Venice Beach, California
Following my 14 hour flight (with several stops) to Tokyo earlier in the year, this 10 hour direct flight was a walk in the park. Although I’ve never been able to sleep on a flight, I usually like to book the exit seat - life and death responsibility for extra leg room seems like a pretty fair trade, even if that means I have to sit through the same people going for bathroom breaks and doing yoga stretched the entire flight just feet away.
I won’t go into detail, but I got onto the wrong rental shuttle and ended up walking a few blocks to the Hertz rental place. I held my breath in anticipation until the guy behind the counter told me I’d managed to secure the Jeep Wrangler, in Black - success, the exact car I wanted.
I was on my way, to my first AirBnb, on my first visit to Venice Beach.
I pulled up to the ground floor studio, I’d messaged the owner Cy a few hours before and given him the heads up. This place was literally 100 yards from the sand of Venice Beach.
If you have every played GTA V on the Playstation, you’ll be familiar with the fictional state of San Andreas, with its piers, beaches, ferris wheel, and interesting locals. Based in Southern California, I always thought San Andreas was an exaggerated version of Venice Beach, Santa Monica and Los Angeles, but as I completed by morning jog up and down the beach at 7am, I began to realise it wasn’t that exaggerated after all. Ok, so I never felt like I was about to be arrested, I was never tempted to steal a car, and I didn’t feel like I would be run over, but the mix of characters was all too familiar. Whether it’s an elderly gentleman completing his early morning yoga routine on the beach, the kids playing basketball, the guy and girl rollerblading down the pier, or the dudes on the corners selling their latest mix tapes, it felt like the game had been brought to life, I was mesmerised.
As expected the beaches were pretty chilled, the whole area had that surf vibe about it, it was full of young, happy, groups and couples, it didn’t feel like a ‘party’ beach, but the legalisation of recreational cannabis was a clear plus for the area. I’ve never tried it myself, but here there were numerous coffee places you could pop into to try.
The Canals are a good way to get away from the beach but you still get the surf vibes, with boats, and kayaks tied up outside fantastic looking homes, overlooking beautiful canals and bridges.
A short walk up the beach and you find yourself at the famous Venice Beach Skate park, I’ve never skated, and these kids had obviously been brought up on it, I went here a few times, it was great for Instagram’able content, and it was mesmerising seeing how they surfed the smooth concrete curves of the skate park with magnetic accuracy. Get there for sunset for some truly unreal pictures.
I was only there for a few days, but managed to make the most of the food, its the US, the food is something else entirely. I discovered by new favourite breakfast hangout Eggslut, this place got pretty busy after 0930 so you have to get there early, but wow, I had something different each time i went, I recommend the Fairfax Sandwich - scrambled egg, in a brioche bun, with a coffee and OJ - wow.
Walk ten or fifteen minutes, or take ones of the crazy scooters that you see laid around the place (you need to download an app, and pay 15c per minute, but hold on tight, they are lethal), and you will reach Abbot Kinney, if you have ever been to Shoreditch in East London, you will feel right at home here. The street creeps up on you, one minute your in Venice Beach they next, you’re surrounded by cool coffee shops, healthy restaurants, rustic pizzerias, and rusty metal/ wood shop fronts, covering Rag & Bone, Warby Parker and Zadig & Voltaire. It’s a great place to spend an afternoon, and it became my go to place for lunch. Kreation is a healthy organic cafe , that do great breakfasts, and lunch, pus the service was incredible.
In the evening, I ventured to a yummy Chinese restaurant called Mao’s Kitchen, the wait time was a little crazy, but I’d been told it was well worth it, and yes it was, the portions… were out of this world, I had a full meal and still had enough to take away for a very unhealthy midnight meal later!
Gjelina in Abbot Kinney was a rustic pizza place, again, busy, you need to reserve ideally, but great service and even petter pizzas. There is something great about eating outside at night, surrounded by great people and good food, we don’t always get the opportunity in London.
For great coffee try Intelligentsia, especially the Macha Latte. I could have survived on that and the Macha Croissant, they were to die for. Perfect service, and a queue - the hallmark of the trip so far.
I hadn’t been on a beach holiday for so long, I needed this one, to get a little tan, and relax. If I’m honest the people were great, although the CD sellers could get a little much, The service (as always in the US) was great, and the food was delicious. But it seemed a little too surfer for me, I couldn’t put my finger on it, but, whilst I could certainly see myself hanging out here for a day or two, it wasn’t somewhere I could see myself living. But maybe nobody can.