This is how Santa Monica presents itself to tourists:
Santa Monica was originally developed as a seaside retreat at the turn of the 20th century.
The railroad owners built the first version of the amusement park on Santa Monica pier as an attraction to fill empty train seats on weekends.
Santa Monica grew into an urban, eclectic, and prosperous beach city whose real estate values are amongst the most pricey in the world. Santa Monica is a very desirable city whose people are drawn to its accessibility and its progressiveness as a community. Today, Santa Monica is a mixture of very affluent, single-family neighborhoods, renters drawn by the high quality of life, lifelong surfers, young professionals and students.
To a grown-up tourist, the experience is somewhat lacking in interest:
The Santa Monica Pier shows off its famous Ferris Wheel and that’s all.
Apart from the worn-down Pier, there is not much to look for if you come here in april. Looks more or less like everything is closed.
There is but one main shopping and restaurant street and nothing much to see.
Maybe a day-trip from Santa Monica to Hollywood is a good idea?: