Places worth your time

WWII-era 'Battleship of Presidents' moored at Berth 87 - self-guided and crew-led tours.

Coastal artillery batteries from 1916 turned military history museum on the Upper Reservation.

Largest maritime museum in California, housed in the Streamline Moderne former municipal ferry building (1941) at Berth 84 at the foot of 6th Street, where the old San Pedro to Terminal Island ferry once docked. Three floors of exhibits trace the Port of Los Angeles, the U.S. Navy, and life at sea. Highlights include a 16 foot builders model of the RMS Titanic, the actual filming model of the SS Poseidon from The Poseidon Adventure, museum quality ship models from clippers to container ships, a walk in compartment from the cruiser USS Los Angeles, a working Navy bridge mockup with radar and ship telegraph, a restored Coast Guard rescue boat, scrimshaw and whaling artifacts, ship in a bottle collections, knot tying and signal flag displays, Native Tongva and Channel Islands history, vintage diving helmets and salvage gear, and rotating exhibits on Port of LA shipbuilding and the cannery era. Sweeping harbor views from the upper deck. Free admission with a suggested donation. Open Tue to Sun. Right at the cruise terminal, an easy walk for ship visitors.

Charming 1899 Queen Anne Victorian, one of the oldest surviving homes in San Pedro, perched on the hillside at 1542 S Beacon Street. Originally built across town for shipbuilder and harbor pilot William Muller and his family, the house was famously moved by barge across the harbor in 1899, an engineering feat photographed and still talked about locally. Today it serves as the headquarters and house museum of the San Pedro Bay Historical Society. Step inside the restored parlors, kitchen, and bedrooms to see period furniture, family photographs, vintage clothing, household tools, and rotating exhibits on early San Pedro fishing, shipbuilding, and immigrant communities (Yugoslav, Italian, Portuguese, and Japanese families who built the harbor). The upstairs research room holds maps, ship registries, and historic harbor photos open to visitors. Free admission with donations welcome, open Sunday afternoons and by appointment, run entirely by volunteer historians who love to share stories. About a 15 minute walk from the cruise terminal, uphill.

Historic 1874 Victorian Stick Style wooden lighthouse perched on the cliffs at the southern tip of San Pedro, the oldest navigational beacon on the LA coast. Built from redwood and Douglas fir, it guided ships into San Pedro Bay for 67 years until going dark during WWII as a coastal defense precaution. Lovingly restored, it now sits inside Point Fermin Park as a free house museum. Free docent led tours run Tuesday through Sunday afternoons, take you through the keepers parlors, kitchen, and bedrooms furnished in period style, plus up the narrow tower stairs to the lantern room for a closeup of the original Fresnel lens housing and 360 degree ocean views. The surrounding 37 acre park has shaded lawns, a Victorian gazebo, picnic tables, a sunken garden, and the famous Whale Watch overlook where gray whales pass close to shore from December through April. Easy paved paths along the bluff connect to Sunken City and Pacific Overlook. At low tide you can climb down the marked path to Wilder Annex tidepools to see anemones, sea stars, hermit crabs, and small octopus. Free, open daily dawn to dusk, on site parking. About a 25 minute drive or rideshare from the cruise terminal.

Walk the decks of a fully restored WWII Liberty ship.

Iconic cliffside ruins of a 1929 landslide - graffiti, ocean views, and LA legend.

San Pedro's oldest restaurant (1946) - cliffside biker cafe at Point Fermin with diner classics.