The Great Los Angeles Walk 2026 Official Press Release Has Been Sent!

 

THE 21st ANNUAL GREAT LOS ANGELES WALK CELEBRATES ROUTE 66’s 100th ANNIVERSARY BY HITTING SANTA MONICA BLVD. ON SATURDAY, NOV. 21

LOS ANGELES (Nov. 5, 2026) -- Hundreds of Angelenos will hit the L.A. sidewalks once again on Saturday, November 21, for The Great Los Angeles Walk 2026 – the annual event (always held the Saturday before Thanksgiving) that dispels the myth that “nobody walks in L.A.” 

For its 21st edition, The Great Los Angeles Walk (http://www.greatlawalk.com) is also celebrating the 100th anniversary of Route 66 by walking the final 14.3 miles of the Mother Road: Santa Monica Boulevard!

This year’s Walk will meet at Echo Park Lake at 9 a.m., and then proceed to walk the entire length of Santa Monica Blvd, to the ocean and the end of Route 66 at Santa Monica Pier. It’s an opportunity to see our city on foot, explore neighborhoods and get to bond with fellow Angelenos. See you there!

Walkers will pass through a diverse cross-section of the region, including Echo Park, Silver Lake, East Hollywood, Hollywood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Century City, West L.A. and Santa Monica.

Attendees will be encouraged to explore the city in a safe way, and follow proper safety protocols. As they walk through Los Angeles, they’ll document what they see and share that experience with others. It’s not a race – attendees are encouraged to take their time, explore, learn about their city and even build community with others. The Walk will end with a celebration at a venue to be announced later.

L.A. journalist and blogger Michael Schneider launched the Great Los Angeles Walk in 2006 as a way to celebrate his tenth year in Los Angeles. Inspired by the book “Wilshire Boulevard: Grand Concourse of Los Angeles,” by Kevin Roderick (with research by J. Eric Lynxwiler), he decided to walk the street’s entire length. 

In 2007, for an encore, he chose another downtown-to-the-ocean route: Pico Boulevard. The 2008 Walk took on Santa Monica Blvd. In 2009, the event kicked off in the historic West Adams district and walked to Venice Beach via Adams and Washington. In 2010, for its fifth edition, the Great Los Angeles Walk reprised its original Wilshire journey. In 2011, participants marched to the ocean via Hollywood Boulevard. In 2012, the Walk traveled across Melrose Avenue; in 2013, Sunset Boulevard; in 2014, the Walk traveled across the San Fernando Valley via Ventura Boulevard; in 2015, the Walk took on Olympic Boulevard. 

In 2016, the Walk returned to Pico; in 2017, it tackled Beverly Boulevard; in 2018, in honor of Jonathan Gold, we walked on 6th Street, including through Koreatown; in 2019, we walked down Colorado Blvd. from Arcadia and Pasadena, and then through Highland Park to downtown via Figueroa; in 2020, the socially distanced edition returned to Wilshire; in 2021, the event retraced the steps of L.A.’s first settlers (Los Pobladores) from San Gabriel Mission to downtown; in 2022, it once again explored West Adams on the way to Venice; in 2023, the Walk started and ended at Griffith Park (taking Fairfax, Pico and Western); in 2024, the Walk started at USC and ended at UCLA; and in 2025, for the 20th edition, the Walk again returned to Wilshire.

The Great Los Angeles Walk grew from dozens of participants to hundreds, and continues to expand each year – always the Saturday before Thanksgiving -- as more Angelenos join in to explore their city on foot. 

As always, the Walk is completely free. It is up to the participants to decide how much or how little of the walk they want to do. The Great Los Angeles Walk has been featured in Los Angeles magazine, the Los Angeles Times, the L.A. Weekly, KCAL-Channel 9, KABC-Channel 7, LAist.com and KNBC.com. In 2012, the LA Weekly recognized The Great Los Angeles Walk in its "Best of L.A." issue. The Walk was also included in the book "The Best Things to Do In Los Angeles: 1001 Ideas" by Joy Yoon. 

The official hashtags of The Great Los Angeles Walk are #greatlawalk and #glaw. Social media users can follow along all day on the walk's official Instagram feed, @greatlawalk, as we continually post our location. 

Great LA Walk Welcomes Its Official Media Sponsor: L.A. Material

Thanks to L.A. Material for joining us on this year's Great Los Angeles Walk! You'll see them out and about on Nov. 21 as we hit Santa Monica Blvd., and they're also helping spread the word via their website and podcast! L.A. Material has been a welcome addition to the local media landscape, and has already been doing some great stuff. Here's more from them:

L.A. Material is an independent news outlet covering the people, politics, culture and glorious chaos shaping Los Angeles. 

L.A. Material brings you intel on the city you can’t get anywhere else, from exploring the thriving In-N-Out black market on Facebook Marketplace to building an interactive map of L.A. politicians’ Yelp reviews. And answering, once and for all, why the AMC Burbank escalator is always broken. 

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Great LA Walk 2026 Route 66 Shirts Are Ready to Order!

Order soon, so they're in your mailbox before the Walk on Nov. 21! Get a shirt or a sweatshirts, they're just a fun way to show your participation in this year's Walk — and this year also a Route 66 souvenir! There are a wide variety of shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies and even polos for people of all sizes and ages. This year, we have a choice of black, tan or white shirts. There's a link on the side; below; or just go directly to our Spreadshirt page at https://greatlawalk.myspreadshop.com/.

Get Your Kicks on Route 66 As The Great Los Angeles Walk 2026 Celebrates the Mother Road on November 21!

 

For our 21st edition of The Great Los Angeles Walk, we're hitting the Mother Road! It's the 100th anniversary of Route 66, so why not get our kicks by walking the last several miles of the iconic highway — in this case, it's the full length of Santa Monica Boulevard!

As always, the Walk will take place the Saturday before Thanksgiving, which this year is Saturday, Nov. 21, 2026. We'll meet at Echo Park's Lady of the Lake statue at 9 a.m. -- and then walk Route 66/Santa Monica Boulevard (which, I know, is now actually Route 2!) in its entirety, to the ocean. We'll end, naturally, at the Santa Monica Pier's "End of Route 66" sign.

This is also a special year personally for the walk, as I'm celebrating my 30th (!!) anniversary in Los Angeles. Most of you know that The Great Los Angeles Walk was born in 2006 as a way to mark my first decade in L.A. That year, the Saturday before Thanksgiving in 2006 I decided to walk the length of Wilshire Boulevard after being inspired by the book "Wilshire Boulevard: Grand Concourse of Los Angeles" (by Kevin Roderick and J. Eric Lynxwiler), I asked the readers of my blog Franklin Avenue to come join me for a day-long stroll across the city.

In 2007, for the encore, I chose another downtown-to-the-ocean route: Pico Boulevard. The 2008 Walk took on Santa Monica Blvd. In 2009, the event kicked off in the historic West Adams district and walked to Venice Beach via Adams and Washington. In 2010, for its fifth edition, the Great Los Angeles Walk reprised its original Wilshire journey. In 2011, participants marched to the ocean via Hollywood Boulevard. In 2012, the Walk traveled across Melrose Avenue; in 2013, Sunset Boulevard; in 2014, the Walk traveled across the San Fernando Valley via Ventura Boulevard; in 2015, the Walk took on Olympic Boulevard.

In 2016, the Walk returned to Pico; in 2017, it tackled Beverly Boulevard; in 2018, in honor of Jonathan Gold, we walked on 6th Street, including through Koreatown; in 2019, we walked down Colorado Blvd. from Arcadia and Pasadena, and then through Highland Park to downtown via Figueroa; in 2020, the socially distanced edition returned to Wilshire; in 2021, the event retraced the steps of L.A.’s first settlers (Los Pobladores) from San Gabriel Mission to downtown; in 2022, it once again explored West Adams on the way to Venice; in 2023, the Walk went in a square, beginning and ending in Griffith Park; in 2024, we walked from USC to UCLA; and in 2025, to celebrate the 20th Great Los Angeles Walk, we returned once again to Wilshire.

If you're not familiar with the Walk, please go read this wonderful feature in the Los Angeles Times, which perfectly encapsulated what we're all about: 

L.A. isn’t a walking city? The man behind Great Los Angeles Walk would like a word

The last time we walked down the full length of Santa Monica Blvd. was in 2008 — check out the recap here.

And in 2013, we met at the Lady of the Lake statue to walk down Sunset Blvd.; here's a photo from that gathering (which you may also recognize from this website's header):

Last year's Walk was perhaps our biggest yet; read all about it here. As always, the Walk is completely free and is meant to serve as a grassroots way for Angelenos to get together and explore their community and share it with others. Stay tuned and make sure to email us at greatlawalk@mail.com to get on our email list!

Here's what the route will look like — don't worry, a real map will come soon, this is just a guideline. 

And as you know, our rule is always the same: You can walk as much or as little as you want! FAQ, including the real map, will come later. More details to come!

The Great Los Angeles Walk 2025 Recap: Our Biggest Crowd Ever Hikes Down Wilshire For the 20th Edition

I know I say this every year, but I think most who attended can agree it was our biggest walk yet. We ran out of "I ❤️ LA" hats from TV's "Hacks" (thank you Universal TV) and our handouts, and those ran around 500 -- so it was a lot! Thanks to everyone who came out to celebrate the 20th edition of the Great Los Angeles Walk and hit the boulevard that started it all — Wilshire — on Saturday. Many (most?!) braved all 15.8 miles to make it to end too!

And it was a beautiful day for a walk. The temperature was mild (not too cold, not too hot) and after the past week's rain, the skies were perfect.

Other than that pesky security guard at Pershing Square (hey, he was just doing his job and I'm not sure he expected 600 people to randomly show up at 9 a.m.!) the morning kicked off well, starting with Jenny from the LA Conservancy giving us a little pep talk about what to see on Wilshire. A double thanks to the LA Conservancy, as I cribbed from an old Wilshire guide of the organization's to populate this year's handout.

First thing, some folks checked out the Biltmore Hotel (again, apologies to security there!) while most headed to One Wilshire to kick off our proper walk from downtown to the ocean. Early on, we reconnected with one of our favorite walkers, Julian from Santa Fe, who walks the route every year completely barefoot! Julian missed last year's event, but he was back and ready to go for the 20th!

We quickly made our way through downtown, and saw some classic architecture in the Good Samaritan Hospital and La Parrilla restaurant, a 1905 home that has been converted into an eatery. We made it to MacArthur Park, which quite honestly is looking ROUGH right now.

And yes, we witnessed perhaps another GLAW first: An LAPD arrest right in front of us, Yikes. I will not share a photo of that. Some of the beautiful buildings in the area are currently shut down and looking for some TLC, like the Park Plaza Hotel/The MacArthur, where I've been to many events over the years, including the wedding of good friends Jeff and Jess. Hopefully the building will recover.

From there, we saw a ton of wonderful apartment buildings like the Wilshire Royale, the Bryson, the Talmadge and more. We talked our way into the Gaylord, next to the HMS Bounty, were we once held the Ambassador Hotel wake. We saw the RFK school that took over the Ambassador, checked out the churches like Oasis, St. Basil, the Wilshire Blvd. Temple and then the Wilshire Colonnade.

Then there was the Wiltern, the newly painted red doors of the St. James Episcopal Church and the Scottish Rite Masonic Temple. Another treat was checking out the "House of Explore Indonesia" inside the Deco Building on Wilshire, where we got a free coffee! Along the way we also met an engineer behind one of those delivery robots, and we saw mahjong players setting up their tables. Learning a lot from fellow Angelenos!

By lunchtime it was LACMA (still can't believe what happened to the old buildings) and the Academy Museum (inside the old May Co. building), where many stopped for lunch at Fanny's.

Later, we walked through Beverly Hills (where some construction forced a sidewalk detour); and admired the rainbow patterned glass above the Bank of America building. We made it to the Beverly Hilton, where again construction forced some crafty running (and jaywalking, sigh) back and forth across Wilshire.

At Westwood, some of us stopped by to see People's Vision Zero painting crosswalks at the corner of Malcolm and Lindbrook in Westwood. The Hammer museum's "Made in LA 2025" exhibit also was a draw for some, especially since that venue is free! There was a bit more to see after that as we passed by the VA and the Wadsworth Chapel -- the oldest remaining building on Wilshire, from 1900 — and then entered Santa Monica. And of course, after taking celebratory photos at the Santa Monica statue, we gathered to eat at Papi Tacos & Churros!

What a day! Thanks to everyone who made all of the trek, some of it, or even just helped give rides to their friends. Check out The Great Los Angeles Walk's Instagram feed for more pics, and the hashtags #glaw and #greatlawalk for more as well. 

But here are just a few highlights from the day:

Some of the crowd watches as I kick off the 20th annual Great Los Angeles Walk, with help from the LA Conservancy's Jenny!

Just a fraction of the crowd. We pretty much filled a big chunk of Pershing Square!

Holding a banner we made for the occasion. 

And we're off!

Our barefoot regular, Julian!

Excited for a day of walking!

Overlooking the 110. The safety rail sure is low.

La Parilla restaurant, created out of a 1905 house that is one of the oldest remaining buildings on Wilshire.

Westlake Theatre (1926) closed in 1991.

General Harrison Gray Otis is pointing to the site of his former home.

MacArthur Park

The MacArthur (aka Park Plaza Hotel) (1925)

Looks like there's not much going on at the Park Plaza right now.

American Cement Building (1961)

Wilshire Royale (1927)

Bullocks Wilshire/Southwestern Law School (1929)

Getting to know our friend Coco

This engineer was repairing another robot and giving us the scoop on how they work.

I remember when this mural went up about 15-20 years ago. It sure does need a new paint job.

Mahjong tables at Open Market

Looking around inside the Gaylord (1924)

The HMS Bounty, where we held the Ambassador Hotel wake back in 2006.

The Brown Derby dome, which was moved to the top of the strip mall that replaced it.

Pretty much all of the Angels Walk pillars that were put up in the 2000s now look like this, sadly.

Peace! Outside the Line hotel.

St. Basil Church (1969)

Wilshire Colonnade

The Wiltern and Pellissier Building 

New red doors at the St. James Episcopal Church (1925)

The Getty House -- aka the LA mayors' house in Hancock Park

Inside the art deco building that now houses the House of Explore Indonesia (HEXI). It's an old bank building (see the vault above) that has since been transformed...

...and thanks for the coffee!

Wilshire sidewalk haircuts!

La Brea Tar Pits!

Berlin Wall remnants across the street from LACMA

Oscar at the Academy Museum

Thanks to the Academy Museum for welcoming us and offering a discount off future visits!

Petersen Automotive Museum

Entering Beverly Hills!

Bank of America building features a rainbow patterned glass of a dalle da verne cornice cantilevered nine and a half feet out from the top of the building.

People's Vision Zero painting crosswalks at the corner of Malcolm and Lindbrook in Westwood.

Made in LA 2025 exhibit at the Hammer Museum

Walkers having a little fun at the Hammer

Wadsworth Chapel (1900) -- the oldest remaining building on Wilshire

Kim Kardashian looks over Wilshire

Sunset in Santa Monica

Dogtown

At the end of the walk!

Celebrating at Papi Tacos & Churros