In Los Angeles, everyone drivers. In Santa Monica, they stroll. It’s the only way to take in the seaside city’s Main Street, where every storefront seems to double as a gallery and window- shopping counts as a form of art appreciation. It’s here that local resident and renowned architect Frank Gehry transformed an ice warehouse into the Edgemar Center for the Arts (2437 Main St., tel 310 313 5166), an aluminum, cement and chain-link shopping center and theater that seems right at home among the city’s 75 museums and galleries. The Museum of Contemporary Art is no longer here, but its gift shop continues to be a treasure trove of conversation starters. Another great place to talk is Urth Caffé (2327 Main St., tel 310 3147040), an indoor/outdoor gathering place where people meet for coffee and end up staying past lunch.

On the Third Street Promenade, you’ll find hidden gems between the familiar facades of Lucky Jeans and Banana Republic: a restored Art Deco theater, performing magicians and troubadours, and leafy, water-breathing dinosaur sculptures. On Wednesday and Saturday mornings, a Farmer’s Market fills the promenade with the smell of orange blossoms and the sounds of strangers meeting over baskets of fingerling potatoes and jars of almond honey.

Ocean Avenue is the Southern California of everyone’s dreams: four-story palm trees in Palisades Park, models on inline skates and surfers leaping from convertibles to rush toward the ocean’s roar. Santa Monica is the most familyfriendly of the beach cities near Los Angeles, and its symbol, Pacific Park (380 Santa Monica Pier, tel 310 260 8744), is always swarming with children running from the vintage carousel to the aquarium, and couples on their way to the beach. It’s also a point on the South Bay Bicycle Trail, a 22-mile bike and pedestrian path along the coast that stretches from Malibu to Huntington Beach.

Santa Monica’s beach culture launched the American fitness craze as the home of the original Muscle Beach, an outdoor gym that has recently attracted a new generation to its weight benches and gymnasts’ rings. For those who’d prefer a less strenuous visit, Perry’s Beach Club (2400 Ocean Front Walk, tel 310 372 3138) offers bicycle and skate rentals.

Clothing and attitudes may be casual in Santa Monica; dinner reservations are a must, however. Despite the overwhelming number of perfectly toned bodies, this is a city that likes to eat, with nearly 50 restaurants per square mile, including the ultra-hip BOAsteakhouse (101 Santa Monica Blvd., tel 310 899 4466) and the new Rustic Canyon Wine Bar (1119 Wilshire Blvd., tel 310 393 7050). The Lobster (1602 Ocean Ave., tel 310 458 9294), however, has stood the test of time, and locals return year after year for its fresh Alaskan king crab legs, topnotch wine selection and views of the evening sun melting into the Pacific.

At night, the city’s best view comes from the top of the pleasure pier’s Ferris wheel. Then, after a last stroll down the pier, travelers can follow in the footsteps of Clark Gable and Bugsy Siegel with a drink on the veranda of The Georgian Hotel (1415 Ocean Ave., tel 310 395 9945), a former speakeasy turned waterfront landmark. After all, no great walk would be complete without a great destination at the journey’s end.