LA Venice Beach

LA’s boho enclave is ripe for exploration on wheels

- Jenny Southan

1 VENICE CANALS

Start your tour of this quirky Los Angeles neighbourhood with a stroll along its tidal canals, which were inspired by Venice in Italy. Now a historic residential district located south of Santa Monica, they were built in 1905 by New Jersey-born developer Abbot Kinney, as part of his vision to create a “Venice of America”. At the time, visitors would come for gondola rides, amusements, a rollercoaster and freakshows, much like those in New York’s Coney Island.

Today, there are only six canals left – four running east-west, two north-south – with little wooden bridges that take you from one side to the other. After decades of neglect, the canals were cleaned up in the 1990s and have now become a desirable place to live. The low-rise buildings exhibit an array of architectural styles, from colonial villas to yellow modernist cubes, and instead of cars, locals have rowing boats, kayaks and pedalos moored on the water.

2 THE BOARDWALK