One of the best things you can do in Southern California is get a bike and ride the strand. There's many a miles of concrete for bikers/skaters/skateboarders/runners to do their thing on and you don't have to worry about any angry drivers trying to run you over (for the most part of it at least).

Last weekend I did the ultimate strand bike ride. The one that I've only done a handful of times before because it takes a little less than forever: my house to Hermosa Beach Pier all the way through to Venice Boardwalk. In total, it's about 30 miles (that's including my house to the pier which adds 2 miles each way). But it's also really one of the best ways to get a feel for how each beach is a little different from the others.

The bike route is really flexible. You can start at Hermosa Pier, or start earlier than that at Redondo Beach Pier. And you can end at Venice Boardwalk, or go further to Santa Monica Pier. I've never been beyond Santa Monica Pier on the bike path, but the Marvin Braude Bike Trail (which is basically what you're taking the whole time) does go all the way through to Will Rogers State Beach in Pacific Palisades. The bike trail in total is 22 miles — but you have to remember that's going to be each way. I don't think you have an option to uber back with a bicycle in tow.

And if you don't prepare for it like I don't each time, you're probably going to start feeling sore about twelve miles in.

This is the route Heidi and I took and the main places we stopped:

• Hermosa Beach Pier
• Manhattan Beach Pier
• Dockweiler Beach
• Marina del Rey
• Venice Boardwalk

I don't know who Google Maps is calculating time for (see map after jump) — maybe I'm just really slow — but it takes me almost two hours to do this route. Not one hour and eight minutes. But maybe that's just me.

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