Marina del Rey Area

[CanadianPaco]

We're thinking of booking a few nights here. What is the area like? The beaches? Help

 

[tracys2cents]

Venice Beach and Santa Monica beach are nearby, but you wouldn't want to swim there (polluted). Manhattan Beach is about 10 minutes south, nicer beach area but still I wouldn't want to swim there. Marina Del Rey is not beach, it is more boats and harbor and marina. Lots of dining and shopping and a pier, but not the place to stay if you want to be right on the beach.

 

[jtoast]

*nod* was in the Venice Beach/Marine Del Rey area on Saturday.

Instead of the artists and street performers that were there 10 years ago, the Venice sidewalk seems to have been taken over by the "Lets sell whatever overpriced crap we can find to the tourists" swapmeet vendors. There were a ton of Henna Tattoo vendors (5 in a row at one spot), write your name on a grain of rice vendors (3 in a row at one spot) and pretty much all of the actual street performers which gave Venice Beach its reputation are gone (only ones we saw were 2 mimes...both pretty bad.) There were also "No Swimming" signs most of the way down the beach although I did see a few surfers in the water.

Marina Del Rey is a nice place to have lunch on the docks if you enjoy boat watching but there isn't really a lot else there. For beaches we went further south and hit Laguna, Corona Del Mar, Newport and Huntington.