How much is parking at the Santa Monica Pier? The distance from Venice Beach to Santa Monica Pier itself is about 3 miles, so you can definitely do it if you’re looking for a nice long walk with ocean views. There is a path you can walk or bike on that forms part of a 22-mile beach trail. Yes, you can walk to Venice Beach from the Santa Monica Pier, but it’s not a short walk. Can you walk from Venice Beach to Santa Monica Pier? Step a block or two away from the pier, and the food options are pretty much endless. While many of them are touristy, there are some gems, including The Lobster, a long-standing restaurant serving up seafood dishes from a newly-hired celebrity with a nice ocean view.įor quick and casual eats, try the food stands on the pier, such as JAPADOG, which offers hot dogs with Japanese inspired toppings. There are a few places to eat on and near the pier. Insider tip: The Heal the Bay Aquarium is small compared to other better-known aquariums in California, but it only costs $7 per person, so it’s an affordable one to bring the family to. You’ll still find people fishing from the pier today. Yes, there really is quite a bit living under the pier. There are touch tanks kids will love, plus exhibits on octopus, moon jellyfish, moray eels, and the diverse sea life that you can find underneath the pier. The Heal the Bay Aquarium used to be called the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium, but since 2003, it’s been run by Heal the Bay, a nonprofit that focuses on protecting our waters. Even if you don’t buy into the idea that her ghost still walks the park, it’s true that the actress used to visit the hippodrome, though she had to come in disguise to avoid being mobbed by adoring fans. Some believe the hippodrome at Pacific Park is haunted by the ghost of Marilyn Monroe. (I’ll cover this more in the FAQs at the bottom.)įun fact: Here’s a little LA lore for you. But don’t spoil your appetite too much because there’s good food in the area for lunch. And you’ve got the usual fun theme park foods to splurge on. It’s worth a walk around outside just to admire the building.Īlong with all the rides, there are plenty of carnival games at the pier. The hippodrome (pictured toward the top of this post) is rather interesting architecturally: cobalt-colored arched windows and lots of them on pale pink walls, almost Moorish in style. The park contains a few gems for history lovers, too - a historic carousel and the Looff Hippodrome, a national historic landmark over 100 years old. Instead, you purchase tickets for individual rides like the roller coaster and bumper cars. Unlike many other amusement parks, there’s no admission charge to enter Pacific Park. Got kids? This is the place to take them. The amusement park at the pier, currently called Pacific Park, boasts a famous Ferris wheel that’s the world’s only solar-powered wheel of its kind. The pier was getting seedy, definitely not a place where you wanted to take the family for spring break. A gangster named Tony Cornero ported his casino boats off the coast with water taxis to bring people from the pier aboard to gamble (illegally) what little money they’d saved. The pier was losing its prestige, and many storefronts couldn’t make enough to stay open. When the Great Depression hit, the tourism industry came to a screeching halt. At the Santa Monica lifeguard headquarters, Preston Peterson developed the Peterson lifeguard tube, the modern tube most lifeguards use today. Tourists flocked to the beaches of Southern California and the Santa Monica Pier was the epicenter of tourism.įun fact: With so many people swimming on the beach, they had to have top-notch lifeguards on duty. Next to the pier, Muscle Beach - an outdoor gym you can still see today - brought in famous weightlifters and spectators. When Route 66 was finished in the ’20s, Americans now had a direct path leading to Santa Monica. (They stopped using it for this purpose in 1920 don’t worry.) People naturally gravitated to the pier, which led to the creation of the Looff Pleasure Pier in 1916, featuring carnival rides, arcades, a dance hall, and yacht harbor. Santa Monica first built a municipal pier which was used to pump treated sewage out into the ocean. Around the turn of the 20th century, pleasure piers were common on the West Coast.
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