Malibu, CA

Malibu is a coastal city in Los Angeles County, California, stretching roughly 27 miles along the Pacific Coast Highway between the Santa Monica Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. With a population of about 10,000 to 13,000 residents, it has a famously laid-back, sun-soaked character that blends surf-town ease with understated affluence. Malibu is best known for its wide, sandy beaches, its cliffside celebrity homes, and its role as a scenic gateway between Los Angeles and the Central Coast. The city sits about 30 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles, typically reached in 45 minutes to an hour by car, though traffic along the Pacific Coast Highway can stretch that significantly on summer weekends.

One of the most recognizable landmarks in the area is the Getty Villa, a museum modeled after an ancient Roman country house and dedicated to the arts and cultures of ancient Greece, Etruria, and Rome. Set into a hillside off the Pacific Coast Highway roughly five miles west of central Malibu, the villa is operated by the J. Paul Getty Trust and is free to visit with an advance reservation, making it a popular cultural stop for coastal travelers.

A short drive inland from the shoreline leads to Malibu Creek State Park, an 8,000-plus-acre park threaded by Malibu Creek and beloved for hiking, rock climbing, and horseback riding. About 15 miles from the coast in the Santa Monica Mountains, the park's Century Lake, rocky gorges, and grassy meadows have made it a favorite filming location and a quiet counterpoint to the busier beaches below.

Closer to the water, Point Dume State Beach anchors the northern end of the Malibu coast and offers dramatic sea cliffs, tide pools, and a celebrated vantage point for winter whale watching. The bluff-top overlook is a few minutes' drive from the Civic Center area, while the beach below rewards visitors who descend the short trail with a quieter stretch of sand than the more central beaches.

Downtown Malibu, often called the Civic Center or Cross Creek area, is a small but lively cluster of shops, cafes, and the historic Malibu Pier, a wooden fishing and strolling pier first built in 1905 and rebuilt several times since. Walking the pier and watching surfers at nearby Surfrider Beach, widely credited as the birthplace of modern surfing culture, captures the everyday rhythm of the town in one stop.

Malibu's combination of oceanfront scenery, canyon and mountain recreation, easy access to Los Angeles, and a constellation of recognizable cultural and natural landmarks makes it a particularly strong base for short-term rentals. Guests can spend mornings on the sand, afternoons hiking in the Santa Monicas, and evenings dining overlooking the surf, all within a short, scenic drive of one of the country's largest metropolitan areas.