Wrestling with where to spend your West Coast Spring Break? If it’s got to be the beach, here’s a perfect (and very different) pair of places: Santa Monica and Santa Barbara.
Santa Monica is so-cool SoCal. Everybody seems to have stepped right out of central casting, or looks like they’re auditioning for a reality show. Don’t fight it. Put on your own public face and pretend.
There’s no better place to promenade your persona than Santa Monica Beach. The planet’s premier people watching happens here. With all those bodies about, you’d think it’s trashy. Not so. It’s remarkably pristine – just like the people who inhabit it. Introvert? Strike up an ad hoc game of chess under an umbrella.
The town’s top attraction is the fabled Santa Monica Pier. Ride the five-story roller coaster. Take the nine-story Pacific Plunge. Play a few holes of over-water miniature golf. This Pacific play the way it used to be.
All that play got you hungry? Stop by Busby’s Santa Monica Sports Bar, refuel with a brew and burger and … play some more. Billiards, ping-pong, darts or arcade games. The choice is yours.
Something less intense? Head up the coast to Santa Barbara. Cycle down the beach. Peddle along the path less ridden as you ascend the surrounding hills. You can also learn to kayak along Santa Barbara Harbor, perhaps paraglide there too.
Should you just want to kick back, you don’t have to pretend in this California coastal enclave. Wear what you like, don’t bother to don body makeup, and head for the beach. Swimsuits and flip-flops are the uniform of the day. The best place to ride the waves here is Santa Claus Lane Beach.
So cool, or so you? The choice is yours. California offers all the options.
Story by Jerry Chandler
(Image: harshlight)
