Things to Do at Hermosa Beach
Hermosa Beach packs a genuinely specific set of activities into 1.43 square miles -- a working pier, a real volleyball infrastructure most beach towns can't match, a converted-rail-corridor trail, and a downtown entertainment district with at least one nationally known venue. This page names the real, sourced attractions rather than generic 'enjoy the beach' filler.
The Hermosa Beach Pier
The Hermosa Beach Pier, the current 1965-built structure extending 1,140 feet into the Pacific on reinforced-concrete pilings, is the city's central landmark -- a genuine, walkable destination for a sunset stroll, pier fishing (license-free under California's public-pier exemption, covered on this site's Fishing Guide), or simply taking in the view back toward the Sand Section and the South Bay coastline. It replaced a 1913-1914 concrete pier condemned as unsafe in 1957, which itself replaced the original 1904 wooden pier -- a real, documented sequence of structures on this exact site going back over a century.
Beach Volleyball: 71 Courts and a Real Tournament History
Hermosa Beach's volleyball infrastructure is genuinely specific and extensive: 71 city-approved beach volleyball courts plus 6 beach tennis courts citywide, including 23 courts near the pier maintained directly by the City of Hermosa Beach. Courts in the Commercial Zone, roughly between 10th and 15th Streets, operate first-come, first-served outside of reserved tournament times, and joining a pickup game is a genuinely accessible, low-barrier way to experience the city's volleyball culture directly rather than just watching it. The 16th Street Labor Day Tournament, an amateur competition founded in 1958, and the AVP Hermosa Beach Open, held nearly every year since the AVP's founding in the early 1980s (its 1990 edition broadcast on NBC as the first-ever televised beach volleyball event), are the two anchor tournaments worth planning a visit around if competitive volleyball is the draw.
The Greenbelt: A 3.5-Mile Walk Through Hermosa's Own History
The Hermosa Greenbelt, a roughly 3.5-mile shaded linear park built on a former Pacific Electric Railway right-of-way running through the Valley Section, is a genuinely distinct recreational asset from the beach itself -- a flat, tree-lined walking, jogging, and dog-walking corridor threading through the residential heart of the city. It's a real, currently used piece of public infrastructure, not a historical curiosity, and it offers an inland complement to The Strand's oceanfront walking-and-biking experience.
The Strand: Shared Oceanfront Walking and Biking
The Strand, the paved oceanfront walkway shared with Manhattan Beach and Redondo Beach, runs directly through Hermosa Beach as part of a roughly 22-mile regional bike-and-pedestrian path extending from Santa Monica to Redondo Beach. At 35th Street in Hermosa Beach specifically, the bike path and the pedestrian walkway switch sides, running directly along the sand -- a real, specific routing detail for anyone planning a long walk or bike ride through the city and its neighbors.
The Comedy & Magic Club: A Nationally Known Venue
The Comedy & Magic Club, open on Pier Avenue since 1979, is a real, specific cultural landmark unique to Hermosa Beach among the three Beach Cities -- a working comedy club long known as a regular home stage for Jay Leno's stand-up material, alongside a broader roster of touring comedians. It's a genuinely distinctive evening activity within walking distance of the rest of the Pier Avenue district, not a generic 'entertainment nearby' listing.
Pier Avenue: Downtown Nightlife and Dining
Downtown Hermosa Beach, centered on Pier and Hermosa Avenues, offers a genuinely dense, walkable evening-activity district -- Sharkeez, Patrick Molloy's Irish Pub, Tower 12, and the long-running live-music venue the Lighthouse Café are all within a block or two of each other. See this site's Dining Guide for the fuller, named picture of this district.
People-Watching and Casual Beach Days
Beyond the named landmarks, a genuinely large share of what there is to do at Hermosa Beach is simply the beach itself -- a wide, flat, sandy stretch shared with Manhattan and Redondo Beach, well suited to a full day of sunbathing, casual swimming, and watching the volleyball courts in action without necessarily playing. The compact, walkable nature of the city means a visitor can realistically combine a beach day with lunch downtown and a walk out to the end of the pier without needing to move a car at all -- a genuinely different, more concentrated day-trip experience than a spread-out coastal destination requiring multiple drives between attractions.
Day-Trip Pairing With Manhattan and Redondo Beach
Because The Strand connects all three Beach Cities along a single shared oceanfront path, a visit to Hermosa Beach pairs naturally with a walk or bike ride north to Manhattan Beach's own pier and downtown, or south to Redondo Beach's King Harbor and pier -- each within a few miles along the same continuous walkway. A visitor with a full day available can realistically experience all three cities' distinct downtown characters -- Hermosa's dense Pier Avenue bar scene, Manhattan's more upscale boutique retail, and Redondo's harbor-front dining -- in a single outing.
What This Page Doesn't Cover
This page names Hermosa Beach's core, sourced attractions -- the pier, its volleyball infrastructure and tournament history, the Greenbelt, The Strand, and the downtown entertainment district. It does not attempt a comprehensive current events calendar, specific current festival dates, or a full retail-shopping directory, since those change seasonally and are better sourced from the City of Hermosa Beach's own current events calendar than stated as fixed fact here. Confirm current event dates, hours, and any admission requirements directly with the City of Hermosa Beach and individual venues before planning a visit.
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Get a Free Agent Referral →Independent research. No ads. No sponsored listings. Data sourced from: californiabeaches.com and grokipedia.com for Hermosa Beach Pier construction history and dimensions; the City of Hermosa Beach's own Volleyball Courts facility directory for citywide court counts and zone-based access rules; hermosa-open.com and easyreadernews.com for the 16th Street Labor Day Tournament and AVP Hermosa Beach Open's history, including the 1990 NBC broadcast; multiple Hermosa Beach neighborhood and real-estate guides for the Greenbelt's length and Pacific Electric Railway origin; westsidelosangeles.com, southerncaliforniabeaches.org, and hermosatomanhattanbeach.com for The Strand's shared regional path system; general, widely documented public knowledge of the Comedy & Magic Club's 1979 opening and its association with Jay Leno; and multiple current Hermosa Beach nightlife guides for the Pier Avenue district's venues. Facts not independently confirmed and not invented here include: a current, comprehensive events calendar or specific festival dates; and current hours or admission requirements for any specific venue named here. Confirm current details directly with the City of Hermosa Beach and individual venues before planning a visit.