Scenes from Santa Monica and Venice Beach, California
When you think of California, what comes to mind?
Is it San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge? Is it the rugged landscapes of Joshua Tree or Yosemite National Parks? Is it the LA Lakers or San Francisco 49ers? The Hollywood sign or the endless vineyards of Napa Valley?
For us, when we think of California, we think of the beach.
Tall palm trees, boardwalks, wooden piers, surfing and the sparkling Pacific Ocean. Of course, Hollywood has played a big role in our perceptions of the Los Angeles coast. From ‘Beverly Hills 90210′ to ‘Lords of Dogtown’ to ‘Californication’, we had a pretty good idea of what to expect prior to visiting Santa Monica for the first time.
And our perceptions were not too far off.
Although we were given a long list of things to see and do in Los Angeles, we ended up spending most of our time strolling up and down the Santa Monica and Venice Beach boardwalks.
The most popular thing to do along this stretch of beach is to rent bikes or roller blades and cruise the legendary boardwalk. A never ending flow of cyclists, skateboarders, runners and walkers travel up and down this strip, creating the perfect people watching environment.
It’s an interesting place, to say the least.
On the one end, you have the famous Santa Monica pier with its amusement park and family friendly atmosphere. On the other end, you’ve got Venice Beach with its funky shops and artistic, hipster vibe. In between, you’ll find continuous beach filled with surfers and volleyball players, grassy parks and outdoor beach cafes.
Dare I say, “it’s got a little something for everyone”.
Just south of the pier is a stretch of beach that acts as an outdoor jungle gym. It’s actually the original location of Muscle Beach, which was later moved to Muscle Beach Venice.
This is where fitness junkies, acrobats and gymnasts come to bend, twist and swing on a variety of public workout equipment, including parallel bars, ropes and rings (pictured below). If you’re looking for a place to people watch, this is it. Some of these people are quite talented!
Venice Beach Boardwalk
We continued south and eventually reached the bustling Venice Beach strip, loaded with tattoo parlors, tacky tourist shops, street performers and hipster restaurants.
It’s everything you’d expect it to be – the air is filled with the fresh scent of pot, leathery tanned hippies sell weird artwork and handmade jewelry, musicians sing out of tune, buskers swallow swords and fire, merchants sell cheap sun glasses and crappy t-shirts. It’s borderline sketchy, but that’s its appeal.
Sure, the whole atmosphere is played up for the tourist dollar. But it’s California. It’s Dogtown. The home of surfers, skateboarders, musicians, actors and athletes. It’s the land of cool and trendy.
This kid was rocking the skate park. He couldn’t have been older than 12 years old!
Sweet – that’s just the painting I was looking for!
The Venice Beach Freak Show – need I say more?
Let’s not forget about our “Hollywood encounter”!
We stopped at a kid’s park so Baby B could go on the swings and burn off some energy. Nicole found shade under a palm tree and sat on the grass. Beside her was a group of people celebrating something, a birthday we presume.
Nicole gave me weird look, followed by a head nod. She was trying to tell me something but I could not decipher the code.
Sitting about 5 feet beside her was someone familiar, a face she recognized. It was Canadian-born New Zealand actor Anna Paquin – lead actress Sookie Stackhouse in the hit HBO series “True Blood“. At first Nicole wasn’t sure if it was actually her, but then we saw her twin babies and husband Stephen Moyer, co-star of True Blood (Bill Compton).
Okay, so they’re not Brad and Angelina, but True Blood is one of our favourite HBO shows, so it was pretty cool to see them hanging out with friends and family at the beach park, just like normal people – just like us.
Contrary to some of the feedback we received prior to this trip, we really enjoyed our time in Santa Monica. It was nice to have a 5-day trip that didn’t have us change time zones or spend a lot of time traveling.
And because we redeemed our Aeroplan Miles for our flights, it ended up being a very cost effective trip. For whatever reason, we used to bank our Aeroplan miles and not redeem them, saving them for the proverbial “rainy day”. But over the past few years, we’ve made it a goal to cash in our miles and enjoy the rewards from our loyalty.
To learn more about the program, you can visit Aeroplan’s website: https://www.aeroplan.com/
Or, you can read these posts:
- Aeroplan has some exciting changes coming in 2014
- 8 Easy Ways to Earn More Aeroplan Miles
- Earn 25,000 bonus Aeroplan Miles with the Star Challenge
- When is it a good time to Redeem your Aeroplan Miles?
- 7 Tips to Accumulate Aeroplan Miles Quickly
Have you visited the Santa Monica and/or Venice Beach boardwalk?
Disclosure – Aeroplan is one of our travel partners, however expressed opinions are entirely our own. We are long-time supporters and users of the Aeroplan rewards program.
K… a Sookie and Bill sighting? TOTALLY awesome!!!
It was since it’s one of our fav shows!
Santa Monica – and Los Angeles, for that matter – can have a bad rap. But I really like it there!
We’ve heard that too, but we really liked it. We plan to get back in a couple years once the boys are a little older and add in Disneyland.
so many bodies in the air!
Crazy huh!
Great post! And you got to see Sookie! Cool! We also love True Blood. Lissette has a crush on Alcide.
Frank (bbqboy)
Haha, Nicole LOVES Alcide too
love this place! I lived in LA for a while and Venice beach has got to be the craziest place I’ve stayed out.
Not a place to live, but definitely to visit and experience.
We could see that. A great place to visit for sure.
Nice post! Love California beaches 🙂
Thanks!
Dare I admit this? I used to watch Baywatch and these scenes could be straight out of that show. I’ve only been to Newport Beach but would love to check out Santa Monica!
I think everyone watched Baywatch at some point 🙂
We were there a couple of months ago and I really enjoyed watching the people pumping their bodies at muscle beach. It’s not a scenario you see everyday where I come from.. very “stereotypical California”. And Venice.. what to say! Between the people selling medical prescriptions for weed use and the rest of the characters selling nicknacks.. very, very entertaining!! 😉
It was very entertaining. We could sit at a cafe all day and people watch.
My first time in Venice Beach was a decade ago when I got my first and only tarot reading. It was a regretful and expensive experience. But I figure, I had to participate in the funky, eclectic energy that thrives in this place. Sadly, I haven’t been back since.
I haven’t been to either but I’ve always been fascinated by the Santa Monica amusement park at the pier and would definitely love to visit!
I’ve lived in California all my life and have yet to see Venice Beach. I hear mixed reviews about it. Love the pics!
You have to visit to see it at least once. It’s great for people watching.
I lived in Santa Monica near the 3rd Street Promenade…miss it tons! And though I didn’t venture often to Venice, it is definitely a unique and fun spot to visit at times. My favorite area though is the Venice canals and Abbot Kenney!
Totally agree.
These are some strange folk.
Yup 🙂
Great pics!! I forget how vibrant that area can be. I used to live right there, and it didn’t turn out very well lol. But it really is a fun place!
Oh no! We’ll hopefully you have some good memories.
Oh how I love both dearly. So much great shopping. =)
Yes, there was!
Great pictures and amazing beaches. California must be a cool place to be.
Definitely worth a visit.
Great article, and very accurate (this coming from a former Angeleno)! My LA travel advice is definitely rent a car, plan ahead where you want to go (as opposed to NYC-style walking and discovering – this does NOT work in most of LA), and go hiking! There are wonderful hikes in Runyon Canyon and at Griffith Park.
We’ll have to hike next time when the boys are a little bigger. Thanks for the tip.
I did this exact same walk earlier this year, around Santa Monica and Venice Beach. It was, hands down, the best place for people watching in California. The concentration of “characters” per square meter is just amazing. You can spend all day there walking or just sitting is watching people go by an never, ever get bored!!
Totally agree 🙂
I like the farmers market and beach at Santa Monica and I also like Manhattan and Redondo beaches if I want somewhere to go during a layover. The Manhattan beach library is pretty good if you need to get work done.
We didn’t make it to Manhattan or Redondo…next time!
California is indeed a nice place. I really love California beaches 🙂
Us too!
Had never thought about doing a trip to Santa Monica but your post points out that it can be a quick and easy trip to some warmer weather from Vancouver. Thanks, it looks like a fun and lively place to for a quick trip. 🙂
It really was a great long weekend trip. Lots of flight options and nice and warm. We would for sure go back.
Would love to have some inside views of the VB Freak show? Anything for me?
We didn’t go in since Baby B would likely get scared, but we did see some of the shows outside. It’s, um, interesting….
It’s where I grew up, it never changes, I’m almost 60!