Venice Beach

Venice Beach is a public beach in Venice, a neighborhood of Los Angeles, extending several kilometers along the Pacific coast. A wide boardwalk runs parallel to the sandy shore and hosts numerous vendor stalls, sports facilities, and open spaces for performances.

Abbott Kinney, a businessman, founded the settlement in 1905 as a seaside resort and built artificial canals along with buildings in Venetian style. In the 1930s, the first public weightlifting area appeared on the beach, later known as Muscle Beach.

The name comes from the canals the founder built after the Italian city, though only a few remain today. Street artists display their work directly on the walkway, while skaters perform tricks on dedicated lanes, making the area a meeting place for creative people.

The boardwalk accommodates pedestrians, cyclists, and skaters, with marked zones separating different types of traffic. Rental stations for sports equipment line the path and allow for spontaneous activities on the beach.

At the outdoor training area of Muscle Beach, bodybuilders work out in front of passersby, continuing a tradition that once attracted Arnold Schwarzenegger. Some of the original training equipment from the 1930s still stands in the same spot and is used daily.