{"id":89715,"date":"2014-02-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-02-14T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/travelstartblg.wpenginepowered.com\/highlights-of-venice-beach-california\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T13:51:53","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T13:51:53","slug":"highlights-of-venice-beach-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.travelstart.co.za\/blog\/highlights-of-venice-beach-california\/","title":{"rendered":"Highlights of Venice Beach, California"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/travelstartstg.wpenginepowered.com\/highlights-of-venice-beach-california\/venice\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-31442\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-31442\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/travelstartmu.wpenginepowered.com\/zablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/10\/Venice.png\" width=\"557\" height=\"392\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t know what I expected of Venice Beach, in Los Angeles, but I suspect it was a conglomerate of many TV shows and movies who had illustrated a steady stream of freaks on display, and not much else.<\/p>\n<p>For example, do you know that as well as the numerous unusual looking people on the boardwalk (really, they are there, and they are numerous) the beach itself is rather wonderful? Like Durban, but cleaner and bigger and more American. We had a late afternoon swim in the ocean and it was absolutely wonderful \u2013 warm (enough) and clear and filled with dolphins! Truly, a pod of dolphins swam past as we were swimming\u2026 Why don\u2019t they ever show that in the TV shows?<\/p>\n<p>The boardwalk itself is a must-do, of course, ideally with a giant homemade ice-cream (my personal favourite is coconut) and plenty of time to look in the hidden bookshop and peruse the many grafittied walls and interesting people on display.<\/p>\n<p>But there\u2019s another side to Venice Beach that I didn\u2019t know about \u2013 the streets of boutique shops, wine bars and lovely little caf\u00e9s, the part where real people actually live. It\u2019s a surfer\u2019s paradise, of course, but it\u2019s also a swimmer\u2019s and walker\u2019s paradise, and it\u2019s not difficult to see the allure of living so close to the ocean\u2026 Even if there are muscled men working out right on the beachfront!<\/p>\n<p>One of the things I love most about travelling is its capacity to surprise me, and make me realize what unexpected preconceptions I had about places I had never been. Venice Beach was one such place, I wonder what the next one will be?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/pin\/68609594296165108\/\" target=\"_blank\">Image credit<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I don\u2019t know what I expected of Venice Beach, in Los Angeles, but I suspect it was a conglomerate of many TV shows and movies who had illustrated a steady stream of freaks on display, and not much else. For example, do you know that as well as the numerous unusual looking people on the boardwalk (really, they are there, and they are numerous) the &#8230; <a title=\"Highlights of Venice Beach, California\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.travelstart.co.za\/blog\/highlights-of-venice-beach-california\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Highlights of Venice Beach, California\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":89716,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_destination_ratings":[],"_destination_review_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,445],"tags":[435],"class_list":["post-89715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel","category-destinations-travel","tag-california","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-33"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Highlights of Venice Beach, California - Travelstart Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.travelstart.co.za\/blog\/highlights-of-venice-beach-california\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Highlights of Venice Beach, California - Travelstart Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I don\u2019t know what I expected of Venice Beach, in Los Angeles, but I suspect it was a conglomerate of many TV shows and movies who had illustrated a steady stream of freaks on display, and not much else. For example, do you know that as well as the numerous unusual looking people on the boardwalk (really, they are there, and they are numerous) the ... 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