Thursday, August 03, 2006

Midweek Malibu Solitude for $4:El Matador Beach


Yesterday, Jess and I donned on our bikinis and headed up PCH to El Matador Beach.

She had a day off and I logged in my 2 hours of work earlier indulging in a decadent 4-course lunch at Wilson, a restaurant I'm profiling for a magazine, but it still felt like we were playing hooky for a day knowing most everyone else was Dilbert'ing it in an office while we drove towards the beach for a spur of the moment, pre-sunset laze-about in the sand.

Just north of Point Dume, the semi-secluded El Matador does get its share of beachcombers during the weekend but is nothing like Zuma, Malibu Lagoon or any other more high-profile Malibu beach and it's relatively isolated during the work week, (we spied less than 10 people total and nobody in the water). High cliffs and a series of craggy mini-coves adds to the faraway, "I can't believe it's only 20 minutes away from Santa Monica" vibe.

Bring a magazine
camera (beautiful photo-worthy scenery)
optional bathing suit (most beach-goers are covered but the further down the coves you go, the more bathing-optional peeps you see)
and $4 (parking is self-paying and looks like it's rarely checked so it's tempting to just skip filling out and depositing money into the envelope, but the threat of bad karma convinced us to slip in the $4).

El Matador Beach
32100 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu
Look out for the tiny sign about 5 minutes after the Point Dume turn-off

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

came across your blog, sounds like a cool beach, can't wait to check it out!

Anonymous said...

Jeez, everyone is talking about Wilson these days. Was it any good? I keep hearing good things.

kiwichicky said...

the food was simple but very flavorful....global gourmet comfort food. I'm also a big fan of 'piccolo' and 'la botte', two italian restaurants from wilson partners Stefano DeLorenzo & Antonio Mure. I'll be posting up some pics of my 4-course lunch on this blog early next week.