Day Trip to Venice Beach, walking along the Beach in December

The most popular and well-known beaches of Los Angeles are in Venice Beach, Santa Monica and Malibu. Venice, the US one, not the one in Italy, is a playground by the beach for all the life-lustring and active outdoor sports lovers. Even though you’ll find the famous Muscle Beach in Venice, one of the typical film sets of Baywatch is located in Malibu. To get the full “Venice and Venice Beach Experience” on my Day Trip from Los Angeles, I took a Lyft to the famous Venice Sign on Pacific & Windward Avenue. This iconic photo location is a great area to depart your day trip of explorations in Venice. Right next you can find the first of multiple public art pieces, the Public Art “Touch of Venice”. You can find murals on houses almost all over Venice, you can even find a lot and their exact locations on Google Maps by zooming into Venice on the Map and typing in “Public Art” to get the full list. Besides the wonderful beach with the Venice Skate Park along the Ocean Front Walk, Venice is also a paradise for shoppers and gourmets. The keyword here is Abbot Kinney, in many ways actually. Abbot Kinney is not just the name of the street, it’s also the name of the literal developer of Venice and Santa Monica. Abbot, born in 1850 in New Jersey, turned the boring beach into a real amusement park a bit more than 100 years ago. He created the Venice Canals and even imported real gondolas from Venice including gondoliers and small Venetian business straight from Italy. Eventually this venture didn’t last very long, however, the former Ocean Park was later named Venice, thanks to Mister Abbot Kinney. Nowadays the Abbot Kinney Boulevard near the Beachfront is a lively area with many Restaurants and Shops, check out more on their website.
However, Venice doesn’t only attract the preppy art crowd, along with the beachfront I found myself surrounded by cheap touristy shops, homeless and drunk people, along with other Tourists. Maybe this was due to the low winter season.