Sensational Santa Monica: Hot, New Hotels, Fab Food + A Famous Beach

SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA – Glamorous and casual hotels seconds from the beach. A farmer’s market where some of the country’s best chefs pick through selections of super fresh, lemons and Genovese basil to serve that night at local restaurants. Super cool neighborhoods, art galleries, and perhaps the most famous pier in North America.

Santa Monica is a gem that embodies all the best things about the California lifestyle, an open-minded city that welcomes visitors of all types and embraces sustainability and inclusiveness.

It was only three months ago that fires ripped through parts of southern California, destroying hundreds of homes. The January fires came perilously close to Santa Monica, but the city wasn’t touched by the fires in nearby Malibu and Pacific Palisades.

Locals understand that Santa Monica was spared, but people who saw the images on their TV’s in Toronto or Tacoma, Washington might assume that all of Southern California is a disaster area.

“Santa Monica sustained no damage during the wildfires in Los Angeles, and remained open for business and fully operational to serve travelers and support our neighbours,” said Misti Kerns, Santa Monica Travel & Tourism President/CEO. “We are endlessly inspired by how our tourism community came together to provide for those in need of relief, and now it is time to give back to them by planning a trip today.

“Visitation is one of the best ways to contribute to our community’s well-being and support our beloved destination’s hotels, businesses and attractions ready to welcome travellers with open arms.”

As someone who lived within a mile or two of the city for four years and in Santa Monica proper for a year in my university days, and as a travel journalist who visited the city a half-dozen times in the past 15 years or so, I was thrilled to get an invitation to go back in late March and see things for myself.

I’m happy to say this beautiful seaside city is fully open and welcoming guests as it always has. Not only are the old faves still going strong – the Ferris Wheel on the pier, the galleries at Bergamot Station, the stylish boutiques on Montana Avenue – but there many new restaurants and hotels to check out.

Not that you need another reason to go, but July 14^th of this year marks the city’s 150^th anniversary. Roots and Branches: A Tree’s View of Santa Monica is a special exhibition celebrating the occasion at the Santa Monica History Museum. Now through December, the exhibition explores the environmental history of Santa Monica and encourages visitors to reflect on how the city has evolved, with ecology as a focal point. 

Here’s a look at some old and new faves in Santa Monica.

ACTIVITIES/THINGS TO DO

BERGAMOT STATION ARTS CENTER

 

This is a complex that once served as a railway station and even a celery packing plant before being converted into a funky art zone 30 years ago. There are tons of super-creative galleries, a live theatre centre and several restaurants in what’s billed as the largest art gallery and cultural complex on the West Coast of the U.S. One of the exhibits I spotted was a series of paintings called “Windows” by artist Gail Albert Halaban that showed the inside of apartments in Paris and New York to illustrate the lives of the owners or renters. One small room I saw had a poster of Toronto Maple Leafs star Auston Matthews. Others showed dogs, lovers, giant balloons for a party and people playing cards. Other Bergamot galleries had a fabulously colourful mural showing Jimi Hendrix, Martin Luther King, and a waitress who was scowling as if it was the end of a graveyard shift at a lousy diner with crummy tippers. Another gallery had wonderful mirrors taken off old cars at a junkyard that were inlaid with faded photos, including a canoe on a lake and a faded motel sign. It’s a truly remarkable place for an art lover.

THE SANTA MONICA PIER

 

The city’s famous pier stretches out over Santa Monica Beach, a fine, wide, stretch of sand that goes on for several miles. The pier is the western end of famous Route 66, which turns 100 years old next year. There’s a fun, zippy roller coaster, a Ferris Wheel, an old-fashioned arcade, and lots more for the whole family. Maria Sol is a nice Mexican restaurant at the end of the pier, which offers excellent views north to Malibu and south to Venice, the Palos Verdes Peninsula and lovely Catalina Island. There are also souvenir shops, live entertainment and several restaurants. Families will enjoy the Heal the Bay Aquarium. 

MONTANA AVENUE

 

Located on the north edge of town, not far from the beach, this is to me the best shopping district in the city; an attractive, 10-block district that caters to both locals and visitors and features a wide array of interesting boutiques. Pink Chicken (best name on the street) has delightful clothes for kids and women, while Brentwood General Market has everything from bowls and baskets to stuffed bunnies (we visited a few weeks before Easter) and Malibu hats. Check out the great cheese and food offerings from around the world at Andrew’s Cheese Shop, then drop into the Bottled Poetry wine shop for something to go with it. Ten Women Gallery is a marvelous spot to check out for everything from fine paintings to jewelry and casual, small squares with smiling dogs or a lion in a blue Hawaiian shirt. One of the owners, Susan Haskell, told me there are actually 24 women who run the gallery. “We all do three-hour time slots in the store and share the rent,” she said. Some hail from California, like Haskell, but others come from such distant spots as Russia, England and Egypt. One of the artists is a trained architect who makes beautiful, delicate metal earrings. On a more sombre note, Haskell told me two women who display their art here had their homes destroyed in the January southern California wildfires and lost almost everything but the art they had in the shop. “But they’re both very positive,” she said with a wan smile. “You just have to move on.”

SANTA MONICA FARMER’S MARKETS

 

We were at the downtown market in March and found a spectacular array of produce, including orange beets, tangelos, Persian cucumbers, tiny, orange “Meiwa” kumquats and seedless lemons. There were also riotous ranunculus flowers and other floral displays. I was hugely impressed, but Chef Raphael Lunetta from Marelle Restaurant at the Sandbourne Hotel (see below) told me it was pretty light, as many fruits and veggies weren’t yet in season. Top chefs like Lunetta make regular appearances at Santa Monica’s markets to get the freshest ingredients they can. The downtown market takes place on Arizona Avenue every Wednesday and Saturday and covers several blocks. There’s another market on Pico Boulevard on Saturdays and one on Main Street on Sundays.

NEW DOWNTOWN WINERY

 

Aja Vineyards is a very nice downtown wine tasting room, with wines from nearby Malibu and other parts of California. The staff is super friendly and engaging, and the wine is quite good. I especially enjoyed the 2019 Miracle Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, as well as the Syrah. Malibu isn’t internationally known as a wine-growing area, but the Greenbaum family is making a go of things. One fun thing to try is the “Somm Bomb,” a mixture of whatever white wines were left over from the previous day’s tasting. Located on 2^nd Avenue in the heart of downtown Santa Monica, the room is open from Wednesday to Sunday.

WHERE TO STAY

PIERSIDE HOTEL

 

We enjoyed a fabulous stay at this recently renovated hotel on our most recent trip. Located a mere half-block from the Santa Monica Pier, the hotel has a casual, surf feel without going over the top. It was formerly a Wyndham property but was given a thorough renovation and reopened as the 132-room Pierside early in 2023. The lobby has a fireplace and lots of comfy seating areas. As part of their Destination Amenity Fee Program ($45 per day plus tax) they’ll lend you a surfboard, boogie board or skateboard for no charge for two hours, as well as sand toys and even a Go Pro to catch all the action. You also get a one-hour, complimentary e-bike rental.

There also are games you can take to your room, and they’ll bring a record player and your choice of vinyl from their record collection. We had a large suite on the south side of the hotel, overlooking Tongva Park, with a bit of an ocean view. The bed was great and we had a nice, L-shaped sectional up against the large windows (they’re all triple pane glass). The room had a coffee maker, a steamer for wrinkled clothes, and a shower big enough for the front line of the Los Angeles Rams. The service was superb. One morning while waiting for an Uber to arrive in the covered hotel entry area, my wife asked me if I had any Kleenex. Within three seconds the fellow at the valet stand was offering her a box of tissue. Now, that’s service.

There’s a good-size, heated pool that site below one of the city’s most iconic murals, a well-stocked, 24-hour fitness center (hey, Santa Monica is the home of the original “Muscle Beach,”) and free yoga on the beach on Saturday mornings. The hotel, which has 168 rooms, also is dog friendly.

Hotel PR director Csilla Martin-Arujo told us the hotel attracts a lot of Canadians and Aussies.

REGENT SANTA MONICA BEACH

 

This might be the prettiest hotel in a city that’s renowned for stylish, beachside stays. It opend late in 2024 and is the only Regent hotel in the USA. It’s part of the InterContinental Hotel Group, which is expanding the Regent brand around the world.

The atrium lobby glitters with gold and was filled with brilliant white lilies when we there. It’s an opulent space that feels to me like Beverly Hills meets the beach, which is easily visible through a series of large windows at the west end of the lobby.

One cool feature is a massive, linear electronic display alongside the check-in desk. During the day it plays a live camera feed of Santa Monica Beach from a camera on the hotel roof.

The smallest room is 720 square feet in a hotel that has 167 rooms. That’s down from 342 rooms when it was a Loews hotel back in the day.

The seventh-floor room I checked out had a powder room and a huge marble shower, as well as a soaker tub and double sinks. The room was sunny and bright, with plenty of crisp whites and nice splashes of colour. There’s also a cool archway separating the living space from the bedroom.

A few rooms face the city instead of the beach, but hotel PR director Celia Debonnet told us nobody looks out at a blank wall. All rooms also have balconies, which is a rarity these days.

The two-story Atrium Suite on the second floor is to die for, with a large TV room, a kitchen and floor-to-ceiling windows to let in the light and enjoy fine ocean views.

The hotel also features a Guerlain Spa and a state-of-the-art fitness centre (5 a.m. to 10 p.m.) with treadmills, barbells, cross-trainers and more.  The hotel also is home to a Michael Mina restaurant called Orla (see below), and the Orla Bar.

The Regent also has a sunrise yoga studio overlooking the beach, and the hotel harvests its own tomatoes.

Need more? The lobby also features a Sweet July outlet, a café and shop started by Toronto-born Ayesha Curry, an actress and cooking show star who’s married to NBA superstar Stephen Curry. It’s a lovely store with everything from kids’ clothes and travel gear to cookbooks and children’s books, including one I spotted called “Where the Wild Moms Are.” The coffee lattes and scones are outstanding.

THE SANDBOURNE HOTEL

 

The first thing that stands out when you enter this hotel is that it doesn’t go overboard on the beach theme.  The lobby features plenty of earth tones and a colour scheme that feels more Arizona desert than California ocean, but I like that it stands out a little.

The lobby, and the hotel itself, features tons of rounded shapes and curves and bobs and weaves, as well as a variety of textures. “We WANT people to run their hands over the furniture,” said PR director Erica Thorne, who hails from Pickering, Ontario. “We want them to feel the various textures.” Although the colour palette (the work of renowned designer Gulla Jónsdóttir) subdued, I did find plenty of nautical bits. I hadn’t been when it was a JW Marriott property, but Thorne said the hotel was given a serious facelift (after all, we’re almost in Hollywood) to make it much lighter and brighter. It reopened as the Sandbourne, a Marriott Autograph Collection hotel, in May, 2024.

There’s a nice breakfast bar in the lobby that turns into a cocktail bar later in the day, and plenty of nooks for working or conversation. There are also plenty of high-tech, cozy meeting spaces. Out back you’ll find a lovely, multi-level patio area with fire pits, benches and an outdoor swimming pool. The onsite restaurant and bar, Marelle, is helmed by Chef Raphael Lunetta. Marelle also has a bit of a southwestern feel, and I was told some of the lamps inside were made by women from a village in Oaxaca, Mexico.

There’s a sizable, 2,500 square foot gym with Techno Gym equipment and pelotons, and there’s also a yoga room. Thorne said there are free pottery classes on Saturdays, allowing guests to create their own “air-dry pinch pot pottery to take home.

It’s one of the few hotels in the area without a destination/resort fee, but they still provide beach chairs, an umbrella, beach towels and boogie board, as well as beach cruiser bikes and e-bikes. The steam room and sauna are free to use, there’s free coffee in the morning, and guests are greeted with a welcome beverage.

The hotel has 175 rooms and suites, many with balconies. Pets get a welcome amenity and a plush bed, and there’s also a dog park on site.

OTHER GREAT HOTEL OPTIONS

The Fairmont Miramar Hotel and Bungalows is an historic, grand property across the road from Palisades Park. We stopped into the lobby bar on our recent trip and sampled a very good old-fashioned and a fabulous Sazerac, which comes in a box that contains all the needed ingredients and is mixed tableside by your waiter or waitress.

Other great hotel options in town that I’ve stayed at and recommend include The Huntley Santa Monica Beach, the stately, Spanish-inspired Casa Del Mar, and the trendy Shore Hotel.

WHERE TO EAT

LE GREAT OUTDOOR

 

This is a thoroughly enjoyable dining spot in the trendy Bergamot Station arts district. The design looks like a work of art, which makes sense given the many cool galleries in the district. There’s a strong industrial look, but also tons of plants in a covered restaurant that’s open to the elements (and also has space heaters for cool California nights). They serve a variety of dishes, many of them cooked on a large, outdoor grill. The burrata with shrimp was outstanding. We also enjoyed an excellent salad with arugula, radishes, bright red cherry tomatoes, pickled onions and olives.

THE SURFING FOX

 

This is an attractive, casual spot at the Pierside Hotel, with nautical-looking ropes on display, a swing-like seat that hangs from the ceiling, and cool California art. A hotel spokesperson told us they use as many California ingredients as they can. They also feature produce from farmers who display their wares at the twice-weekly Santa Monica Farmer’s Market. Customers who show a receipt from the market for a purchase from the restaurant’s chosen farmer of the month get 10% off their dinner. This month, for example, the local farmer of the month is Weiser Family Farms, so if you purchase from Weiser and show them the receipt, you get 10% off. I was blown away by the food here. The ceviche comes with fresh, local fish, coconut milk, spicy red peppers and avocado and was the best I’ve ever had by a country mile. The local Nantes Carrots (a sweet, heirloom variety) were cooked perfectly and topped with tandoori spices, honey-whipped yogurt and a crispy curry leaf. The roasted chicken was sublime; with crispy skin and a moist interior, served with cilantro rice, coconut sauce, and green sambal.

DIN TAI FUNG

 

This is a branch of the celebrated, highly popular Taiwanese restaurant chain, which specializes in steamed dumplings. It’s a massive, beautiful space with lots of gorgeous wood, and is located at the attractive Santa Monica Place shopping centre. It opened earlier this year and is attracting huge crowds. We enjoyed very good shrimp and Kurobuta pork pot stickers, and also silky smooth Xiao Long Bao soup dumplings with pork. The spicy noodles with broccoli also was a fine dish, as was the won ton with spicy sauce. Hint: dip your broccoli into the won ton sauce for a nice treat. 

SWEET MAPLE

Sweet Maple is a new spot (there are several outlets in California) across the street from the Regent Hotel, with very good breakfasts. The Hass Omelette came with avocado, bacon, Monterey Jack cheese and a side of pico de gallo. They’re also famous for their millionaire’s bacon; thick, free-range bacon that’s baked with brown sugar, cayenne, red and black pepper. There are a variety of lunch items, including salads, burgers and Korean Fried Chicken.

ORLA

 

This is a gorgeous space in the lobby of the new Regent Hotel, with celebrated California chef Michael Mina at the helm. Some of the indoor tables have tremendous beach views, and one of the room has glorious mosaic floors that were shipped in from Italy. There’s also a great, open air, covered dining room.

We had an excellent big eye tuna dusted with urfa, a Turkish spice, and served on a tiny, perfect falafel, as well as a lovely Orla salad with red gem lettuce, red gem, crisp apples, walnut and poppy seed dressing. We also had the Alexandria Fish Fry, which was rather plain in my opinion, and excellent lamb chops.

LUKE’S LOBSTER

This is a good place to stop if you have a hankering for a lobster roll., fresh crab, or maybe New England clam chowder. All the seafood is sustainable. You can dine in or try the patio. Better yet, take your lobster roll to Santa Monica Beach or the Pier.

LA LA LAND KIND CAFE

 

This is always one of my first stops in Santa Monica, and a great spot for breakfast. The avocado toast with burrata is brilliant, and they make excellent lattes. The café offers paid internships designed to help youth transition from foster care into adulthood. The emphasis here is on offering kindness and friendly service in a welcoming atmosphere, a solid message in today’s world. The outdoor patio is filled with lush flowers and plants, making it a perfect spot for a sunny day.

OTHER DINING OPTIONS

Some of my personal faves are Father’s Office, a longtime fixture on Montana Avenue that serves gourmet burgers, Socalo for Mexican and Citrin, a Michelin-starred spot with inventive cuisine. I can also vouch for Wally’s, which is both a great restaurant and a fine wine and cheese shop. The Penthouse, located on the top floor of The Huntley Hotel, is a stylish spot with great ocean and city views. If you’re looking for a great dive bar (and I mean that in a good way), check out Chez Jay, which is just a few steps south of the pier and dates back to 1959. Big Dean’s Ocean Front Café is a casual, beachy spot at the east end of the Santa Monica Pier with 35 TV’s. It’s said to be one of the oldest bars (1902) in the Los Angeles area.

OTHER SHOPPING OPTIONS

 

The 3rd Street Promenade is a lovely, car-free zone that stretches on for several blocks. Look for colourful surfboard art, fountains, graceful palm trees and just about every name brand shop you can think of, including Urban Outfitters, Hollister, Rip Curl and Victoria’s Secret. Santa Monica Place is a splashy, high-end, outdoor shopping complex at the south end of the promenade. Big name shops include Rolex, Nordstrom, Nike, Louis Vuitton and Uniqlo. Santa Monica Place also is home to the Cayton Children’s Museum and, soon, a branch of the renowned Arte Museum.

MORE INFORMATION: https://www.santamonica.com/