5 Neighborhoods Los Angeles

Why it made the list: Skate culture, muscle beach, the boardwalk circus and the quiet, dreamy canals a few blocks inland, all wrapped around the boutiques and cafes of Abbot Kinney. Venice is LA at its most freewheeling and creative, and it's made for a slow walk.

Why it made the list: The Sunset Strip's rock-and-roll history, the design showrooms of the Avenues, buzzing sidewalk dining and the best rooftop bars in the city. WeHo is walkable, stylish and where LA goes out.

Why it made the list: The heart of the cool, creative Eastside: indie coffee roasters, vintage shops, record stores and hillside modernist homes around the reservoir. It's where LA's design-and-music crowd actually lives and hangs out.

Why it made the list: Leafy, storybook streets of Spanish and Tudor homes climbing toward Griffith Park, with a walkable village of bookshops, cafes and old-Hollywood haunts along Vermont and Hillhurst. It's the gateway to the Observatory and one of LA's prettiest neighborhoods.

Why it made the list: Old warehouses turned into galleries, breweries, muraled streets and some of the city's best restaurants. The Arts District is the grittier, cooler face of a downtown that keeps reinventing itself, and it's genuinely walkable.