Palos Verdes Estates, CA

Palos Verdes Estates is where the flat beach towns of the South Bay run out and the cliffs begin. Drive south out of Redondo Beach and the road climbs into this small Los Angeles County city on the peninsula's northwest shoulder, a place planned a century ago so that open hillsides and undeveloped shoreline would always outnumber storefronts. Malaga Cove, closest to Redondo, is the oldest part, with Spanish-style houses on curving streets that drop toward the water. The inland streets of Valmonte sit lower and flatter along the Torrance edge, and the hillside blocks in between hold most of the city's view homes. Houses from the 1920s and 1930s, in white or sand-colored stucco under clay tile, set the look, and postwar ranch houses and newer custom homes fill in the rest. Nearly every exterior change goes through the city's art jury, so even the rebuilds tend to stay inside the old palette. The coastline is the city's front yard. The Palos Verdes Estates Shoreline Preserve keeps miles of bluff open, with rough paths down to coves where people poke through tide pools at low tide and surfers wait for swells. Inland, bridle paths and small parks from the original plan break up the neighborhoods. Food is a village affair. Malaga Cove Plaza, with its copy of the Neptune fountain from Bologna, holds a family-run deli market and a few shops under arcades. Out by Lunada Bay, Raffaello's Pizza handles takeout nights, and the Yellow Vase cafe in town pairs coffee and pastries with a flower counter. Late spring and early summer mornings are often socked in by the marine layer, and the gray can hang on until afternoon while inland towns bake in sun. On the clear evenings the whole Santa Monica Bay spreads out below the bluffs, and on some days the island of Catalina looks close enough to swim to.