Five Top Tourism Spots In California
Hot Sites Include Sun, Sea, Sand, Surf, and Swallows
Dec 10, 2008
Southern California offers more than sun-kissed surfer dudes, Botoxed beach babes, and wild Hollywood parties. Herewith Suite101’s list of must-see stops in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s state.
1. Joshua Tree National Park
U2 named an unforgettable album after the place and the park really is a rock star in its own right. It boasts some of the most unsullied night skies on the planet. Visitors see falling stars, constellations as thick as cream, and the occasional coyote. That, coupled with spectacular granite formations, enormous chunky boulders, arroyos to hike, and the forests of grizzly green plants that look like they were plucked from a Dr. Seuss book, make this a must-visit destination.
2. The Getty Museum
Remember the old saying “nothing in life is free”? Well, the Getty Museum defies that statement and welcomes visitors to its perch in the Hollywood Hills for the tidy sum of zero dollars. There’s a nominal parking fee and then travellers are whisked up the hill in a tram to a spectacular museum. Visitors on a layover, should hoof it out of LAX and make the stopover memorable.
The J. Paul Getty Museum houses European paintings, drawings, sculpture, photographs, decorative arts and more. It also has a spectacular garden, decent restaurant and some of the best views of Los Angeles (second only to the Griffith Observatory in this writer's opinion).
3. Venice Beach
Immortalized in pop culture in shows like Melrose Place, to countless Hollywood films, this is a place to sample a dynamite burrito, buy a gorgeous hand-blown glass bong, original artwork by locals, and try a little surfing… The sidewalk scene includes palm readers, bikini-clad Roller Bladers, Hare Krishnas singing, belly dancers, vendors, dogs, the wealthy and the poor.
At Muscle Beach, Arnold Schwarzenegger and other body builders have chunked up in the open-to-the-elements weight room that is spitting distance to the Pacific Ocean.
4. Mission San Juan Capistrano
The Mission is the birthplace of Orange County and visitors here can marvel at how such a self-absorbed county could have sprung from humble beginnings. Mission San Juan Capistrano was founded more than 200 years ago and was the 7th of some 21 missions across California. Spanish padres and Indians built it as a self-sufficient community and evidence of it as a centre of agriculture, education, and religion is well presented. The grounds include 10 acres of lush gardens and fountains surrounded by crumbly adobe walls and the remains of a great stone church.
San Juan Capistrano is most famous for the legend of the swallows, as the birds return in the thousands every March and leave every fall.
The swallows are said to migrate annually to Goya, Argentina in October, and return to their spring and summer home in San Juan Capistrano each March. The Swallows celebration began centuries ago when Mission padres observed that the birds return roughly coincided with St. Joseph's Day on the church calendar, March 19. The celebration has achieved international prominence since then.
5. Big Sur
Alanis Morrisette is a fan as are countless other celebrities and this is one destination that lives up to the hype. Technically it’s not in Southern California but it’s south of San Francisco and that’s the unscientific yardstick for this listing.
Be sure to visit the Esalen Institute in Big Sur. Bigwigs like Hunter S. Thompson, Joan Baez, and Ansel Adams reportedly loved the baths (clothing is optional and men and women mix freely. Ooh, so 1960s we love it!). The institute also offers workshops on subjects ranging from religion, philosophy, art, and sex.
