Santa Monica out of season

We went out of season mainly to do shopping and have some good meals. Third Street Promenade was a pleasant surprise for shopping, eating and people watching.

A highlight was Camarillo Outlet Mall for quality shopping at discount prices and the drive there was also most pleasant with beautiful ocean and mountain views.

Venice was another pleasant surprised and we would definitely spend more time there on our next visit.

I never thought I would say this but the food was even better than what we are used to when visiting San Francisco area. We never had a less than a very good meal even at a food court, which I generally detest.

Santa Monica Place, despite being designed by famed architect Frank Gehry, was a disappointment. Although it is not the season we were somewhat disappointed that the pier was practically deserted at this time of the year.

Quick Tips:

Santa Monica is very convenient to reach from Los Angeles International Airport. Although the car rental companies will direct you to the freeways it is easier to use the normal routes as it is basically one left and one right turn and you are there 30 minutes later. We found using normal roads much more pleasant especially directly after a long flight.

The maps handed out by the Santa Monica Visitor’s Bureau are not to scale (as is duly noted on the maps) and the distance from Third Street Promenade to anything meaningful on Main Street is a lot further in real life. It is not a pleasant walk (first boring and then bad paving) so I would recommend doing the Los Angeles thing and go there by car.

We found parking on Main Street difficult during lunchtime just to discover ample free parking just a block inland if you are willing to walk a minute or two.

Hotel prices seem to drop a lot in the off-season. Some hotels are significantly more expensive over weekends than during the week while others are vice versa.

Best Way To Get Around:

It is easy to drive in Santa Monica and parking is freely available everywhere if you travel out of season.

Santa Monica claims to have the best public bus system in California and the Blue Buses were everywhere to be seen but we never used them ourselves.

The Third Street Promenade, Palisades Park and beach areas are very pleasant to stroll around, although the prevalence of the homeless in Palisades Park can make it a bit unnerving to walk in alone or at quiet hours. We enjoyed staying close to Third Street as it allowed us to walk to and from dinner and stroll around a bit in a safe, lively area at night without the need to find parking or drive around at night in an unfamiliar city.

Santa Monica is probably not that conveniently located if your main aim is activities in Los Angeles or other more inland destinations but it is convenient if you plan to stick to the coast.

The Ocean View Hotel is ideally situated two blocks from Santa Monica Pier and three short blocks from the Third Street Promenade. Palisades Park is across the road. It also offers easy access to the Pacific Coast Highway and the Santa Monica Freeway.

It is a no thrills establishment but clean and comfortable. Furniture is not luxurious but in a good condition. The room was adequate rather than spacious. Plumbing was a bit noisy not only from our own room but also from neighboring rooms, especially opening the bath / shower taps caused rumblings. The air-conditioning unit was also pretty noisy without an obvious "off" switch. The room also lacked adequate storing space – as we stayed five days we wanted to unpack and there were not really enough drawers to put any clothes in. The iron and coffee maker in the room were appreciated although the coffee was not of the best standard. Ice and vending machines for soft drinks are available on each floor.

The hotel offers few services, which suited us just fine, as great food is available from several restaurants within the same block. Continental breakfast is included in the room rate and consists of juice, tea, coffee (even worse tasting than the in room coffee!), pastries, cereals and apples.

The multilingual hotel personnel, especially at the front desk, were very friendly and competent. We needed a crib and it was delivered to the room in seconds rather than minutes. The hotel seems popular with young Japanese couples and there were also several German guests during our stay.

We had a room at $100 per night with a balcony facing the parking lot – it seemed a bit much to pay $50 per night more for an ocean view, as we were not planning to spend much time in the room in any case. Parking at $10 per night is available in the basement parking lot.

An internet search showed no difference in prices from different booking agencies so we booked at Best Western’s official site (www.bestwestern.com/oceanview) as it offered more flexible cancellation options.

 

Camarillo Premium Outlets is a
pleasant hour or so drive from Santa Monica and the place to shop if you
like bargains and believe Calvin Klein jeans should never cost more than
$29.99.

 
This outlet mall has more than 120 stores including Calvin Klein, DKNY, Saks
of 5th avenue, Adidas, Reebok, Nautica, Nike, GAP, Timberland
– see the list at
href="http://www.premiumoutlets.com/centers/index.asp">http://www.premiumoutlets.com/centers/index.asp
. The majority of stores are apparel but there are also some houseware,
discount books and CDs, and gourmet food stores such as Harry & David.
Head for DKNY if you want to see Japanese shoppers in action – many
shell-shocked that DKNY clothes which cost a fortune in Tokyo can be so
cheap.

The basic idea of the outlet malls
are to sell overstocked items – view all the yellow and orange shirts
going for a song at Barneys New York! – at discounts generally ranging
from 30 to 70%. Very few items are actually factory rejects or shop soiled
and the few that are, are clearly marked as such. The shops are clean,
modern, well lit and much like any normal store – generally much nicer
than most shops in Europe. In several shops the personnel seemed pretty
knowledgeable in contrast to previous experiences at outlet malls in
Northern California. Discounts abound at all times and when we visited in
early January several additional sales were in progress – "make lots of
space available in your trunk" is not just an empty advertising slogan!
You may need to visit the Samsonite store or any of several that sell
suitcases as well. You should of course not expect the exact range available
at normal stores but most of the brand name stores had a fair range of sizes
available for most items.

Restaurants are limited to a few odd
cookie / pretzel shops and a food court. The latter are non-franchised
establishments and served surprisingly tasty food – or maybe the senses
just got dulled while getting broke saving money?

Camarillo Premium outlets are just
off Highway 101, Las Posas off ramp – signboards point out the way
clearly.

A pleasant route to take from Santa
Monica is up Pacific Coast Highway 1 through Malibu. You will have good sea
views and if you leave in the morning the traffic is quiet and to the
opposite direction. Just past Malibu turn right in Malibu Canyon towards
Pepperdine University and the scenery change rapidly and dramatically.
You’ll have one or two brief views of the coast and then you are in the
mountains with sharp curves and steep drops on a well-paved and easy to
drive road. Continue on Las Vergines Road to Highway 101. It may be best to
avoid this road in the dark so when we returned we took Los Posas Road
directly to Pacific Coast Highway as it seemed easier, less busy and more
pleasant to drive than Highway 101.