* Leo Carrillo – Families love this summer camp-style beach with enough exhilarating tide pools, cliffside caves, nature trails, and great swimming and surfing to tire out even the most hyperactive kids.
* El Matador – This remote little hideaway is a popular filming location thanks to super panoramic battered rock cliffs and giant boulders, but the surf is wild and clothing optional (X-rated action has been spotted).
* Zuma: Two miles of pearly sand with plenty of Halle Berry and Daniel Craig lookalikes emerging from the crystal-clear waves. The gentle waves make body surfing perfect. Arrive early on weekends to snag parking.
*Paradise Cove: Brad and Angelina have been photographed strolling the scenic sands of TV’s Rockford Files fame. The water looks beautiful but it can be quite polluted. Eating at the beach cafe reduces the parking fee from $25 to $3. Walk-ins are $5.
* Will Rogers – Baywatch stars Pamela Anderson and David Hasselhoff used to jump along this sandy area that is now a gay cruise ship beach.
* Santa Monica: Broad slab of sand where families with beach umbrellas descend like swarms of butterflies on weekends to escape the inland heat. The water quality is bad right next to the pier, but it’s fine a few hundred meters away.
* Venice Beach: go crazy on the most hipster beach in Los Angeles, parallel to the Venice Broadwalk. During the Sunday drum circle, the bongos swell and the dances become silhouettes as the sun sinks into the ocean.
* Manhattan Beach: A Brassy SoCal beach with a high flirt factor and hardcore surfers hanging out on the pier for, like, totally epic waves. Families can view marine life at the Roundhouse Aquarium and Marine Research Laboratory.
* Hermosa Beach: Arguably the most lewd beach party in Los Angeles with tight, hormone-crazed bodies playing beach volleyball and raucous pubs along Pier Ave.
* Malaga Cove: This cliff-fringed, crescent-shaped coastline is the only sandy beach in Palos Verdes that is easily accessible to the populace. It blends into the rocky tide pools and has great waves for surfers, but not for lifeguards.
Author: Kenneth Ng
