Santa Monica, Venice Beach and Downtown Los Angeles

For my first full day, I decided to go first to Santa Monica and Venice, two coastal cities that belong to Greater Los Angeles. You should know that Los Angeles is HUGE! Even if the map you'll have in hands will have the "same size" than a San Francisco map, check the scale, it has nothing to do! A lot of people say that you can't do anything in LA if you don't have a car, but actually the Bus Metro transit is growing more and more each year and you do can visit all the places you want to by only taking bus and metro. It is 1.25$ a ticket, and the driver can makes transfers. There are also one-day passes for the metro, 5$ each. A bus map is available at the hostel.


So Santa Monica. It is first-known for being the final destination of the famous US 66 Route that goes through the USA from Chicago to Los Angeles, passing 8 different states with its 2451 miles. Santa Monica is not much a big city and as a consequence there are not a lot of things to see. Though, it has the oldest amusement Pier of the West Coast, with an Amusement Park (Pacific Park) which has roller coasters and carousel. It has also a lot of tourist shops and restaurants. The downtown of Santa Monica is grouped along the 3rd street promenade, a car-free street where you can find dinosaur fountains and homeless artists singing nice and old rock and roll. Last but not least, the beach of Santa Monica is huge! It is very large, and you cannot actually see the ends of the seaside because it continues south to Venice Beach 3 miles away. Santa Monica Beach and Venice Beach are considered to be the main beaches of Los Angeles.




Going South on the boardwalk that boards the beach, you will reach after a 45 minutes walk Venice Beach. There is a big contrast between the two beach fronts. If Santa Monica's looks friendly and touristic, you will be amazed to see the reggae style of Venice's. A lot of homeless artists trying to make money, a lot of cheap stores to buy souvenir T-shirts, add to the whole thing a Marijuana smell and then you can picture how Venice Beach looks like. But I don't criticize it as I liked the atmosphere a lot! I stopped my beach front walk on Washington Boulevard. Then from here, the closest bus stop to go Downtown is about 2 miles away (or more) on Venice Boulevard and Lincoln. The walk is surprisingly long for the small distance that is showed on the map.


I arrived Downtown at 5:30PM, at the edge of the city at Union Station. I came to El Pueblo of Los Angeles, a Mexican area where you can go through a mini "Mexican tourist street market" with a lot of tourist souvenirs and pretty cheap guitars. I then come on Grand Avenue, the principal avenue of LA Downtown. I saw the Walt Disney Concert hall and its amazing design, and all the financial district, which is much less distracting than New York's or San Francisco's or even Miami's. I walked until the 7th street and the metro station center, to finally go back to the hostel at 7:30PM.