Best Beach to spend the day?

[TerryD]

So heres the plan, Mid October we will be heading to DL for acouple days and for the last day we are moving to a hotel closer to LAX. Now I am trying to plan out the day and have been trying to decide which beach would be best for swimming, restaurants, shopping and just an all around enjoyable day. Mainly Manhattan, Hermosa, Redondo have been the ones we have been trying to decide between.

[tracys2cents]

I don't recommend swimming anywhere around there, the water is pretty polluted if you ask me. For swimming I'd only consider the Crystal cove State Park area just south of Newport Beach. Still, if the kids see others swimming they may want to jump in, so make sure they shower directly afterwards.

Manhattan Beach is very convenient to LAX and has a pier, volleyball games going on, skateboarders, lots of little shops and tons of places to eat. The Sea View Inn is right by the beach. Most of the other places to stay in the area are on the main drag rather than near the beach.