Travel Information for California Hotel Guests
If you are searching for an inn, hotel, motel or resort near a California attraction, amusement and theme parks, or close to shopping, cultural events, historic sites, museums and performing arts centers, or nearby zoos, a festival, a golf course, a California state park, this is where you will find it.
There are a thousand reasons CALIFORNIA is the sixth most-visited destination in the world. Count among them amusement and theme parks for kids of all ages, many miles of uninterrupted strands of pristine beach, 700 wineries (and counting), some 20,000 gray whales passing its shores, 21 historic missions, 45 snow resorts offering downhill and cross country skiing, snowboarding, ice skating, and more, and 20-million acres of National Forest and 50 significant wilderness areas for backpacking.
Disneyland in ANAHEIM has made Orange County the happiest place on earth; other attractions include Universal Studios Hollywood.
BAKERSFIELD is home to the nation's largest Basque community, descendants of sheep-herding immigrants; attractions include The Kern County Museum and Lori Brock Children's Discovery Center.
Home to the University of California, and sheltered by rolling hills and the San Francisco Bay, BERKELEY has a wealth of culture and social diversity, dining and shopping opportunities and recreational pursuits.
BEVERLY HILLS and nearby West Hollywood are studded with celebrity-owned and frequented cafes, clubs, and restaurants.
BIG BEAR LAKE in the San Bernardino Mountains of Southern California is Southern California’s premier four-season vacation destination.
BISHOP is filled with historic buildings and exhibits at the Laws Railroad Museum and the Paiute Shoshone Indian Cultural Center Museum; one of the major attractions east of Bishop is the Inyo National Forest with its gnarled bristlecone pines, more than 4,700 years old.
BUENA PARK has some of the country's major attractions including Knott's Berry Farm, the California-themed Soak City USA waterpark and the Movieland Wax Museum.
CARLSBAD is bordered by two lagoons, Buena Vista and Batiquitos, major way stations for migrating birds; other attractions include, 1798 Mission San Luis Rey and surfing at Oceanside, and LEGOLAND. The historic Hot Springs resort destination CALISTOGA offers visitors a glimpse of the Napa Valley as it was before freeways and fast food.
CATALINA is accessible by boat or plane from San Pedro or Long Beach; Catalina Island and the resort town of Avalon is 26 miles across the sea.
California's spectacular CENTRAL COAST includes Santa Cruz , Monterey, San Benito, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.
CHANNEL ISLANDS NATIONAL PARK is an archipelago of five islands near Los Angeles, the only U.S. wildlife sanctuary of its kind.
There are several nature preserves and parklands as well as San Diego County's first, and largest, factory-outlet shopping center at CHULA VISTA; attractions include the Chula Vista Nature Center and White Water Canyon Waterpark. Across the bridge from downtown San Diego City, the centerpiece of CORONADO ISLAND is the 1888 Hotel Del Coronado, the film site for the 1950s movie "Some Like It Hot".
From South Coast Plaza to the Theatre District, COSTA MESA, located about 25 miles south of Los Angeles, is the undisputed dining, shopping and entertainment destination in Southern California.
DANA POINT is known for its windsurfing and sport fishing.
DELNORTE is home to the Trail Museum at the Trees of Mystery attraction with its large collection of Native American artifacts. Formed by the Sacramento, San Joaquin, and Mokelumne rivers, DELTA provides boating and fishing, asparagus-tasting in Stockton, wine tasting in Lodi, and the Grizzly Island Wildlife Area near Suisun City.
The Jelly Belly Factory in FAIRFIELD is the home of the famous jelly beans and 150 kinds of other candy.
FERNDALE is located on the northcoast of California and is the only entire town on the California Register of Historic Places.
FRESNO attractions include Fresno's Metropolitan Museum of Art, History, and Science. Once luring more than 300,000 fortune seekers. California's gold rush is still an attraction today in the GOLD COUNTRY area. In the foothills of the Santa Monica Mountains, GRIFFITH PARK is home to the Autry Museum of Western Heritage, and the Los Angeles Zoo; saber-toothed cats, mammoths, and other Ice Age fossils are still being excavated at the La Brea Tar Pits.
On HOLLYWOOD Boulevard Walk of Fame is the new Hollywood Entertainment Museum; the excitement of movie-making can be found on a tour of Paramount Studios; tourists can buy a map to the stars and cruise past the driveways of the rich and famous.
HUNTINGTON BEACH is one of the nation's most exciting surfing sites, and home of the International Surfing Museum.
INLAND EMPIRE has a varied landscape of chaparral-covered deserts, mile-high apple orchards, snow-capped mountains and rolling valleys; the San Bernardino National Forest offers endless opportunities for outdoor fun; cities rich in heritage offer visitors a glimpse of the Victorian era, while Calico Ghost Town in Yermos is one of the few original mining towns of the West.
The 850-square-mile plant-and-wildlife sanctuary JOSHUA TREE NATIONAL PARK is noted for its striking landscape of massive granite monoliths and stands of other-worldly Joshua trees; three communities, 29 Palms, Joshua Tree, and Yucca Valley, are the gateways not only to the scenic Joshua Tree National Park but also to the Mojave Desert and Death Valley National Parks in the great California Outback; the 1.5-million acre Mojave National Preserve is just over an hour from 29 Palms — midway to Death Valley.
LAGUNA BEACH has been attracting artists for generations and at the Laguna Beach Festival of Arts/Pageant of the Masters 160 artists exhibit their original art works in a 6-acre canyon setting. Sun- and sea-worshippers congregate in coastal LA JOLLA, Del Mar, and Solana Beach, where migrating California gray whales can be seen in winter; the Birch Aquarium is at Scripps.
At LAKE ARROWHEAD visitors on the Arrowhead Queen excursion boat can view a landscape of alpine-style waterfront homes.
LAKE COUNTY is a family resort community enjoying the water sports on Clear Lake, California's largest natural lake.
LAKE TAHOE and Lake Tahoe South is a complete all-season travel destinations, offering boating, waterskiing, fishing, camping, hiking, mountain biking, and snow skiing as well as dining and resorts with headliner entertainment; long the Western shore, Emerald Bay, D. L. Bliss, and Sugar Pine Point state parks offer campsites and picnic areas.
LONG BEACH attractions include the glamour of yesteryear aboard the Queen Mary, the Aquarium of the Pacific and the Long Beach Museum of Latin American Art.
LOS ANGELES attractions include The California Science Center with over 100 hands-on adventures for kids of all ages, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, often the site of the Academy Awards; also, The Port of Los Angeles World Cruise Center in San Pedro, the busiest passenger port of call along the West Coast is located just south of Downtown Los Angeles and minutes from LAX and Long Beach Airports.
MALIBU illustrates the lifestyles of the rich and famous.
MAMMOTH LAKES has 30,000 feet of downhill runs and cross-country skiing in winter; Manzanar has spectacular mountain views, especially Mt. Whitney – the tallest peak in the continental United States.
MARINA DEL REY, nestled on the waterfront between Los Angeles International Airport and Santa Monica and within walking distance of Venice Beach, has the largest manmade yacht harbor in North America with nearly 5,300 yachts and more than 14 boat and water-sport charter, rental and cruise companies.
MARIPOSA is home to one of the world's largest gem and mineral collections at the California State Mining and Mineral Museum; other attractions include The Mariposa County Museum and History Center featuring gold-mining memorabilia, a miner's cabin, and a Native American village.
MENDOCINO is an historic Cape Cod-style enclave which doubles as the New England town of "Cabot Cove" in the television show "Murder, She Wrote". The “Gateway to Yosemite”, MERCED attractions include the Yosemite Wildlife Museum; the Castle Air Museum in Atwater exhibits 44 vintage military aircraft.
The scenic splendors of the MOJAVE NATIONAL PRESERVE include 32 volcanic cinder cones millions of years old; northeast of Mojave, the Rand Mining District offers fascinating geological formations.
MONO LAKE is one of the oldest lakes in the world; Bodie State Historic Park is just north of the lake.
MONTEREY attractions include Cannery Row, the setting for John Steinbeck's novel and now home to shops, galleries, and restaurants, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
Visitors to MT. SHASTA AREA/SISKIYOU COUNTY marvel at the castlelike natural stone turrets of Castle Crags State Park.
A favorite way to see NAPA VALLEY is to dine aboard the 1915 Pullman cars of the Napa Valley Wine Train.
NEWPORT BEACH has one of the largest pleasure-craft harbors in the world. With a distinctive architecture and gardens, OAKLAND offers exhibitions on California art, history, and ecology at the Oakland Museum of California.
OCEANSIDE, between San Diego and Los Angeles, has the historic Mission San Luis Rey de Francia, the Oceanside Museum of Art, and surfing is celebrated at the California Surf Museum.
Located just up the coast from Los Angeles along California's Central Coast, OXNARD is known for its easy-going pace, affordability, and waterfront settings; attractions include the turn-of-the-century homes of Heritage Square, Carnegie Art Museum and the Channel Islands Harbor.
PALM DESERT attractions include The Gardens on El Paseo, an open-air shopping and dining complex with gardens, water features, and desert views, and The Living Desert offering a rare look at the world's desert regions.
PALM SPRINGS attractions include the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway and the flying WWII combat aircraft at Palm Springs Air Museum.
Located 15 minutes north of downtown Los Angeles, PASADENA is "the city that feels like a village"; attractions include 200 boutiques, galleries and clubs, 500 restaurants including Madre's, the chic Latin eatery owned by Jennifer Lopez, the Norton Simon Museum and The Huntington Library, with 150 acres of lush gardens and an original Gutenberg Bible.
PISMO BEACH, midway between Los Angeles and San Francisco on Pacific Coast Highway and Highway 101, is a cozy beachside community geared to recreation and tourism.
Once nicknamed "Hangtown" because the law was so rigorously maintained, PLACERVILLE’s attractions include The El Dorado County Historical Museum with a country store, stagecoach, and turn-of-the century locomotives.
POINT REYES NATIONAL SEASHORE is an ideal year round hiking destination and was named one of the top ten most family-friendly trails in the country by the American Hiking Society; Point Reyes Lodging is an association of 16 inns and cottages located in the communities of Inverness, Olema and Point Reyes Station.
A 19th-century logging and mining town surrounded by wilderness, QUINCY attractions include displays of logging, mining, and Maidu Indian life at the Plumas County Museum. At RED BLUFF the William B. Ide Adobe State Historic Park has an 1846 pioneer adobe; there are historical photographs and Native American artifacts at the Kelly-Griggs House Museum.
At REDDING the Whiskeytown National Recreation Area is popular for sailing, waterskiing, and fishing; a vista point affords a view of the dam, the lake, and snowcapped Mt. Shasta in the distance.
REDWOOD COAST – known for the world's tallest trees, the Redwood Empire features Redwood National Park and the Humboldt Redwoods State Park where the 300ft.-tall redwoods tower overhead along the "Avenue of the Giants".
RIVERSIDE attractions include the historic Mission Inn with its alcoves, wooden beams, stained glass, and antiques.
There are more than 50 wineries clustered along the RUSSIAN RIVER banks in the Russian River Valley.
SACRAMENTO, the state capital, is a sophisticated city with vestiges of a pioneer past; attractions include Sutter's Fort State Historic Park , a representation of the settlement founded by Swiss homesteader John Sutter; the 1874 capitol building,and the California State Railroad Museum.
John Steinbeck's world comes alive at the interactive National Steinbeck Center in SALINAS; Wild Things is a wild/exotic animal training facility for film, television and education.
More than 280 acres of parks, lakes, and recreation areas are within SAN BERNARDINO's city limits.
SAN CLEMENTE is the site of ex-President Richard Nixon's Western White House; its state beach invites water sports, hiking, and camping.
The birthplace of SAN DIEGO and California is 1769 Mission San Diego de Alcal on Presidio Hill; down the hill, Old Town San Diego State Historic Park offers a taste of early California life and the park's Bazaar del Mund brings the Spanish era to life with music and colorful shops, restaurants, and gardens; Southeast of Old Town is treasured 1,400-acre Balboa Park with its ornate buildings and San Diego Zoo, a subtropical garden with more than 3,200 animals, including many endangered species; other attractions include the San Diego Museum of Art, the tropically landscaped Sea World spreading over 100 acres of Mission Bay frontage, and Seaport Village for waterfront shopping and dining.
SAN DIEGO NORTH has award-winning golf courses, beautiful beaches, fishing, shopping, inspiring art and theater, wineries, gardens, and world-famous attractions like Legoland and the Birch Aquarium at Scripps.
SAN FERNANDO VALLEY is home to the movie theme park, Universal Studios Hollywood.
Popular ways to see SAN FRANCISCO are by cruising the bay for a closer look at marvels like the Golden Gate bridge and Alcatraz from the Red & White Fleet, the Blue & Gold Fleet and Hornblower Cruises & Events; the City's most visited attraction is PIER 39 where there is shopping, entertainment, dining.
At the heart of Silicone Valley, SAN JOSE has The Tech Museum of Innovation, and for a taste of the past and eccentricity, Winchester Mystery House is a 160-room Victorian mansion built by rifle heiress, Sarah Winchester with bizarre oddities, such as doors opening onto walls and stairs going nowhere. The oldest settlement in Orange County SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO.
SAN MATEO COUNTY is famous for gardens and showplace homes; on the San Francisco Peninsula, visitors watch the fishing boats at Pillar Point Harbor in Half Moon Bay; other area attractions include the Filoli estate in Woodside (the mansion seen on TV's Dynasty), the Hiller Aviation Museum in San Carlos, and the the San Mateo County Historical Museum in Redwood City. Hearst Castle in SAN SIMEON, built by media mogul William Randolph Hearst, includes The National Geographic Theater.
SANTA BARBARA bustles with waterfront restaurants, hotels, and historic buildings; attractions include Chase Palm Park with an antique carousel and Shipwreck playground, and the Spanish Colonial military outpost, El Presidio de Santa Barbara.
SANTA CLARITA VALLEY is home to the theme park Six Flags Magic Mountain.
The Intel Museum at SANTA CLARA in the heart of Silicon Valley features hands-on exhibits that show how computer chips are made and used; on another level is Paramount's Great America, Northern California's largest family attraction.
SANTA CRUZ Boardwalk is California's only beachside amusement park. A wealth of attractions in SANTA MONICA include the Venice Beach Boardwalk, Marina Del Rey, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach and Redondo Beach.
SANTA ROSA is home to famous cartoonist Charles M. Schulz and a fabulous Schulz Museum dedicated to his life and to Snoopy, Charlie Brown and all the characters; also home to the Luther Burbank Home and Gardens.
The winery-rich SANTA YNEZ VALLEY includes Solvang, a town of Scandinavian ambiance, and the 1804 Spanish-period Santa Ins Mission, and Buellton.
SEQUOIA/KINGS CANYON NATIONAL PARKS – the western side of the Sierra Nevada is home to giant sequoias, the largest trees on earth; Kings Canyon is the deepest canyon in the USA.
In the northeast corner of California lies the SHASTA CASCADE region with its towering mountains, volcanoes, glaciers, waterfalls, whitewater rivers, dense lush forests, and glistening lakes; there is houseboating on Shasta Lake, Trinity Lake (where outdoor enthusiasts delight in the Trinity Alps Wilderness Area) and Lake Oroville; also worth visiting is the 5,000 acre Wild Horse Sanctuary – home to approximately 200 wild mustangs and burros that were originally rescued from federal lands in the western USA.
SIERRA COUNTY has wide-open spaces with historical and natural attractions. The Ronald Reagan Presidential Museum in SIMI VALLEY provides the story of one of the USA’s most popular presidents.
Just 35 miles north of San Francisco, SONOMA COUNTY is known for its award-winning wineries, dramatic Pacific coastline, the winding Russian River, majestic old growth redwoods, and historic towns like Santa Rosa and Sonoma, the last of the mission towns to be established where visitors can see the former Mexican barracks and the 1823 Mission San Francisco Solano de Sonoma.
TEMECULA VALLEY is the gateway to the state's youngest wine country.
TRUCKEE provides quaint shops and restaurants; at nearby Donner Memorial State Park the Emigrant Trail Museum describes the tragic ordeal of a group of emigrants who were trapped at this spot in the winter of 1846.
America's only combination wildlife park, oceanarium, and theme park is Six Flags Marine World at VALLEJO.
The Roy Rogers/Dale Evans Museum in VICTORVILLE is filled with mementos of the couple's films and television shows.
One of the oldest cities in the valley, VISALIA is a gateway to the Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks.
Renowned for its towering monoliths and dramatic waterfalls, YOSEMITE's attractions include Fish Camp where visitors board the Yosemite Mountain Sugar Pine Railroad for a four-mile excursion.
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