The Windward Walk
A fixed departure you join with other people. Two and a half hours, three stops, ending on the sand. The best way to find out whether this is your kind of afternoon.
What you get
Everything named. Nothing you have to guess at before you book.
- A working studio, opened for usNot a gallery and not a shop. Somewhere that isn't open to the public, with the person who works there.
- A table held in advance, and a drinkBooked ahead in your name, one street back from the part everyone walks down.
- The full canal grid on footNot the one bridge everyone photographs. All of it, which takes about twenty minutes and almost nobody does.
- Groups under ten, alwaysSmall enough that you can ask a question and get a real answer.
- A hard finish at 7:00At the water, timed to the light. If you have a dinner booking, you'll make it.
Three ways to do it
Scheduled
Private
Groups
Pick the one that matches your group.
Your day, planned
Half or full day for your group alone. You set the pace and the route, reservations are held in advance, and the plan gets rebuilt on the morning if the weather turns. Costs more per head than a ticket, and for four or more it's usually the better afternoon.
Offsites and company days
For teams in town for a week or an afternoon. Split routes above fifteen people, one point of contact, and an itinerary your ops lead can actually read.
How the afternoon runs
A real schedule, with the walking already accounted for.
Meet at the arches
Windward Avenue, under the 1905 colonnade. Easy to find, easy to park two streets over. Total walking across the afternoon is under two miles, all flat.
The canals
The whole grid, not the one bridge. Residential streets, quiet, and the part of Venice most visitors photograph once and then leave.
The studio
Forty minutes somewhere that isn't open to the public, with the person who works there. This is the stop you couldn't arrange yourself, and the reason the rest of the afternoon costs what it does.
A table off Abbot Kinney
Held in advance, one street back from the busy stretch. One drink is included; anything after that is yours.
Golden hour, at the water
Last stop, timed to the light rather than the clock. We finish here at seven and you carry on or go home.
Practical
The questions people ask before they book, answered up front.
Is Venice Beach safe?
We start at 3:30 and finish before dark. The route runs through the canals and the residential streets east of Abbot Kinney — we end at the beach, but we don't spend the afternoon on the boardwalk. If something you've read worries you, ask me before you book rather than after.
How much walking?
Under two miles across two and a half hours, entirely flat, with three sit-down or stand-still stops. Tell me in advance if anyone can't manage that and I'll adjust the route rather than tell you it's fine.
Timing
3:30 start, 7:00 finish, both firm. Arrive by 3:25. If you're running late, message rather than guess — we can usually hold five minutes but not fifteen.
Weather
Venice afternoons are reliable, but marine layer happens. We run in overcast; we rebuild the route in rain and tell you the night before.
What to bring
Shoes you can walk two miles in and a layer for the evening — it turns cold at the water faster than people expect. Nothing else.
Cancelling
Free up to 24 hours before. Inside that, the table and the studio are already committed on your behalf, so I can't refund it.
Straight answers
Including the one you're actually thinking.
Can't I just walk this myself?
Most of it, yes. The canals are public, Abbot Kinney is a street, and the beach is free. You could do that tomorrow with a map and have a good afternoon.
What you can't do alone is the studio — that's someone's workplace, and it's open to us because I know them. If that isn't worth it to you, go and walk the canals for free. I'd rather say so than sell you a map.
How is this different from a food tour?
A food tour is about what you eat and generally runs more stops with more tastings. This is about who lets you in. One drink is included rather than a series of them, and the studio is the centre of the afternoon. If you mainly want to eat your way through Venice, book the food tour — it's a good product and it isn't this one.
We're five people. Scheduled or private?
Private, almost always. It costs more per head than five tickets, but you set the route and the pace, nobody else is in the group, and I can build the afternoon around what you actually want to see. Above four people it stops being a close call.
Do you run every day?
Scheduled walks are Thursday to Sunday at 3:30. Private days run any day with enough notice. If a scheduled departure doesn't reach three bookings I'll cancel it and tell you the evening before — I'd rather do that than run something thin.
What if I'm booking from outside the US?
Write in your own language if that's easier — I'll manage. Prices are US dollars and include everything listed above. I'm happy to hold a date informally while you sort flights, and I don't take payment until the plan is agreed.
Run by one person who is actually there.
Ori Mor built and sold a New York experiences company — around 300 departures in its first six months — then spent a decade running live operations at Amazon and Netflix, where the job was making sure complicated things happened on time in front of an audience.
Venice is home now. The point of doing this here is that a day only works if someone has walked it, timed it, and knows what to do when a reservation falls through at six o'clock.
Part of Anchor Studios Venice.
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