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JOURNAL
LOCAL INTELLIGENCE
Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach and Redondo Beach sit against each other along the same stretch of sand south of the airport, and each one ends at a pier. From the bike path they look like one continuous town. They are not.
Manhattan is the polished one. The blocks between downtown and the pier hold most of the better cooking on this coast, the streets climb steeply from the sand, the houses are large and new, and the place goes quiet after dinner.
Hermosa is the loud one. Pier Plaza, the pedestrian block running from downtown out to the pier, is a bar street, and on a Friday night it is the busiest few hundred feet in the South Bay. In daylight it reverts to a beach town, with volleyball courts running the length of the sand.
Redondo is the working one. Its harbor holds fishing boats, kayak and boat rentals, and a pier that is a horseshoe of seafood counters rather than a wooden walkway. It is the plainest of the three and the most useful if you want to get on the water.
Choosing between them is mostly a noise decision. A house within a few blocks of Pier Plaza in Hermosa will hear the street on weekend nights. A house up the hill in Manhattan hears nothing, and dinner becomes a walk down and a climb back. Those hills are steeper than a map suggests, and they are a real consideration with small children or a loaded beach cart.
Parking is metered near all three piers and the meters run late into the evening. The residential streets behind them are heavily permitted. The sensible pattern if you are staying anywhere in the South Bay is to leave the car at the house and use the beach bike path, which links all three downtowns without touching a street.
Season changes these towns less than it changes the desert, but summer weekends put a serious crowd on the sand, and the volleyball tournaments in Hermosa and Manhattan fill both the beach and the streets behind it for whole weekends. Worth knowing which weekend you booked.
The thing visitors underestimate is the airport immediately to the north. Flight paths run over the northern end of this area, and how much you hear depends on the block and on which direction the runways are working that day. If you sleep lightly, ask your local manager where the house sits before you book rather than after you arrive.