Santa Monica Stairs

A public staircase on a residential street in Pacific Palisades that functions as a neighbourhood gym

The Santa Monica Stairs are a set of public staircases built into a steep hill in the Pacific Palisades neighbourhood, at the northern edge of Santa Monica. There are two parallel sets — one wooden, one concrete — running up a residential street and used relentlessly by locals as an outdoor workout. People come here to do repeats: up and down, up and down, sometimes for an hour.

The stairs are not a tourist attraction in the conventional sense, but they offer something worth seeing — a glimpse of how Los Angeles's health and fitness culture operates in practice, and a genuinely scenic climb with views over the neighbourhood and toward the bay. Early mornings are the most atmospheric; afternoons in summer are peak crowd time.

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A story
The stairs attracted national attention during the 2020 pandemic when gyms closed and people turned to outdoor exercise. On peak mornings they become almost comically crowded with people doing repeats — lawyers and trainers and retirees, all grinding up the same wooden steps in the hillside fog.