Long Beach, San Pedro, and Palos Verdes

The coastline south of Venice mellows into a string of low-key beach communities. Those around the bulge of the Palos Verdes Peninsula—including Redondo Beach, Palos Verdes Estates, and Rancho Palos Verdes—are collectively called the South Bay. Pacific Coast Highway dips inland, skimming above San Pedro and continuing to Long Beach at the tail end of Los Angeles County.

The hilly Palos Verdes Peninsula, an expensive, gentrified residential area, is edged with rocky cliffs and tide pools. Point Vicente, in Rancho Palos Verdes, is a good place for whale-watching during the gray whale migrations from January through March. The communities are zoned for horses, so you'll often see riders along the streets (they have the right of way). San Pedro, L.A.'s working harbor, is an old seaport community full of small 1920s-era white clapboards. Greek and Yugoslav markets and restaurants abound here, underlining the town's strong Mediterranean flavor. San Pedro and neighboring Wilmington are connected to Downtown Los Angeles by a narrow, 16-mi-long stretch of land, less than ½ mi wide in most places, annexed in the late 19th century to preserve Los Angeles's transportation and shipping interests. Unfortunately, gang activity sometimes flares up in San Pedro, especially around Cabrillo Beach, so avoid walking around here at night.

Long Beach, long stuck in limbo between Los Angeles and Orange County in the minds of visitors, is steadily rebuilding its place in the Southern California scheme. Founded as a seaside resort in the 19th century, the city boomed in the early 20th century as oil discoveries drew in Midwesterners and Dust Bowlers. Bust followed boom and the city took on a somewhat raw, industrial, neglected feel. But a long-term redevelopment plan begun in the 1970s has finally come to fruition, turning the city back to its resort roots.