L.A.’s Best Day Trip

Contributing editor Carolynn Carreño takes us on a low-key “daycation” of strolling canals, bohemian shops, and gourmet cafés in her favorite neighborhood, Venice Beach.

Venice Beach by bike
Photographer Thomas J. Story

Public Transport

To explore the Venice everyone knows―the beach―I borrow a bike (you can rent) and head down Windward and across Ocean, to the epicenter of the bohemian madness: skaters, bikers, vendors, and general nuttiness. One pass north to Rose Avenue is all I need to remember that it was not always the bourgeois mecca that it is today.

I consider walking to be a hybrid of recreation and exercise, and in Venice, I do as much as I can. The town has everything a walker wants: amusing people-watching and significant architecture. I love to stroll the “walk streets”―essentially sidewalks with houses on both sides, and no roads. (I know you’re wondering: Residents park in the alleys in the back.) One day, I’d like to have a daycation cottage here myself.

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Venice Beach canals

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Venice Beach by bike

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