Pedal the South Bay Bicycle Trail

Enjoy the world’s longest beach bike path from Pacific Palisades to Torrance

Stretching for 22 miles along prime Southern California waterfront, the South Bay Bicycle Trail encompasses a little bit of everything as it makes a curving sweep along Santa Monica Bay. In Santa Monica, dolphins cruise the surf zone and parrots perch on the handlebars of passing bikes. World-class beach volleyball players dive and spike in the sands at Manhattan Beach and drum circles add a tribal soundtrack to the comings and goings at Venice Beach. You’ll see surfers at Hermosa Beach, ocean-going yachts at Marina del Rey, and jets zooming in and out of LAX.

The beauty of the wide, flat, paved route is that you can go fast enough to cover a lot of ground while still absorbing all the sights and sounds of Southern California’s iconic beach towns. If you’re intent on getting a good workout, aim to ride in the morning, especially on weekends when crowds are thinner and it tends to be less windy. If you don’t mind poking along, or you want to see lots of action, ride on summer afternoons, where you may slow to a crawl as you thread your way past popular piers and other busy locations.