We spent the day firstly driving up to Malibu and then parking at Santa Monica Pier ($8 all day) The pier has loads of fairground attractions on it and you can hire bicycles for about $9 an hour which means that you can cycle up and down the beach and also visit Venice boardwalk. From the Pier you walk over... more

We took our 2 year old to Santa Monica Pier and were pleasantly surprised, that he could ride several of the kiddie rides. Single ride tickets are only $2.50. The operators took their time to make sure everyone is buckled up and the ride went quite a long time. I would recommend this for toddlers, who would only ride a... more

There are lots of souvenir shops, you can leisurely walk around . great view more

Not a bad place, but don't expect an all day visit. The rides are OK, but beware of private events that can close the park to all that are not part of the renting group. Plenty of shopping nearby and beach is nice, walkable, and long.. more

On the pier are a small amusement park, restaurants, souvenir shops, and a nice view of the ocean. It is really lovely walking up and down the pier, but unless you're into that amusement park, I don't think you could stay there for more than a few hours unless you hang out at the beach the rest of the day.... more

Our first stop in LA after checking into our hotel was the iconic Santa Monica Pier. I am sad to say I was not impressed. Coming from the east coast and having been to many beaches with boardwalks and piers, I didn't see anything spectacular. We did enjoy the merry go round, it was beautiful. The pier it's self is... more

The Santa Monica pier is famous. As far as piers go, it's right up there in fame with Pier 39 in San Francisco. The problem is that it isn't anywhere near as interesting as 39 is. The beach that surrounds it is fine...it's typical SoCal fare. But the pier itself suffers from just being mediocre at everything it attempts to... more

My son and I had the best time. We rode the rides and got cool caricatures done of ourselves. Once we were done,we headed down to the beach. It's also not to far from the 3rd st promenade. A must see when coming to SoCal. more

This was a neat place to kill some time on our free day. The kids had never seen the ocean before, but the beach was pretty dirty, so we didn't spend much time on it. There were some homeless folks sleeping by the boardwalk, which kind of scared the kids as well. The pier itself has some neat shops/restaurants, etc.... more