Marina del Rey, CA

Marina del Rey is Los Angeles County's own harbor town, a waterfront the county dug, still owns and still runs. Venice borders it on one side and Playa del Rey on the other, and while the addresses and the pace feel like the Westside, the landlord behind nearly every building is the county itself. The Via Marina side, closest to the ocean, has the calm swimming beach inside the harbor and apartment towers looking out at the breakwater. Admiralty Way, on the inland curve, carries the hotels, restaurants and the main shopping strip. People paddleboard and kayak in the main channel, sail out past the breakwater on weekends, and walk or ride along the Marvin Braude Bike Trail, which threads through the harbor on the way to the South Bay beaches. Restaurants in the harbor tend to come with a dock view. Coffee, salads and burgers fill the rest of the Admiralty Way plazas. Errands stay local. A grocery store, a library branch and a row of chains sit along Admiralty Way, and Washington Boulevard leads straight into Venice. Lincoln Boulevard and the 90 handle trips inland. Detached houses barely exist inside the harbor, since the county leases the land to apartment and condo operators, so anyone wanting a yard ends up in Venice or Playa del Rey. For everyone else, apartment life here comes with a morning walk along the docks with the masts clinking in the wind, a few steps from home.