We visited Santa Monica twice during our tour. The first time was while we were en route from Santa Barbara to Los Angeles where we stopped at Santa Monica for a lunch break and visited the pier.
The second time was after our couple of days at Los Angeles so we could have a break after our West Coast bus tour.
We had a couple of days break at Santa Monica after finishing our bus tour of the West Coast at Los Angeles. We caught a cab from our hotel at Los Angeles which was just a short trip to the beach side resort town of Santa Monica. Our accommodation at Santa Monica was the Doubletree Suites by Hilton Hotel and it was walking distance from the pier and the main beach.
Our suite was beautifully set up with plenty of room and there was a free self service laundry so we could get our washing up to date. There was also a swimming pool and a gym as well as in-house places to eat.
The first day we arrived we had a walk down to the pier where Peter was delighted to find the end of Route 66 which he always wanted to travel. There is no official Route 66 anymore but at least we saw the sign.
The waterfront was very well maintained and we could walk for miles down the beach.
The next day we had breakfast at the pier and watched the crosses being put out on the beach to remember the soldiers lost at war. Amazingly this is done every Sunday and has been since the start of the Iraq War. A new cross is added for every soldier lost. It was very moving to walk past this tribute and know that those that were lost will never be forgotten.
We walked around some of the streets on the way back to our hotel and came across a garden nursery that sold only succulents. Being a keen gardener I was taken in by all the inspirational ideas for using succulents - hence all of the photos should I forget.
We really enjoyed our break at Santa Monica before travelling by private car transfer to San Diego where we were to spend the next four days. This part of our tour was chosen and booked for us by our travel agent David Grant of Happy Holidays at Ettalong and we gave it the thumbs up.
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