Great time in Santa Monica, CA. There is no place as fun and friendly as Santa Monica in the summertime. The Third Street Promenade is the quintessential shopping experience where you can stroll outside, enjoy the sunshine and shop in retail stores that deliver a well rounded choice of fashion, home decor, surf themed active wear, and abundant movie theaters and restaurants. We really liked Monsoon, beautiful interior, good food and they had the Laker game on the TV in the front bar. Locando del Lago is a very authentic Italian Restaurant with a great wine list. You can walk right to the Santa Monica Pier from there and ride on the historic carousel with its beautifully carved elegant horses. Next door is the coolest, funkiest surf themed restaurant called Rusty's Surf Ranch. We loved the collection of authentic longboards, live music and great food. Lots of fun, they made us feel like locals, not tourists. Pacific Park with the amazing Ferris Wheel that gives you a bird's eye view of the coast is wonderful. The manageable rides are great fun for even young kids. At the end of the PIer you can gaze out over the Pacific Ocean as if you were sailing out to sea. Big fun and all affordable. Great city for families, young people and adventurers.

Santa Monica is a great place to visit in the Spring, or anytime as the weather is pretty terrific year-round. You can check out the 3rd St Promanade, the Pier and Venice Beach live from your own computer before you go via the many web cams around town. I found the best ones at: www.Westland.net
There is plenty of parking at the beach, so bring your blanets, coolers and beach toys and stay all day and into the night.

I am seriously not someone to complain about a place. I am glad I went to Santa Monica during my trip to LA, but spending time on the beach is a real dissapointment. I'm glad to have done it because it is a cultural experience, but it is just really polluted, and dirty with some questionable characters walking around (and I don't know if the hovering LAPD helocopter was supposed to make me feel more safe, but it didn't).

Santa Monica is a great place to stay away from the endlessness of LA while being a relatively easy access to Universal Studios, Hollywood and Beverly Hills. Great shopping on the Third Street Promenade, with fun buskers at night and on weekends, bike to Venice Beach, visit the Santa Monica Pier, drive up to Malibu, visit the Getty, sit by the pool.
Santa Monica gives a human scale to the endlessness of LA