Santa Monica Beach Is Man-Made—Here’s Why It Still Ranks Among the World’s Best

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is famous for its artificial beaches, home to more than any other nation in the world, but did you know that many of the major public shorelines in Los Angeles County, California were man-made?

That includes iconic Santa Monica, a stretch that Travel + Leisure just ranked among the world’s very best. 

Entire beaches along L.A. County’s 75-mile-long coastline were built using imported, dredged, and dumped sand, accumulated during the 20th century. Local authorities must continuously import hundreds of cubic yards of sand every few years to fight natural erosion. Without that, these famously wide shorelines would disappear under high tides and storms. 

As T+L notes, the soft, golden sands you see lining the shores in Santa Monica were once just a narrow, rocky coastline along the Pacific. The famous Santa Monica Pier was completed in 1909, but it was decades before the nearly three-mile-long beach itself became a popular destination. 

Today, this waterfront area attracts millions of visitors every year. General beach attendance is historically cited at up to 5 million annually, with many coming to take advantage of ideal conditions for swimming and surfing, as well as watch the stunning sunsets. Steps away on the pier, one can spin while enjoying a bird’s-eye view of the coast from the solar-powered Ferris wheel. Plus, there are other rides, an arcade, an aquarium, shops, and eateries. 

Of course, Santa Monica and the beaches in the UAE aren’t the only destinations where you’ll find outstanding artificial beaches. There are seaside towns and resorts across the globe that don’t have natural sandy shorelines, so their coasts have either been significantly modified or entirely new man-made stretches were built. 

Others highlighted by T&L as the best to visit include Sentosa Island in Singapore, where all the beaches were man-made using sand from Indonesia and Malaysia to transform it into a top travel destination. Steps from Monte Carlo is man-made Larvotto, Monaco’s only public beach, while the crescent of sand just a few minutes from Velana International Airport on Male in the Maldives is aptly named Artificial Beach. Sunny Beach in Shanghai, a 45-minute drive from downtown, also made the list.