Venice Beach and boardwalk
Three kilometres of boardwalk, a canal dug in 1905 to imitate Venice, and an open-air gym.
Duration
2 hrs – 4 hrs
Best time
Late afternoon
Open
Every day
Entry price
Free
Abbot Kinney had a network of canals dug south of Santa Monica in 1905 to build a "Venice of America", imported gondoliers included. Most were filled in during the 1920s to make streets; six survive, lined with houses, a few hundred metres from the beach, and hardly anyone goes there.
The boardwalk became something else: three kilometres of vendors, musicians and tattooists, with the skate park and Muscle Beach, the open-air weights platform opened in 1951 where Schwarzenegger trained. It is loud, uneven, and entirely characteristic.
Getting there
Metro bus 33 from downtown, or the coastal bike path from Santa Monica, twenty minutes by bike.
Rules on site
The boardwalk empties and is not advisable after dark. Performers who press a CD or a bracelet into your hand then demand payment: take nothing that is held out to you.