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Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica in California, is on the Pacific Coast Highway in Los Angeles county. It's famous for the Santa Monica Pier, and its sandy beaches. There are plenty of hotels and motels to choose from, from places like the historic Shangri-La hotel, the Embassy Hotel Apartments (a personal favorite), to motel chains and other cheap hotels.
Santa Monica is less than 10 miles from Los Angeles International Airport, so if you want to get off the plane and pick up a rental car, you can be checked into your hotel and onto the beach in less than an hour – if the traffic co-operates. It can make a good alternative to staying in downtown LA, as it's close enough to drive in and see all the main LA attractions, but then you can come back at the end of the day and relax on the beach. Heading north along the Pacific Coast Highway it's about 400 miles from here to San Francisco, a great drive through places like Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Big Sur, Carmel, and Monterey.
Santa Monica has over 3.5 miles of golden sandy beaches, including the Santa Monica State Beach, which is about two miles long and runs under the Pier. It's cleaned and raked daily, and includes the original Muscle Beach – they had one here before the Venice Muscle Beach became more famous. There are wooden pathways for those with disabilities, a bike trail, eating places, lifeguards, volleyball courts and other activity centers, and you might even spot dolphins swimming off-shore. Museums Palisades Park 
Santa Monica PierThe Pier to Santa Monica is like the Eiffel Tower is to Paris, an iconic landmark. The Pier is almost as old as the Tower too, as it was built in 1909, just 20 years after the Tower was opened. In 1924 the La Monica Ballroom opened on the Pier, and in its day it was the biggest ballroom in the United States. That's no longer there but the Carousel is still going strong. That was built in 1916 and is now a National Historic Landmark. The Pier also has the Playland games arcade, the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium and the Pacific Park amusement park, the only admission-free amusement park in Los Angeles.
The Embassy Hotel Apartments Hotel Shangri-La Sheraton Delfina Viceroy Santa Monica
Visit the website of the Santa Monica Convention and Visitors Bureau  Custom Search
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PCH Hotels Guide
To help you in choosing your Pacific Coast Highway hotel, guesthouse, inn, bed-and-breakfast, resort, motel or other accommodations, we've prepared our Pacific Coast Highway Hotels Guide ebook. In it we do mini-reviews of accommodations along the Highway, from Seattle to San Diego, through Washington, Oregon, and California.
For the 2011 edition we added new hotels, including a special 50-hotel section covering California’s wine country of Napa, Sonoma, and Paso Robles - by far the most popular diversion from the PCH drive. In all there are over 200 hotels listed, complete with 8 pages of color maps showing the towns where our recommended hotels can be found. There are both alphabetical and geographical indexes, helping you plan your journey.
We also include color photos of all the hotels that are our Personal Favorites. Here's the link to
read more about our ebook guide to Pacific Coast Highway hotels
Or you can buy it here for $2.99:
KINDLE EDITION
The Hotels Guide is also available but without the maps and color photos in the US Kindle Store for $4.99 and in the UK Kindle Store at a price based on the US price.
NOOK EDITION
The guide is also available at Barnes and Noble for the Nook.
PAPERBACK EDITION
If you want a printed edition without color photos and with only black and white maps, it costs $8.99 at the Amazon US store.
We've also published our PCH Hotels Guide as an app in the Apple Store.
You can buy it here and
read about it here.
