Venice Canals
- Good for Kids: Yes
6 reviews
Malibu, CA
"great shop, great selection. Good for people watching (if you do it slyly...). Pricey-, but hey it's Malibu, and that is pretty much what…" read more »
10 Reviews for Venice Canals
Truly one of the best things about Venice!!! I have walked along here many times over the years, as I have a friend that lives on the canal...cute, yet small, house. One of the few that have not been torn down to build a zero lot line home on. Regardless, beautiful homes, lovely walk. If you have the opportunity...this should not be missed!
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Ken's review of the canals is awesome, just perfect. No surprise that he got today's ROTD! (but for a different review)
This review of mine, along with being a tribute to one of LA's coolest Yelpers, is also a tribute to perhaps my most favorite place in all LA. I got several fave places though, so it's a tough call.
It's amazing that many long-time LA residents have never even heard of the canals, which are one of the few areas of original Venice left intact. Yes, Venice, CA was patterned after that other Venice, and the Canal district rocks because it's so unusual, so unexpected, the first time you lay eyes on it.
Kellee's great review tells some of the area's history. A bit of additional history here, in my Abbot Kinney review
http://www.yelp.com/bi...
It's a popular spot for film shoots. "The Truth About Cats & Dogs" comes to mind. I think there was a sunset scene shot on a canal, on one of the curved bridges. So beautiful.
I have a short list of places where I take my out-of-town visitors. Venice Canals is, hands down, the #1 favorite spot of all my guests. Most want to live there, are ready to leave their lives and move!
The photos tell all. I posted 21. This is a very special place.
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I thought I knew everything about the Los Angeles and Santa Monica areas. Well I had missed this little gem in my 29 years. My uncle took us on a tour of this area and explained the history of Abbott Kinney. It was neat seeing how they tried to imitate Venice, Italy. Truly a cool place to see.
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Que romantico! Beautiful, serene, natural. Best thing about Venice...Period.
Spanning about 9 square blocks near Venice beach, a series of canals weave through a unique neighborhood. Instead of traditional asphalt streets, houses are separated by waterways with pedestrian paths on either side. Various footbridges make navigation easy and fun.
Each house is unique and interesting. The waterways are picturesque, serene, calm and inhabited by ducks and other water birds. Be sure to visit this beautiful LA gem!
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If you're into ducks and water, I recommend checking out the canals at Venice Beach. There is in street where you are able to drive your car slowly over four different canal bridges and look at the beautiful canal.
Sometimes in the past I'd taken walks along the canals and footbridges taking photos with my fave Cannon camera in black and white film.
I love this place for the reason you can actually walk here and feel safe and not have to worry about cars.
One of my absolute favorite areas of Los Angeles, and a must-see for visitors and residents alike.
Quite a historical area of Venice, there used to be a series of canals that were later filled, leaving the four remaining. The Venice Beat Poets hung out here, Jim Morrison grew up here, and although now it is an extremely expensive area of town in which to purchase property, you can still feel the energy of the artistic community that has always managed to thrive here. Now, gorgeous homes line these serene canals. It's a beautiful area to just walk around, and watch the ducks swim on by.
The community puts on a number of events over the year, including the Christmas Boat Parade (a must see!!) and their own version of the annual Boat Show that occurs in the Marina. I looooooove the Venice Canals!
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When I hear the word picnic, I go hanna-barbera style crazy. I am asked to one of these quaint little get togethers on a lazy Sunday afternoon. What better place to go than Venice. Perhaps the Venice Canals. I had heard about them before and in all my years of being born and raised in LA I had never been. The first time I had heard about these canals I thought to myself, "Venice Canals...um. yeah *right*" because who would expect anything even remotely pretty in such a questionable area for a beach town.
I had accidently stumbled upon the canals on my way to meeting up with my friend. I stopped short and remember thinking nothing but "wow" ... the canals are lined with quaint houses and boats, the water rushes through over thousands of river rocks. There are paved sidewalks so passersby can walk alongside the canals and see it up close and personal. There is also a kid's/dog park halfway up the canals where you can sit and picnic if you like.
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Ah, the Canals of Venice, California!
There's nothing to buy here, nothing to do here, except walk, enjoy the pastoral setting, the ducks, the geese, and to truly immerse yourself in the experience of LOOKING UNABASHEDLY INTO PEOPLE'S HOUSES! This has always been a great walk, with a lot of funky charm (if you define "funky" as "geese shit all over"), but now, after an astronomical jump in real estate values, accompanied by an incredible building boom that has turned tiny cottages on postage stamp-sized lots into towering monoliths to post-modern architecture on postage stamp-sized lots, it's even more fun! I'm thinking that the people living here don't really mind you looking into their homes, because most of them have glass, glass, glass everywhere, and an amazing portion of them never close their blinds. So you can see what look like model homes of the future, with all their shiny, Euro-kitchens, and open architecture and high-vaulted ceilings, sometimes with the people right there, watching something interesting on their 60" plasma TVs.
Seriously, the homes are beautiful, and so are the gardens, and the setting can't be beat (though you still have to look out for the geese shit). You can spend an easy hour down here, just strolling along the paved paths, nodding at the other looky-lous, and it's a great place for a quiet outing for out-of-town guests who are tired of running around and wouldn't mind a mellow walk in an only-in-LA kind of setting. I've never seen any of the celebrities who have bought into the area recently (though I did talk to Anjelica Huston on the Venice Boardwalk just a few blocks away not too long ago), but really, it's the kooky canals that are the real stars. They're green and shallow and there's never anybody in them, but they've acquired a kind of personality all their own, like anyone who can survive in LA as long as they have might.
Day time is a nice time for those who like to admire gardens, and admire the ducks (you're not supposed to feed them, but who can resist? Except be prepared to be mugged by roving mallard gangs if you stick around in one spot for too long); night time is the best time to smell the night-blooming jasmine, be enchanted by the tiny lights that people have hung in their trees, and most importantly, to peer unabashedly into people's houses.
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