Sunset

Malibu & Pacific Palisades


Right across from the ocean is this low-slung, converted whitewashed beach house with tasty flatbreads and a popular weekend brunch. But we consider it to be the perfectly strange oasis after a day at the beach, mostly because the happy-hour crowd gets weird – rich, celebrity, plastic-surgery, comb-over weird. We do love us some Malibu.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Malibu & Pacific Palisades attractions

1. Westward Beach

0.28 MILES

At this west-facing beach, the surf thunders and rip currents can be strong (so you'll want to be a strong swimmer), but the water is crystal clear, and…

2. Zuma Beach

0.88 MILES

Zuma is easy to find, and thanks to the wide sweep of blonde sand that has been attracting valley kids to the shore since the 1970s, it gets busy on…

3. El Matador State Beach

3.82 MILES

Arguably Malibu’s most stunning beach, where you park on the bluffs and stroll down a trail to sandstone rock towers that rise from emerald coves. Topless…

4. Frederick R Weisman Museum of Art

6.57 MILES

This art museum on the Pepperdine University campus hosts temporary exhibits of mostly 20th-century art (Claes Oldenburg, Dale Chihuly, Roy Liechtenstein…

5. Pepperdine University

6.57 MILES

Self-assuredly holding court on 830 acres atop a grassy slope down to the ocean where deer graze at sundown, this private, Christian institution has views…

6. Leo Carrillo State Park

7.12 MILES

Families love this summer-camp-style beach with enough stimulating tide pools, cliff caves, nature trails and great swimming and surfing to tire out even…

7. Legacy Park

7.53 MILES

On gently rolling hills across from Malibu City Hall and next to the Malibu Country Mart, this 15-acre park is a microcosm of six SoCal landscapes all in…

8. Malibu Colony

7.65 MILES

Malibu has been celebrity central since the 1930s, when money troubles forced landowner May Rindge to lease out property to her famous Hollywood buds…