A Few Minutes Down Abbot Kinney

Some of the best hours in Venice are spent on foot, and few streets reward a slow walk like Abbot Kinney Boulevard. It begins a few minutes from the hotel and runs at a low, unhurried scale that never quite feels like a shopping district.

What the street is like

Abbot Kinney is named for the developer who dreamed Venice into existence at the turn of the last century, canals and all. The boulevard still carries that independent streak. There are no towers and little in the way of chains. Small storefronts trade in design, books, clothing, and coffee, and the pace stays closer to a neighborhood than a destination.

It is a street to wander rather than to plan. The pleasure is in the drift: a window here, a courtyard there, a coffee carried down the block.

How we'd spend an afternoon

• Start with coffee and let the morning light do the work; the boulevard is quietest before midday.
• Move slowly through the design and home shops, where Abbot Kinney is at its most distinctive.
• Break for lunch or an early dinner. Gjelina, the restaurant that shares our name, sits on the boulevard a short walk from your room.
• Come back after dark, when the restaurants fill and the street settles into its evening rhythm.

A note on timing

On the first Friday of most months the boulevard hosts an evening of open shops, food, and crowds. It is lively and worth it if you like the energy, and easily avoided if you would rather have the street to yourself. Any other evening tends to be calmer.

Whatever the hour, it is close. That is the quiet luxury of staying here: the neighborhood everyone comes to see is a few minutes from the front door, and you can leave the car where it is.