This holiday season, Santa Monica has ice rinks in two places. Frost on 5th, at the corner of 5th Street and Arizona Avenue, opened its 19th season downtown on November 5. The first Swiss Winter Village's season on the Santa Monica Pier Event Deck began November 18. It's a holiday market with more than 60 chalets built around its own ice rink.
The two rinks don't run alike. Opening hours, the length of a visit and the way you get there are all different, and on a given evening those three things decide which rink fits.
| Frost on 5th | Swiss Winter Village rink | |
|---|---|---|
| Address | 1324 5th St. at Arizona Ave. | Event Deck, 200 Santa Monica Pier |
| Season | Nov. 5, 2026 to Jan. 18, 2027 | Nov. 18, 2026 to Jan. 3, 2027 |
| Weekday hours | 3 to 10 p.m. | 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mon–Wed; 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Thu |
| Weekend hours | Noon to 10 p.m. | 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. |
| Price | $22 with skate rental, before tax | Village entry from $12.90; Skate & Go bundle from $20.90 |
| Format | 60-minute skating sessions | Timed entry, about 90 minutes on average |
| Produced by | Willy Bietak Productions | Swiss Xmas Inc. and Fever, with the City |
On Weekdays Before 3 p.m., the Pier Is the Only Rink Open
Downtown's rink keeps after-school hours. Frost on 5th opens at 3 p.m. Monday through Friday, and at noon on weekends and holidays. Swiss Winter Village opens at 11 a.m. every day of the week. If you want to skate over a weekday lunch, or you have a free afternoon with kids home on a school break, the Pier is the only option until mid-afternoon.
Late at night it flips. The Pier market closes at 9 p.m. Monday through Wednesday and at 10 p.m. Thursday through Sunday. Frost on 5th stays open until 10 p.m. every night. So from Monday to Wednesday, the downtown rink has the last hour of ice to itself, which suits a skate after dinner on Arizona Avenue.
Holiday weeks change the hours too. Frost on 5th runs its weekend schedule on holidays, so it opens at noon on Thanksgiving, November 26. The Pier market closes early, at 6 p.m., on Christmas Eve. On New Year's Eve it stays open until 1 a.m., the latest either rink runs all season.
The Two Rinks Sell Different Things
At Frost on 5th you pay for a skating session. A 60-minute session costs $22 before sales tax and includes skate rental. Lockers cost $5 more. The rink covers 7,200 square feet of real ice. Downtown Santa Monica, Inc. reported more than 36,000 skaters last season, Hoodline reported this month. You can come for the hour, skate, and go home.
At the Pier you pay to enter the market, and skating is one thing to do once you're inside. Adult admission on Fever's Swiss Winter Village ticket page starts at $12.90 and child admission at $8.90. Santa Monica residents, seniors 65 and over, students, active military and veterans, and Metro riders pay $10.90, and you need a valid ID. To add the rink, buy the Silver "Skate & Go" bundle, which starts at $20.90, or the Family bundle, which starts at $18.90. Both cover entry to the village plus access to the rink. Tickets are timed: you're asked to arrive at your ticket time or within 30 minutes after it. Visitors stay about 90 minutes on average.
The rest of those 90 minutes goes to the market. The Santa Monica Daily Press November guide lists raclette, mulled wine, Santa visits, Hanukkah events and flower-crown workshops. Several vendors are local:
- Coast & Canyon Shop, selling hand-decorated shell ornaments
- Sunny Blue
- Bun & Mi
Swiss Xmas Inc. was founded by the team behind Zurich's Illuminarium and Wienachtsdorf, Geneva's Noël au Quai and Paris's Noël La Villette, according to Fever's announcement. When the market was planned, the organizers committed 1,000 free tickets to nonprofit groups. City staff also described resident discount windows and a senior "golden hour," Hoodline reported in June.
The Pier's Parking Deck Is Closed, and Lot 1 North Was Already Smaller
The biggest practical gap between the two rinks is getting there. Fever's event information says the Pier parking deck is closed for the market. It points drivers to the Civic Center Garage or Lot 1 North instead, and suggests 1550 Appian Way for rideshare drop-off. Accessible parking is available at Beach Lot 1 North and Lot 1-S.
Lot 1 North was already short on space before the market opened. When construction on the Pier Bridge Replacement Project began in December 2025, the City set aside about a third of the lot as a staging area. That left about 726 spaces in Beach Parking Lot 1. The City expects bridge work to continue through the end of 2027. This season, then, the closest beach lot to the Pier serves both a construction site and a new holiday market with timed tickets.
Frost on 5th has no single lot to depend on. Its site says several downtown parking structures are a few blocks away. Both rinks list the same Metro E Line stop, Downtown Santa Monica station at 4th Street and Colorado Avenue. Fever puts the station about a 10-minute walk from the Pier, and Frost on 5th calls it a short walk from the rink. Metro riders also get the $10.90 discounted entry at the village. One station sits between both rinks, which makes it easy to skate at one and visit the other without moving the car.
A Thursday With Both Rinks
Thursday, November 19, shows how the rinks' schedules fit with the rest of the neighborhood's. Here's one way to spend it:
- Afternoon at the museum. The Santa Monica History Museum, at 1350 7th St., opened Creating Route 66: Road, Legend, Community on November 13. The exhibition runs through June 2027, and the museum is open Thursdays from 2 to 5 p.m.
- An early dinner on Wilshire. Gott's Roadside opened October 1 at 401 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 140, and serves daily from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
- A tree lighting on Ocean Avenue. Regent Santa Monica Beach, at 1700 Ocean Ave., lights its 45-foot tree on November 19 from 4:30 to 7 p.m. The event has Santa, live music and holiday characters, and it's open to all.
- An hour on the ice. On Thursdays the Pier market is open until 10 p.m. and Frost on 5th is open until 10 p.m., so you can still pick either rink after the tree lighting.
Sunday works differently. At noon and 1:30 p.m., Frost on 5th holds Classical Sundays, skating sessions set to classical music. Earlier that morning, at 8:30, 9:30 and 10:30, it offers private lessons before the rink opens to the public.
After January 3, Only Downtown Is Left
The Pier market closes January 3. Frost on 5th stays open for two more weeks, until January 18. For regular skaters, the downtown rink sells a $165 season pass good on specified dates between November 9 and January 18, with a blackout over the holidays. Frost on 5th is the latest version of the downtown rink once called Ice at Santa Monica. That rink moved to timed one-hour sessions and online advance tickets in its 2023–24 season, Hoodline reported. Frost on 5th also hosts private rink buyouts on select Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, starting at a $10,000 base rate.
That makes the Pier rink a six-week event with timed entry, set inside a market on a pier with a construction project at its entrance. The downtown rink is a fixed hour of skating that has opened on the same corner for 19 winters. On weekdays before 3 p.m., you can skate only on the Pier. From 9 p.m. Monday through Wednesday, you can skate only downtown.
At West Life Realty, we track the local details that shape everyday life in the places our clients call home, from parking near the Pier to which streets are a short walk from the E Line. If your winter nights downtown have you wondering what your Santa Monica-area home is worth today, start with an Instant Home Valuation and a conversation with our team.
