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As if San Diego’s 70 miles of coastline and reliably sunny weather weren’t enough, the city is also home to a whole lot more.
Explore this wonderful city's museums, world-renowned zoo, theme parks, famous golf courses, and a lively theater scene, as well as its great food, shopping and nightlife in the historic downtown quarter.
About the Region
At California’s southern extreme lies San Diego County, with its near perfect climate, 70 mile (113 km) coastline of sun-drenched beaches and a lifestyle based on year-round outdoor recreation. Mission Bay Aquatic Park, 4,600 acres of water sports and sailing, has 17 miles of beaches within the park itself. The San Diego area also offers 70 golf courses and the most modern sports fishing fleet in the U.S.A.
In downtown San Diego is the Gas Lamp Quarter, a charming 16-block National Historic District featuring restored buildings from the 1860s. Adjacent is the 11.5 acre modernistic Horton Plaza Shopping Centre, which attracts national attention with its splendid array of specialty shops, theatres and restaurants.
Nearby is rustic Old Town San Diego Historic Park, the historic core of the city, which features Hispanic-flavoured shops and restaurants. In San Diego, board a trolley to move about town or to reach the international border with Mexico for shopping in colourful Tijuana.
Balboa Park, another major attraction, is San Diego’s cultural centre, with 16 museums and the World-Famous San Diego Zoo. Spreading over 100 spectacular acres of canyons and mesas, the zoo displays more than 4,000 animals, birds and reptiles. The San Diego Wild Animal Park in nearby Escondido simulates an African wildlife preserve, with 2,500 animals in a naturalised environment.
SeaWorld, set on 125 scenic acres at Mission Bay, delights families with gigantic aquariums and live aquatic animal performances. From Shamu, the famous three-ton killer whale, to penguin encounter, acrobatic dolphins and the largest shark pool and water fowl collection in the country, SeaWorld offers something for everyone.
In northern San Diego County lie the resort communities of La Jolla and Del Mar, famed for luxurious golf, tennis and spa resorts as well as dining and shopping; Coronado with the historic Hotel Del Coronado; and Cabrillo National Monument at Point Loma, where the Portuguese explorer first lay claim to California. The spa community of Carlsbad lays claim to the nation’s first LEGOLAND. The theme park features educational attractions and provides fun for the entire family. Farther up the coast, Oceanside is home to some of the world’s finest surfing and Mission San Luis Rey, ‘king of the missions’. The back-country area includes the rustic mountain town of Julian, site of a major gold strike in 1869, and Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, a preserve of desert and rugged mountain terrain, ideal for hiking and camping.
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San Diego’s famous Balboa Park is a one-stop shop for the arts and culture-minded visitor. Home to 15 museums, a replica of Shakespeare’s theater and the world famous San Diego Zoo, the park could keep you busy for weeks. Once the museums close, take advantage of San Diego’s lively theater scene. The city’s Latino heritage comes alive at Old Town and Chicano Park, called “the museum without walls.”
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California beach culture is alive and well in San Diego. For locals, it’s a way of life. The area’s undeveloped beaches give you an idea of what Southern California’s coast must have looked like when Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo first set eyes on it in 1542. At the other end of the spectrum, Pacific Beach is the place to see and be seen.
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Sun cascading along stretches of white sandy beaches, relaxing resorts, shopping, dining, and partying are legendary in this region. As a golf destination, San Diego has over 1,800 undulating greens to conquer, 4,000 bunkers to avoid, and countless ball-swallowing water features within the 90+ courses. Combine the regions golf scene with their numerous attractions and you’ll understand why San Diego is one of the top golf spots in the world.
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San Diego’s historic Gaslamp Quarter is the city’s entertainment hub, with over 30 bars and nightclubs all within a short distance of each other. Throughout the city, you’ll find top DJs as well as laid-back beach bars and pubs. Live music venues bring bands of yesterday, today, and tomorrow to downtown, the beach, and Shelter Island.
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Recreation in San Diego revolves around the beach, and there’s no reason why it shouldn’t with the area’s 70 miles of coastline and ideal climate. There’s a list as long as your arm of all the things you can do, either in the water (swimming, surfing, snorkeling), on the water (coastline tours, sailing, sport fishing), at the beach (skateboarding, sunbathing, rollerblading), or very nearby (hiking, biking, camping). In the heart of the city, Balboa Park offers hiking and mountain biking trails.
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Several San Diego neighbourhoods should make your short list. The Gaslamp Quarter, Hillcrest, Little Italy, and La Jolla are communities packed with boutiques and galleries. Outdoor shopping complexes can be found around every corner, and bargain hunters will rejoice at the region’s outlet malls.
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Your spa options in San Diego provide a distinctly southern California flavor. Predictably, several luxury hotels offer spa treatments — some will even send a technician to your room. (Now that’s luxury!) Other unique offerings to help you relax include private outdoor gardens, treatment and yoga combinations, and a Pacific Island theme.
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The San Diego area has all the right ingredients for a perfect holiday: great weather year-round, plus tons of world-famous attractions including Sea World’s Shamu killer whale show, the ground breaking San Diego Zoo and the theme park built of plastic blocks at LEGOLAND. As if that weren’t enough, beachside Belmont Park has the largest indoor swimming pool in Southern California, a historic roller coaster, and a simulated wave pool where you can test your surfing skills.
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Just 45 minutes north of downtown, San Diego’s North County is among the finest wine-growing regions in western U.S. There are 14 wineries, many open to touring. San Diego’s restaurant scene bustles with newcomers and old classics alike, 100 of which are in the Gaslamp Quarter. The fare is infinitely varied, including pan-Asian, Hawaiian, Mediterranean, plenty of surf-and-turf, and even a new cook-your-own-steak joint.
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The orange orchards of Orange County are a little harder to find these days, but not so the ideal citrus-growing climate.
Theme parks, outdoor shopping complexes, and fine restaurants in Anaheim, Costa Mesa and quintessential beach towns along the coast take advantage of the great weather.
About the Region
Orange County boasts of having among the best selections of themed attractions anywhere. In Anaheim, the original Magic Kingdom of Disneyland continues to delight visitors of every age and interest with an exciting array of innovative attractions. Visionary Walt Disney once said, "Disneyland will never be completed", and this is evidenced by the continual addition of exciting attractions. Disney has totally renovated Tomorrowland, with Innovations, a spectacular interactive peek at near-future technology. Disney’s California Adventure sits next to the original Disneyland which has been part of the $1.4 billion expansion of The Disneyland Resort. Knotts Berry Farm offers a winning combination of nostalgic journeys back to the Old West and Roaring 20s eras. Come face to face with the greats of Hollywood at the Movieland Wax Museum. Then, cheer for your champion knight on horseback in joust and combat at an exciting Medieval Times dinner theatre performance.
Orange County also contains 68 kilometres of picture-perfect coastline and beaches. Stylish Newport Beach combines ocean, marina and beach-front life with elegant shopping and fine dining at the Newport Centre Fashion Island. In nearby Costa Mesa, the South Coast Plaza reflects the essence of chic, high fashion and style in shops representing the world’s most famous designers, products and brands. Costa Mesa is also home to the strikingly modern Orange County Performing Arts Centre, which features a wide variety of cultural arts including theatre, symphony, ballet and opera. For nightlife, visit ‘The Block of Orange’, a retail mix of nightclubs, restaurants, pavement cafes, bookshops and fashion boutiques. In nearby Santa Ana is the Main Place Shopping Centre, which captures the essence of the Southern California lifestyle.
Laguna Beach, the ‘Riviera of the West Coast’, is the site of the internationally renowned Pageant of the Masters re-creating classical and contemporary works of art with live models, music and narration. The oceanside city offers beach fun, romantic inns and five-star resort properties. The city has more than 70 art galleries, the celebrated Laguna Art Museum and a relaxed village atmosphere. Farther south on the coast lies San Juan Capistrano and the historic mission made famous by the annual return of the swallows in March.
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The O.C. has diverse communities where you’ll find art museums, film festivals, ballet, opera, plus plenty of performance venues (many of them outdoor) for touring musicians and shows. Laguna Beach has a lively gallery scene, Newport a surfing museum, and Costa Mesa a performing arts center and professional theater group.
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If you’re looking for quintessential Southern California beach towns, Orange County is the right place to be. There’s artsy Laguna Beach, surfing San Clemente, stylish Newport Beach with its old-fashioned beachfront amusement park, and… Well, you get the picture.
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Selecting a course in this region reminds us of an eight-year old child visiting one of Orange County’s famous amusement parks for the first time —anticipation, excitement and ultimately hyper-ventilating trying to decide which ride to go on first. Although one of the smallest regions in California, Orange County is full of diverse, interesting, and extremely well maintained golf courses.
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Orange County’s beaches are its crown jewels, offering every kind of beach terrain and water sport, including excellent warm water sport fishing. Many beaches are also state parks, where you can hike, camp and watch for wildlife and birds. Speaking of birds, the largest coastal wetlands restoration project in Southern California is here, which up to 200 species visit each year.
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Knott’s Berry Farm, America’s first theme park, opened and expanded its attractions during the 1930s and 40s. Not to be outdone, the Grande Dame of them all, Disneyland opened in 1955 and is still the most popular park in the area.
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Orange County’s restaurant scene, like that of its northern neighbor L.A., is tremendously varied and infused with the freshest ingredients from California’s land and sea. You’ll find cheap eats and fine cuisine from all over the world. Notable local favourites include date milkshakes, the Balboa Bar (from Balboa Island), and the world-famous O.C.-based In-and-Out Burger.
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Find yourself amid the nature preserves, forests and rugged trails of California’s North Coast, and you’ll also discover artist enclaves, fine dining and music festivals.
One of the area’s most famous landmarks is the Giant Tree which you can drive through near Redwoods State Park. This region is also home to the famous wineries of the Napa and Sonoma valleys.
About the Region
Inland, and less than an hour’s drive from San Francisco, is part of California’s famed Wine Country, a tranquil place of Victorian architecture, historic landmarks, picturesque chateaux and thousands of acres of lush valley and mountainside vineyards. Sonoma County is the birthplace of California viticulture. Spanish priests first planted grapevines here in 1824. Cuttings from 140 varieties of European grapes were eventually cultivated as the founding roots for California’s multi-million dollar wine industry. Harvest activity in the Wine Country, which includes neighbouring Mendocino and Lake counties as well as famed Sonoma county, begins in late August and continues through to the middle of October. There are more than 200 wineries in Sonoma Valley alone, many of which offer tours, restaurants and picnic facilities.
The northern Wine Country is dotted with hundreds of quaint inns and resorts, unique boutiques, art galleries, culinary schools and exceptionally fine restaurants in and around Mendocino, Eureka, Sonoma, Santa Rosa and Healdsburg. A Wine Country experience can range from wine tasting at the wineries to soaring high above the vineyards in a hot air balloon to sinking into a mineral bath at a Wine Country spa.
The awesome power of the Pacific Ocean, evidenced in the rugged beauty of the northern coastline, stands in dramatic contrast to the peaceful grandeur of towering redwood forests. In some areas of the Redwood National Park, these stately sentinels actually grow to the water’s edge. Walk through an ancient forest at Trees of Mystery, then visit the adjacent world-class Native American museum. Along Highways 1 and 101 are the seaports of Bodega Bay, Mendocino, Fort Bragg, Eureka and Crescent City as well as the Victorian village of Ferndale – each offering an array of accommodation, fine dining, and arts and handicrafts unique to the region.
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California’s North Coast is home to many artists, and galleries and festivals in small communities along the way are dedicated to their work, drawing art lovers by the thousands. Several communities host monthly art walks and sponsor community theaters. You’ll also find annual music festivals as well as performance venues throughout the region.
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California’s North Coast boasts miles and miles of wide-open beaches that offer a contrast to the crowded coastlines farther south. Even in the summer, they are windswept, edged with redwood trees, and dotted with dramatic cliffs and rocky coves. This region also has many natural inland lakes that make for cool dips on hot summer days.
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With 400 miles of rugged coastline, redwood forests, NASCAR, world famous spas, and lush vineyards to name a few, it’s no wonder the North Coast is the perfect destination for your next golf/wine, golf/spa, golf/culinary, or golf/anything you imagine holiday.
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Coastal nature preserves and redwood forests offer plenty of hiking along rugged trails, along with spectacular views of the Pacific Ocean. Avenue of the Giants in Redwoods State Park will remind you how small we really are. This region’s many rivers and lakes farther inland provide the ingredients for excellent fishing, waterskiing, swimming, and boating.
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With Sonoma wineries long receiving top marks from critics, and those around Mendocino and Clear Lake gaining attention, many restaurateurs have set up shop on the North Coast to serve weekenders with sophisticated palates. All the same, you can still find good, old-fashioned comfort food to warm you after a hike along the coast or among the redwoods.
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The question in Los Angeles is never what to do, but where to begin. The county is home to many famous attractions in a relatively concentrated space.
Your choices include amusement parks, architectural landmarks, art museums and galleries, beaches, parks, hiking and shopping, to name a few. After the sun goes down, you’ll find there’s an abundance of nightlife options, including movies (of course!), as well as live music and comedy provided by performers both legendary and yet-to-be-discovered.
About the Region
Los Angeles County ranks among the world’s largest metropolitan areas, a land mass encompassing more than 10,360 square kilometres. The region stretches from the Pacific Ocean in the west to the desert lands on the east. With ten major shopping districts, an incredible variety of dance, music, theatre, theme parks, professional sporting events, television and motion picture production, L.A. is the undisputed ‘Entertainment Capital of the World’.
The downtown Music Centre for the Performing Arts features three theatres and a year-round schedule of opera, symphony, drama and musical productions. Nearby Hollywood Bowl, the world’s largest amphitheatre, offers a diverse, summer-long concert season. Los Angeles’ latest cultural offering is the $1 billion Getty Centre, a 110-acre arts and cultural centre which features a fabulous new J. Paul Getty Art Museum.
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art features monumental exhibits and works of the world’s greatest artists. Next door is the Rancho La Brea Tar Pits, where the largest concentration of prehistoric animals ever found were trapped in tar: the artefacts are on display at George C. Page Museum. The celebrated Natural History Museum has fourteen million specimens and artefacts. One of the largest facilities in the U.S. dedicated to Western History is the Gene Autry Western Heritage Museum in Griffith Park. It features 16,000 artefacts, paintings, and a large firearms collection. Also located in Griffith Park, the largest publicly owned city park in the United States, is the internationally known Los Angeles Zoo, which features a new three-acre Great Ape Forest.
A short drive away is the popular and trendy shopping districts of West Los Angeles and the elegance and glamour of nearby Beverly Hills. Stroll along Rodeo Drive, the most exclusive shopping boulevard in the United States with more than 95 boutiques, designer shops, art galleries and restaurants. Many of the world’s most famous celebrities make Beverly Hills their home. You can glimpse their glittering lifestyles on individual or group tours of the area.
While Los Angeles is noted for entertainment and sports of all kinds, Hollywood is the core of the world’s television and motion picture industry. Walk in the footsteps of the stars along Hollywood Boulevard to Mann’s Chinese Theatre, where movie legends have left their imprints in the courtyard of this famed motion picture palace. Visit the new Hollywood Entertainment Museum. Step behind the scenes of major television network productions at NBC Studio Tour in nearby Burbank. The entertainment world comes alive at Universal Studios Hollywood, the world’s biggest and busiest motion picture and television studio. Tour the famous backlot with sets and locations from many famous movies. Then participate in live action extravaganzas and rides, and marvel at the magic of special effects and the latest technical achievements.
Shoppers will enjoy the discount prices in downtown L.A. Garment District; bustling Chinatown, filled with restaurants and shops; Little Tokyo and the Japan Village Plaza; and Olvera Street, Los Angeles’ first city street now lined with shops and stalls offering Mexican handicrafts and foods.
The essence of the famed California lifestyle can be found in the beach communities such as Venice and Santa Monica, fringed with palm trees and sandy beaches. Here people of all ages roller-skate and bicycle. Surf, sun and stroll along magnificent beaches which stretch from Malibu to the north, past Marina del Rey (the largest man-made yacht harbour in the world) to Manhattan, Hermosa and Redondo Beaches to the south.
In Long Beach, hail a 40-foot-long water taxi to take you to all of the city’s major attractions, including the fabulous $100 million Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific, part of a $650 million Queensway Bay project to renovate Long Beach waterfront; The Queen Mary, once a luxury passenger ship, is today permanently anchored in the Long Beach Harbour; Shoreline Village for shopping and dining; and the Catalina Express terminal for off-shore excursions.
Catalina Island, just twenty-two miles offshore, is a pleasant boat cruise or helicopter ride from Long Beach, San Pedro or Newport Beach. Most of this huge island remains undeveloped, accessible only by bicycling and hiking. Avalon, Catalina’s Island charming port and only town, offers picturesque hotels, beachside resorts, shops, galleries and restaurants.
If you want even more action, drive north to Valencia to Six Flags Magic Mountain, a state-of-the-art amusement park that offers some of the most thrilling rides in the world.
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Los Angeles is truly an outstanding city when it comes to art and culture. You could fill weeks exploring the world-famous museums, architectural landmarks, movie theaters and live music venues. The city has been a hotbed for American arts since the 1950s. Today, with the ever growing influence of Hollywood — what other town fuels pop culture more?
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L.A. is famous for its beaches. Surely you’ve heard of Malibu, Santa Monica, Venice (aka Muscle Beach) and Long Beach. From the star-studded to the secluded, each beach attracts a different crowd in this diverse metropolis. Lifeguards staff both L.A. county and state beaches during daylight hours.
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Like actors, the Los Angeles golf scene comes in many different forms. First you have your A-List Courses (world famous layouts) — they are luxurious, visually appealing, and popular with golfers all over the globe. Next you have your Supporting Actors (modern daily fee courses) — these venues are well crafted, well groomed, and take pride in their performance, not their notoriety. Finally, you have your Extras (municipal courses) – you can find them everywhere in the L.A. region, they are reasonably priced, but can be a little shabby around the edges. Still fun to play.
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There’s certainly no shortage of places to go after the sun sets in this city. Whether you’re looking for the next big comedian or alternative rock band, an undercover celebrity hangout, hip dance club, martini bar, or low-key lounge, you’ll likely find it here.
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L.A.’s 20-plus beaches are a major draw for visitors and residents alike for surfing, fishing, or a cooling dip on a summer day. There are also plenty of idyllic locations, such as the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, for hiking, trail running and mountain biking throughout the city limits. You can even camp in Malibu Creek State Park, just up the coast.
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L.A. has a reputation for being all about looks, so naturally the shopping is stellar! Whatever your preference, outdoor malls, department stores and boutiques that specialize in everything you can imagine — and some things you just can’t – thrive in this city.
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Angelinos love their spas, and it shows in the sheer number of them here. Whether you’re looking for a deep-tissue massage, sea-salt scrub, or rice-bran bath, you’ll find it here. Opportunities also abound for yoga, Pilates, and meditation to complete your total relaxation.
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The cradle of America’s entertainment industry has no shortage of parks to thrill, from Universal Studios’ behind-the-scenes blockbuster action to record-breaking roller coasters at Magic Mountain to the recently refurbished historic Santa Monica Pier.
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L.A.’s dining scene is as diverse as its people, making it possible to indulge just about any fancy here. Ethnic cuisine abounds, from Afghan to Vietnamese, and L.A. foodies keep a combination of the trendy and the traditional alive. Local wines, fresh produce, meats, seafood, and artisanal breads and cheeses all feature prominently in a uniquely California way.
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