Approximately one third of the total population of the city consists of young people between 25 and 44 years.

Around 2/3 of the residents are white, and about 13.1% are Latino. The third largest portion of the society with about 9.1% is the African American ethnic group.

santa monica palm treesEconomy. Santa Monica has a very good reputation and the residents of this area enjoy higher-than-average standard of living.

The city’s economy is almost entirely related to the services sector. Tourism, finance, health, education and trade play a leading role in this part of Los Angeles.

Beaches. Santa Monica has a beautiful beach with fine golden sand. Seawater is rarely calm enough for swimming, but the waves attract surfers from all over the world.

Since the city is located in the innermost part of the bay, the ocean water here is usually about a degree or two warmer than most the other parts of Los Angeles, reaching 14°C in January and 20°C August.

Climate. Santa Monica enjoys a warm and pleasant Mediterranean climate. City‘s temperatures throughout the year range between 18°C in December and January and 28°C in August.

The nights are usually cold in winter (about 9°C) and pleasant in summer (about 18°C). The weather is generally dry with very scanty rainfall (about 330 mm per year), and consistently sunny and cloudless weather.

Snowfalls occur once in many years and usually the snow cover is very thin and melts very fast. The cold California Current is the main factor that keeps the temperatures throughout the year very nice.

When to visit Santa Monica? Although Santa Monica enjoys pleasant weather throughout the year, the best conditions to visit the city are during the spring and autumn months.

May, June, October and November offer plenty of sunshine, cloudless weather and pleasant temperatures of around 24°C.

santa monica beachWhat clothes should I wear? Talking about their city, the people living in Santa Monica like to say that there is a bigger difference between day and night temperatures than during the year.

This, of course, is a little exaggerated, but to some extent gives an idea about what kind of clothes you need. Summer clothing in Santa Monica is needed throughout the year, but during the winter months you should have on hand also a warm sweater in combination with jacket.

The weather during the year is generally very nice, but is also quite variable. Sometimes it can be pretty cold and then you will be glad to have warm clothing.

Bring sunglasses, sunscreen and bathing suit, especially if there is a pool nearby.

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