Excursion: Venice Beach On Your Own

To be honest Phil and I were not at all looking forward to visiting LA.
Too “American” for us so we chose the lesser of “evils” excursion really, Venice Beach On Your Own.

The other choices were “Universal of Your Own” - movie studios, ”LA On Your Own: “ (finding your favourite movie star on the pavement), “Beverly Hills & Californian Coastline” (drive past celebrities homes), and “LA Discovery” (all the LA Housewives out/about), so you see why we chose the beach!

The drive to all the destinations was one hour each way, so we had three hours at Venice Beach. Actually it was a lovely day.
Firstly, the weather was the best, 26° sunny, not too hot for us, sunscreen, hat and sunglasses definitely.

I had seen travel docs of Venice Beach, I knew part was the man-made canals, the master child of architect in the 20’s copying the real Venice. The canals then fell into disrepair before being dredged out in the 90’s. We actually didn’t visit that area although I did see some from the coach before we arrived at our drop-off point.
We were dropped one block from the boardwalk and the beach.


A quite beautiful space, very large, similar to our Gold Coast, tall palms lined the beach area and along residential areas. The area between the promenade and water was very wide, much wider that the beach/grass area at Bondi, probably twice the width. This meant the walk down to the ocean on sand was quite a walk. The sand was white/yellow, like our best beaches however no surf.
So that meant that although we were dining as close to the beach as possible and even on the sand you could not ‘smell’ the water like at home. I figured that was because there were no waves, still water.

Although it was the Pacific Ocean it was without breaking waves which meant no surfboard riders though I think along the stretch close by there must be breaking waves as there were surf shops scattered along the boardwalk. Many souvenir stalls, many tattoo parlors, a few legal Cannabis retailers (how’s that).

There was a police station on the grassed area by the beach and they had wide wheel sand buggies to patrol the beach itself, a fantastic skate park that was welcomed and used by promising world champs, so we were told. We witnessed many and all-sorts using it and I have to say their skill level was very high, others in the learning process. A wonderful facility for the general public.

It’s America, so all-sorts of people, all races, all ages utilise the area and so while we sat in a great cafe for lunch and cold drink, actually, we had a Pina-Colada (not as good as Palm Cove Cairns but welcomed), we “people watched”, our favorite travel pastime.



It didn’t disappoint, very family friendly, weird or “different” lifestyle people, some pushing dogs in strollers, others holding their pooch while they roller skated about. A grand piano sits on the edge of the paved area on the promenade , how I longed for ‘someone’ to sit and start playing, perhaps later in the day or evening ‘someone’ actually does. Very scanty clad females “parading” along the board-walk, if it’s legal, then it’s a borderline “decent” I’ve got to say, and family groups!

It was a perfect day for locals and tourists to enjoy what Venice Beach has to offer. We have not doubt we chose the best tour.

We arrived back at the cruise terminal at 3pm. Berthed right next to us, was “US Ohio”, now a museum of her past service. I think this is the ship President Kennedy sailed on during the war.
Great day, if we had to stop at LA, well, we made the most of it. Definitely not our favorite American city, it is huge, two hours travelling and we were still in LA!