Los Angeles San Diego & Southern California

959 Pages·2011·41.28 MB·English

by  Sara Benson

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Los Angeles, San Diego & Southern California
Cover
How to Use this Guide
Los Angeles, San Diego & Southern California
Map
PLAN YOUR TRIP
ON THE ROAD
UNDERSTAND SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
SURVIVAL GUIDE
Behind The Scenes
Our Writers

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in this guide.
Plan Your Trip
Welcome to Southern California
Top Experiences
Need to Know
What's New
If You Like...
Month by Month
Itineraries
Disneyland Trip Planner
The Beaches & Outdoors
Travel with Children
Regions at a Glance
Top of section
welcome to
Southern California
In all of your California daydreaming, palm trees, golden sands
and Pacific sunsets beckon, right? The good news: SoCal is
where those cinematic fantasies really can come true.
Pop Culture
Surf, sand and sex will always sell SoCal. Even though you won’t find
many real-life stars in Hollywood these days, you might spot celebs
shopping at LA’s boutiques or walking along the beach in Malibu. Or just
take a sneak peek behind the scenes on a movie studio tour ( Click here
) or join a live TV audience ( Click here ). Then round up the whole family
to see where Hollywood’s high-tech magic really happens – at SoCal’s
theme parks. Universal Studios Hollywood and Orange County’s
Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure, with their cartoon
characters and adventure rides, are all classic choices. Or take a walk on
the wild side at the San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park, where giraffes
and zebras roam. Loosen up, and live a little.
Beaches & Natural Beauty
SoCal may be best known for its artificial beauty (whoa, botox and
silicone!), but its beaches ( Click here ) are really an ace in the hole.
Whether you’re a punk surfer, aspiring pro volleyball nut or new-agey
bohemian, SoCal’s beach towns, each with its own idiosyncratic
personality, give you a perfect excuse to take a vacation. Then hop a
boat out to the Channel Islands, a jewel-like archipelago encompassing
civilized Catalina and a truly wild national park. If you can tear yourself
away from the ocean, more adventures await on land. Escape to the
cooler alpine climes of Big Bear Lake or turn up the heat in SoCal’s
deserts with a getaway to retro-modern Palm Springs. Then gear up to
dig deeper into the desert: Death Valley, Joshua Tree or Anza-Borrego,
where dusty 4WD roads and hiking trails lead to hidden canyons and
native fan-palm oases.
California Cuisine & Wine
Or maybe your SoCal sojourn will be an epicurean quest ( Click here ).
Finding the most killer fish tacos in San Diego alone could take days.
Meanwhile, LA is an all-around foodie winner, where denizens
passionately argue about where the best sushi bar, gourmet food truck or
underground supper club is. LA is also a melting pot of ethnic cooking,
from Little Tokyo and Thai Town to the tamale shops of East LA. Jam up
the Pacific Coast Hwy to Malibu, stopping at seafood shacks, then follow
back roads through the fog-kissed vineyards of Santa Barbara’s wine
country.
Top of section
TOP
experiences
Downtown Los Angeles
1 Often overlooked by star-struck sightseers in Hollywood, Downtown
LA (Click here) is one place you won’t want to miss. From architect
Frank Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall on Grand Ave’s ‘Cultural
Corridor’ to the ethnic flavors of El Pueblo de Los Angeles, Little Tokyo
and Chinatown, Downtown encapsulates everything LA has to offer:
cutting-edge creative arts, a melting pot of world cultures and aspiring
civic spaces to rival New York or Chicago. Tip: take a ride into history on
the reopened Angels Flight funicular, the world’s shortest railway.
Walt Disney Concert Hall
RICHARD CUMMINS
Disneyland
2 Where orange groves and walnut trees once grew, there Walt Disney
built his dream, throwing open the doors of his Magic Kingdom in
1955. Today, Disneyland (Click here) is SoCal’s most-visited tourist
attraction. Inside Anaheim’s most popular theme park, beloved cartoon
characters waltz arm-in-arm down Main Street USA and fireworks
explode over Sleeping Beauty’s castle on summer nights. If you’re a kid,
or just hopelessly young at heart, who are we to say that Disneyland
can’t really be ‘the happiest place on earth’?