This is what happens when a gym, a skatepark, and a beach all collide in Los Angeles

It’s LA’s loudest stretch of sand

About 10 million people show up to Venice Beach every year, and once you walk Ocean Front Walk, you understand why.

The boardwalk runs two miles along the coast, and on any given day, around 28,000 to 30,000 people crowd the sand and pavement beside it.

Street performers, artists, food vendors, and musicians line the path from end to end.

You get swimming, surfing, beach volleyball, a fishing pier, and a bike trail that connects you to the rest of the LA coastline. None of it costs a dime to see.

A wealthy developer dug canals to drain the swamp

Back in 1905, a developer named Abbot Kinney looked at a stretch of marshland and saw Venice, Italy.

He dug miles of canals, built a pier, an auditorium, a dance hall, and an arcaded business district, then opened the whole thing on July 4, 1905.

People came for amusement rides, restaurants, and entertainment. Venice ran as its own city until 1926, when Los Angeles annexed it.

Three years later, crews filled in most of the canals to make room for roads. The car won that round.

Acrobats and fortune tellers work the two-mile walk

Ocean Front Walk puts musicians, comedians, dancers, acrobats, and fortune tellers right in your path for two straight miles.

Hundreds of vendors sell handmade jewelry, art, clothing, and souvenirs from stalls along the way. You can grab food from a walk-up window or a food truck, or sit down at a spot facing the ocean.

The whole boardwalk is free and open every day. Nobody plans what happens out here, and that’s the point.

It’s been drawing crowds for decades on pure unpredictability.

Arnold Schwarzenegger pumped iron right on the sand

Muscle Beach Venice sits right on the boardwalk, an open-air weight pen that the City of Los Angeles officially dedicated in 1987.

The name carries “Venice” because the original Muscle Beach was up in Santa Monica, dating back to the 1930s. When that site closed in 1959, lifters migrated south to this Venice pen, which had been running since 1951.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lou Ferrigno, Franco Columbu, and Frank Zane all trained here. Since 2003, bronze plaques along the Muscle Beach Walk of Fame have honored the biggest names in bodybuilding history.

The Z-Boys turned empty pools into a whole sport

The stretch of coast around Venice and Santa Monica goes by “Dogtown,” and in the 1970s, a crew of young surfers called the Z-Boys changed skateboarding here for good.

They rode for the Zephyr surf and skate team, based out of Jeff Ho Surfboards and Zephyr Productions, which opened in Venice Beach in 1973.

They brought a low, aggressive, surf-inspired style to the concrete that laid the foundation for modern vertical and street skating.

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History has recognized their role in shaping the sport.

A 16,000-square-foot skatepark sits right on the sand

The Venice Beach Skatepark opened on Oct. 3, 2009, and covers 16,000 square feet of concrete right next to the ocean.

Its official name is the Dennis “Polar Bear” Agnew Memorial Skatepark, after a well-known Dogtown-era skater. You get two bowls, a snake run, and a street section with steps, rails, and ledges.

The whole park sits on the sand near Windward Avenue and Ocean Front Walk, so skaters ride with the Pacific in their peripheral vision. It’s free, open to everyone, and packed with spectators most days.

Six canals survived the bulldozers and they’re gorgeous

Only six of Abbot Kinney’s original canals made it through the decades: Grand, Eastern, Carroll, Linnie, Howland, and Sherman. After years of neglect, the city renovated all six and reopened them to the public in 1993.

The district now sits on the National Register of Historic Places.

Arched pedestrian bridges cross the water, flower-lined walkways run along the banks, and the homes range from old beach cottages to modern builds.

Herons, egrets, cormorants, and ducks live along the water, and the whole area feels miles away from the boardwalk noise just a few blocks over.

Abbot Kinney Boulevard earned the title of coolest block in America

A mile-long street named after Venice’s founder runs a few blocks inland from the beach, and GQ Magazine once called it “The Coolest Block in America.”

Independent boutiques, art galleries, and local designers share sidewalk space with well-known brands. Every first Friday of the month, food trucks line the boulevard and pull crowds from across the city.

Murals and street art cover the walls along the way, which fits right in with the creative energy Venice has always run on.

Artists paint the Venice Art Walls legally every weekend

Venice Beach packs more public murals per block than almost anywhere in Los Angeles.

Buildings along the boardwalk, Abbot Kinney Boulevard, and surrounding streets carry large-scale artwork from top to bottom.

The Venice Art Walls sit on the sand between the skatepark and the basketball courts, and every weekend, artists show up and paint legally.

The walls trace back to graffiti on the old Venice Pavilion, which came down in 1999. Painting became officially legal in 2000, and the STP Foundation now curates the program.

You just need a permit, and you get it on-site.

The basketball courts draw streetball players from across LA

The Venice Beach basketball courts sit right on Ocean Front Walk, and players have treated them as hallowed ground for years. Four full-length courts spread across the sand, including one stadium-sized surface.

Pickup games run daily and pull in players of all ages and skill levels from across Los Angeles.

The Venice Basketball League, founded in 2006, hosts an invitational summer tournament every year that brings top streetball talent and thousands of spectators to the courts.

You can watch for free from the sidelines any day of the week.

A 22-mile bike trail connects you to the whole LA coast

The Marvin Braude Bike Trail, known as The Strand, runs 22 miles along the Los Angeles County coastline and passes right through Venice Beach.

You can rent a bike or an e-bike nearby and ride north to Santa Monica or south through Marina del Rey and into the South Bay beach cities.

The trail is flat and paved, so it works for cyclists, joggers, rollerbladers, and walkers year-round. You’ll pass the boardwalk, the Venice Fishing Pier, and a long stretch of open coast without ever leaving the path.

The 2028 Olympics will award their first medal right here

Venice Beach will serve as an official venue for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. The triathlon events, including the individual men’s, women’s, and mixed relay races, will all take place here.

Triathlon will award the first Olympic medal of the entire 2028 Games at Venice Beach on opening day. The marathon and road cycling events will also start from this stretch of sand.

LA28 organizers announced the plan in April 2025 as part of a venue strategy built around existing infrastructure across the region.

Walk the boardwalk at Venice Beach, California

You can reach everything in Venice Beach on foot. The boardwalk, Muscle Beach, the skatepark, the basketball courts, the canals, and Abbot Kinney Boulevard all sit within walking distance of each other in the Venice neighborhood of Los Angeles.

The beach and boardwalk are free and open to the public every day.

Paid parking lots and metered street parking are available nearby, but spaces fill up fast on weekends. If you’re biking, The Strand drops you right at the sand.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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