Home Destinations USA California If You Like

If You Like

Food

Some of the world's best chefs prefer to work in California, which grows more varieties of fruits and vegetables than any other state. Dairies and ranches also thrive here, and fleets take fish and shellfish offshore. The organic-foods movement began in California, sparking an appreciation for seasonal ingredients.

Many of California's chefs take inspiration from the state's dynamic immigrant communities, bringing flavors and techniques from Mexico, China, the Philippines, Korea, Vietnam, India, and elsewhere into their kitchens. You'll find the finest restaurants and the greatest abundance of high-quality dining in and around San Francisco and Los Angeles, and in the Napa and Sonoma Wine Country.

Bastide, West Hollywood. Provençal warmth and gracious, unfussy service enhance fantastique cooking.

French Laundry, Yountville. At this contemporary American restaurant you'll spend lots of time and money on your meal—and it'll be worth it.

Gary Danko, San Francisco. Foodies flock to Fisherman's Wharf to see what's on the French menu and to mine the prodigious wine list.

Jardinière, San Francisco. The superb contemporary cooking of chef Traci Des Jardins packs patrons into one of the city's sexiest restaurants.

Mustard's Grill, Yountville. Not an ounce of pretension weighs down the solid service or hearty American fare here.

Patina, Los Angeles. The setting—Frank Gehry's Walt Disney Concert Hall—provides a dramatic backdrop to show-stopping French cuisine.

Nature

Fog-shrouded redwood groves and sunbaked golden hills, sheltered coastal coves and snowy mountain ranges, canyon-slashed deserts and lake-pocked forests: California's geographical diversity is staggering. You can easily explore tide pools, chapparal, lava beds, woodlands, estuaries, and just about any other kind of ecological zone.

California has eight national parks, five national monuments, three national recreation areas, one national preserve, and one national seashore. With more than 270 sites, the state park system extends your reach to underwater preserves, wildlife reserves, dune systems, and other environmentally sensitive habitats.

Channel Islands National Park, Ventura. Some 2,000 species of plants and animals, including 35 kinds of marine mammals, live on and around this cluster of five islands.

Death Valley National Park, Death Valley. Deep canyons, colorful volcanic formations, and other geological wonders mark the hottest spot in the Western Hemisphere.

La Jolla Cove, La Jolla. Peek into tide pools and cliff caves at low tide, or dive and snorkel in the San Diego-La Jolla Underwater Park.

Monterey Bay Aquarium, Monterey. Commune with creatures native to California's shores: sardines in a circular tank swim around your head; otters backstroke at eye level.

Point Reyes National Seashore, Marin County. Elephant seals, 225 bird species, and purple urchins thrive along this untamed shoreline.

History

In 1769 Spanish missionaries and soldiers established California's first European settlement, at San Diego. From its origins as a Mexican outpost of missions and ranchos, California grew into a kind of perpetual promised land that has represented many things to many people.

The state has given American history some of its most recognizable characters: indigenous peoples victimized by Euro-American hubris, forty-niners who rushed here in search of gold, Chinese workers who helped build the West's railroads, Great Depression farmers fleeing the Dust Bowl, Hollywood tycoons and stars, Haight-Ashbury hippies, Silicon Valley dot-commers. Their human drama echoes at museums and historic sites throughout the state.

Bodie Ghost Town, Bodie State Historic Park. Preserved in a state of "arrested decay," this remote place in the eastern Sierra was once a wild mining town.

Columbia State Historic Park, Columbia. Pan for gold in a restored gold-rush town where history lives in shops, forges, and newspaper offices.

Maritime Museum, San Diego. Five rehabilitated sail- and steam-powered ships recall the seaport's turn-of-the-20th-century heyday.

Mission San Juan Capistrano, San Juan Capistrano. The adobe buildings and workers' implements give an evocative picture of early mission life.

Petroglyph Canyons, Ridgecrest. Two canyons hold the largest concentration of ancient rock art in the Northern Hemisphere.

Fun

Hey, you're on vacation, so why not cut yourself some slack and enjoy California's lighter-weight pleasures?

If you want concentrated doses of fun, head for the southern half of the state, between San Diego and Silicon Valley, for slick theme parks and creaky old oceanfront arcades and roller-coasters. To get a little exercise, try spectacular skiing in the Sierra Nevada, sybaritic golfing in the desert, or surfing along much of the coast. Cheer a frog-jumping competition in Gold Country. Tour a brewery (and taste the product) way up north. Drop some quarters at a Native American casino. Ride the cable cars in San Francisco. Best of all, watch the people wherever you go. You can't help but have a good time at these attractions.

Disneyland, Anaheim. The original and still the best, it rocks even if you don't have kids in tow.

Grauman's Chinese Theatre, Los Angeles. See the footprints of Marilyn Monroe and the nose print of Jimmy Durante in the sidewalk out front.

Heavenly Gondola, South Lake Tahoe. Ride up the mountain with the skiers for stunning views of cobalt-blue Lake Tahoe.

SeaWorld of California, San Diego. Walk through a world of sharks and walruses and see killer whales, sea lions, and otters perform.

Venice Boardwalk, Los Angeles. Five blocks of beachfront exhibitionism—magicians, bodybuilders, fortune-tellers, you name it—is pure eye candy.