Third Street Promenade, Santa Monica

A fine place to shop, eat, stroll, or just sit and watch the fascinating characters who exist here. Tanned supermodels; chinese businessmen practicing Tai-Chi; leather clad bikers sharing a joint; a Mexican guitarist playing for a dancing child; street artists; breakdancers and assorted crazies.

1 more image

A lot has been said about the 3rd street promenade, but it really IS "all that". You could WALK around and window shop, you could EAT the mirriads of little restaurants on the promenade, DRINK at the countless pubs or you could just WATCH the numerous street performers.

The 3rd street promenade is ideal for the day or the night. For my fellow bookworms, Barnes & Nobles is also on the promenade :)

The Promenade is a several blocks long pedestrian mall-no cars. It's got all the stores you'll ever need, featuring the usual suspects, and some restaurants too. It does get rather crowded though. I would recommend spending lots of time there only if you're into shopping. It does beat going indoors to the mall on a sunny day though!

If you can't sing, there are other ways to entertain in the Third Street Promenade. How about breakdance? I thought that was in the 80's but people still do it today. Perhaps I can make a living here too.

Third Street Promenade is lively. If you can entertain the unintiated audience you can make a living here. Throughout the day there are musicians performing. On weekend there are so many that they have to take turns.

Some of the best shopping ever, packed into a pedestrian promenade that spans three or four blocks in downtown Santa Monica. The LUSH store had just opened. There's also Diesel, Von Dutch, Anthropologie, Banana Republic, Bebe, Barnes and Noble, a great little newsstand with foreign mag's and newspapers from all over, and tons more. Prepare to spend money like never before!

3rd Street Promenade is sort of the tourist heart of Santa Monica. It's a nice rarity in LA, because it's a pedestrian ares of shops, cafes, movie theaters...street performers. Usually I would say I hate this kind of crap, but the fact is that it works pretty well for LA. It's a stone's throw from the Santa Monica Pier (personally I never go there) and it's near hotels, etc. Summer evenings the promenade is full of families, couples, a few locals all strolling around and enjoying the cool evenings. It's pretty nice and sort of approximates a pleasant European evening stroll.

The Third Street Promenade is 'the' place to visit and it is especially nice in the weekends till like 2am in the morning or so.
You can shop, eat, browse, drink, dance, watch movies, see jugglers and street performers, listen to music, it has all these. You can also just sit and watch the people pass by relaxing with your favorite deink hot or cold in the many outdoor sidewalk cafes.

The Third Street Promenade (in downtown)
A unique 'outdoor mall' - with live performers every night of the week, doing everything from playing a grand piano, to dancing, juggling, 'freezing' for hours, you name it. A great way to enjoy the good weather!

You have to go to Third Street Promenade. It is a 4 block stretch that is blocked off to traffic. There are stores, restaurants, bars, and everything imaginable on both sides. You will see a variety of street performers who will enchant not only the tourists, but the locals as well. You have to look for the silver robot guy. He's cool!
It's a haven for both shopaholics and alcoholics (all in jest) alike! :) It's a great place to people watch and you really capture a fairly good estimate of the 'LA culture' just by walking around.